How many passive points you get
| Source | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Character levels | 99 | 1 point per level up, level 1 gives no point |
| Campaign quests | 24 | rewards of 2 points each, list below |
| Total on the main tree | 123 | the number the official planner shows |
| Ascendancy | 8 | separate tree, 2 points per trial tier |
Level 100 is a very long road. The community wiki advises making your build work with 10–20 points fewer than the maximum.
How the tree is laid out
All classes share the same huge tree. Your class only decides where you start: in the Strength, Dexterity or Intelligence area, or between them.
- Strength (bottom left): fire damage, Armour, melee, block, warcries.
- Dexterity (bottom right): lightning, Evasion, ranged attacks, accuracy.
- Intelligence (top): cold, chaos, Energy Shield, spells, minions, mana, curses.
Hybrid classes such as the Mercenary (Strength and Dexterity) start between these areas. The Witch and the Sorceress start in the same top area, but the nodes right next to their starting points differ. The tree has no barriers: a Witch can path towards Strength if the build needs it.
Node types
| Node | What it gives |
|---|---|
| Attribute Node | +5 to an attribute of your choice; you can switch it for half the cost of refunding a node |
| Small Passive | a small bonus, e.g. to damage or defence |
| Notable | a big bonus or a new mechanic, usually at the end of a few small nodes |
| Keystone | changes the rules of the game, often with a serious drawback |
| Jewel Socket | a socket for a jewel you can remove at any time, as long as it does not break a connection |
Keystone examples: Chaos Inoculation sets your Life to 1 but makes you immune to chaos damage. Giant's Blood lets you wield a two-handed weapon in one hand but doubles weapon requirements. According to Mobalytics, most builds take no more than a couple of keystones.
The in-game tree has a search: press Ctrl+F and type e.g. "lightning", and the game highlights matching nodes.
Quest points by act
All 24 campaign points are rewards of 2 points each. The list comes from the community wiki's acts quick guide (June 2026) and the Maxroll guide (September 2026); older 0.1 lists name different quests in Acts 1 and 4.
| Act | Reward for | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Act 1 | killing The Crowbell (Hunting Grounds); killing The Executioner (Ogham Village) | 4 |
| Act 2 | killing Kabala, Constrictor Queen (Keth); delivering the Final Letter to Shambrin (Deshar) | 4 |
| Act 3 | killing Mighty Silverfist (Jungle Ruins); sacrificing the Sacrificial Heart at the altar | 4 |
| Act 4 | killing Omniphobia, Fear Manifest (Journey's End); the Tattoo of Hinekora after defeating Yama the White (Trial of the Ancestors) | 4 |
| Interludes | Oswin, The Dread Warden (Wolvenhold); Akthi and Anundr (The Khari Crossing); The Abominable Yeti (Howling Caves); completing all Interludes (Kingsmarch) | 8 |
| Total | 24 |
Some rewards are items you use, such as the Book of Specialisation or the Sacrificial Heart. Each character earns these points on its own.
Weapon Set: two versions of your tree
The quest points are Weapon Set Passive Skill Points. You can spend them as regular points or assign them separately to each of your two weapon sets. This lets, for example, a Sorceress run cold nodes on one set and lightning nodes on the other. Your character switches sets automatically when you use a skill assigned to the other one.
- On the tree, global nodes are gold, Weapon Set I nodes are red and Weapon Set II nodes are green.
- Weapon set points cannot go into keystones or jewel sockets.
- You need unspent regular points. Once you have spent them all, you cannot allocate weapon set points.
- To get one regular point back, you refund one point from each weapon set.
Quests give 24 of these points. The official planner, however, counts 25 for each set. The community wiki adds 1 point from the very rare Olroth's Boon item, which may explain the difference.
Respec: The Hooded One and gold
You refund nodes for gold at The Hooded One. You meet him in Act 1 in Clearfell Encampment and later in other camps (in Acts 2 and 3). Since version 0.3 you cannot place him in your hideout. Mobalytics says you can also refund at Doryani. In PoE 2 you do not pay for a respec with orbs (like the Orb of Regret in PoE 1), only with gold.
Cost of one node according to the community wiki:
| Character level | Gold per node |
|---|---|
| 10 | 98 |
| 30 | 470 |
| 50 | 1,089 |
| 70 | 2,145 |
| 80 | 2,904 |
| 90 | 5,081 |
| 100 | 10,129 |
The price rises with your character level, even if you are not allocating new points. Players report about 100k gold for a full respec around level 60 and 250k at level 71. Changing the attribute on an Attribute Node costs half the refund price.
Experiment early. After the campaign, fully rebuilding your tree costs hundreds of thousands of gold. Mobalytics: "respeccing isn’t as cheap as it is in other ARPGs".
When the tree changes a lot, GGG can give you a free refund. That happened in 0.5.0 ("a free passive tree refund has been granted due to the changes"), and earlier, in 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4, trees could be refunded forcibly.
Ascendancy: a separate small tree
After your first completed trial (the Trial of the Sekhemas or the Trial of Chaos) you get your Ascendancy tree. Each of the 4 trial tiers gives 2 points, 8 in total. This tree is separate from the main one and does not connect to it. How to choose and change your Ascendancy is covered in Path of Exile 2 Ascendancy classes.
The Atlas Passive Tree is yet another tree: it is about endgame maps, not your character.
How to plan your tree
| Tool | What for |
|---|---|
| Official planner | GGG's tree viewer: class and Ascendancy choice, search, point counter |
| Maxroll Passive Tree | a quick tree planner in your browser |
| Maxroll PoE2 Planner | a full build plan; Maxroll also explains how to bring a plan into the game (In-game Build Planner) |
| Path of Building 2 | a desktop program: calculates damage and defences, imports pathofexile.com links |
| Mobalytics Build Planner | a full build planner in your browser |
First mark your targets: the Notables and keystones your build needs. Only then draw the shortest path to them. Keep attributes in mind, because every gem and item has Strength, Dexterity or Intelligence requirements. Attribute Nodes make it easy to fix that.
More on PoB2 and other tools: Path of Exile 2 tools.
Common mistakes
- Spending points "along the way" without a goal instead of pathing towards Notables.
- Missing attributes for gems and weapons, especially with Giant's Blood, which doubles requirements.
- Spending all regular points, so you cannot allocate Weapon Set points.
- Doing a full respec only after the campaign, when it is most expensive.
- Skipping quests with passive points in the acts and interludes.
The skill tree and version 1.0
On December 11, 2026 version 1.0 arrives with a big balance patch (changes postponed from 0.5.5), the Duelist and Acts V–VI. GGG has not announced specific changes to the character passive tree. According to Mobalytics, the Duelist will start in the same place as the Mercenary, but GGG has not confirmed this. We will update the numbers in this article after the 1.0 patch notes.
