IT OUTPERFORMS THE MONKEY! - Chayula Monk Minion Build Guide [PoE2 0.5]

Overview

This build leans on an army of Skeletal Reavers scaled through the Ritualist’s remnant economy, turning a cheap scepter-and-minion setup into a surprisingly heavy mapper. The headline pitch is that, even in modest gear, it keeps pace with the dominant companion-monkey builds for clear speed while costing a fraction of the currency.

The engine is the pairing of Into the Breach (which generates remnants as you fight) with Choice of Power, so every remnant rolls as a chaos-damage buff. Combined with Selfless Remnants, those stacks pass to your minions inside your presence, and at ten sustained stacks a level-90 character is handing the army roughly 182% of physical damage as extra chaos. That is the whole reason the reavers hit so hard.

It shines as a second character, because a fully-filled Atlas tree makes content far harder than it would be for a fresh league character — and the build still cleared tier 13 maps at character level with that handicap.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Very cheap to start: jewels at ~1 Exalt each cap minion resistances, and the most expensive piece in the showcased setup was a 40-Exalt chest
• Huge minion damage from the remnant chaos-stacking loop with almost no movement required to collect remnants
• Relaxed playstyle — you mostly stand still while the army does the work
• Clears endgame maps comfortably even with a punishing fully-filled Atlas

Cons

• The fourth ascendancy point is effectively wasted; the build only needs two key nodes
• Minion survivability needs attention (minion splash gem + capped resistances) or reavers die to harder rares and bosses, costing you remnant uptime
• Single-target is not yet proven against pinnacle bosses — the creator still rates the companion-monkey ahead there
• A fully-built second-character Atlas makes every map meaningfully harder

Key Skills

• Skeletal Reavers — the core minion carrying clear and damage
• Into the Breach + Choice of Power — generate chaos-damage remnants
• Selfless Remnants — pushes remnant buffs onto minions in your presence
• Skeletal Archers + Radiant Grief (leveling) — gas-cloud explosions to level the character
• Spectre (Vgard grenade caster) — optional leveling spectre for extra coverage

Gear & Anointments

Weapon is a minion/spirit scepter (a +3 scepter was used in the showcase). Early levels lean on cheap enablers like Unfolding Dawn for spirit and Radiant Grief for the archer explosions. Defensive pieces prioritise evasion, deflection and a little ward, with a buckler for deflection rating. Pick up the Rune of the Blossom for extra spirit, and grab two cheap resistance jewels to cap minion resistances. War Leader and Profane Commander are the planned anoint/notable targets to expand presence radius; specific high-budget items (Alpha-style helm for double presence) are to be confirmed against the source video.

Endgame Notes

The low-budget version clears tier 13 maps at level with capped minion resistances. For higher pinnacle content the creator plans a From Nothing jewel into Gigantic for minion survivability, plus presence-expansion via anoints — these are flagged as next-video upgrades, not yet finalised.

Credits & Source

Build credited to GhazzyTV. See the source video for the full build’s gameplay footage and voice commentary: IT OUTPERFORMS THE MONKEY! - Chayula Monk Minion Build Guide [PoE2 0.5].