Strategy
This is a cheap, simple and consistently profitable Vault Temple farm built around repeatedly killing Atziri — pitched explicitly as the “ethical” temple strategy after GGG spent the league remorselessly nerfing the expensive snake/well strategies. It costs almost nothing to set up, is easy to understand, and doubles as a comfortable way to travel the Atlas while hunting citadels and cities. Income comes from Vault-specific currencies (cord stabilisers, blacksmith’s infusers, vault cultivation orbs, architect’s orbs, catalysing infusers) plus a lot of raw currency, and the occasional big jackpot from Atziri uniques like the Azerius Communion lineage support (120+ divines).
The loop has two phases: mapping to collect Vault beacons, then running the temple itself. You can only do the temple by doing the mapping first, which is why it works so well as a travel strategy — you map toward juicy areas and bank temple sets along the way. It is mostly a mapping strategy with a little bossing, which keeps it from turning into mind-numbing single-boss repetition.
Atlas Tree & Setup
Run three Vault Temple tablets to guarantee at least three Vault beacons per map; the one mod that actually matters is the suffix “chance to get an additional crystal from a Vault beacon,” which with good rolls can get you a full temple set in roughly one map. The rare-chest and Vault-beacon-unique-monster mods are also good. Use Doriani’s top-left box and six-mod maps.
In the Atlas tree, Offerings to the Queen (50% chance for rare beacon chests to give random temple currency) and the patrolling-legions nodes (chance per beacon for a unique monster that drops temple currency) are the standouts, along with Projected Treasures and the restricted-room generation nodes for chasing the architect. Riches of the Empire (15% chance to duplicate temple currency) is excellent. Avoid the trap nodes — the essence-mod beacon bonuses (more deadly, no more rewarding) and Secrets of the Ancients (reward-less terraforming rooms).
Investment & Returns
- Investment: low — three cheap temple tablets and a standard six-mod map; no expensive setup.
- Returns: mid — consistent Vault currency plus raw drops, with rare jackpots (Azerius Communion ~120 divines, Atziri’s Splendour uniques 5 to 20 divines each).
- Profit per hour scales with how fast you move and with RNG, but the floor is reliably positive for almost no outlay.
Step-by-step
- Run three Vault Temple tablets and map normally, activating Vault beacons (usually just kill the pack) to bank crystals.
- Use the banked sets to enter the Vault Temple; build a straight “main street” path from the entrance to Atziri using path nodes.
- On a setup run, kill the Architect and place the Royal Access Chamber near your main path (it destabilises each use).
- On the next run, with the Royal Access Chamber up and connected, clear to Atziri and kill her, then the Architect last (he is the deadliest — bait his hard-to-see Frost Nova by hugging then stepping out).
- Prioritise the high-value restricted rooms: Currency Vault, Sacrificial Chamber (Vault cultivation orb), Corruption Chamber (architect’s orb), and level-3 Smithy/Thaumaturge.
- When out of temple runs, blast maps for more beacons and repeat the cycle while pushing toward cities and citadels.
Risks
- The room-connection mechanic is fiddly; you cannot connect rooms directly to each other, only along generated paths, so some runs you simply set up rather than kill.
- Dying to Atziri or the Architect nukes the rest of that temple, so save the Architect for last.
- Jackpot uniques are rare and heavily RNG-gated; the bulk of the income is steady Vault currency, not the big hits.
Credits & Source
Method credited to Path of Evening. See the source video for the full temple routing and room breakdown: The Best Cheap Farm Strategy in PoE 2 Right Now.