Are you alright, Exiles? If you frequently use currency exchange rates to gain desired profits or materials, you've likely noticed a severe inflation in Path of Exile 2 0.5 Return of the Ancients recently. This is primarily affecting Exalted Orbs; while this currency experiences price fluctuations with each league change, this seems particularly extreme.
To date, you need nearly 700 Exalted Orbs to redeem one Divine Orb, a rate never seen in this nearly two-year Early Access period. Adding insult to injury, this severe inflation tends to occur on weekends rather than weekdays, leaving many players who can only access PoE 2 during their holidays frustrated.
This kind of prolonged, large-scale inflation also appeared in PoE 1, but fortunately, the predecessor solved this major problem excellently. So, can PoE 2, as its sequel, simply copy its method and eliminate inflation in the same way? Basically, no. Why? If you also have this question, then let's follow the analysis from EZG.com to find out.
Current Status of POE 2 Currency
In today's Path of Exile 2 0.5 currency exchanges, the devaluation of certain currencies has become a vicious cycle: On a weekend off, you might accumulate nearly 700 Exalted Orbs by running maps or challenging numerous bosses, enough to exchange for approximately 2.5 Divine Orbs.
Satisfied, you shut down your computer and prepare for five working days. Then, when you log back into your Path of Exile 2 account this weekend, ready to make a significant impact, you discover that 699 Exalted Orbs are needed to exchange for just one Divine Orb! This devaluation results in a direct loss of 2 Divine Orbs, as you may now be unable to exchange even one.
This rapid devaluation is a massive problem for the health of the player base. While hardcore daily players can predict market trends and convert their assets, casual players who only have time to log in on weekends return to find their costing power completely destroyed. When players feel like the game actively punishes them for having a real life, they simply quit.
Why PoE 1's Economy Works?
To understand why Path of Exile 2 economy is spiraling, we have to look back at the highly stable economy of Path of Exile 1. In previous work, the standard currency for mid-tier trading is Chaos Orb. Throughout entire leagues, Chaos Orbs maintain a remarkably stable value against Divine Orbs, usually hovering around 1:300, adapting naturally when player numbers drop.
The main reason why this currency exchange rate remains stable is that its actual use and function in PoE 1 are very clear. Chaos Orbs are only used to re-roll rare equipment and provide a random affix, so the consumption of this type of currency is very large, which means that it is basically never listed on exchanges.
As for POE 2 Divine Orbs, their function is merely to add an affix to rare items. Once the number of affixes reaches the limit, the currency will no longer be usable, causing Divine Orbs to accumulate in the warehouse, resulting in a severe oversupply and a sharp drop in their value. If this continues, Divine Orbs will become more and more abundant, and then less and less valuable.
Therefore, simply porting the methods used in PoE 1 to manage in-game currency inflation directly to the sequel would be completely unworkable. However, this doesn't mean there's no way to mitigate or eliminate the problem. Given that patch 0.5 is the last major patch for Early Access, there's a way out if PoE 2 1.0 can find a suitable solution.
Potential Solutions for PoE 2 1.0
Based on EZG.com's long-standing analysis of league changes and currency value fluctuations in Path of Exile series, here are two possible directions for economic system fixes that GGG could adopt in the 1.0 version, which is officially launching at the end of the year.
Note that these are just hypothetical scenarios; specific implementation will depend on the developer's official announcement.
The most effective solution is to introduce a powerful and reusable utility or to create a new method specifically for consuming Divine Orb, thereby ensuring that this type of currency can be used indefinitely, solving the problem of oversupply, and preventing it from ending up on exchanges.
Alternatively, you could directly swap the drop rates or features of two specific currencies, something GGG implemented in PoE 1. In the sequel, you could swap low-drop-rate currencies with Divine Orbs, making the latter even rarer; or you could redesign it and replace it with a different roll affix.
Ultimately, a virtual economy is no different from a real-world one; its core foundation relies entirely on trust. When players begin to feel that their hard-earned time cannot yield equivalent value, the very foundation of the game begins to fracture.
With the highly anticipated 1.0 official launch just around the corner, GGG's window for trial and error is rapidly closing. If the developers continue to pass the buck or rely on passive fixes, the 1.0 launch will inevitably degenerate into an exclusive playground for market speculators, slamming the door shut on casual players entirely.
GGG must take decisive action in 1.0 - whether that means implementing a high-frequency, irreversible item-sink for high-tier currency to mimic the legendary Chaos Orb loop, or fundamentally re-engineering the gold tax on the currency exchange to penalize weekend market manipulation.
Until then, everyday Exiles must adapt to survive: stop hoarding volatile currencies over the workweek, and instead convert your wealth into stable assets, high-tier boss fragments, or immediate character upgrades before logging off. The message from the community is loud and clear: Stop waiting for players to bail out a flawed ecosystem after the damage is done.
Get moving, GGG, and save the economy before 1.0!











