Controller support (Beta)

ePOE can run from a game controller. Every action that has a keyboard hotkey can also get a controller chord: hold a modifier button, press another. Your keyboard and mouse hotkeys keep working the whole time — the controller is an addition, never a replacement. It all lives under Overlays → Controller, which is marked Beta: if a pad or setup misbehaves, report it under Help → Submit a Bug.

The Controller tab

Controllers lists every connected pad with its detected family (Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo). Settings are kept per controller model, so a pad you plug in next week comes back Remembered. For each one:

• Button Glyphs — which button names ePOE shows. Bindings are positional, so they keep working whatever you pick.
• Stick Deadzone — raise it if the focus ring drifts on its own.
• Navigation Repeat — the delay between steps while a direction is held. Lower is faster.
• Test Rumble buzzes the pad, handy when two are plugged in. Listen To decides which controller drives ePOE; Any Controller follows whichever you last touched.
• Test Buttons shows each press live so you can check every button registers. Controller hotkeys pause while testing — hold East (B on Xbox) for a second to stop.

General holds the Controller Support switch, Panel Navigation, and the Chord Modifier — the button you hold for chords and navigation. Pick one the game rarely uses; rear paddles are ideal. Changing it offers to move your existing bindings with it, or to keep them as they are.

Chords and the default set

A chord fires when you press its last button while the modifier is held. Four ship bound, all on the View/Back button:

They avoid A, B, the bumpers and the D-pad on purpose — those buttons navigate panels while the modifier is held.

The controller diagram

Controller Hotkeys draws your pad like a game's controls screen, with a callout on every button. Click a button or its callout, then choose the action it runs. The Hold View / Button alone switch picks the layer you are editing. *Button alone* means no modifier, so the game also receives the press — keep that layer for rear paddles. Chords with a different or extra modifier are collected under Other chords.

Prefer rows? Switch to List: click a slot, then hold the modifier and press a button. Both views share one draft; nothing applies until you press Save changes, and clashing chords are flagged before you save. Chat commands get chord slots too.

Navigating ePOE panels

With a panel, the Selection Wheel or the dashboard showing, hold the modifier and use the D-pad or left stick to move the focus. South (A) confirms, East (B) goes back, the bumpers (LB/RB, L1/R1 on PlayStation) switch tabs, the right stick scrolls. The modifier is needed because the game sees the pad too — without exclusive mode, those presses reach your character as well.

Unknown pads: the mapping wizard

A pad marked Unknown Layout gets a Map this controller button. You are asked to press each button and move each stick in turn; Skip (Not On This Pad) covers buttons your pad lacks. Save Mapping remembers the layout for that model.

Exclusive mode

Optional, and off by default. While an ePOE panel is open the game receives a controller at rest — nothing pressed, sticks centred — so navigating ePOE never moves your character, and you no longer need to hold the modifier. With no panel open, every input reaches the game exactly as you press it. A button still held when the panel closes is ignored until you let go.

What it never does: press, repeat, time or remap anything for you. Every action the game receives is one you made, one-to-one. The only thing it adds is holding input back while a panel is open.

• Windows needs two free, signed drivers, each with an Install button: ViGEmBus (the virtual Xbox controller the game plays with — in-game prompts show Xbox glyphs) and HidHide (hides your real pad from everything except ePOE). Install, press Check Again, pick the Controller To Take Over, then Enable Exclusive Mode. If the game was already running, reconnect your controller once so the game lets go of it; starting ePOE before the game avoids this.
• Linux needs no drivers. Set Up Permissions installs a one-time rule (you are asked for your password) that lets ePOE create a virtual copy of your pad. PlayStation pads read through Steam Input bypass the hold — turn Steam Input off for the game.

Crash safety: switching exclusive mode off, closing ePOE or ePOE crashing all hand the controller back. If a game still cannot see it, press Restore Controller.

Finishing touches: cursorless price checks and rumble

Two switches under Overlays → Controller → General round the controller support off. Both are optional.

Cursorless Price Check. With a controller active, Path of Exile 2 tracks the item you have *focused with the stick*, not the one under the OS mouse pointer — so a normal price check, which copies whatever the cursor is over, can miss. Turn this on and, while a controller is in use, the price-check chord copies the stick-focused item instead. It falls back to the cursor automatically if nothing is read, so it never leaves you worse off. Behind it is a small copy trigger — the game key ePOE taps first so the game copies *that* focused item; by default it is a clean copy that simply doesn't depend on the mouse. It is an advanced value you rarely need to touch.

Rumble Feedback. Buzz the controller on key ePOE events, such as a finished price check — useful when your eyes are on the fight, not the panel. With it on, a Rumble Intensity slider appears: lower it for a gentle nudge, raise it for a firm one. (This is separate from the Test Rumble button on each controller, which only buzzes a pad so you can tell which is which.)

The Selection Wheel is on the controller too: the default View + R3 chord — clicking the right stick with the modifier held — opens the radial launcher at your cursor, the same wheel the keyboard hotkey opens.

Troubleshooting

• No controller listed — plug it in or pair it; it appears straight away.
• Your character moves while you navigate — expected without exclusive mode. Turn it on, or pick a Chord Modifier the game rarely uses.
• A chord does nothing — check the clash warning in the list view, and that Controller Support is on.
• Exclusive mode says something is missing — install what the Drivers row lists, then Check Again.
• The game or Windows no longer sees your controller — press Restore Controller under Exclusive Mode; it un-hides the pad and releases everything ePOE holds.
• The focus ring wanders by itself — raise Stick Deadzone for that controller.