PoE2's currency items are crafting materials that happen to be the money. Understanding what each one *does* is what tells you whether to spend it or bank it.
The three that set prices
- Exalted Orb — adds a random modifier to a magic or rare item that has an empty affix slot. Because it is common and every crafter wants it, it is the everyday unit of account. Most items under a divine are priced in exalted.
- Divine Orb — rerolls the numeric values of an item's existing modifiers without changing which modifiers it has. It is the "perfect the item I already have" orb, which makes it the high-value currency. Expensive items are priced in divine.
- Chaos Orb — removes a random modifier and adds a new random one. Useful, volatile, and the third leg of the price triangle.
Whatever the rates are in your league, you should know the divine-to-exalted rate roughly by heart, because it is the conversion every negotiation implicitly uses. ePOE shows it live on the price panel and on the Exchange page.
The rest, in order of how often you will touch them
| Orb | What it does | Keep or sell? |
|---|---|---|
| Orb of Transmutation | Normal → magic, one mod | Use freely, they are everywhere |
| Orb of Augmentation | Adds a mod to a magic item | Use freely |
| Regal Orb | Magic → rare, adding a mod | Use — this is the start of most crafts |
| Vaal Orb | Corrupts: unpredictable, irreversible | Sell early in a league, gamble late |
| Orb of Annulment | Removes a random modifier | Bank them; they enable real crafting |
| Orb of Chance | Normal item → random rarity, possibly unique | Sell. The odds are not your friend |
| Chance Shard / other shards | Stack into a full orb | Let them stack, ignore them |
| Artificer's Orb | Adds a rune socket | Keep a handful, sell the rest |
| Gemcutter's Prism | Improves gem quality | Keep a few for your main skill |
| Glassblower's Bauble | Flask quality | Almost always sell |
| Orb of Alchemy | Normal → rare with several mods | Use on waystones, not on gear |
Uniques, essences, omens, catalysts and fragments all trade too, but they are content-specific rather than general currency.
Omens are not orbs
Omens change how the *next* crafting currency behaves — for example, forcing an Exalted Orb to add a prefix rather than any mod, or making an Annulment remove the lowest-tier mod. They are single-use and often worth more than the orb they modify.
Never fire an omen without checking its price first. This is a case where the tool pays for itself: Ctrl+Alt+D on an omen takes two seconds, and finding out it was worth two divine *after* you used it on a 20-exalted craft is a bad afternoon.
Three rules that survive every league
1. Spend common currency, bank rare currency. Transmutations and augmentations are for using. Annulments and divines are for holding until you have something worth spending them on. The most common new-player mistake is divining a mediocre item because the orb was "just sitting there".
2. Your currency has an opportunity cost. Ten exalted spent on a craft that might produce a 30-exalted item is a bet. Ten exalted spent on a listed 10-exalted item that is definitely an upgrade is not. Early in a league, buying beats crafting almost every time, because supply is thin and the crafting materials are expensive relative to finished goods.
3. Currency prices move most in the first week. Divine starts scarce and gets cheaper as the economy matures; consumables start cheap and get pricier as crafters arrive. If you are going to hold anything speculatively, hold the thing that has to *become* scarce — see Watchlist and Investments for the tooling around that.
Practical habits
- Sell in bulk through the exchange, not as individual listings. One listing per orb is a waste of a stash tab and gets you worse rates.
- Price-check a stack, not a unit. The bulk rate for 100 is not 100× the rate for one.
- Keep one tab as a currency tab and let it stack. Currency scattered across a general tab is currency you will forget you own; ePOE's stash valuation will find it, but you still have to go get it.
- Don't hoard what you cannot use. A thousand Orbs of Chance is not a war chest, it is a vendor recipe you never ran.