PoE Sanity

New Delirium mechanic EXPLAINED

By ZizaranWatch videoDuration: PT9M

Summary

  • Endgame Scaling: Delirium is a high-level mechanic that scales map difficulty, monster density, and rewards based on your build’s clear speed and damage.
  • UI Overhaul: A new tracker at the bottom of the screen displays Delirium depth, monster toughness, and the type of encounter spawning next.
  • Distilled Emotions: These replace Oils from PoE 1 and are used for “Instilling” (anointing) notables onto amulets or crafting specific modifiers onto jewels.
  • Quest-Driven Progression: The mechanic is introduced via a questline involving Elder Maddox and Tangmazu, leading through guaranteed encounters to a map-chaining system.
  • Simulacrum & Pinnacle Boss: Completing map chains leads to the Simulacrum wave-defense encounter, which eventually provides access to the Tangmazu pinnacle boss fight.

Core Mechanic and UI Changes

Delirium is designed to empower maps for high-end builds. When you walk through a Delirium mirror, additional monsters spawn, and enemy defense and damage scale higher the further you move from the initial mirror.

In the 0.5 Return of the Ancients patch, the UI has been significantly improved:

  • A tracker at the bottom of the screen now explicitly shows how much “Delirium” (toughness) is applied to monsters.
  • The tracker indicates the type of encounter that will spawn next as you progress through the map.
  • Monsters grant more experience and better rewards as difficulty increases.

Rewards and Distilled Emotions

The primary rewards from Delirium are Distilled Emotions. These are used for the “Instilling” mechanic (formerly known as anointing).

  • Amulet Anointing: Notable passives can be added to amulets without needing to path to them on the Atlas skill tree. To see the required emotions for a specific node, hover over it on the tree and hold Alt.
  • Chase Items: A new unique amulet can drop with two random anoints already applied.
  • Jewel Crafting: Emotions and “Tears” can be used on jewels to add specific modifiers, functioning similarly to Essences.
  • Exclusive Notables: Higher-tier emotions found in the deepest endgame content allow for anointing exclusive, build-enabling notables.

The Delirium Questline and Progression

The mechanic is introduced through a structured questline to help tutorialize the systems for players:

  1. Introduction: Meet Elder Maddox, who directs you to find Tangmazu.
  2. Location: Travel West to the Withered Willows, where Delirium mirrors are guaranteed to spawn.
  3. Thresholds: Progression is tracked via white, purple, and red shards. Reaching these thresholds triggers guaranteed encounters.
  4. Grand Mirror: After completing enough maps, a Grand Mirror appears, leading to a dual boss fight featuring a Delirium boss alongside the standard map boss.

Endgame Loop: Map Chains and Simulacrum

Once the initial questline is underway, the endgame loop involves “eating a fruit” after a Grand Mirror boss fight to start a chain of maps.

  • Chained Maps: Similar to the Memory mechanic in PoE 1, these maps are linked together. Each subsequent map in the chain becomes more “delirious” and difficult.
  • The Simulacrum: At the end of the map chain, you enter the Simulacrum. This is a wave-based encounter where mini-bosses spawn periodically. The difficulty ramps up significantly toward the final waves.
  • Tangmazu Pinnacle Boss: Completing the Simulacrum grants a ticket to fight Tangmazu. The quest version is a weaker “tutorial” form, while the endgame version is a significantly harder encounter.
  • Atlas Passives: New Atlas nodes allow players to customize the mechanic, either making it easier to complete or increasing difficulty for better loot and experience.

Instilling and Jewel Crafting Instructions

To interact with the crafting side of Delirium:

  1. Right-click a Distilled Emotion to open the Instilling panel.
  2. Place the item (Amulet or Jewel) into the slot.
  3. Check required combinations for specific notables.
  4. For Jewels, applying an emotion will add or replace a modifier with a specific stat associated with that emotion.

Note: Use the Maxroll Instilling Calculator (or similar updated tools) to determine the most efficient combinations of emotions and to check if you can upgrade lower-tier emotions into higher ones at the reforging bench (e.g., three Greed emotions for one Paranoia).

Key References