Path of Exile 3.29.2: Farming the Abyss after the buff, Atlas tree and Abyssal Depths

Path of Exile's patch 3.29.2, rolled out on August 6, has made the Abyss the most profitable mechanic to check on the Atlas tree during the Curse of the Allflame league. Three changes account for this: elite monsters emerging from the Pits now yield more items and experience, the Crystallised Abyss Scarab finally generates a steady stream of abyssal crystals, and a bug that deprived Abysses loyal to Amanamu of their best elite has been fixed.

Context reminder: the Abyss was completely reworked with 3.29, launched on July 24. The pit and the cracks leading to it are already open when you arrive: no more chasing a crack that snakes across the map in the wrong direction. The encounter remains grouped in the same spot, and its yield depends almost entirely on what you've invested beforehand, on the Atlas and in scarabs.

Here's what 3.29.2 changes, the order in which to take the nodes, the scarabs that are worth their price, and the Atlas trap that cancels everything without warning.

What 3.29.2 changes for the Abyss

Grinding Gear Games had detailed the patch the day before in a post dedicated to league improvements. Five points directly concern the Abyss.

• More rewarding elites. The amount of items dropped and the experience granted by Abyss elite monsters have been increased, and the announcement post specifies that on average, more elites drop from Chasms.
• Fixed the Abyssal Crystal Scarab. It now creates an Abyssal Crystal when each Chasm closes except the last one, instead of only Chasms without a reward — a condition that became increasingly rare as Chasms progressed. The gain is far from cosmetic: Abyssal Crystals increase both the difficulty and the rewards of all abyssal monsters subsequently spawned in the area.
• Amanamu made reliable. Abysses populated with monsters loyal to Amanamu sometimes spawned the Lightless Serpent as the elite. They now only spawn the Lightless Abomination, which drops more items and grants more experience: the two small "Amanamu's Abyssal Chance" passives finally become reliable.
• Path of Destruction expanded. Its effect — Abysses draw twice their number of Chasms and keep the highest value — now also covers the chances of additional Chasms, such as the one granted by Sustained Horde. The two notables finally combine.
• Two cleanups. Abysses no longer spawn inside Breach Hives, and Sanctum of Domination can no longer generate them once you've taken Grand Sun, which disables them.

How an Abyss works since the rework

Many players still go through the encounter as in 3.28. The exact sequence, as described by the French client:

• The monsters present around the chasm are weakened by it. Killing them progressively closes the cracks.
• Once all the cracks are closed, the chasm activates and unleashes a large wave of abyssal monsters. Defeating them closes the chasm.
• Each closed chasm has a chance to spawn an Abyssal Treasure. The last Abyss in a zone can instead open an underground dungeon: the Abyssal Depths.
• Three groups of abyssals exist — the Lightless, the Blackblood, and the Legion of the Chasm — and a zone generally only contains one.

The detail that changes everything is found in the last line of the in-game description: the rarity of abyssals depends on the rarity of the weakened monsters you've killed, and the abyssal that emerges steals part, sometimes all, of their modifiers. The monsters you sacrifice to the pit determine the quality of the next wave: bring the rares and magics from the area there rather than sending them elsewhere in the zone.

Another rule to know before buying scarabs: if a zone already contains an Abyss, the modifiers that are supposed to add Abysses to it instead add two additional Chasms. Stacking five Abyssal Scarabs therefore doesn't give five separate encounters, but a single one, much longer and denser — exactly what's needed to let the Abyssal Crystal build up.

Atlas tree: in what order to invest

The Abyss cluster was reworked with 3.29 and no longer resembles the one from previous leagues. Here are the notables that matter, with their exact wording from the English client.

1. Making Abysses appear

• Subterranean Realm: your Maps have +2% chance to contain an Abyss for every 2% increase in pack size. Excellent if your strategy is already stacking pack size, negligible otherwise.
• The small passives Abyss Chance (+8% or +12% depending on their position) add chances that the scarabs found in your Maps are Abyssal Scarabs — this is what makes the strategy self-sufficient.

2. Multiplying the Chasms

• Sustained Horde: 20% chance for your Abysses to contain 3 additional Chasms.
• Trail of Destruction: your Abysses roll their number of Chasms twice and keep the higher value. Since 3.29.2, the effect also covers the chance of additional Chasms — take both together, it's the best pair in the cluster.

3. Thickening the wave

• Abyssal Army: +50% experience granted by abyssal monsters and +25% monsters spawned. The go-to node for leveling up.
• Reactive Swarm: +4% monsters spawned per Chasm already closed. Useless on an isolated Chasm, formidable beyond four.
• Darkness Rises: 5% chance, per Chasm already closed, for spawned monsters to be at least magic. Same logic.

4. Steering the rewards

• Inspired Darkness: Chasms in the area are twice as likely to have a reward.
• Votive Reserves: 20% chance for Abyssal Hoards to yield a rare item fitted with an Abyssal Socket.
• Corrupted Gaze: 20% chance for found Abyssal Jewels to be corrupted with 5 or 6 random modifiers. This is the only way to obtain these jewels, highly sought after in the late league.
• Swarming Darkness: your Abysses can spawn Abyssal Swarming Chests instead of Abyssal Hoards.

5. The trap to avoid

Grand soleil removes all chance of your Maps containing Abysses and prevents found scarabs from being Abyss Scarabs, in exchange for extra content chances. A legitimate node for another strategy, but incompatible with everything above: 3.29.2 just fixed the bug that let Royaume souterrain generate Abysses despite itself.

Abyss scarabs: which ones to buy

The base Abyss Scarab went from a limit of 2 to 5 with 3.29, which explains the density of well-prepared zones.

The sorting is simple: the Abyss Scarab of Edifice is the one whose value has climbed the most since August 6th, and the one of Plentiful Depths remains the only reliable way to guarantee Abyssal Depths. Be careful, community databases have not all been updated and still describe the old behavior of the Edifice scarab.

Abyssal Depths: the fight changed on July 30th

Patch 3.29.1 significantly shortened fights against Abyssal Depths liches. The invulnerability phases during which you had to destroy Stygian Spires in three side rooms have disappeared; in compensation, the liches' life was increased by 25%. The arena gains a mechanic to read: crystal spires periodically fire beams at each other. Three chests finally appear after killing the boss.

The same patch reduced the variance of Abyss chests and raised their quality, especially those that yield currency items and scarabs. Add to that the fact that the Abyss is, since 3.29, the exclusive source of Abyss Jewels and Stygian Vises — apart from a few rare drops in the Abyssal Depths biomes of the Azurite Mine — and you get a mechanic that fuels both your gear and your selling. To target liches, stack the small Chance of Abyssal Depths passives (+15% each), the notable Awakened Depths (+100%), and the Abyss Scarab of Plentiful Depths on the Maps where you want a guaranteed dungeon.

The Lightless Astrolabe, to convert the try

If the Abyss becomes your main strategy, the Lightless Astrolabe is the scaling-up tool to know: it adds to a quadrant of the Atlas a Shaped Region filled with Abysses, all of which must be completed to validate the Maps. The difficulty and rewards of Abyss monsters increase there with each Map completed in the region, and your Maps contain an additional Abyss. It's the only mechanic that makes yield climb over the course of runs rather than map by map.

What comes right after

In the same August 5 post, GGG announces it's aiming for the following week for a follow-up patch that doesn't touch the Abyss but will shift the balance of farming. Six "Cursed Ducats" — quest items, untradeable — will be obtainable through various endgame routes and will be socketed into three slots added to the Sovereign's planning screen. Each one increases the quantity and rarity of loot from seabed encounters, but imposes its own difficulty modifier: six Ducats for three slots, enough to rule out those your build can't handle. No French label exists yet for these items.

Should you get into it now?

Yes, under two conditions. On the build side: an Abyss with five or six Pits, several active Abyssal Crystals, produces a mass of monsters some of which inherit rare modifiers, and the elites that 3.29.2 made more generous are also more dangerous. On the preparation side: without Path of Destruction, Sustained Horde, and Abyssal Army, you'll be chaining one- or two-Pit encounters, where neither Reactive Swarm nor the Crystals scarab have time to ramp up.

If both boxes are checked, the path is simple: open the cluster with Path of Destruction and Sustained Horde, fill in Abyssal Army and Reactive Swarm, save Inspired Darkness and Votive Reserves for last, and run an Abyssal Crystals Abyss Scarab on every map where you're stacking basic Abyss Scarabs.