One 3.29 discrepancy, flagged rather than smoothed over. The screenshot above is taken from the 3.29 video and shows an item named Eldritch Voidstone, whose tooltip reads "Eldritch Altars have 25% chance to have an additional downside, as well as an upside from the other Eldritch Influence", plus quadrant-scoped lines converting tier 1–15 maps to gold and raising their tier. No item by that name appears in the wiki's Voidstone list, whose version history currently runs only to 3.26. Treat the four-stone table above as the verified system and the Eldritch Voidstone naming and quadrant behaviour as observed in-game in 3.29 but not yet documented — confirm it on your own Atlas before planning around it.
 Quadrant order only matters if you are actively rushing. If you are taking your time, the sequencing is not worth stressing over. ## Using Kirac and the 3-to-1 recipe to skip tiers  Kirac now sells maps for **gold** rather than currency, which makes him the cheapest way to plug gaps in your tier progression. You can also refresh his stock — but the tooltip prices that at **10,000 gold** a time, and gold has better uses early: Kingsmarch, and especially gold gambling, which the source calls his main early gearing method.  The bigger lever is the **3-to-1 map recipe**. Three maps of one tier return one map of the next tier up. Any rarity works as long as they are not corrupted and all three are the same tier. Combined with Kirac's stock, this is how you climb into tier 14+ quickly and how you sustain red maps once you are there. ## What to allocate first on the Atlas passive tree  The opening sequence is fixed and there is no meaningful variation to it. Go straight for **Shaping the Mountains** and **Shaping the Skies**, then **Shaping the World**. These give dropped maps a chance to come out a tier above your current tier — the panel above shows the cluster reaching an **85% chance for tier 1–15 maps to become one tier higher**. That is the engine of the whole tier 14 rush. On the way, take the **Shrine** nodes. The source is emphatic here: no matter how strong the build, shrines are always worth it. The finished Domination cluster gives an additional shrine in your maps, 50% increased shrine buff effect, 50% increased duration, and a random extra shrine effect on top. With two guaranteed shrines lasting around two minutes each, and roughly two minutes being what a league-start map takes, you are buffed for most of your clear. ## The red altar cluster and Wrath of the Cosmos  Once you can actually run red altars, rush the whole Searing Exarch altar cluster. **Wrath of the Cosmos** looks like a trap and is not. The tooltip reads: altars have a *50% chance to have an additional Upside*, and those which get one have *100% increased Effect of Downsides*. The downside only matters if you take it — and the rule the source gives is simple: **you only ever click the minion altars**, or a boss altar if the reward is genuinely worth it. You never click the player-debuff altars. Stronger minions are not a real threat to any build, so the amplified downside costs you nothing while you keep the extra upside. ## The finished Atlas tree  The finished tree is a hybrid: part boss rush, part red altar. The summary panel shows what that buys — a **50% chance to spawn a Searing Exarch Altar** when Exarch influence first appears, **40% increased pack size** on Exarch-influenced packs, a **100% increased chance for map bosses to drop a Conqueror Map**, and +3% chances at Elder and Shaper Guardian maps from tier 14+ bosses. Conqueror, Elder and Shaper maps are the quiet earner here. You are boss-rushing anyway, so they cost you nothing and sell well on league start. After the core is done, pick up the small **1% quantity** nodes — generically strong, more of everything — then the map effect and pack size wheel, then the chance to drop Sextant maps. Past that the tree is genuinely flexible. ## Optional branches: Betrayal, Essence and Harvest Three mechanics are worth points during progression, and one is not. **Betrayal (Jun)** is good for early Atlas gear and experience but is genuinely optional now. Four nodes is enough if you want it; six if you want to commit. The usual pattern is to spec it during yellow maps and refund it in reds. **Essence** earns its points if your build wants flat elemental damage — wand, bow, claw and attack-dagger builds especially, where the Hatred, Anger and Wrath essences can produce a usable weapon early. It is also the right pick if your build needs a corrupted essence. Be aware essences in red maps can get tanky for weaker builds. **Harvest** is the one to skip. It costs a lot of points, it costs a lot of map time, and the source considers it weak in softcore trade early on. ## What to skip while you are rushing While progressing, you are essentially ball-rushing every map. You kill what is in the way, you run the altar, and you leave. Almost every league mechanic you walk past is not worth the time **because you have no Atlas points invested in it yet** — that is the actual reasoning, and it is why the advice flips once your tree is finished. The exceptions are the near-zero-time ones: essences (a rare to kill), strongboxes, Heist boxes, and Mercenary encounters. Blueprints and merc rewards can be worth a few chaos or better for seconds of effort. ## Three things this guide deliberately doesn't answer Being straight about the edges of the source, because these are common follow-up searches and the video does not address them. **Favourite map slots.** Fubgun never touches favourite maps in this video, so here is the wiki-verified version. There are **12 favoured map slots**, unlocked one at a time by objectives you are already doing during progression — completing a tier 16 or 17 map, defeating an Elder Guardian, a Shaper Guardian, a Conqueror, Sirus, the Shaper, Uber Elder, the Maven, the Eater of Worlds and the Searing Exarch among them. Each time you favourite a map it gains a **10x multiplier** to its drop chance when a map of that tier drops, and the multiplier stacks up to **12 times on a single map for 120x**. It does not increase how many maps drop, only which ones. That is why favourites barely matter during a rush — you are clearing every node once — and matter enormously the moment you settle into farming one layout. **Resetting the Atlas tree.** The video only ever refunds individual nodes — Destructive Play after the Maven quest line, Jun after yellow maps — and never demonstrates a full Atlas tree reset. Check the refund cost and method in-game before planning around a wholesale respec. **Delve on the Atlas.** Delve nodes are not covered here at all. The source discusses Betrayal, Essence and Harvest as the optional branches and stops there, so treat Delve allocation as out of scope rather than as a recommendation against it.How many Atlas points you actually need depends on the farm. The source targets roughly 120+ before settling into a dedicated strategy, and notes that some strategies — Ultimatum is the example given — run fine on 50 to 60 points. Full completion is 138.
Atlas trees are re-tuned every league and this guide reflects 3.29 (tree version 3.29.0, as shown in the planner screenshots). The source video also says "since 3.20" at one point while saying "since 3.28" elsewhere when describing when altar-rushing became possible; 3.28 is the one consistent with the rest of the video, but treat the exact patch attribution as unconfirmed.
How this guide was fact-checked. Mechanics and numbers here were verified against the Path of Exile Wiki rather than taken from the video alone, and the video was corrected where the two disagreed — most importantly the bonus-objective rarity requirement, which is magic for white nodes, rare for yellow, and rare-and-corrupted for red, not "magic or higher" across the board. Voidstone names, the +15% per-stone tier bonus and the favoured-map multipliers are wiki-sourced. Where 3.29 has changed something the wiki has not yet documented, it is flagged inline rather than presented as settled.
--- ## FAQ ### How do you progress the Atlas fastest in Path of Exile 3.29? Rush tier 14 maps. Tier 14 is the gate that lets you run Searing Exarch (red) Eldritch Altars in every map once the quest versions are exhausted, and those altars drop Lesser Eldritch Embers and raw Chaos Orbs that fund your league start. The key trick is that **a node's bonus objective can be completed by running a map at a higher tier than the node's natural tier** — so once you are at tier 14 you go back and clear leftover low-tier nodes with tier 14+ maps, completing the Atlas and running a profitable altar in the same map. Watch the rarity requirement, because it scales with the node's colour and the source video's "magic or higher" only holds for white maps: **white (T1–5) needs magic, yellow (T6–10) needs rare, and red (T11–16) needs rare *and* corrupted**. Note also that since 3.26 completing a map at a tier *lower* than it naturally appears grants no bonus completion at all. ### Which Voidstone should I get first, and how many Atlas points do I need? Take the **Searing Exarch** stone first. Your whole progression plan is running red altars, the Exarch line is the easiest of the four pinnacle fights, and it feeds the altar strategy directly. The four Voidstones and their sources are: **Omniscient** (The Searing Exarch), **Grasping** (The Eater of Worlds), **Ceremonial** (The Maven) and **Decayed** (The Elder / Uber Elder). Each grants *Tier 1–15 Maps found have 15% chance to become 1 tier higher* and a 0.4% chance per socketed stone for a tier 16 drop to become tier 17. With all four socketed the entire Atlas is tier 16. Recommended order after the Exarch: Eater of Worlds, then Shaper and Elder (the regular versions, not Uber Elder), then Maven. There is no need to rush all four. Full Atlas passive completion is **138 points**. The video targets roughly 120+ before settling into a dedicated farming strategy, though some strategies such as Ultimatum run fine on 50–60. One caveat: the 3.29 video shows an item called an "Eldritch Voidstone" with quadrant-scoped modifiers that the wiki does not document — its Voidstone page currently runs only to 3.26. Confirm that one in-game. ### What is the best Atlas tree allocation order for league start? Fixed opening, no real variation: 1. **Shaping the Mountains**, then **Shaping the Skies**, then **Shaping the World** — these push dropped maps a tier higher (reaching 85% chance for tier 1–15 maps in the planner screenshots) and are what actually gets you to tier 14. 2. **Shrine nodes** on the way — take these on every build, no exceptions. The finished cluster gives an extra shrine, 50% increased buff effect and 50% increased duration. 3. Finish the map wheel and the additional shrine chance, guaranteeing two buffed shrines per map. 4. Once you can run them, the full **Searing Exarch altar cluster**. 5. Then 1% quantity nodes, pack size, and Elder/Shaper/Conqueror map chances. ### Is Wrath of the Cosmos safe to take? Yes, and this is the most counter-intuitive part of the tree. The node gives Searing Exarch altars a 50% chance of an additional Upside, but altars that receive one get **100% increased Effect of Downsides**. It is safe because of how you play altars: **you only ever click the minion altars**, plus the occasional boss altar when the reward is worth it. You never click the player-debuff options. Stronger altar minions are not a threat to any functioning build, so the amplified downside lands on choices you were never going to take, while you keep the extra upside. ### Which league mechanics should I skip while progressing the Atlas? Almost all of them — but for a specific reason: **you have no Atlas points invested in them yet**, so the reward does not justify the map time. That reasoning flips once your tree is finished. The exceptions are the near-instant ones worth stopping for: essences (just a rare to kill), strongboxes, Heist boxes, and Mercenary encounters. Blueprints and merc rewards can be worth a few chaos or better for seconds of effort. On optional tree branches: Betrayal (Jun) is fine but optional — four nodes if you want it, and many players spec in during yellow maps then refund in reds. Essence is worth it for attack builds wanting flat elemental damage from Hatred, Anger and Wrath. **Harvest is the one to skip** — too many points, too much map time, and weak in early softcore trade. On favourite maps, which the video never mentions: there are **12 favoured map slots**, unlocked by objectives you hit during progression anyway (a tier 16/17 map, Elder and Shaper Guardians, a Conqueror, Sirus, the Shaper, Uber Elder, the Maven, the Eater of Worlds, the Searing Exarch). Each favourite gives that map a **10x drop-weight multiplier**, stacking up to **120x** on a single map. It changes which maps drop, not how many — which is why it barely matters mid-rush and matters a great deal once you settle into farming one layout.