Atlas · Waystones

Waystones, tablets & map mods

Everything about the map item itself: how to read it, how to roll it, and what to slot at the Map Device.

Waystones

65→80
Area level (T1→T16)
6
Revives at 0 mods
10%
XP bar lost per death
T1-T14
Reforge 3→1 range

One Waystone = one map, tiers 1 to 16. Area level = tier + 64 (T1 = 65, T15 = 79, T16 = 80). The tier sets both monster level and the item level of the loot. Since 0.5 a Waystone must be identified before the Map Device accepts it.

Revives scale with mods. A Waystone with no mods gives 6 revives. Each explicit modifier removes one, down to 0 at 6+ mods. At 0 revives, the first death ends the map. You can leave and re-enter freely without spending a revive.

Each death in a map also costs 10% of your current XP bar (a flat chunk of the bar, not 10% of total XP). No XP loss in the campaign or against a pinnacle boss. Omen of Amelioration cuts the loss by 75%.

TierLvlFocus
T1-T565-69Learn the rhythm. Trans / Aug only.
T6-T1070-74Alch your maps. Commit to one league mechanic.
T11-T1575-79Chaos res mandatory. Fortress and citadels open up.
T1680Vaal-corrupt a T15 (reforging stops at T15). Pinnacle territory.

Prefixes mostly help you (quantity, rarity, pack size, more Waystones), suffixes mostly hurt you (monster damage, monster res, debuffs) and raise your Waystone drop chance. In 0.5 GGG swapped several mods between prefix and suffix and removed a batch of old ones, so read the affixes, do not rely on memory.

Three Waystones of the same tier reforge into one of the next tier at the Reforging Bench. This works for T1 to T14 only: a T16 comes from corrupting a T15 with a Vaal Orb, not from reforging.

0.5 note
Monster Effectiveness is the headline scaling stat (monster Life, XP and Item Quantity together), but its Item Quantity and XP bonus was halved in 0.5. A new Monster Rarity stat was also added.

Tablets

Precursor Tablets slot directly at the Map Device, not in towers. The number of slots tracks the Waystone's mod count: 1 slot at 1-2 mods, 2 slots at 3-5, 3 slots at 6+. A plain Waystone with no mods cannot activate tablets, so craft (or at least mod) it first. A 4th slot opens on Citadel maps after the Industrial Improvements Atlas node.

There are 8 standard content tablets, each with 10 uses:

  • Breach
  • Expedition
  • Delirium
  • Ritual
  • Irradiated
  • Overseer
  • Abyss
  • Temple

Tablets of the same type stack: slotting 2-3 of one mechanic multiplies how much of that content spawns, which is the backbone of single-mechanic farming. Empty slots are not wasted either, each one adds random league content. Towers still exist but mainly reveal regions now; completing your first tower raises the Fortress.

Note
A few unique tablets (some Irradiated uniques, Unforeseen Consequences) have only 1 use, not 10. You can use Orbs of Chance on tablets in 0.5.

Map mods to skip

Read the mods before entering. These are the “reroll the map” ones for a caster.

  • Monsters penetrate X% Elemental Resistances. Effectively un-caps you. Skip on glass-cannon builds.
  • Monsters deal extra damage as Chaos. Bypasses most defences. Skip unless you are ES/CI built for it.
  • Less Recovery. Cuts life / mana / ES regen and leech together. Burst casters suffer most.
  • More Monster Critical Strike chance / multiplier. One unlucky crit chain ends the map.
Tip
Ailment builds also avoid “monsters chance to avoid poison / bleed / ignite”. Check your build guide for specific warnings.