Atlas Strategy 3.22

**Preface**

As a preface, this strategy will hinge on moderate but not top tier clear speed, and hefty single target damage. I was previously running a self-chill explosive trap trickster which had very good dps for the currency invested, and occasionally still struggled with certain Metamorphs before investing more into my build. Metamorphs will have 5x more HP than normal with the atlas passives and compasses we use. When combined with a possible innate 900% more mult on life from the juice being full, they will end with nearly 50x more HP than an empty metamorph with no passives or compasses. Red beasts can also end up being incredibly tanky with the wrong mods, but not nearly as much as metamorphs. Essences and Strongboxes are very easy kills by simply pre-laying a full stack of traps/mines if you're on a trapper/miner character. If you want the best out of this strat, I would suggest having at least 25M dps, which seems like a lot, but there are definitely options for getting there without spending an exorbitant amount of currency. Mind you my character was still not super cheap, but was nowhere close to the investment of characters with similar DPS on other skills. Explosive Trap is just that strong. Alternatively you can run this strat at a two-watchstone equivalent if pure T16s are a bit too tough on your character, as I would call only 2 of the 3 compasses/sexants used to be mandatory for the fully setup atlas tree.


**Beasts**

I generally run using Polished Bestiary Scarabs, as Gilded only add 1 additional red beast, and are about 2.5x the price.

I highly suggest using a beast copy compass any time you are beast farming, as it will double your profits on big beasts, as well as double yellow beasts, which still make up a considerable amount of profit when sold in bulk, though farming and selling yellows isn't required to make profit. I suggest cleaning your bestiary every 20 maps or so, as if you get 10 beasts a map that are duped from the compass, that is 400 beasts plus a considerable additional number of beasts if you get a Great Migration proc. The compasses I purchased in bulk for 30c for 4-use ones, but they are absolutely worth it, even if you only kill yellow beasts, which I will elaborate on later.

Bind these regex search strings to hotkeys in Awakened PoE Trade by hitting Shift+Space and navigating to the 'Dump Sorting' area and clicking edit on the side of it. Enter your strings, name them, and add a hotkey (I suggest the top 3 numbers on your numpad if your keyboard has one).

Red beasts worth about 5c or more early to mid-league:
cic m|c fr|c l|c v|l h|f a|c ti|l pl|cic c


This doesn't cover Harvest Memory Line beasts however, which I put in a separate line:

id vu|ld h|d br|id w|d ab|l cy



Whenever you want to clean your Bestiary, simply hit H, navigate to the Bestiary, then navigate to 'Captured Beasts' at the bottom. Use your hotkeys to show only beasts worth money, and beast orb them by either putting them directly into your inventory, or the quicker method by throwing them on the ground in your menagerie. If you know the beast is expensive you might want to put it directly into your inventory and not risk a disconnect. After all your beasts are on the ground, hit Z to turn off item nameplates, and simply spam-click the actual orbs on the ground to quickly pick them up without having to manually aim on each item name. After you're done with that, you have two options: Delete every other beast if you don't want to sell any yellows, or selectively delete bad reds. Yellow beasts will simply have an outline background picture, and not a color image of the beast. If you have already filtered your good beasts and orbed them, the process for orbing yellows (if you wish to sell them), and deleting  bad reds if rather simple. I suggest sliding your left hand over to the Enter button, so you can quickly confirm the confirmation box for deleting beasts without having to manually aim and click every time.


**Metamorph**

Gilded Metamorph Scarabs are pretty much required to both get the additional sample from Metamorphs using boss organs, and for more importantly giving every single organ found in the map a reward. This gives you far more choice and chance for Catalysts and currency tiles, which should be your go-to picks, with catalysts 1000% being your #1 option any-time they appear. Make sure to run a map with multiple bosses, preferably one with 3 such as City Square. Always leave a boss organ ready for the 2nd metamorph, both for jucing the chances of extra catalysts from the passive node 'Catalysing Fluids', and for giving you another 3 itemised samples for Tane's Lab, for a total of 6 samples per map run. There is absolutely no reason not to use the 'Catalysts dropped by Metamorphs in your maps are duplicated' compass/sextant, and I bought them in bulk for 5c per for 4-uses, totaling to 1.25c extra per map, and this is absolutely, unequivocally worth it.

**Essence**

Not much to say here. Pick up the atlas nodes, and run Essence on the map device for 3 extra essences With the 8% base chance for any 'extra content' (which includes Essences), and an additional 10% chance from blocking 5 league mechanics, you will get 4.18 essences on average per map, which is very good. If you use the 1 additional essence compass, you will receive 5.18 essences per map for 4.875c, or .94c per essence. Using this compass however grants a 50% chance to miss out on a MEDS corruption (Misery, Envy, Dread, Scorn upgrades to the Special Insanity, Horror, Delirium, and Hysteria essences) due to remnant essences being unable to be corrupted as they already are, but you will also have a massive surplus of Remnants of Corruption, which you can sell for 2c per in bulk and also never run out of them for your own corruptions if you come across an uncorrupted MEDS or multiple Shrieking Essences that might be worth to turn into Deafening, such as Contempts, which sell for 12.5c each or so in bulk depending on the age of the league. I personally suggest simply buying your Remnants of Corruption, just so you never run the chance of missing a possible upgrade of a MEDS essence.

After you are done farming, you should generally upgrade all essences to Deafening, except for Greed and Zeal, which are *usually* more economical to keep as Shrieking.

**Ambush/Strongbox**

Simply take the atlas tree nodes, and use any Ambush Scarab of your liking, as well as optionally a 2 additional strongboxes/strongboxes are rare and corrupted compass (which also saves you 1 point on the tree), which averages out at about 9c in bulk (2.25c per map, or 1.125c per strongbox). Rusted Ambush Scarabs are the most economical at 2c in bulk for 3 additional Strongboxes (.66c per strongbox). With the base 1 additional strongbox from the atlas passive tree + a Rusted Ambush Scarab you will get 4 Strongboxes, plus 8% base chance and 10% additional chance from blocking 5 league mechanics. 4.18 Strongboxes for 2c (.478c per strongbox) is a huge bargain, though 6.18 strongboxes with the compass sextant for 4.25c (.68c per strongbox) might be worth it in a currency/hour standpoint, which is important to contextualize:

Margins aren't everything. Making a 50% return on investment of 1.5c to 1c invest isn't as good as a 30% return on investment of 13c to 10c investment. The 50% RoI seems better at face value until you realize that 3c is greater than 1.5c by 100%. Upping your profit per hour by literally double is incredibly significant, even if techncically your RoI % is 40% less (.3/.5) from a relative perspective of chaos invested. Always favor raw currency gains rather than % return on investment.

Feel free to upgrade to better scarabs for Ambush, and use compasses for Essence and Ambush. I would highly suggest using the Beast Copy compass if you can afford to buy a solid amount of them, and the Catalyst Dupe compass for Metamorphs should **always** be used as they are incredibly cheap, and give a staggering amount of currency returned per chaos invested into the compass.

**Atlas Passive Tree**

https://poeplanner.com/a/j5U

**Full Scarab and Compass Setup I personally run**

Gilded Metamorph Scarab

Polished Bestiary Scarab

Rusted Ambush Scarab

4-Use 'Create a Copy of Beasts Captured in Your Maps' Compass/Sextant (Optional if on a lower budget)

4-Use 'Catalysts Dropped by Metamorphs In Your Maps are Duplicated' Compass/Sextant

4-Use 'Your Maps contain 2 additional Strongboxes' Compass/Sextant (This is one is optional if you plan on running a 2 watchstone strat for weaker characters, but I would suggest doing it if your character can handle T16 metamorphs.