Most nights I boot up an ARPG, I want one thing: momentum. That’s why Path of Exile 1 still earns its spot on my SSD in 2026, even with PoE 2 pulling attention. The original is loud, messy, and unapologetically systems-heavy, and if you’re diving in fresh you’ll probably end up watching a guide or two, then grabbing a couple basics like poe currency for sale just so your first character doesn’t feel like it’s wearing cardboard armor in Act 6.

Why it still hits harder than newer ARPGs
PoE 1 doesn’t ease you in. You click the passive tree and it’s basically a wall-sized circuit board. No friendly tutorial voice. No «safe» choices. You can brick a build and the game won’t blink. And weirdly, that’s the hook. You learn by failing. You respec, you reroll, you steal ideas from other players, then you start connecting the dots. One day you’re getting deleted by a random rare. A week later you’re the one deleting the whole screen and barely stopping to look at what you killed.

Buildcraft feels like building a machine
The gem system is still the best kind of trouble. Skills, supports, links, triggers, reservation tricks—half the fun is asking «what if» and finding out it actually works. You’re not picking «wizard» or «barbarian» and calling it a day. You’re stacking mechanics until they click. And once they click, PoE 1 becomes absurdly fast. PoE 2 has that careful dodge-and-commit style. PoE 1 is more like: hit the map, hit the button, keep moving, trust your loot filter to yell when something matters.

The Atlas is a sandbox, not a checklist
Endgame is still the Atlas, and it’s still the reason people come back every league. It’s not just bossing, it’s choosing a lifestyle: Delve all night, chain Heists, craft in Harvest, or run whatever you like and block what you don’t. You’re basically tuning your own little content economy. There’s always another upgrade, another farm strategy, another invitation set, another «okay, one more map» moment.

Time, trade, and staying sane
Trade is also the part that can wear you down. No gold, just currencies with real crafting value, and prices swing hard early league. If you’ve got a job, kids, or you just don’t want your weeknight session to be three hours of scraping for Divines, it can feel rough. Some players grind it out and love that climb. Others would rather skip the broke phase, get their build online, and spend their time actually mapping, which is why people look at services like eznpc when they want a quicker, cleaner start without living in trade chat.