Path Of Exile: What Are Corrupted Gems? (2024)

Path of Exile is packed with many complex mechanics. As you journey through Wraeclast, you will come across corrupted gems; when you first take a look at these unique gems, they can be a bit confusing. In this guide, we are going to go over everything you need to know about corrupted gems.

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These special gems can be found or corrupted yourself. To know if a gem is corrupted, simply check the description that appears when you hover over it. In this panel, you will be able to see all the gem's info, as well as the word 'corrupted' in bright red letters.

What Is A Corrupted Gem?

Corrupted gems are essentially gems with a modifier that may increase their quality and strength. As mentioned above, the description panel for the gem will say 'corrupted'.

If a gem has been corrupted, you will not be able to use crafting orbs to modify it any further, with the exception of items that modify sockets and socket links.

In general, corrupted gems are better than their non-corrupted counterparts. Corrupted gems can either be made or found, so let's take a look a these below. First, we are going to go over what happens when you corrupt a gem yourself.

Corrupting Gems With Vaal Orbs

Corrupted gems can be found while exploring through the world, as well as created yourself. To do this, you will need a Vaal Orb. This is a currency orb that will corrupt an item. You can find Vaal Orbs by slaying monsters, breaking containers, or as a drop from Strongboxes.

To use the Vaal Orb, right-click on the orb, and then left-click on the gem. Doing so will transform the gem into a corrupted gem, and add certain modifiers.

Corrupting a gem will have a few different outcomes. Below, you can find what happens after you use a Vaal Orb to corrupt a gem.

• Nothing happens, but the gem still has the 'corrupted' description
• +1Gem Level
• -1 Gem Level
• +10% Quality (this caps at 23%)
• -10% Quality
• The gem skill turns into the Vaal version

As you can see, using a Vaal Orb involves some risks. If the gem you want to corrupt deals damage depending on the level, then you will have a chance to basically decrease the amount of damage it will do.

After you corrupt a gem, you will not be able to un-corrupt it. This means that if you plan on corrupted a gem that you use often, you should think carefully. If you receive negative modifiers, you will not be able to undo this.

Why Corrupt Gems?

The main reason that many people corrupt gems is to increase the quality. In general, a gem's quality caps at 20 percent. As a gem's quality increases, the stats of the associated skill will increase. To increase a gem prior to corruption, you can use Gemcutter's Prisms, however, they only go up to 20 percent. This is where Vaal Orbs come in handy. Although you have a chance to lose quality, this is one of the few ways to increase the quality of a gem above 20 percent.

What Is A Vaal Skill?

Above, we talked about what corrupting a gem with a Vaal Orb can do. One of the possibilities is to create a Vaal version of the skill. For example, in the image above, you can see the skill Vaal Arc.

Vaal versions of skills are more powerful, however, they require the 'fuel' of slain enemies. This means that before you use the skill, you will need to kill a certain amount of enemies.

Overall, Vaal skills are stronger than their normal counterpart, but this comes at a price. With other powerful skills, you should be able to easily gather enough 'fuel' to use the Vaal skill.

Other Ways To Acquire Corrupted Gems

There are a few other ways to obtain corrupted gems in addition to using a Vaal Orb.

If you don't have any Vaal Orbs, you can head to the Vaal side area that has a chance to appear on maps. This is essentially a corrupted area that appears randomly on maps. This area is marked with a heart icon on your mini-map and glows red when you are nearby. In the image above, you can see the player standing near the entrance of a Vaal side area.

You are not required to go through Vaal side areas, but they provide great rewards. Each area has a boss that guards a Vaal Vessel. Make your way through this area, kill the boss, and open the vessel. Inside, you will have a 50 percent chance to find a Vaal skill gem.

Gems can also be corrupted at the Altar of Corruption without a Vaal Orb. This altar is located at the Temple of Atzoatl inside a Locus of Corruption incursion room. Placing a gem (as well as other corruptable items) on the altar will add two corrupted modifiers, change all the sockets to white, or destroy the item.

Within the Temple of Atzoatl, you can also corrupt a gem twice at the Lapidary Lens in Doryani's Institute incursion room. Here, a gem can be corrupted twice, however, the same outcome will hot be applied both times.

That's all there is to know about corrupted gems. This modifier is not the most important when you first start out, however, as you progress through the world, you will want powerful equipment and skills. Don't forget to take time to look for Vaal Orbs or corrupted skill gems in Vaal side areas.

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