In Path of Exile, Sextants are important part of the Atlas. Sextants are an entirely optional part of the game, and each one you use is extremely valuable. This means you have to be sure you’re using them correctly. Just as you have to be sure that buy chaos orbs on the right website.

Sextants are, by many people’s opinions, a noob trap. Sextants are the key to making the most money and most experience in the game, far outclassing anything else. When you hear that, you might go out and put Sextants on your Atlas, run a few maps, not really notice a difference, and waste a lot of money in the process. So, here’s a guide on how to not do that.

Sextants are poe items you find in maps. There are three tiers of Sextants, denoted by colors, which coincide with the colors of maps. When people talk about using Sextants while farming, they usually mean that they are using four to seven Sextants for each set of three maps. This can be extremely expensive, and is only worth it if you are running very profitable maps.

In league, the best map to run Sextants on is the Vault. You can block off a significant number of bad rolls, have six Sextants hit it from nearby maps, and get a good profit. If you’re more interested in fast experience, Shaped Channel Sextant blocking is another option that has become popular in this league. The map doesn’t have any expensive cards that drop, but the Sextants you use are all white, so the cost is much lower.

The biggest takeaway here is to do your research before you jump into using Sextants. Without Sextant blocking, using Sextants is not profitable. Don’t get sucked into the talk about how great Sextants are and go using them willy-nilly. Have a plan of action, and understand that once you’ve done something like this, the fee to change it is huge, so expect to leave your Atlas like this for months at a time.

If this stuff doesn’t sound fun to you, at the end of the day, just sell the damn things. They aren’t worth the trouble if you aren’t interested in min-maxing your profit. Good luck to you!