Infernalist Minion Leveling Build

Build Introduction

This guide will walk you through levelling an Infernalist from Act 1 to early mapping to transition into one of the many late-game Infernalist minion builds available here shortly. Whether it is your first character in a fresh league or a new character with some currency to spend, we’ve got you covered. If you want to press a low number of buttons and be able to focus on staying safe while being very tanky as your hordes of minions clear screens and delete bosses, then this is the guide for you!

This guide is a collaborative work from GhazzyTV and Lollash. We will do our best to keep it as up-to-date as possible as the game continues its development and new content is added. If you have any questions regarding the guide, feel free to drop into the streams!

For gameplay footage, you can check out the video below. Do keep in mind that the video guide might be out of date so to make sure you have the latest updated version of the build keep reading the written guide here.

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Video Guide

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Strengths and Weaknesses

Path of Building

Path of Building is a fantastic community made tool that lets you see how any change you make to your characters skill tree, gear or skill gems will impact you. If you haven’t used POB before, you can find a useful beginner’s guide here.

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Ascendancy

Towards the end of Act 2 you will encounter the Trial of the Sekhemas. By completing the trial, you will unlock your first two Ascendancy points. You will want to ascend as soon as you can gain access. At this point in the beta, you’ll have an option to ascend as an Infernalist or Blood Mage. For this guide, we will be focusing on the Infernalist for transitioning into the many powerful Infernalist minion builds.

Infernalist

1. Loyal Hellhound (Gives you a permanent minion that you use for utility supports, and takes 20% of the damage from hits dealt to you)
2. Altered Flesh (You should only take this node after you have at least 10% Chaos Resistance)

You can find a full guide on the Trial of the Sekhemas here.

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General Advice for Leveling

Path of Exile II’s campaign is not meant to be taken lightly. The following tips are things to keep in mind throughout the campaign and are applicable to all characters. This will help you have the smoothest leveling experience possible:

• Pick up Magic and Rare items you find to sell or disenchant.
• Check Vendors often (every time you return to town or level).
• Collect socketed/superior items to salvage so you can add sockets/quality to gear. These will have names like “Superior Mail Vestments” or have a little white square next to their name.
• Explore each zone to find the special encounters, such as optional bosses or hidden treasure. These will be a strong source of uncut gems and permanent character statistics.
• If you havent found an upgrade for a particular slot for a while, considering spending some gold at the gambler to find a magic or rare item you can use or craft on.
• Don’t spam dodge roll. It takes a while to learn when to use it to avoid dangerous attacks but in most situations continuing to move normally and attacking will keep you alive more often.
• Dont rush. If you are feeling overwhelmed by enemies make sure you retreat the way you came as continuing to move forward will likely pull even more enemies.

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Gear Progression and Stat Priority

NOTE: For the first part of the game you will be using a wand and sceptre combo. You will swap to using a shield in Act 3. Keep an eye out for any wands with “+% to increased Spell Damage” and “+ # Level of All Chaos Skills“.

Minion based character’s highest priority statistics are increases to Spirit and “+# to the level of Minion Skills“. As with almost all characters it is also important to pick up as much Maximum Life, Resistances and attributes (Strength, Dexterity or Intelligence) as possible.

Below you will find a breakdown of the most important affixes you can find for each gear slot. The affixes on items are more important than the base type. Due to attribute requirements you will find it easiest to equip Energy Shield bases.

Slot	Affixes	Notes
Main Hand	1. + # to Level of All Minion Skills 2. + #% increased Spirit 3. Any bonus to Minion stats	Rattling Sceptre. Higher level sceptres should only be used if they have better affixes. Adding quality to your sceptre with Arcanist’s Etcher will scale the implicit 100 spirit by up to 20%.
Off Hand	1. + #% increased Block Chance 2. + # to Maximum Life 3. + #% increased Energy Shield/+X to Maximum Energy Shield 4.+ #% to Resistances/+# to Attributes	Any shield with good affixes and an implicit block chance.
Helm	1. + # to Level of All Minion Skills 2. + # to Maximum Life 3. + #% increased Energy Shield/+X to Maximum Energy Shield 4. + #% to Resistances/+X to Attributes	Energy Shield bases will be the easiest to meet the requirements for, and will be important once you have Grim Feast, but while levelling any base with good affixes you can equip will work.
Body Armour	1. + # to Spirit 2. + # to maximum life 3. + #% increased Energy Shield/+X to maximum Energy Shield 4. + #% to Resistances/+X to Attributes	Energy Shield bases will be the easiest to meet the requirements for, and will be important once you have Grim Feast, but while levelling any base with good affixes you can equip will work.
Gloves	1. + # to Maximum Life 2. + #% increased Energy Shield/+X to Maximum Energy Shield 3. + #% to Resistances/+X to Attributes	Energy Shield bases will be the easiest to meet the requirements for, and will be important once you have Grim Feast, but while levelling any base with good affixes you can equip will work.
Boots	1. + #% increased Movement Speed 2. + # to Maximum Life 3. + #% increased Energy Shield/+X to Maximum Energy Shield 4. + #% to Resistances/+X to Attributes	Energy Shield bases will be the easiest to meet the requirements for, and will be important once you have Grim Feast. You should always prioritise higher Movement Speed boots to help with avoiding enemy attacks and abilities and moving through zones faster.
Rings	1. + # to Maximum Life 2. +# to Attributes 3. + #% to Resistances	Try to use resistance bases such as Ruby Ring or Amethyst Ring. Having at least one ring with lots of Intelligence or Strength will make equipping gear and levelling your gems much easier.
Amulet	1. + # to Level of all Minion Skills 2. + # to Spirit 3. + # to Maximum Life 4. + #% to Resistances/+X to Attributes	A Solar Amulet might let you have more minions, attribute amulets such as a Lapis Amulet or Stellar Amulet will make equipping gear and levelling gems easier.
Belt	1. + # Charm Slots 2. + # to Maximum Life 3. + #% to Resistances/+X to Attributes	Use the belt with the best affixes while levelling, base type does not really matter.

Leveling Uniques

• Oaksworn – If you find one, or can buy one cheaply this provides a significant amount of power right from Act 1 and can be worn all the way to maps.
• Enfolding Dawn – This Body Armour gives +100 flat spirit and can be worn right from level 1. You may run into some mana issues and will be less tanky, but with careful use of your mana flask, it can provide a big boost to your damage output while levelling
• Wanderlust – An early 20% Movement Speed pair of boots that also gives slow immunity.
• Corpsewade – If you buy or find a low item level pair of Corpsewade boots, they can provide a large damage boost. Please note that the level of the Decompose skill granted by them is linked to the item level and will require a higher character level to wear if dropped later in the game. They also only provide 10% movement speed and so you will likely want to replace them later in the game.

Flasks and Charms

While levelling, it is important that you continuously upgrade your life and mana flasks when you find more powerful flasks. Remember that you can use Orbs of Transmutation and Orbs of Augmentation on flasks to add a prefix or suffix. The most important affixes for your life flasks are “gains +# charges per second” and ” #% of recovery is instant”. Because this build has low mana usage, you will not want to use an instant recovery mana flask.

After equipping a belt you will gain access to one or more Charm Slots on your inventory screen. Charms are a useful defensive tool; after collecting enough charges from killing monsters, they will automatically trigger their effect when a condition is met. While levelling, we recommend you use a Thawing Charm which will unfreeze you and grant freeze immunity when you are frozen, or a Stone Charm which will grant stun immunity when you are stunned.

Jewels

Jewels rarely drop in general play but can often be found in the Trial of the Sekhemas, with guaranteed jewel drops from Royal Caches. You will path through a number of jewel sockets on your passive tree, and if you drop any jewels, they can add additional power to your character. Sapphires will typically have the best affixes for your build. Here are some you should look for:

Best	Good
Minions deal #% increased Damage	(2–4)% of Damage is taken from Mana before Life
Minions have #% increased Attack and Cast Speed	Gain #% of maximum Energy Shield as additional Stun Threshold
#% increased Minion Accuracy Rating	Offerings have (15–25)% increased Maximum Life
Minions have #% to all Elemental Resistances
(10–20)% increased maximum Energy Shield

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Act I

A Quick Reminder: Take your time, explore each area looking for additional encounters and optional bosses. This will ensure you have a smooth as possible levelling experience.

Initially you will use Contagion, Chaos Bolt and Unearth until you get your first Level 3 Uncut Skill Gem from The Rust King in The Red Vale. Until you defeat The King in the Mists in Act 1 you will be using the combination of Essence Drain and Contagion, utilizing Skeletal Warrior from a Rattling Scepter to act as meat shields. When you get a spare Uncut Skill Gem you will get Flame Wall.

You will cast Contagion on an enemy, followed by casting Essence Drain. This will then propagate through all the nearby enemies when your initial target dies. You can also cast Unearth on corpses to summon temporary minions to boost your damage and clearing speed. If you have extra skill gems, you can add Skeletal Arsonist, Skeletal Sniper, or additional Skeletal Warriors.

Skeletal Arsonist will just passively add some damage, Skeletal Sniper gives access to gas cloud arrows that you can use on Flame Wall to trigger explosions and Skeletal Warrior will add additional defensive minions to body-block and keep you safer.

After defeating the King in the Mists in the Freythorn zone you will get +30 spirit and your first Uncut Spirit Gem. At this point you will select Raging Spirits from the Sorceress’ spirit gem list.

Rotation and Skills

Contagion -> Essence Drain -> Flame Wall x2 -> Maintain Uptime on All Skills

Cast Unearth on corpses

If using Skeletal Sniper, use their command ability to create gas clouds to explode with Flame Wall

In the table below you will find a list of the skill gems and the support gems you will want to link to each of the skills.

Skill Gem (In Order of Priority)	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2
Essence Drain	Swift Affliction	Chain
Contagion	Unleash	Magnified Effect
Raging Spirits	Fire Infusion	Martial Tempo
Flame Wall	Fortress	Arcane Tempo
Unearth	Brutality	Persistence
Skeletal Warrior (From Rattling Sceptre)	Meat Shield	Last Gasp
Skeletal Arsonist (Pick one of these 3)	Scattershot	Magnified Effect (instead of Contagion)
Skeletal Sniper (Pick one of these 3)	Scattershot	Magnified Effect (instead of Contagion)
Skeletal Warrior (Pick one of these 3)	–	–

Below you can see a step by step guide on how to assign your passive skill tree points.

Remember: If you ever find you cannot cut a specific support gem or level an active skill gem you should focus on assigning attribute travel nodes as a priority.

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Act II

In Act 2 you will be adding two new skills to the rotation. You will pick up Pain Offering as soon as you get access to a Level 5 Uncut Skill Gem and Flammability from the Elemental Skill Gem list when you get a Level 7 Uncut Skill Gem. Whenever you encounter a tanky rare monster or boss you should cast Pain Offering, trying to target your Skeletal Warrior. You will also cast Flammability to keep the enemy cursed, which reduces their resistances.

Rotation and Skills

Contagion -> Essence Drain -> Flame Wall x2 -> Maintain Uptime on All Skills

Cast Pain Offering and Flammability on tough encounters. Try to maintain uptime

Cast Unearth on corpses

In the table below you will find a list of the skill gems and the support gems you will want to link to each of the skills.

Skill Gem (In Order of Priority)	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2
Essence Drain	Swift Affliction	Chain
Contagion	Unleash	–
Raging Spirits	Fire Infusion	Martial Tempo
Flame Wall	Fortress	Arcane Tempo
Pain Offering	Inspiration	Persistence
Flammability	–	–
Unearth	Brutality	–
Skeletal Warrior (From Rattling Sceptre)	Meat Shield	Last Gasp
Skeletal Arsonist	Scattershot	–
Summon Infernal Hound (from Ascendancy)	Elemental Army	–

In The Valley of the Titans, after collecting two parts of an amulet in some earlier zones, you will be offered a choice of two permanent rewards. You should choose “30% Increased Charm Charges gained“.

Below you can see a step by step guide on how to assign your passive skill tree points.

You will gain access to the Trial of the Sekhemas after defeating Balbala in the Traitors Passage and collecting their Djinn Barya. We recommend you ascend as soon as you are able, to get access to your Infernal Hound for even more damage and durability. You can find a full guide to Trial of the Sekhemas here.

Remember: If you ever find you cannot cut a specific support gem or level an active skill gem you should focus on assigning attribute travel nodes as a priority.

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Act III

NOTE: You will be preparing to swap to be fully Minion focused part way through Act 3. Keep an eye out for any shields with strong defensive statistics from the beginning of Act 3.

There are a couple of important side objectives you won’t want to miss in Act III. The first time you defeat the Orok Campfire event in the Sandswept Marsh you will drop a guaranteed Lesser Jeweller’s Orb which will let you add a third socket to one of your skill gems. You should use this on Raging Spirits . In the Venom Crypts after collecting the quest item and returning it to town you will be offered a choice of three quest rewards. You should choose “25% Increased Mana Regeneration“.

Defeating Ignagduk in the Azak Bog will reward you with +30 Spirit and a Level 10 Uncut Spirit Gem. At this point you will stop using Essence Drain and Contagion and your standard rotation will change. You will also change your passive tree to a more Minion focused setup, and start using a shield if you have found a usable shield.

When you can summon 4 or more Skeletal Arsonist, it becomes our highest priority skill to level. The support gems you use on your skills also change as you get access to Level 2 Uncut Support Gems. Make sure you check the table below for the new support links and priorities.

In Act 3 you will be granted access to the Trial of Chaos, the second Trial of Ascendancy, where you can earn 2 additional Ascendancy skill points. If you have found at least some gear with resistances we recommend at least attempting the Quest Item trial you receive in the Chimeral Wetlands. If you are unsuccessful you can circle back after gaining some levels or finding some better gear. If you’d like a full guide on the Trial of Chaos then you can find that here.

Rotation and Skills

• Flame Wall x2 -> Maintain Uptime on All Skills.
• Cast Pain Offering and Flammability on tough encounters. Try to maintain uptime.
• Cast Unearth on corpses.

Skill Gem (In Order of Priority)	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Support Gem 3
Skeletal Arsonist	Scattershot	Fire Infusion	–
Raging Spirits	Feeding Frenzy	Primal Armament	Martial Tempo
Flame Wall	Arcane Tempo	Fortress	–
Pain Offering	Inspiration	Persistence	–
Flammability	Heightened Curse	Focused Curse	–
Summon Infernal Hound	Envenom	Corrosion	–
Unearth	Brutality	Corpse Conservation	–
Skeletal Warrior (From Rattling Sceptre)	Meat Shield	Last Gasp	Culling Strike

Below you can see a step by step guide on how to assign your passive skill tree points. You will be doing a small respec after the Azak Bog, so make sure to pay close attention to the new tree. The Respec

Remember: If you ever find you cannot cut a specific support gem or level an active skill gem you should focus on assigning attribute travel nodes as a priority.

Before Respec:

After Respec:

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Acts I – III Cruel

After defeating Doryani in Act 3, you will be sent back to the first zone of Act 1 and will play through the first three acts again in Cruel difficulty. Eventually there will be 3 new acts added to the game and we will update this section of the guide when they are added. The second time through the acts you will continue to look to upgrade your gear incrementally and continue to level your skill gems.

In Act II Cruel you will start to find level 13 Uncut Skill Gems and will be adding Skeletal Cleric to your skill list. You want to make sure that you have at least one Skeletal Cleric summoned, though you may be able to summon more, but never at the cost of losing more Skeletal Arsonist‘s.

After reaching the Halani Gates in Act II Cruel you can start dropping Level 3 Uncut Support Gems which will change what support gems you use with your skills. Below you will find the supports we recommend for each of the skills you will be using from highest to lowest priority, left to right. Once again in The Valley of the Titans you will be offered a choice of 2 rewards, you should again choose “30% Increased Charm Charges gained“.

In Act III Cruel you will again want to defeat the Orok Campfire encounter in the Sandswept March to pick up a guaranteed Lesser Jeweller’s Orb. You will use this on Skeletal Arsonist to add a third socket if you haven’t already done so. After collecting a quest item in the Venom Crypts and returning it to town you will be again offered a choice of three rewards. You should choose “+10% Chaos Resistance” this time.

Ignagduk in the Azak Bog will reward you with an additional +40 spirit and a level 14 Uncut Spirit Gem. At this point you will pick up Grim Feast from the Occultist spirit gem list, providing you with a powerful defensive buff. Grim Feast allows you to overcap your maximum energy shield by collecting small white wisps that appear whenever your minions or enemies die.

NOTE: Once you have Grim Feast it is very important to maximise the amount of Energy Shield you have on your character to get the most out of it.

Skill Gem (In Order of Priority)	Support Gem 1	Support Gem 2	Support Gem 3	Support Gem 4
Skeletal Arsonist	Scattershot	Heft	Fire Infusion	Martial Tempo
Raging Spirits	Feeding Frenzy	Primal Armament	Minion Mastery	Fire Mastery
Flame Wall	Arcane Tempo	Fortress	Mobility	–
Pain Offering	Inspiration	Persistence	Font of Rage	–
Flammability	Hex Bloom	Heightened Curse	Focused Curse	–
Skeletal Cleric	Last Gasp	Meat Shield	–	–
Grim Feast	–	–	–	–
Summon Infernal Hound	Fire Exposure	Strip Away	Envenom	Corrosion
Unearth	Brutality	Minion Pact	Physical Mastery	–
Skeletal Warrior (From Rattling Sceptre)	Maim	Culling Strike	–	–

Below you can see a step by step guide on how to assign your passive skill tree points. (Note that the tree includes passives up to level 81)

Remember: If you ever find you cannot cut a specific support gem or level an active skill gem you should focus on assigning attribute travel nodes as a priority.

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Rotation

The way you play the game changes as you unlock new skills. You can check the Act by Act section of the guide for advice specific to that point in the game. Once you have everything unlocked your general play will be casting Flame Wall to keep your Raging Spirits summoned while focusing on staying safe and avoiding enemy abilities. When you encounter a tough rare or boss you will cast Flame Wall twice, followed by Pain Offering targetted on your Skeletal Warrior minions, then Flammability on the target. When a pack of enemies dies you will cast Unearth over their corpses to summon additional Bone Constructs to help you clear faster.

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Progressing into Endgame

This guide is mostly meant to get you to early maps. Progressing from there on out will require you to follow one of our Endgame guides. We recommend doing this around level 80 when you’ve amassed a little bit of currency to enable transitioning.

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Changelog

March 28th, 2025: Guide created for Path of Exile II, Early Access