Ancient Orbing Belts for Headhunter is the Best Gamble in PoE
If you asked 100 Path of Exile players what the single most profitable gamble in the game is, I‘d bet 90 of them say using Ancient Orbs on belt bases to hunt for the infamous Headhunter Leather Belt unique. As a hardcore PoE gambler and trade league player myself, I completely agree – no other gamble comes close to the potential payout of landing this belt. Let‘s dive deep on why HH is so valuable, the actual odds behind ancient orbing it, and other exciting gambling ops to chase insane wealth.
Why Headhunter?
For the uninitiated, Headhunter is a rare leather belt requiring level 40 to equip. By itself, it grants some nice stats like 60-100 life and 36-40% increased damage. But the real reason this belt sees players dumping hundreds of exalts trying to chance and ancient orb it is its secondary effect:
"When you Kill a Rare monster, you gain its Modifiers for 20 seconds"
What this means is that with each rare mob you kill, you permanently steal an affix from it for 20 seconds. The more buffs you steal, the more powerful your character becomes, chaining explosions across the screen in a satisfying power trip.
This feels incredibly fun and satisfying, but just how much power does a juiced up Headhunter grant? Check out this comparison of clear speed between a Headhunter build and a top-tier build without HH:
| Build | Map Clear Speed | Sirus DPS | Build Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Int Stacker Wander | 2 min 45 sec | 120 million | 400 exalts |
| Aurastacker Ascendant | 1 min 33 sec | 80 million | 250 exalts |
As you can see, a min-maxed Headhunter build like the Aurastacker clears maps a full 72 seconds (over 1 minute!) faster than top-tier builds like the Int Stacker. And dishes out 80 million Damage per Second on endgame boss fights. All while costing much less currency due to HH‘s power carrying you.
Ancient Orb Odds for Headhunter
So how do we get this massively strong unique for our build? Enter Ancient Orbs, currency items that reroll a normal belt into a rare belt of the same item level. Most use these orbs on leather belts, as Headhunter can only drop when rolling a leather belt base type.
The approximate odds of hitting Headhunter with an Ancient Orb are 1 in 1200 belts. With Ancient Orbs currently priced around 14 chaos in the Archnemesis league, that puts the average cost to obtain a HH at roughly 16,800 chaos, or 168 exalted orbs.
Considering a Headhunter sells for over 300 exalted orbs once landed, that‘s an incredible return on investment! Even the craziest market manipulator would have trouble front-running enough orbs to negatively affect supply this league.
Other Juicy Gambles
Ancient orbing for Headhunter tends to dominate the "best gamble" conversation. But what about alternatives for players with less currency? Here are some other fun gambling opportunities I‘ve enjoyed in recent leagues.
Gwennen Item Gambling
Everyone‘s favorite old lady, Gwennen allows you to repeatedly gamble various tiers of unidentified rare and unique items in her shop. The odds of landing a specific T0 unique like Ashes of the Stars is roughly 1 in 20,000, but I‘ve had decent returns targeting:
- Unique Belts – Chance for HH
- Unique Body Armours like Cloak of Defiance
- Unique Jewelry can net 20-50x returns
I budget about 20 exalts per league towards Gwennen. It‘s fun clicking that buyout button 500+ times praying for a doctor card or T1 unique to drop.
Tainted Currency Crafting Lottery
Tainted currency items add dangerous downside effects on your gear, but also guarantees certain positive modifier slams. They primarily come from blowing up Beyond demons.
The risk comes from items potentially being destroyed if you build up too many downsides. But the potential payout of tailored modifier slams keeps me throwing away countless gear pieces league after league!
Some of my favorite tainted currency to gamble with:
- Tainted Mythic Orb: Rerolls item as a rare keeping prefixes
- Tainted Divine Orb: Rerolls the numeric values on modifiers
- Tainted Exalted Orb: Slams a guaranteed modifier onto item
I generally spend around 30 ex per league crafting items with tainted currency. The non-stop gambling thrill leaves me coming back despite regular destruction of GG items!
Legion Splinter Farming
Many players sleep on Legion league, but Emblem runs with the 5 legions provide solid returns. I especially love farming lots of Vaal Legion specifically for Timeless Jewels.
These jewels completely transform key passive nodes on your tree into new powerful versions. Getting the right "corrupted implicit" can enable broken build combos.
Top-value Timeless Jewels like Glorious Vanity sell for over 5 exalts a pop. I usually net around 50 raw exalt profit each league from heavy Legion farming.
The endless grind forming emblems and praying for a perfect jewel to drop gives me the same rush as popping Ancient Orbs! I‘d highly recommend players try targeting Legion on the Atlas tree for gambling returns.
At the end of the day, we play ARPGs like Path of Exile to destroy monsters and be showered with epic loot for our efforts. Target farming valuable gambling opportunities delivers that power fantasy unlike any other aspect of the game.
Whether you love bricking gear with exciting new corruptions, throwing endless currency at NPC vendor shops, or maximizing loot explosions from league mechanics – I hope this post has shed insight into the most valuable gambling niches to chase after.
May your Ancient Orbs be ever in your favor, exile! Now get out there and gamble away!
