Summary
Simulacrum is a straightforward endgame farming activity: enter the encounter, fight waves of enemies, and collect rewards as you progress. Unlike Atlas-based mapping, the activity requires very little setup, making it an easy option for players who want a relatively simple farming routine.
However, the main reason to run Simulacrum is not the ordinary loot. The valuable targets are the cluster jewels, especially Voices and Megalomaniac jewels from boss-related reward waves. Because valuable Voices can be worth vastly more than ordinary drops, Simulacrum can function as both a consistent farming strategy and a high-risk jackpot strategy. To fund your Simulacrum runs, buy POE currency to sustain the strategy.
How to Prepare for Simulacrum Farming
Buy the Simulacrum
The setup is extremely simple. Unlike maps, there is no Atlas tree to configure and no special Atlas mechanic that needs to be optimized.
Purchase a Simulacrum, enter the encounter, and start clearing waves.
This simplicity is one of the main advantages of the activity. Your preparation is mostly about having a character capable of repeatedly clearing the encounter efficiently.
Prepare Extra Gems for Profit
There is another way to increase the overall value of your farming session: level valuable support gems in your off-hand.
The source uses Empower Support gems. A level-one Empower is worth considerably less than a level-three version, while a corrupted level-four Empower can be worth substantially more.
To maximize gem experience, the source recommends using Siri's Favor and adding red sockets so the socketed gems receive increased experience.
You can then place multiple Empower gems in your off-hand and allow them to level while you farm Simulacrum.
Choose Empower or Enlighten
The same concept can be applied to other valuable gems, including Enlighten. However, the setup described here focuses on Empower because the socket configuration is more convenient for the particular equipment being used.
The important idea is simple: turn otherwise-unused off-hand sockets into additional passive profit while farming.
Understand What Makes Simulacrum Profitable
Focus on Cluster Jewels
Ordinary Simulacrum rewards provide a baseline income, but the major profit comes from valuable cluster jewels.
The source's eight-hour test produced:
5 Voices
28 Megalomaniacs
4 raw Divine Orbs
Additional currency and other miscellaneous loot
24 Empower Support gems leveled during the farming session
The exact results will naturally vary between runs. In the test, the number of Voices was considered particularly unlucky.
Treat Voices as the Main Jackpot
Voices are the most important item to understand before starting this strategy.
The source reports a major difference between unidentified and identified Voices:
A corrupted or unusable result can have very little value.
Five-passive Voices are relatively inexpensive.
Three-passive Voices can be worth hundreds of Divine Orbs.
One-passive Voices can reach extremely high values.
Because the difference is so enormous, identifying a Voices jewel is effectively a gamble.
Decide Whether to Sell Voices Unidentified
Use the Safer Profit Strategy
If your goal is consistent profit, the source recommends selling Voices unidentified.
This avoids the enormous variance associated with identifying them. Instead of hoping for a three-passive or one-passive jackpot, you receive a predictable market value for the unidentified jewel.
The test valued unidentified Voices at around 11 Divine Orbs each at the time of the run. With five Voices, that represented approximately 55 Divine Orbs of value.
This approach is especially appropriate when you need reliable currency rather than a potential jackpot.
Identify Only if You Want to Gamble
If you don't need immediate currency and enjoy high-risk identification, you can identify Voices yourself.
However, the odds of hitting a highly valuable one-passive version are extremely low according to the source's experience. The test demonstrates this clearly: several identified Voices rolled five or seven passives instead of producing a major jackpot.
One accidentally identified Voice was valued around 7 passives, illustrating the opportunity cost of identifying an otherwise valuable unidentified jewel.
In short:
Sell unidentified for consistency. Identify for the gamble.
Handle Megalomaniac Jewels
Don't Overvalue Unidentified Megalomaniacs
Megalomaniacs are another common reward, but pricing them can be considerably more complicated.
The source specifically looks for combinations containing Primordial Bond, but the eight-hour run did not produce one.
Because Megalomaniacs can have different combinations of notables, manually pricing every jewel can take considerable time.
Sell or Bulk Them if Necessary
If you don't want to spend time checking every combination, the source suggests treating the jewels as bulk value rather than spending excessive time pricing each one.
The important point is to understand your objective. If the goal is efficient farming, spending large amounts of time pricing low-value Megalomaniacs can reduce the practical value of the strategy.
Add Empower Corruptions to Your Farming Routine
Level Empower in Your Off-Hand
The test included 24 Empower Support gems leveled during the eight-hour farming session.
The source compares the approximate values of different Empower levels and estimates that leveling these gems provides meaningful additional income without requiring separate farming time.
This is particularly useful because the gems are effectively gaining experience while you perform your primary activity.
Corrupt the High-Level Gems
Once the Empower gems reach the appropriate level, corrupt them and hope for a level-four result.
The zest produced several successful level-four Empower gems, with the successful corruptions generating substantial additional value. Failed corruptions, however, could result in significantly less valuable gems.
This is another form of gambling, so don't treat every Empower as guaranteed profit.
Calculate Your Expected Profit
Account for Entry Costs
In the test, the player ran 30 Simulacrums.
The total purchase cost was approximately:
30 × 119 Chaos
3,570 Chaos total
Approximately 16.3 Divine Orbs at the stated exchange rate
After selling the resulting loot, the run produced approximately 73 Divine Orbs of profit before adding the additional value attributed to leveling Empower gems.
That works out to roughly:
73 ÷ 8 = 9.1 Divine Orbs per hour
The source describes this as a poor result, partly because the run had an unusually low number of Voices.
Include Gem-Leveling Profit
The 24 Empower gems provided an estimated additional value of around 20 Divine Orbs.
Adding that to the farming result produced approximately 93 Divine Orbs, or about:
11.6 Divine Orbs per hour
These numbers are specific to the test and should not be treated as a guaranteed hourly rate.
Decide If Simulacrum Is Worth Farming
Choose Consistency or Gambling
Simulacrum is best understood as a jewel-focused gamble strategy rather than a universally strong currency farm.
There are two primary approaches:
Consistent approach:
Run Simulacrum, sell valuable Voices unidentified, and collect the baseline currency and jewel income.
Gamble approach:
Identify Voices and hope for a rare three-passive or one-passive jackpot.
The second approach has much greater upside but substantially more variance.
Use the Right Expectations
The activity is relatively low-maintenance once your character can clear it efficiently. The source describes it as particularly suitable for players who want to watch a series, podcast, or other content on a second monitor while farming.
However, if you expect highly engaging gameplay and consistently massive profits, Simulacrum may disappoint.
The eight-hour test ultimately produced approximately 73 Divine Orbs of direct profit, or around 93 Divine Orbs when the additional Empower value was included.
The biggest lesson is that Voices determine a large portion of the strategy's upside. Sell them unidentified when you want reliable currency, or identify them when you're willing to gamble for a rare jackpot. With POE currency on hand, you can choose the approach that best fits your current goals—steady returns or high-risk gambles—without disrupting your overall farming flow.
