PoE Alva Farming Strategy: High Loot, High Risk, and Evolving Shrine Synergy
In the ever-evolving loot meta of Path of Exile, there's a new farming strategy turning heads, driven by the power of Alva, incursion temples, and some spicy shrine tech.What came next is a high-reward, semi-rippy mapping strategy focused on Alva's Temple of Atzoatl, evolving shrines, and explosive monster density.
Here's a complete breakdown of the strategy, how to build your Atlas tree, what scarabs to use, map rolling tips, and how to optimize your runs.
The Core Idea: Alva + Evolving Shrines = Loot Explosion
This strategy revolves around farming Alva incursions inside high-tier maps, juicing the monster density to extreme levels using shrine effects-especially Evolving Shrines. These shrines give monsters a chance to evolve into rarer forms upon death, synergizing beautifully with Alva's already-dense incursions. The result? A loot-fest of rare monsters, currency explosions, and temple rewards.
The goal is to clear as many maps as possible per hour, using evolving shrines and Alva encounters to pack each map with as many mobs-and as much loot-as possible.
Atlas Passive Tree Setup
Here are the essentials:
Alva Nodes: Take all passives that increase the chance for Alva to appear and ensure maps have four incursions.
Shrine Scaling: Stack shrine effect duration and quantity. You must find and use evolving shrines each map.
Beyond Mechanics: Add Beyond to increase monster spawns and PoE currency drops. Be sure to spec into:
More Beyond portals
Avoid Beyond bosses
More currency from Beyond monsters
Val Flesh Merchant: Optional, but it's a nice touch for bonus divines every now and then.
Map Quantity & Effect Modifiers: Push as much quantity and pack size as possible.
Magic Monster Chance: Grab nodes that raise the chance for monsters to be at least magic. This stacks with scarabs and helps boost item quantity.
Altar Preferences: Go blue (Eater of Worlds) to avoid dangerous red altars, unless you're feeling brave.
Unique Map Drop Chance: Helps reduce the cost by occasionally giving you maps like Valdo's or Museum for free.
Map Rolling Tips
Your goal is to juice each Tier 16 map to the max without making them unplayable. Here's how to do it:
Map Selection: Dunes and Canyon are popular picks due to their open layouts.
Rolling Goals: Aim for 170%+ item quantity. Six-mod maps are sufficient-don't bother with eight mods.
Map Prep:
Chisel to 20%
Alchemy or Chaos spam until satisfied
Use Exalted Orbs if needed to hit ideal mods
Delirium Orbs: Add one for extra juice and reward layers
Check Mods: Make sure you can run all mods with your build. Don't make Traffic's mistake of bricking a map with crit reflect.
Scarabs to Use
This setup runs three main scarabs:
Incursion Scarab of Champions: +35% chance for monsters to be magic.
Invasion Scarab of Beyond: Adds 8-12 extra Beyond portals per map. Huge for density and loot.
Evolving Shrine Scarab: Spawns shrine types that evolve monsters into stronger versions, triggering massive loot drops in Alva incursions.
With shrine atlas nodes + scarabs + Alva, you're spawning a tsunami of monsters in each incursion.
Map Strategy Walkthrough
Once inside your map, the general rhythm goes like this:
Clear the Map Partially: Don't click shrines right away. Take note of Alva locations and evolving shrine positions.
Activate the First Evolving Shrine: Just before entering an Alva incursion, activate one evolving shrine. This ensures that monsters inside evolve into rare versions.
Enter Alva Incursions: Focus on clearing every monster inside-rares are where your big loot comes from.
Repeat for All Alva Encounters: Use the second evolving shrine for your third and fourth incursions.
Optional Temple Building: You can build temples and sell high-tier rooms (Corruption Chamber, Doryani's Institute, etc.).
Post-Clear: Finish the map, check for missed shrines, loot, or currency drops.Why Two Evolving Shrines Are Critical
Two shrines mean more rare mobs in all four incursions, which directly translates to more loot, more PoE chaos orbs, more divines, and more fun.
Also, be on the lookout for:
Covetous Shrines: These magic-find shrines amplify your drops.
Wildwood Altars: Free bonus loot if you're lucky.
Corruption Shrines: Currently worth ~1.5 divines each-don't miss these.
Mistakes to Avoid
Even pros slip up. Here's what not to do:
Don't forget to reset Alva Temples: If your temple is full or full of junk rooms, you're burning value.
Don't forget shrine locations: You need to pair shrine buffs with incursions-don't pop them too early.
Loot, Cost, and Profit Breakdown
Costs per Map:
Tier 16 Map: ~60-80 Chaos
Chisels/Alchemy/Chaos Orbs: ~20-30 Chaos
Scarabs (3 types): ~10-15 Chaos each (~30-45 total)
Delirium Orb: Optional, ~10-15 Chaos
Total Estimate: Around 150-180 Chaos per map, conservatively.
Rewards per Map:
Divine Orbs
Exalted Orbs
Fortress/Museum/Valdo maps (worth 20c+ each)
Tainted Chaos Orbs (7-10c each)
Tons of Chaos Orbs, Gold, Chance Orbs, and Prophecy Wands
Explorer Reports and Headhunter Buffs
Many maps returned double or even triple their cost-especially when RNG rolls in your favor. Just like Breach farming, some maps are juiced godsends, and others are average.
Final Thoughts: Should You Try It?
This Alva + Evolving Shrine farming strategy is a loot goblin's dream. It combines smart atlas investments with fast-paced mapping, semi-brain-dead clearing, and explosive monster packs. While it requires setup and attentiveness-especially to shrine timing and temple resets-the rewards are absolutely worth the effort.
MMOexp POE Team