Path of Exile: Bestiary League Mechanic Guide

Welcome to the Bestiary league mechanic guide! Ever wonder what you should do with all those Beasts Einhar keeps capturing for you? We'll go through the basics of this system, from the beasts themselves to Beastcrafting, but we'll also take a look some of the cooler Bestiary content you may come across, like Bestiary bosses or Havest beast crafts. This mechanic might look a tad overwhelming, but beyond the layer of RNG that permeates the beast-gathering process, it's actually pretty simple!

Bestiary is considered "Extra Content" and has a baseline chance of randomly being encountered in maps.

Our league mechanic guides are structured according to "Depth" - the deeper you go into the article, the more complex the mechanics get. If it all becomes too much, take a break from this guide, play with the league mechanic enough to master the fundamentals then come back and delve deeper!

Difficulty: Generally easy, with occasional mortal danger.
Complexity: Low, for Path of Exile standards.

The icon that denotes Bestiary content.

Depth 1 - Capturing Beasts

At its core, think of Bestiary as a sort of cursed Pokemon. You capture beasts, but then you kill them in order to craft something. At this stage, the gameplay loop is simple:

• You find your first beast in a map, indicated by either a yellow or red marker on the minimap.
• Once you got its health down to 50%, Einhar spawns. From this point on, he'll follow you and help you take down the rest of the beasts in the map, then he'll leave.
• When a beast reaches 0% health, instead of dying, it spends a few seconds in "stasis". Then, it disappears and leaves loot on the ground.
• You know you captured a beast when it disappears and Einhar says a capture-related sentence (both audio and chat, for those of you who play muted!).

Your first encounter with this mechanic is in Act 2 when you receive a quest directly from Einhar in The Forest Encampment. Einhar has two main uses:

• When he follows you, he grants you an aura that gives you life leech and life gain on hit and kill.
• He sells Bestiary Orbs, which allow you to itemize a beast and trade it.

Now that we know the basics, let's talk about the different types of beasts.

Depth 2 - Beast Ranks & Types

There are two types of beasts you can capture: Yellow and Red. Each Bestiary craft requires 1 Red beast and 3 Yellow beasts. Basically, Yellow beasts are "filler", while the Red beast actually determines the craft. If you're looking for a specific craft, say, on the Trade site, you'll want to search for the specific beast that craft is associated with.

That said, remembering beast types and associated crafts is not something you typically spend a lot of time researching. Beasts are classified into four major families:

• The Wilds (Felines, Primates, Canines, Ursae, Unnaturals)
• The Sands (Avians, Reptiles)
• The Caverns (Insects, Arachnids)
• The Deep (Cephalopods, Crustaceans, Amphibians)

All these types of monsters have their own sub-categories (Avians are composed of Rhoas, Rhexes, Vultures etc.), but remembering the four main families should be enough to give you an idea of what type of beast you're fighting at any given point.

Depth 3 - Crafting Basics

So, whenever you capture a Red beast, you get a craft. To use the craft, you need to travel to the Menagerie (accessible in the Waypoint menu), where you will find the Blood Altar. Simply select a craft from the altar's interface and it'll automatically fill the four beast slots with the Red beast associated with the craft and three other Yellow beasts. There's a few things to take into consideration here:

• Once you press the "Craft" button, the interface will immediately close and the four beasts will be released into the small arena. The gate to the arena closes.
• You need to kill all four beasts for the craft to be successful. If you fail and get killed, you lose the beasts and the craft.
• If you're using a craft that generates an item, note that the item's level will be based on the level of the sacrificed beasts. You may want to choose different Yellow beasts based on this.

Here's a short video depicting how this usually goes:

video

Depth 4 - Bestiary Bosses

Bestiary has four bosses you can "craft your way to" if you find the right Red beasts. Basically, there are four Red beasts whose crafts are "Open a portal to boss X's arena". Here's a nifty table:

From this table, we can gather the following:

• Each boss has a different level. Bear in mind, even Farrul is still quite easy even though it's the highest level of them all.
• Knowing the name of the Red beast associated with each boss means you can easily search for it on the Trade site and buy it without having to rely on RNG to find it yourself.
• Each boss is the "alpha" of one of the beast families. You can better target-farm a family through certain nodes on the Atlas Passive Tree, which we'll get into in Depth 8.

Now, any decent build should be able to handle these bosses with ease. When you defeat a Bestiary boss, you actually capture it and unlock a special craft! Here's what each boss' special craft is:

• Farrul, First of the Plains - Aspect of the Cat
• Saqawal, First of the Sky - Aspect of the Avian
• Fenumus, First of the Night - Aspect of the Spider
• Craiceann, First of the Deep - Aspect of the Crab

These crafts all add a suffix modifier onto an item that grants a unique aura. As you'll see in the table below, you can also get these auras from one of the Unique items each boss drops. The other Unique items can be equipped to further enhance the aura's effect:

Depth 5 - Notable Crafts

Aside from Red beasts that open portals to bosses, and the bosses' special crafts, there's a plethora of other crafts you can get from capturing Red beasts. They are plentiful, but we've compiled a few here that we think are worth keeping an eye out for. If you want to check the full list of Bestiary crafts, head on over to our Bestiary Crafts page. You can find the cool crafts below, followed by the name of the Red beast they require:

• Corrupt an Item to have 30% quality - Craicic Vassal
• Create an Imprint of a Magic Item - Craicic Chimeral (very useful for the initial stages of crafting an expensive item)
• Create an Item: Fully-linked Six-socket Rare - Saqawine Vulture
• Add a Prefix, Remove a Random Suffix - Farric Wolf Alpha
• Add a Suffix, Remove a Random Prefix - Farric Lynx Alpha
• Split an Item Into Two: With Half the Mods on Each Item - Fenumal Plagued Arachnid
• Double Corrupt a Map - Craicic Vassal and Fenumal Scorpion. That's right, a few crafts require a two Red beasts!

So, these crafts are pretty cool, but there's got to be even cooler ones, right? There are, but they can't be acquired through normal means...

Depth 6 - Harvest Beast Crafts

The absolute juiciest crafts can only be found by running Einhar's Memory of Harvest Beasts. A memory is basically an item that you apply to your Atlas, creating a set of "special" maps that you can open by talking to the associated Master - in this case, Einhar. Check out our Memory Guide for more information on how these work.

Now, Einhar's Memory of Harvest Beasts gives you three maps that contain beasts from Harvest league instead of the usual ones you capture. Each Harvest x Bestiary "crossover" beast grants a special, powerful craft. If you think you have what it takes to do this content, you'll potentially get some really valuable crafts!

Here's a few of the awesome crafts you might get, and which beasts carry them:

• Reroll a Synthesis Implicit Modifier - Vivid Watcher
• Increase the level of a non-Corrupted Awakened Gem by 1 - Wild Brambleback
• Reroll a Watcher's Eye Modifier - Wild Hellion Alpha
• Create an Item: Unique Synthesis Map - Primal Rhex Matriarch

You can check the full list of Harvest beast crafts on our Bestiary Crafts page.

Depth 7 - More Beasts & Bestiary Scarabs

Looking to capture an absurd amount of Beasts? Look no further. On a base level, you usually get 1, at most 2, Red beasts per map. If you're purely looking for more quantity - increasing or even guaranteeing beasts show up in your maps, here's a few ways to make your dreams come true:

• Use a Bestiary Scarab, which guarantees you'll get beasts on your map.
• Allocate certain passive nodes on the Atlas Passive tree that increase or eventually outright guarantee you'll get beasts every map.

Additionally, you may occasionally find Beast nodes in the Azurite Mine (Delve). These beasts will be killed, since Einhar doesn't show up in the zone, but don't worry, they still get added to your collection.

Let's look at the other Bestiary Scarbs you can use. Remember, these ones don't guarantee beasts in your map, so you'll want to use them in combination with one of the options we listed above, to ensure they don't go to waste.

• Bestiary Scarab of the Herd - Go get them crafts! You can use up to 2 of these Scarabs per map!
• Bestiary Scarab of Duplicating - Hopefully you've duplicating some worthwhile crafts!
• Bestiary Scarab of the Shadowed Crow - Capture The Black Morrigan and you'll get access to some very interesting special crafts. Open the box below to see what they are.

Depth 8 - Bestial Atlas Passive Tree

nothing here until we have in-house atlas planner.

Other Considerations

Keep in mind the capricious nature of Path of Exile's endgame. Layers of systems tend to intertwine at unexpected moments, turning what should be a relaxing beast capture into a nightmare in the blink of an eye. Even at the highest levels of play, watch out for situations such as:

• Finding a beast trapped in an Essence.
• Finding a beast that gets possessed by a Tormented Spirit.
• Having both of the conditions above happen at the same time, while the monster is affected by Delirium, invulnerable because of another monster's aura, and performing at its highest after devouring Einhar whole in front of your character. Ridiculous.

Basically, other mechanics can make beasts scale in power wildly.