Summary
Even if the reception on launch was far from all roses, the Dawn of the Hunt update forPath of Exile 2is arguably enormous in terms of additions and changes, from reinventing some endgame features to introducing five Ascendancies, a new class, and over 100 Uniques and Support Gems. It’s hard to deny the impact additions like the Huntress with Lightning Spear andPath of Exile 2’s new Smith of Kitava Ascendancyhave had so far, and though the game is far from perfect, GGG is reportedly listening to and acting on feedback. One of the new features in 0.2.0 is Unique Strongboxes, and one of them comes with a gambling mechanic that can be as controversial as fun.
The concept of “gambling” is not new toPath of Exile 2or even its predecessor, ranging from paid Mystery Boxes for random cosmetics to an in-game item called Ventor’s Gamble that can roll with wildly different numbers for its affixes. Yet,Path of Exile 2takes this concept to new heights thanks to one of the Unique Strongboxes added with Dawn of the Hunt. Called Ventor’s Contraption, players can spend in-game Gold to try their hand at pure gambling - but there’s a catch.
Path of Exile 2: Ventor’s Contraption is Both a Great and Awful Gold Sink
Gold inPath of Exile 2is not exactly something that players will always have in abundance, especially considering that there are multiple Gold sinks in the game, and most involve gambling in some way. For example, purchasing items in the endgame from Alva means that players can get anything from Magic to Unique - sometimes, they will hit a good item, most times they won’t. This same concept applies to Ventor’s Contraption, which is a Strongbox that requires players to spend a very small amount of Gold to get a random reward, but each time the cost increases tenfold.
ThisPath of Exile 2Unique Strongboxwill always start at around 200 Gold for one reward, then ask for around 2,000 for the next, then around 20,000, and so on. One might think that the best rewards are all locked behind the largest Gold sinks around, but that is not true for Ventor’s Contraption. Instead, any of its rewards is as likely to be given immediately for just 200 Gold as it is to never appear after a hundred tries. However, considering that the cost increases exponentially, it’s plausible that players will only be able to open the Strongbox three or four times most of the time, sometimes opening it for 2 million Gold if they so wish.
Yet, awesome rewards like Level 20 Spirit Gem Skills orPerfect Jeweller’s Orbs inPath of Exile 2are not increasingly more common the more Gold players spend. As such, the first three or four attempts with the Strongbox will always be the most rewarding in terms of loot vs. cost, whereas spending 2 million Gold or more will almost always result in disappointment. On one hand, this makes sense considering how gambling works, but on the other, it gives little incentive for players to do this over buying random-rarity items from Alva, instead.
How Path of Exile 2’s Gambling Strongbox Could Have Been Even Better
Gold can be hard to amass in the endgame due to how high some vendor prices are or even the cost ofrespeccing builds inPath of Exile 2. As such, it would have been interesting for Ventor’s Contraption to either award better loot when spending more, or do something similar with no predetermined amounts of Gold, allowing players to “bet” what they want. Still, the current iteration of this Strongbox can be quite fun and lighthearted in an otherwise grim in-game world, but it can also be infuriating to get a single Scroll of Wisdom for 2 million Gold.
