Path of Exile’s 3.29 Curse of the Uplands expansion, the community is split down the middle. In this guide, we'll break down every important loot change, explain how the Voyage reward system has improved, and discuss what these buffs mean for farming efficiency in PoE 3.29 Curse of the Allflame.
PoE 3.29 Loots, Rewards & Farming Tips (Curse of the Allflame)
Half the playerbase is swimming in Divine Orbs; the other half is staring at empty voyage chests wondering what went wrong. After talking to dozens of players who ran the league mechanic, the pattern became clear:
White maps → League mechanic feels lucrative
Yellow maps → League mechanic feels great
Red maps → League mechanic feels terrible
The issue is compounding. Once you’re in red maps, the voyage formula balances around your level, so all your voyages default to level 82 content. I ran a full voyage stitched together from level 40-82 pieces — the level 82 run was the worst loot I’ve seen outside the tutorial voyage. Meanwhile, players who ignored the mechanic until red maps have no frame of reference for how good it can be.
Grinding Gear Games heard the feedback, and patch 3.29.0b is already live. Let’s break down every change and what it means for your farming strategy.
PoE Patch 3.29.0b — The Full Breakdown
Strongbox Buffs (LIVE)
This is a massive stealth buff. Previously, the good strongboxes — Diviner’s, Arcanist’s, and Operative’s — only appeared if you had a chart with a specific implicit like “Adjacent areas contain an Operative Strongbox.”
Now: Operative’s Strongboxes can appear by default on the safe floor of voyages, even without a chart implicits. Diviner’s boxes remain RNG-heavy, but Arcanist’s and Operative’s boxes offer a reliable ~5 chaos baseline plus jackpot potential.
Pro tip: Bring alchemy orbs with you into voyages. You can’t use the ones you find on the ground mid-voyage. Keep a dedicated stack in your inventory. Scours and exalts are probably overkill unless you’re chasing something very specific.
Allflame Lantern Indicators — No More False Alarms (LIVE)
The Allflame Lantern indicators were like a broken smoke detector — screaming at you constantly, mostly about things you don’t care about.
The culprits:
Soothing Coral — a minor resource replenisher, meant to be a tiny convenience reward
Crabness — actively annoying monsters, the booby prize of underwater encounters
Both of these were triggering the “valuable item nearby” indicator. No more. The lanterns will now only ping for genuinely valuable points of interest. This is a huge QoL improvement — you can actually trust the indicator again.
Crabness Nerf: The Hidden 20-40% Buff (LIVE)
Crabness encounters are being made significantly rarer. This is a double win:
Fewer annoying encounters wasting your time
The loot pool is decluttered — good rewards now have more “slots” to spawn into
This is the first of three 20-40% stacking buffs. Individually, none are enormous. Collectively, they’re like stacking four 30% more multipliers.
Currency, Scarab, Stacked Deck Chests (LIVE)
These chest types are being made much more common as scattered objects in charts and voyages. Crucially, this is on top of the space freed up by removing Crabness. Think of it as GGG saying:
“We’re removing a dead prefix (Crabness) and making the good prefix (PoE currency chests) roll more often.”
Golden Lantern Buff (LIVE)
Golden Lanterns now grant increased quantity of items. Most of the time you won’t notice this directly — you’ll just feel like you’re getting slightly more gold and maybe an extra scarab or two. But a percentage boost to quantity stacks with everything else in this patch and adds up significantly over a farming session.
Chart Dead Ends Rarer (LIVE)
Straight-line charts (dead ends) will be less common than other types, making voyages easier to construct. This hasn’t been a major issue for experienced players, but it’s a welcome smoothing change for the overall experience.
20-40% More Scattered Lootable Objects (LIVE)
This is the second 20-40% buff and applies to the number of lootable objects lanterns can point toward. It stacks directly with the Crabness spawn rate nerf — fewer total spawns are dead weight, and more spawns exist overall. The numbers quoted are 20-40% more objects depending on the specific charts used.
Quantity & Rarity Values Raised 20-40% (LIVE)
This is the third 20-40% buff. Chart modifiers themselves now grant 20-40% more quantity and rarity. This applies to all chart modifiers, making every voyage inherently more rewarding regardless of which charts you slot.
Sunken Opulence — New Reward Chest (RESTART PATCH)
Coming in the next restart patch (can’t be deployed as a hotfix), Sunken Opulence is a new chest type that can appear in charts and voyages.
It shares a naming convention with Hidden Opulence from the Delve mines. For context, Hidden Opulence behind fractured walls previously guaranteed rare currency drops:
Pre-Mirage: 5 Exalted : 5 Divine : 2 Annulment
Post-Mirage (speculative): 3 Ancient Orb : 2 Divine : 2 Annulment, possibly with Fracturing Orbs as a rare outcome
Sunken Opulence could mirror this formula or be something entirely different — a chest with extremely high quantity/rarity on its drops. Either way, another source of high-value loot in voyages is exactly what red-map voyages needed.
Ducat Crafting — Unlocked Much Earlier (LIVE)
This is one of the biggest changes in the patch. Previously, unlocking ducat crafting required:
Finding a Kishara’s Rest chart (rare + expensive in trade league)
Socketing it into a voyage and running it
Fighting a boss comparable to the quest version of Incarnation of Dread
Looting a quest item from that boss
This effectively locked attribute swaps behind T16 maps for most players. The boss isn’t mechanically difficult, but it’s dangerous enough that you don’t want it paired with nasty map mods — and people were scouring their charts before running it.
Now: Ducat crafting (especially the attribute swap) unlocks far earlier in the meta progression. Some end-game modifiers like “Reforge with an Infamous modifier” or “Add a Pantheon modifier” may still require completing the full quest chain, but the core functionality should be accessible from early mapping.
Allflame Crafting — Expanded Currencies (LIVE)
Ancient Orbs and Orbs of Chance are now usable with Allflame Crafting.
Reality check: Ancient Orbs probably won’t see much use here — you’d rather use raw ancients than burn Dead Man’s Sulfur on them. Orbs of Chance face a similar issue: scouring and reapplying is more efficient than using Orbs of Chance through the Allflame system.
That said, there’s always a corner case. I found one involving Fractured Fossils and a unique item that crafts as though it were a rare — submitted as a bug report, not exploitable, but interesting.
The Allflame Crafting system shines when you’re making small, targeted modifications rather than full re-rolls.
PoE 3.29 Quality of Life Improvements
Voyage Board Navigation (LIVE)
You can now open the voyage board during an active voyage to check your position and active modifiers. This is the same feature Incursion has had — long overdue and very welcome for prioritizing your route.
Charts from the Bathysphere (LIVE)
No more trekking back to Valerie every time. Charts can now be launched directly from the bathysphere. Should have been there day one.
Allflame Lantern Placement (ONGOING)
The main issue: if you aggressively teleport into deep water (e.g., Frostblink), automatic lantern placement can put you in serious trouble. Fixes are being worked on. Manual placement is recommended for now if you’re using ranged movement skills near water edges.
What’s Coming Next in PoE 3.29 (Not Live Yet)
Abyss Buffs
Based on extensive testing by high-end push players (notably Cyclone), Abyss is currently unrewarding at every tier — no combination of investment yields even mediocre returns. GGG is working on:
Increasing loot output progressively over time
Adding core drop pool Path of Exile items to the Abyss loot table
Counterpoint: A degree of self-balancing exists — if Abyss is terrible, staging devices become worth more, making it worth running again. But the mechanic is in a fun state now; it just needs the loot to match.
Luminary & Mercenaries of Trarthus Changes
Mercenaries have a specific pain point: you out-level your permanent mercenary, but can’t find a suitable replacement because high-level drops don’t match your build.
Confirmed changes:
Permanent mercenary penalty appears later and is less intense (still same at level 83, but the progression through acts and mid-maps is smoother)
Attack-damage-dealing mercs get endgame buffs
Infamous mercenaries become more common — these are the ones you actually want, and they also drop better loot
Mercenary skills have more support gems when encountered in maps (warning: this makes them much rippier to fight)
New Atlas passive notable: Weaker mercs deal more damage to other mercs and rogue exiles — helps your underleveled merc hold its own while you search for an upgrade
Mercenary death review: Currently, your merc dying bricks the map with no re-entry. The community-suggested fix (spend a map portal to revive them) is under active consideration
PoE 3.29 Bug Fixes In Progress
Cast Mastery unlocking chests — opens league mechanic chests without granting intended buffs (you’ll trigger this accidentally even if you try not to)
Allflame guidance arrows — continue pointing to already-opened chests
Mon’s Affliction staff — not interacting correctly with ignite (relevant for two-handed caster builds post-3.29 staff buffs)
Mercenary minimap icons — not being removed after death
Legion encounters — breaking frequently and dropping less loot than intended
PoE 3.29 Loot Farming Strategy
The day-one version of Curse of the Allflame was excellent in white and yellow maps but borderline broken in red maps. If you blasted straight to endgame without touching the league mechanic, you missed the early jackpot and got stuck with the broken high-tier version.
Patch 3.29.0b addresses this with what amounts to three independent 20-40% multiplicative buffs plus structural improvements (strongbox availability, Crabness removal, Sunken Opulence). None of these changes are massive alone, but combined they should transform the high-tier voyage experience.
TL;DR for your farming strategy:
If you’re in white/yellow maps → keep doing the league mechanic, it’s already great
If you’re in red maps → patch 3.29.0b is live, the buffs are stacking, and Sunken Opulence is coming soon
If you haven’t engaged with Ducat crafting → do it now, the gate is much lower
If you’re running Abyss → wait for the incoming buffs
If you’re playing Luminary → Infamous mercs will be more common, and the penalty curve is gentler
May your Vaal Orbs have interesting results. See you in 3.29.
