How to respec in Path of Exile 2

(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)

The Path of Exile 2 respec merchant is the Hooded One, a special NPC that's actually teased in POE2's intro cinematic and appears at Clearfell. Once you've uncovered him, you can use the Hooded One to respec all your passive skills - but not for free, as there's a gold price attached to it.

With that in mind, we'll lay out how to unlock the ability to respec your passive skills in Path of Exile 2 below, as well as what the costs of doing so are - nothing's free, after all.

How do you respec passive skills in Path of Exile 2?

To respec in Path of Exile 2, you need to progress the main plot until the point where the Hooded One appears at the Clearfell Encampment hub area. The Hooded One allows you to respec your Passives at any point, though there is a cost involved for doing so. Every skill point you respec will cost you gold, a cost dependent on how deep the skill is in the skill tree, so this is a system you don't want to use too liberally, or else risk becoming a rather poor adventurer.

Keep in mind that you cannot respec your Path of Exile 2 Ascendency points - in fact, at time of writing, there is no way to do that at all. Once they're spent, those choices are locked in for that character.

To unlock the Hooded One and the respec system, you need to progress the main plot until you reach the Mysterious Shade quest and beat the Lachlann of Endless Lament boss fight. This should happen for most players somewhere between level 10 and level 15, roughly 4-5 hours into the game after you conclude the tutorial and beat the Path of Exile 2 Bloated Miller, depending on your behaviour and skill level.

Want more help in POE2? Find out our tier list of all the best Path of Exile 2 classes here, or if you missed it until now, find out how to beat the Path of Exile 2 Devourer boss fight and squash the big bug for good.

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Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.