The Master's Favor: Daily Grind and Endgame Progression

CactusPenguin

Woven into the daily fabric of POE 1Items's endgame is a system of persistent, incremental relationships with its **Masters**. These unique NPCs—Zana the mapmaker, Alva the incursion architect, Niko the sulphite miner, Einhar the beast hunter, and Jun the syndicate mastermind—are not mere quest givers. They represent parallel progression systems, each with their own elaborate mechanics, rewards, and endgame goals. Engaging with them through daily missions and random encounters in maps provides a structured, diversified grind that complements the core loop of mapping, offering targeted rewards and long-term projects that keep the endgame feeling varied and purposeful.

Each Master operates on a favor system. Players encounter them randomly in maps, completing a short, specific encounter—clearing an Incursion for Alva, capturing beasts for Einhar, or revealing a section of the sulphite vein for Niko. Successfully completing these encounters grants reputation with that Master, and upon filling a reputation bar back in town, the player's "daily" mission count for that Master is replenished. These daily missions are guaranteed, higher-difficulty versions of their encounter that can be applied to any map, allowing players to target-farm a specific Master's progression. This design creates a compelling daily login incentive and a predictable rhythm to endgame farming, as many players will start a session by running their accumulated Master missions for a burst of focused rewards.

The true depth lies in each Master's dedicated endgame system, unlocked by progressing their reputation. Alva's Temple of Atzoatl is a temporal puzzle; players run a series of Incursions to architect a temple, deciding which rooms to upgrade for specific powerful rewards like a tier 3 Gemcutter's room for exceptional gems or a tier 3 Corruption chamber for double-corrupting items. Jun's Betrayal system is a complex board game of interrogating and bargaining with members of the Immortal Syndicate to dismantle their organization, yielding exclusive veiled crafting mods and unique boss fights. Niko's **Delve** mine, Einhar's Bestiary for crafting unique flasks and items, and Zana's ever-expanding map device modifiers and special map selections—all offer distinct avenues for powerful loot and character enhancement.

This system of Masters accomplishes several crucial goals. It breaks the potential monotony of repeated mapping by injecting varied, mechanically distinct mini-games into the flow. It provides clear, long-term objectives: fully unveiling all crafting recipes from Jun, building a perfect Temple, or delving to a depth of 1000. Most importantly, it ensures that nearly every map run has layered value. Even if the map itself drops little, you might advance your Betrayal board, unlock a better room in the Temple, or gather sulphite for a deep Delve run later. The Masters turn the endgame into a multi-threaded tapestry of progression, where engagement with their systems is not optional for optimization, but a fundamental, rewarding part of the journey to ultimate power in Wraeclast. Their daily grind is the steady heartbeat of a seasoned exile's routine.