Scourge challenges: some quick analysis and some tips from a regular soloer's POV.

I do check the challenges always during this queuing downtime and make just some thoughts on them, from a long time 40/40 soloer's point of view.

Obviously some spoilers for the league ahead, so please stop reading if that is a problem!

In short, in my opinion 12 and 24 looks pretty easy this time, 36 will take some time, but shall be eventually doable just fine, however, 40 will be pretty hard with 3 really hard one, with a really tough EGG this time.

Good luck for all, that cool pet is doable with some moderate effort for sure for most of us!

For me, the end game ones sound really rough for a normal player without min-maxed insane broken OP build, it is not about the time to grind, it is about the possibility to reach a lot of end game stuff now. 24 shall be doable very easily with just a little concentration, 36 will take effort, there are several end game things gated behind brutal difficulty, but shall be doable by time. However, EGG itself is brutal, my best hope there is 2 of 6 right now, cannot imagine getting a build capable or enugh currency for maps / Zana mods for any of the other 4 from those yet, and unfortunatelly a lot of the grindy ones are visibly abusable by rotas again, which lessens the value of the accomplishent again.

All in all, I am happy with less conditional boss stuffs (no 3x4 separate conditionals for the 3 new bosses is huge), but 2 challenges looks brutal, and EGG looks pretty much undoable regardless of time investment.

Glimpse an Alternate Reality
Complete the quest "Thirst for Blood".

This is probably just the inserting of the new device, or the first shifting.

Gear Up I (0/3)
Equip each of the following item types.

Boots with an increased movement speed modifier
Rare Weapon
Sapphire, Topaz or Ruby Ring

These are good basic ones, especially the ring types, useful for the early act bosses anyways.

Craft Items I (0/4)
Use each of the following crafting methods on an item.

Chromatic Orb
Orb of Alteration
Orb of Augmentation
Orb of Transmutation

Another easy one, everybody uses these currency regularly.

Defeat these Act Bosses I (0/5)
Defeat each of the following Unique Act Bosses.

Act 1: Merveil, the Twisted
Act 2: Vaal Oversoul
Act 3: Dominus, Ascendant
Act 4: Malachai, The Nightmare
Act 5: Kitava, the Insatiable

We kill them anyways, so a free challenge point afterall.

Awaken the Blood Crucible (0/20)
Allocate a Skill in the Blood Crucible twenty times.

Considering there are 63 points in total, this 20 seems to take a lot of time, a bit strange to see it here in the beginning of the challenges list, but with time, shall be doable normally. Or, in best case scenario, it scales exponentially hard, and the first 20 is daoble quite fast, taking the other 43 slower, which would be nice for a lot of early points there.

Craft Items II (0/5)
Use each of the following crafting methods on an item.

Chaos Orb
Glassblower's Bauble
Hideout Crafting Bench
Jeweller's Orb
Orb of Fusing

These are again some very generic currency, although I do not use chaos orb much, the rest is daily used.

Defeat Scourge Monsters (0/16)
Defeat each of the following Scourge monsters.

Demon Imp
Demon Beast
Demon Ghast
Demon Harpy
Demon Herder
Pale Cherubim
Pale Servitor
Pale Virtue
Pale Angel
Pale Seraphim
Ravenous Homonculus
Ravenous Brute
Ravenous Digester
Ravenous Misshapen
Ravenous Bloodshaper
Ravenous Macerator

Probably fully randomly spawned, or in best case tied to some map layouts, even at least one of them might be bugged and not spawning, or one of them is probably waighted brutally low, but with time, shall be doable.

Defeat these Act Bosses II (0/5)
Defeat each of the following Unique Act Bosses.

Act 6: Tsoagoth, The Brine King
Act 7: Arakaali, Spinner of Shadows
Act 8: Lunaris, Eternal Moon and Solaris, Eternal Sun
Act 9: The Depraved Trinity
Act 10: Kitava, the Insatiable

The second set of bosses, these are coming naturally just by time while we start to play the real game.

Gear Up II (0/3)
Equip each of the following item types.

Crimson, Viridian or Cobalt Jewel
Item with at least 5 linked sockets
Unique Item

The different types of jewels might not tick naturally, depends on the builds, but is doable easily for sure.

Master the Passive Skill Tree

Have at least ten allocated Masteries on the Passive Skill Tree.

Not sure, if it is per character, or not. I plan to do just one character with 4 masteries, but will fail anyways and need to do several rerolls, so hopefully it ticks one allocation by another across characters.

Full Clear a Map
Fully clear any Map area. An area is fully cleared when there are no monsters remaining.

Wow, this is another free challenge point what surprised me, a lot of my maps end with zero monsters remaining, worst case like 20 to 30 remaining usually, shall be doable easily even by the rushers just once.

Map Boss Massacre
Defeat six Unique Map Bosses within ten seconds of each other.

This will be a tricky one, for sure.. did not checked yet what maps survived the clean up for this league, but a 3 base boss map with twinned mod shall do the trick. Preferably a map like city square with no phased bosses, not one like crystal ore.

Transform Items I (0/9)

Transform each of the following item types to tier 3 in the Blood Crucible.

Amulet
Belt
Body Armour
Boots
Gloves
Helmet
Map
Ring
Weapon

This seems to take some time, all item time for tier 3 right away. I expected some middle challanges here for like separate tier 1 and 2, but this shall be doable by time for sure. Alredy unlocking the slots will take some time for sure.

Work with Allies (0/4)
Complete each of the following tasks.

Anoint an item
Have a Heist Rogue reach level 5
Kill a Metamorph
Meet Zana

The title scared me hard before opening it up, I was afraid I have to party up with someone four times.. luckily it is an easy one, heist will take the longest to level any of the crew level up, but nowadays that shall not take more than like 10-12-15 higher level contracts if I recall correctly.

Defeat Golem Bosses (0/5)
Defeat each of the following Unique Map Bosses.

Fragment of Winter in Waterways Map
Guardian of the Vault in Vault Map
Stone of the Currents in Wharf Map
The Eroding One in Flooded Mine Map
Void Anomaly in Grotto Map

These seems to be normal boss killings, luckiliy no conditions on them, not sure, why they worth a separate point, but shall be ok, if the maps drops for them.

Gear Up III (0/3)
Equip each of the following item types.

Cluster Jewel
Heist Trinket
Influenced Item

This is a bit trickier, requires to complete at leat one grand heist, the other two can be done easier, probably comes naturally for most builds.

Complete Vendor Recipes (0/6)
Complete vendor recipes to receive each of the following items. A vendor recipe is when you trade a specific pattern of items to a vendor, not when you buy items from his/her purchase screen.

Divine Orb
Enkindling Orb
Regal Orb
Ring of Exile
Unique Item
Wicked weapon

Vendor receips preparation always take some time, the Enkindling Orb, Ring of Exile and Wicked weapon sounds the tricky ones here.

Complete Expedition Encounters (0/4)
Complete each of the following Expedition encounters.

Defeat Runic Monsters (0/100)
Complete a Logbook area
Enter a Logbook subarea
Defeat an Expedition Unique Boss

Said to be 8% spawn chance, so that 100 runic monsters shall not be a big deal, however, I found one random boss exactly in every 13th logbook last league of all I did, so that 1 boss now might take a while. The 1 subarea shall not be a problem, most of my logbooks had 1 of them usually randomly.

Achieve Ascension (0/4)
Use the Ascendancy Device in each of the following Labyrinths.

The Labyrinth
The Cruel Labyrinth
The Merciless Labyrinth
The Eternal Labyrinth

This will be done really fast now as trials are not gating the last one anymore, it is strange, that is here almost in the middle way, while the 20 passive unlocking is at the beginning.

Craft Items III (0/4)
Use each of the following crafting methods on an item.

Corrupted Essence
Harvest Crafting Bench
Resonator
Syndicate Crafting Bench

The first one is a waste probably if we have no aim with it, the rest comes naturally pretty early on normally.

Transform Items II (0/5)
Transform items in the Blood Crucible to achieve five of the following seven outcomes.

Curse on Hit Modifier
Deal no Damage Modifier
Defence Modifier
Gem Level Modifier
Keystone Passive Skill
Reservation Efficiency Modifier
Resistance Modifier

I afraid of this, this is purely RNG based, so just can hope for the bests. Probably datamining will show some weighting for these by gear type which shall speed it up the remining last ones.

Embrace Corruption (0/6)
Corrupt items to achieve each of the following outcomes.

Armour with a Corrupted Implicit Modifier
Corruption-Exclusive Unique Jewel
Jewel with a Corrupted Implicit Modifier
Level 21 Gem
Quality 23 Gem
Weapon with a Corrupted Implicit Modifier

Oh, a level 21 gem again. I remember heist, it took me close to hundred level 20 gems to finally hit that level 21.. I honestly afraid of this one, the 23% gem was way more often, that might not be an issue.

Reach Level 90
Attain character level 90. This challenge still counts even if your character dies afterwards.

Recently this is my only leveling aim with the constant one-shots, so this shall be doable even on the shittiest starter builds by some time.

Craft Items IV (0/4)
Use each of the following crafting methods on an item.

Divine Orb
Exalted Orb
Orb of Annulment
Sacred Orb

This is just another waste, sacred orb is said to be three times as rare as an exalted orb.. considering I dropped 5 natural exalted in expedition in 420 hours, this will be a huge currency waste just for a challenge sub-tick.

Defeat Conquerors in Style (0/4)
Defeat each of the Conquerors of the Atlas in each of the specified ways.

Al-Hezmin, the Hunter without being hit by Slice and Dice
Baran, the Crusader without being hit by Weight of Judgement
Drox, the Warlord without being hit by Crushing Fist
Veritania, the Redeemer without being hit by any Tornadoes

This looks like a bad change, I preferred the prevous 80%+ quantity ones.. this is just another struggling challenge for the casuals, while the top-end simply one-shots these bosses skipping all the above conditions. Will try to to these on the first lowest level, but probably will fail them thanks to shit tier damage.

Assist the Forsaken Masters (0/5)
Complete each of the following tasks with the help of the Forsaken Masters.

Capture Red Beasts (0/100)
Defeat The Shaper
Delve to depth 250
Open the Temple of Atzoatl (0/10)
Raid Syndicate Safehouses (0/10)

The longest of these will be the safehouses probably, but even that 100 einhar will take some time with our current very limited master missions gain. Shaper will be a tough fight for sure.

Upgrade Pantheon Powers (0/2)
Fully upgrade two of the four Major Pantheon Powers.

Soul of the Brine King
Soul of Arakaali
Soul of Solaris
Soul of Lunaris

Even if I just planned 1 for my character, divine vessels are quite common nowadays, so shall be no problem, if maps are dropping for them enough. Also, hopefully not per character, so probably can be contnued on rerolled characters.

Complete Unique Maps (0/15)
Complete fifteen of the following seventeen Unique Maps.

Acton's Nightmare
Caer Blaidd, Wolfpack's Den
Death and Taxes
Doryani's Machinarium
Hallowed Ground
Maelström of Chaos
Mao Kun
Oba's Cursed Trove
Olmec's Sanctum
Pillars of Arun
Poorjoy's Asylum
The Coward's Trial
The Putrid Cloister
The Twilight Temple
The Vinktar Square
Vaults of Atziri
Whakawairua Tuahu

One of these will be expensive at least, earlier we could skip 3, now the manor gone, wich was not in the most expensive ones recently.

Combine Powers (0/3)
Complete each of the following encounters.

Capture a Beast holding an Essence
Complete a Prophecy while Delirious
Defeat a Unique Beyond Boss in the Sacred Grove

No way for that third one. The first two are okay, If I get it right, and the third one requires a T4 boss in the garden, then that sucks hard.. I did all my harvests even in the recent leagues and never met a T4 boss there after harvest league ended.

Socket Watchstones (0/8)
Socket each of the following Watchstone types into a Citadel on your Atlas.

Crimson Watchstone
Cobalt Watchstone
Viridian Watchstone
Golden Watchstone
Chromium Watchstone
Platinum Watchstone
Titanium Watchstone
Unique Watchstone

The first 4 are easy and coming naturally, the next 3 might come with time again with some RNG, the last one might be the problem here. I did not drop a unique one for the past league for sure, but at least, it might be buyable and resellable on the same proce, hopefully.

Defeat Shaper Guardians (0/4)
Complete each of The Shaper's Guardians while the area is affected by the specified map modifier.

Guardian of the Chimera with "Increased Monster Attack, Cast and Movement Speed"
Guardian of the Hydra with "Monsters fire Additional Projectiles"
Guardian of the Minotaur with "Monsters have increased Area of Effect"
Guardian of the Phoenix with "Minus maximum Player Resistances"

This is again a hard one for regular builds, but might be doable some weeks later. Chimera can be tricky with turbo, the hydra will hit hard with extra proj, the minotaur will do screen wide burrowing attack which will be brutal, and the phoenix will hit hard as he dies with the even more resist penalty.

Defeat Scourge Bosses (0/3)
Defeat each of the following Unique Scourge Bosses.

Beidat, Archangel of Death
Ghorr, the Grasping Maw
K'tash, the Hate Shepherd

I am very happy to not see 3x4 twelve separate conditionals for them again! That 4x4 sixteen conditionals were brutal in expedition, this one is way better now in that regards. However, their availability might be problematic, the anouncement said random bosses on scourged maps with random shifting, so that dual randomity might make this quite hard to accomplish.

Complete Scourged Maps (0/10)
Complete ten Scourged maps of transformation tier 10.

These will be brutal I am sure, I really hope that it is not a typo, and thye are not like area 83, or red maps, or stuffs like that, and can be doable on yellows or even whites if will be that brutal as I expect them, to be.

Craft Items V (0/3)
Use each of the following crafting methods on an item.

Awakener's Orb
Conqueror's Exalted Orb
Maven's Orb

Well, this will be anotbenr brutal currency sink. I never used these on purpose, only for challenges before, and dropped 3 awakener, 5 conqueror and 0 maven orb so far. This will be really expensive just for 3 sub-ticks.

Conquer the Atlas (0/3)
Complete each of the following on your Atlas.

Allocate Atlas Passive Skills (0/40)
Complete Map Bonus Objectives (0/100)
Reach Awakening Level 8

Considering that 118 is the maximum now with 15 unique maps, that 100 might take a bit longer percentage wise as before, but shall be doable by time, if red map sustain will be a thing. Atlas mastery is normal, just 1-1 10-way battle per region, must be doable on first week. Awakener 8 is just to be reached, so I guess just put in the stones once, even with craftable ones, not like kill awakener there of something like that.

Complete Pinnacle Encounters (0/4)
Complete each of the following encounters.

Blight-Ravaged Map
Domain of Timeless Conflict opened with at least four Unrelenting Emblems
Flawless Breachstone
Wave 30 of The Simulacrum

I am surprised positively, that only 1-1 of these are needed. Not sure how hard a white tier uber blight will be, but that must be doable with a build that might do rare T16s at a point. One of the 3 lowest breachstones might be also possible by time. I am afraid of the timeless conflict, a 4-way normal is already a waste for a solo player to reset and kill alone. And the 30 wave simulacrum is surely a no go. I full cleared a simu last time in delirium, since then, did not have a capable build to do that again even in hundreds of hours per league.

Defeat the Feared Simultaneously
Defeat The Feared in The Maven's Crucible while it has the "Maven releases all Bosses at once" modifier.

And here we are, the 40/40 showstopper guaranteed. I cannot imagine a single "OP broken" etc build to do it alone.. I afraid, that is will even be an issue for supportbotted carries. This just sounds the most brutal stuff I seen so far.

Complete Deadly Encounters in Style (0/3)
Defeat three of the following five encounters in the specified ways.

Atziri, Queen of the Vaal in the Alluring Abyss without being hit by Storm Call
Aul, the Crystal King without being hit by Crystalline Fissures
Sirus, Awakener of Worlds at an Awakening Level of 8 or more without being hit by any Spinning Negation Beams
The Maven without being hit by Cascade of Pain
Uber Elder without being hit by Celestial Spheres or Tentacle Lash

These shocked me on opening, huge luck for only 3 of 5. Aul is a skip by default, I mean, I killed him all the times I found him, but that was alltogether 3 times, despite I delve all leagues a ton left and right on area level 83. Atziri seems to be the most duable among these, and maybe Sirus, the rest seems to be hard to be pulled off during self attacking. Of course, this can be trivialized with brutal DPS by the top end, but will likely be close to a 40/40 showstopper for me.

Master the Blood Crucible (0/63)
Allocate all of the Blood Crucible's Skills.

I like it, no map quantity, map tiers, etc, just run anything You want, and level that thing up. Of course, have no idea how map tiers effect the blood rate, and how long it will take, but at least some change from the normal map numbers.

Complete Endgame Grinds (0/4)
Complete any four of these encounters the specified number of times.

Level 100
Solo Delve Depth 1000
Defeat Izaro in an area of level 83 (0/50)
Complete Rituals (0/1,000)
Complete Synthesis Maps (0/50)
Defeat Unique Bosses of Abyssal Depths (0/50)

And here we are, EGG. Up to this, I was quite fine with that 2 showstopper, which both might be handled with enough dps by some luck. But there EGG are going to be hard alone, pretty hard. L100 is hard, I did that by normal mapping 7 times, once for each class, and no way to do it again in this one-shotting environment. That solo delve 1000 is brutal. My best was level 600 several times so far and that was already hard for my delve specialized builds. With the new scaling this patch, I cannot imagine reaching even 600 again, not to mention 1000. And I am afraid, partiers will be able to abuse it easily by joinging other on 990, somehow go down that 10 levels alone and done. The 50x uber Izaro is not that bad, killed him several times with lab-tuned builds, but getting the fragment with be painful for sure, I di not get 50 uber fragments a whole legue before for sure. 1000 ritual is a pure waste, with 3-5 per map at best, maybe 3-4 only nowadays (skipped their passives last league), that will be a tons of maps with close to zero rewards currently. The synth maps are going to be painful alone too, this is a typicaly party stuff unfortunatelly. I dropped 2 synth maps whole last league without uncharted bonuses, I canno imagine getting 50. And the same goes for the anyss bosses, despite doing all abysses I see all the time, I never see more than 10-12 bosses a whole league.

What can I say other than "Thanks Mike"

Map Boss Massacre, could be done with Courtyard for example.
The 3 bosses are close together so anything like Cyclone or ED/Contagion should kill them simultaneously.

Edit:

Defeat Conquerors in Style :
They are now even lower level than before. In my case lvl 68-70.
This means less HP and better chance to get this done with builds that have less DPS.

I did all in one try. The hardest one is Veritania becasue of the small arena, the other 3 are way easier.

What is a corrupted essence, because it doesn't seem to be a remnant of corruption used on essence monsters

"

Combine Powers (0/3)
Complete each of the following encounters.

Capture a Beast holding an Essence
Complete a Prophecy while Delirious
Defeat a Unique Beyond Boss in the Sacred Grove

No way for that third one. The first two are okay, If I get it right, and the third one requires a T4 boss in the garden, then that sucks hard.. I did all my harvests even in the recent leagues and never met a T4 boss there after harvest league ended.

I don't know if you've already figured this out, but in case you haven't: The third one wants you to do a map that has both Beyond (the little red dots that merge to spawn monsters) and Harvest, and when you go into Harvest, trigger and defeat a Beyond boss. It probably means you'll have to drag the Harvest monsters from all of the patches into a single area so that you have enough Beyond portals, but it doesn't mean you have to find or beat a Harvest boss.

This is a really poor analysis.

Greetings,

This is a very good analysis coming from a "normal" "average" POE player.

Last league was a fluke and I did not complete 36 challenges since many leagues. The Op comments are right in line with what I go through each leagues I do the challenges. A little bit of luck, a lot of grind and carry needed to reach 36.

For the "average" players who want to reach 36 my simple advice is: Do as much of the challenges that cost currency in team. For example, unique maps should cost you a minimum if you are multiple players to join. Same for the 4-emblems if you split the cost (I think you do not need to open it into your own HO).

That way, you will have enough currencies to by services for carry and costly "useless" craft.

Thank you

"

Craft Items IV
Use each of the following crafting methods on an item.

Divine Orb
Exalted Orb
Orb of Annulment
Sacred Orb(0/4)

FYI
Syndicate Tiny Trial's currency counts towards Challenge.

A bit myself, a bit bought out, but I've managed to reach 36 myself too.
I'll give some suggestion:

Gear Up II
A Tabula Rasa will quickly satisfy both 2 and 3. If you are lucky enough, you can get a Red beast from Act2 Einhar missions that will yield a Unique item. Since it's under Level 14, this means there is a very high chance for the recipe to yield a Tabula Rasa. Otherwise, if your DPS allows it, farm Act4 Aqueduct - you will get stronger for the next acts and exp is nice. Otherwise, Act9 Blood Aqueduct is better because of corrupted area which are high enough in level to yield corrupted 6L

Full Clear a Map
This is a no-brainer. You don't even have to struggle for it. Some unique maps, by definition, are fully cleared when completed. Coward, Death and Taxes, Hallowed Ground and Oba are some examples. If you are aiming for the Complete Unique Maps, this one is basically free

Complete Vendor Recipes
I've read somewhere that Wicked can be achieved with a Rare Rustic Sash. This is wrong - you need a Unique one. Also, for the "of Exile" recipe, even Unique Amethyst flasks do the trick. Suddenly, Prismweave and Atziri's Promise have an use. Last but not least, the "Unique Item" scared me to hell before discovering that the prophecy "5-for-1 unique" WILL complete that challenge

Transform Items 2
Reddit says that at least one of three of those modifers have a very low yield chance (below 0.008% or something like that). It can and will take a lot of time if you aim for it. I didn't after realizing.

Defeat Conquerors in Style
Most of the hits to avoid are one-shots, so you will mostly want to avoid them by nature. That said, for some reason, Baran and Drox was awarded to me even if I failed the encounter. Not really a problem for me to re-do (even if Weight of Judgement will count the extra spikes, not just the slam, as "being hit" by it, so extra care), but good for me to know I did not had to wait for extra grinding to get this challenge.

Upgrade Pantheon Powers
Don't forget there is a Recipe for getting enough Divine Vessels if you don't want to buy/drop them. Provided you are OK with vendoring a Divine Orb

Complete Unique Maps
As always, don't forget to spam Zana. Zana unique maps can and will count for completition for this challenge

Combine Powers
#1 and #3 are RNG-based. You will most probably reach #1 while getting to 100 Red Beast (happened to me at least 3-4 times). #3 requires you to be very lucky with an alch-and-go in order to spawn Beyond, Add Beyond Benchcraft to it and trying to bait enough Harvest monsters together. If you are in a pinch, remember Scourge. Apparently Scourge monsters too can yield blood orbs for Beyond.
Prices for this challenge, last time I've checked, are 80c to 1ex

Complete Scourged maps
Don't aim too high. Level 1 maps are enough for it and are quite rewarding even if white - you still get at full force the drops from Rare monsters even without quality or whatever. Do make sure you first kill the map boss, then go looting for any extra portal you might have still

Feared simultaneously
Price for this, last time I've checked, is 2ex. Fair price for the OP build needed for this thing

Deadly encounter with Style
Sirus is special. For some reason, me and another user who said it in the forum before me got the challenge even when being hit, and even in an A0 map. Surely botched, but I'm glad to have avoided this extra hole in the pocket. Might also be the reason I've never seen carries for this specific encounter. Aul was killed with a lot of time, patience and a Purity of Ice (not enough DPS to oneshot him). Avoiding Aul's sunder is not too difficult, and you can retry as many times you want by logging off when failing it. Finding was too easier since the 3.16 rework, and got him at Depth 226. Been the first time I've seen the boss even since Delve.

Master the Blood Crucible
Tricky. Another user posted in the forum that Reddit discovered that each and every mob in the game yield the same experience for the blood crucible regardless of Monster Level. So, if you are actually willing to reach this challenge quickly, alch-and-go as many white-tier you can afford, since it would be as rewarding as full-juiced T16 maps with the same Pack Size. Chris himself stated that he "did not expect many players to reach it" during an interview

24 was relatively easy, though I doubt I will get much more than 25/26 at this point.