This is one of the few areas where the official answer is the correct one and the forum answer is not.

Short answer

It is handled through the publisher account rather than in-game, and the limits are per-account rather than per-character.

  • Never buy, sell or share an account.
  • Enable two-factor authentication before anything else.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.

Path of Exile assumes you will read a spreadsheet eventually, and most of its depth is genuinely there. Linked accounts inherit restrictions from each other more often than people expect. Support responds slowly and correctly, which is still faster than a wrong fix.

Why shortcuts end badly

If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Region locks on accounts are harder to undo than region locks on purchases. Name changes and cooldowns are enforced per-account, not per-game. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

Appeals work when there is a genuine mistake, and only then. Bought and shared accounts are recoverable by the original owner, which is exactly how those stories end. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters.

What the rules actually say

Two-factor authentication is the single change that prevents most account problems. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

  • Use the official support form rather than a forum thread.
  • Check the cooldown before assuming a change failed.
  • Read the whole sequence once before doing the first step.
  • Unlink anything you no longer use.
  • Keep the original purchase receipt.
  • Check the version you are actually running before assuming anything is broken.

If the account is already restricted

Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. Everything below is framed around the current state of Path of Exile rather than a launch-week impression. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on.

Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later.

Limits and cooldowns

What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about.

The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. Path of Exile is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

Doing it through official channels

Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work.

Where people go wrong

  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.
  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.
  • Treating a rare edge case as the normal behaviour and planning around it.

PoE FAQ

Is buying an account safe?

No. The seller keeps recovery access, and the purchase itself is a bannable offence on every major platform.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

How long does support take?

Days rather than hours in most cases. The queue is real, and following up resets your place in it.

Can a ban be appealed?

Genuine mistakes get reversed. Appeals against a correct ban do not, regardless of how they are worded.

Work through it in the order above and account stops being a question you have to look up again.