runes of aldur is one of those Path of Exile questions where the accepted answer is nearly right and the gap matters.

Short answer

The direct answer is above the fold; the reasoning underneath is there for when the direct answer does not fit your situation.

  • Check which version any conflicting advice was written for.
  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.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. Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of Path of Exile.

What to do instead

It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different. It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does. Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.

Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one. The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

Worth knowing alongside this

The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

  • Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.
  • Note the exception cases — they are specific rather than vague.
  • Give a method one honest attempt before deciding it does not work.
  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.
  • Do not build a routine around an edge case.

The practical answer

A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work.

What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on.

Why it works this way

There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional.

Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time.

When the usual advice fails

Everything below is framed around the current state of Path of Exile rather than a launch-week impression. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.

Where people go wrong

  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.
  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.

PoE FAQ

Why do people disagree about this?

Mostly because they are describing different versions. Version drift explains the majority of contradictory advice about Path of Exile.

What is the short answer?

It is the paragraph near the top. Everything after it exists for the cases where that paragraph does not quite fit.

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 this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

Bookmark it if you like, but honestly, once you have done it once you will not need to come back.