PoE2 Distilled Emotions Guide: How to Instill Waystones for More Loot & Which Emotions Are Worth Divines (0.5.4)

Distilled Emotions are Path of Exile 2's Delirium currency — the single best lever you have for turning an ordinary Waystone into a loot piñata, and a whole economy of their own. They do two jobs: instill Waystones to layer Delirium onto your maps for more rarity, quantity and splinters, and anoint amulets with Notable passives. There are ten of them, from Distilled Ire (7% Delirious) up to Distilled Isolation (50% Delirious), and the high-value ones trade for real Divine Orbs. This guide covers exactly what each emotion does, how to get them, how instilling actually works, and which ones are worth farming versus buying.

Key Takeaways

• What they are: Distilled Emotions (sometimes called Liquid Emotions) are a Delirium currency with two uses — instill Waystones (add Delirium modifiers for more loot) and anoint amulets (grant Notable passive skills). Source: pathofexile.com / poe2db.
• The nine emotions scale 7% → 50% Delirious, each with its own reward bonus: Greed = Item Rarity, Envy = Waystones, Disgust = Precursor Tablets, Despair = Simulacrum Splinters, and so on (Game8).
• Where they drop: completing Delirium encounters in maps (quantity scales with Delirium monsters killed × your Item Rarity) and Simulacrum runs. You can also buy them from the Currency Exchange.
• Biggest trap: a Waystone instilled with Delirium will not drop Distilled Emotions — "the Delirium fog in these maps does not dissipate." Farm your emotions on natural Delirium mirrors, spend them on your juiced maps.
• What's worth money: the reward-boosting emotions — Greed, Envy, Disgust, Despair, Fear — are the ones that move for Divine Orbs, because they directly multiply currency and splinter drops in the highest-return maps.

What Are Distilled Emotions in PoE2?

Distilled Emotions are Path of Exile 2's version of Delirium currency — the 0.5 successor to PoE1's Delirium Orbs and Blight oils rolled into one system. Each one is a stackable currency item named after an emotion (Ire, Guilt, Greed, and so on), and each carries a Deliriousness percentage plus a reward modifier.

They exist to answer two very different questions:

• "How do I make my maps drop more loot?" → Instill them onto a Waystone.
• "How do I put a Notable passive on my amulet?" → Instill three of them onto an amulet (anointing).

Because instilled Waystones roll harder and drop dramatically more, Distilled Emotions sit at the center of every serious currency farming tier list — and the reward-boosting emotions are actively traded. The whole loop is farm cheap emotions → spend them to juice your best maps → sell the divines.

Terminology note: you'll see the raw drops called Liquid Emotions and the usable currency called Distilled Emotions in different guides. In practice the currency you instill with is the Distilled form — that's the item name on your stackable currency, verified against poe2db.

Every Distilled Emotion, Ranked (Deliriousness & Reward)

Each emotion adds a fixed amount of Deliriousness to the map plus one bonus. Higher Deliriousness = harder monsters = more loot, but also more risk. Here's the full 0.5 list:

Distilled Emotion	Deliriousness	Bonus Modifier	Farm Priority
Distilled Ire	7%	20% increased Magic Monsters	Filler / anoint
Distilled Guilt	9%	8% increased Pack Size	Filler / anoint
Distilled Greed	10%	8% increased Item Rarity	⭐ High (currency)
Distilled Paranoia	12%	15% increased Rare Monsters	Medium
Distilled Envy	15%	30% increased Waystones found	⭐ High (map sustain)
Distilled Disgust	18%	30% increased Precursor Tablets	⭐ High (tablet farmers)
Distilled Despair	20%	30% increased Simulacrum Splinter stack size	⭐ High (Simulacrum)
Distilled Fear	22%	Rare Monsters have 25% chance for an extra Modifier	⭐ High (juice)
Distilled Suffering	25%	Unique Monsters have 1 additional Modifier	Medium (boss juice)
Distilled Isolation	50%	Pure Deliriousness (no extra modifier)	Situational (glass builds)

Three hard rules of thumb from this table:

• Deliriousness is the multiplier. More Delirium fog = more white/rare Delirium monsters = more drops, but the map gets meaningfully harder. Isolation at 50% is the biggest single jump and is where builds either print or die.
• The bonus tells you who buys it. Greed (Rarity) and Despair (Splinters) are the money emotions; Envy (Waystones) keeps your Waystone pool topped up; Disgust feeds tablet strategies.
• You can stack up to three on a single Waystone, so a "juiced" map is usually a combo — e.g. Greed + Envy + Despair for a rarity-and-splinter Simulacrum feeder.

How Do You Get Distilled Emotions?

There are three reliable supply lines, in order of how most players get them:

1. Natural Delirium encounters (the main source)

Run a normal (un-instilled) map, walk through the Delirium mirror that spawns, and clear the white Delirium monsters before the fog catches you. On completion, Distilled Emotions drop. Quantity scales with how many Delirium monsters you killed and your Item Rarity stat — so fast clear speed and a rarity-stacked mapping setup dramatically increase your emotion income. This is the same fog you're farming in the Delirium farming guide.

2. Simulacrum runs

Simulacrum — the 15-wave Delirium arena opened with Simulacrum Splinters — is a concentrated Distilled Emotion (and unique) factory. Deep waves at high Deliriousness reward stacks of emotions on top of the chase uniques, which is why Despair (splinter stack size) is so sought after: it feeds the machine that makes more Simulacrums.

3. The Currency Exchange (just buy them)

Don't want to farm the exact emotion you need for an anoint? Head to the Currency Exchange and trade for it at the live market rate (Exalted Orbs are the usual medium for cheaper emotions; the top reward emotions cost more). For anointing a build-defining amulet, buying the exact three you need is almost always faster than farming them. If you'd rather skip the grind entirely, our PoE2 currency service stocks orbs and Delirium currency at fair rates.

How to Instill a Waystone (Step by Step)

Instilling is how you spend emotions to juice a map. The process is identical to anointing — same window, different item:

• Right-click a Distilled Emotion in your inventory. This opens the instilling window.
• Place your Waystone in the item slot at the top.
• Drag one to three Distilled Emotions into the slots below, in the order you want.
• Click Instill. The Waystone now carries those Delirium modifiers and will spawn Delirium fog automatically when you run it — no mirror to walk through.

The single most important warning: a Waystone instilled with Delirium will not reward Distilled Emotions, because — in the game's own words — "the Delirium fog in these maps does not dissipate." You get the loot bonuses (rarity, quantity, splinters) but not fresh emotions. That means your farming loop is two-track: farm emotions on natural Delirium mirrors, then spend them on your highest-value instilled maps. Instilling every map will quietly drain your supply to zero.

How Amulet Anointing Works

The second use is turning your amulet into a passive-tree upgrade:

• Hover any Notable on the passive tree and press ALT to see its required combination — e.g. a Notable might read "Ire, Despair, Greed (in that order)."
• Right-click a Distilled Emotion, drop your amulet in the top slot, and arrange the three required emotions in the exact order shown.
• Click Instill to permanently anoint the Notable onto the amulet.

A few rules to know before you spend: you get one anoint per amulet (instilling again replaces the existing Notable), the anoint can't be removed, and you can't instil a corrupted or mirrored amulet — so finish the anoint before you Vaal it. Because the combos often call for higher-tier emotions, a strong anoint can cost several Divines' worth of currency — so wait until you've got your endgame amulet before committing. This is a place where buying the exact three emotions off the Currency Exchange beats farming blind.

Which Distilled Emotions Should You Farm vs Buy?

Here's the operator's answer:

• Farm (as a byproduct): every emotion drops while you map, so you'll accumulate the low-tier ones (Ire, Guilt, Paranoia) naturally. Don't chase them.
• Hoard for your own juice: Greed (Rarity) and Despair (Splinters) if you run Simulacrum; Envy if you're map-sustain focused; Fear for straight monster-juice.
• Buy on demand: whatever specific trio an anoint needs, plus Isolation if your build can safely tank 50% Deliriousness — it's the biggest loot multiplier per instill but the hardest to survive.

For live values, always check the Delirium currency section on poe.ninja before you buy or sell — Distilled Emotion prices swing hard with the league cycle and with how many people are running Simulacrum that week.

⚡ Skip the grind — get PoE2 currency & Delirium instills the fast way (instant delivery, best rates):

- PoE2 Divine Orbs — instant delivery · trusted · best rate

- PoE2 Exalted Orbs — fast & secure (the Currency Exchange medium for buying emotions)

- PoE2 Currency (all orbs) — divine · chaos · exalted · Delirium currency

- PoE2 Leveling & Boss Carries — skip the grind · pro players

FAQ

What are Distilled Emotions used for in PoE2? Two things: instilling Waystones to add Delirium modifiers (more rarity, quantity, splinters and tablets), and anointing amulets with Notable passive skills. They're the game's Delirium currency, replacing PoE1's Delirium Orbs and anointing oils in one system.

What's the difference between Liquid Emotions and Distilled Emotions? They refer to the same Delirium currency line; guides use the names interchangeably. The stackable currency you actually instill with is the Distilled form (e.g. Distilled Greed, Distilled Fear). Verify the exact item name in-game against poe2db.

How many Distilled Emotions can I put on one Waystone? Up to three. A typical juiced map combines a reward emotion (Greed or Despair), a sustain emotion (Envy), and a difficulty emotion (Fear or Isolation), as long as your build can handle the added Deliriousness.

Why aren't my instilled maps dropping Distilled Emotions? By design. A Waystone instilled with Delirium does not reward Distilled Emotions because the Delirium fog never dissipates. Farm emotions on natural, un-instilled Delirium mirrors, then spend them on your instilled maps.

Which Distilled Emotion is the most valuable? It varies by league, but the reward-boosting ones — Greed (Rarity), Despair (Simulacrum Splinters), Envy (Waystones) and Disgust (Precursor Tablets) — hold the most value because they directly multiply currency income. Check live prices on poe.ninja before trading.

Can I just buy Distilled Emotions instead of farming them? Yes — use the in-game Currency Exchange, or grab currency from a trusted PoE2 currency shop. Buying the exact trio for an anoint is usually cheaper in time than farming the right emotions yourself.