It costs gold, not Orbs of Regret
This is the single most common carry-over mistake from Path of Exile 1. PoE 2 does not use Orbs of Regret. You refund passive points by paying gold to the Hooded One, and the price is per point removed, scaling with your character level — not with how many points you have allocated.
That distinction drives everything: a small re-path early is nearly free, while a wholesale rebuild at level 90+ is deliberately punishing.
Gold cost per passive point (verified)
| Character level | Gold per point | Character level | Gold per point | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | 60 | 1,550 | |
| 10 | 98 | 70 | 2,145 | |
| 20 | 273 | 80 | 2,904 | |
| 30 | 470 | 90 | 5,081 | |
| 40 | 736 | 100 | 10,129 | |
| 50 | 1,089 |
Refunding 10 points at level 80 costs 29,040 gold. The curve roughly doubles between level 70 and level 100, which is the point: cheap experimentation while levelling, expensive wholesale rebuilds later.
How to unlock it
You cannot respec from the start. Progress the main story until the Hooded One appears at the Clearfell Encampment — this happens after the Mysterious Shade quest and beating Lachlann of Endless Lament, typically around level 10–15, a few hours in. He also identifies items for free from then on.
Changing your Ascendancy
Ascendancy points cost more to refund — roughly five times the normal gold per point (attribute re-selection is cheaper still, around half). The process also requires a Trial run:
- Re-attempt an Ascendancy Trial with the relevant relic:
- Trial of the Sekhemas — bring a Djinn Barya; you only need to complete the first floor.
- Trial of Chaos — bring an Inscribed Ultimatum; you must complete the whole Trial.
- Speak to the NPC in the Trial’s treasure room and pick Change Ascendancy.
- Pick your new Ascendancy and confirm — all spent Ascendancy points are refunded and you re-allocate them.
The gold fee is shown at the top of that menu before you confirm. If you are only testing an Ascendancy, spend just a few points first — the fee scales with points spent, so a small investment is much cheaper to undo.
Decision rules
- Respec freely while levelling. At level 30 a point costs 470 gold; experimenting is essentially free.
- Plan before level 80. Past that, a full re-tree runs into the hundreds of thousands of gold.
- Refund only branch ends. You cannot remove a node that still connects two others without removing those first.
- Use gold for gear vendors too — gold is also what vendors pay you for rares, so selling identified rares funds your respecs.