Path of Exile: Cluster Jewels guide

Cluster Jewels in Path of Exile are one of the easiest ways to min-max your build. While you miss out on some nodes within the passive skill tree, the Cluster Jewels can have much more customized passives tailored to benefit a particular build. Additionally, there are Unique ones that allow you to allocate unreachable keystones.

While there are no restrictions on the type of jewels one can use, you can only equip them on the outermost sockets of the passive skill tree. Here’s what you need to know about the Cluster Jewels.

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Cluster Jewels in Path of Exile explained

Cluster Jewels can add powerful passives (Image via Path of Building || Grinding Gear Games)

Cluster Jewels work similarly to the passive skill tree and can be considered an extension. Once you equip a jewel, it will create a new cluster of passive nodes that can be activated using the passive skill points. However, unlike the passive tree, affixes on a Cluster Jewel can be modified with currency items as per the needs of a build, which makes them a necessity in endgame.

Additionally, Cluster Jewels contain strong notables and more jewel sockets, allowing you to branch out. Being able to target a specific damage type or resistance can be very helpful for min-maxing a build. Most of the endgame builds that target fully juiced T16 and T17 maps can have multiple Cluster Jewels.

Unique Cluster Jewels, on the other hand, are a completely different thing. They don’t have passives or notables; Instead, they add a keystone. These are necessary and they can benefit some builds a lot.

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Types of Cluster Jewels in Path of Exile

The Interrogation Small Cluster Jewel (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Every Cluster Jewel you find in the game comes in three sizes: Small, Medium, or Large. Their size dictates the number of passives, notables, and gem sockets they can contain. Here is how they differ from each other:

	Passive Count	Notables	Jewel Sockets
Small	2 or 3 Passives	One Notable	None
Medium	4, 5, or 6 Passives	Two Notables	One Small Jewel Socket
Large	8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 Passives	Three Notables	Two Medium Jewel Socket

Apart from the sizes, Cluster Jewels come in different rarities: Common, Magic, Rare, and Unique. Similar to armor and weapons, the affixes on jewels can also be modified using currency items. Not all currencies work on Cluster Jewels. Additionally, changing stats on a Unique Jewel is only possible through corruption.

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What to look for in a Cluster Jewel

Cluster Jewels are dependent on builds (Image via Grinding Gear Games)

Before you decide which Cluster Jewel is the best fit, find out the type of build you are running, which includes damage and defense. Once you find the weak link, try to get a jewel with related affixes. For example, a Righteous Fire build will benefit from increased DoT, fire/burning damage, life regen, fire resistance, and increased AoE.

The second thing you should be on the lookout for is the number of passives within the Cluster Jewel. This one is important because more passive should mean more damage or defense nodes, but that’s not the case with Cluster Jewels.

Every size of Cluster Jewel has a fixed number of notables and jewel sockets. More passives means you’ll need to use more skill points to reach the notables and jewel sockets. It makes the process of branching out complicated, as you may need to respec a point from the passive skill tree.

If the build requires branching out, you’ll need a Medium or Large Cluster Jewel. We recommend getting one with the smallest passive count they can roll.

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Check out our other related guides:

• Path of Exile: 5 coziest one-button builds (League 3.26)
• Top 3 Atlas strategies for currency farming in Path of Exile 3.26
• Path of Exile tier list: All Classes and Ascendancies ranked