Crafting a Double-Influence POE currency Helmet in Path of Exile: A Deep Dive into Memory Strands and Beast Locks

Crafting in Path of Exile is often as complex and rewarding as the endgame content itself. This guide explores a particularly intricate craft-a double-influence Crusader and Hunter helmet with elevated % Intelligence and % Mana-perfectly tailored for a Righteous Fire or Vortex build that stacks intelligence and mana. This was one of my most challenging projects, involving advanced techniques like memory strands, beast locks, and awaken orbing.

Why Crusader and Hunter Influence?

The choice of influence determines the mod pool available to the item. For this helmet, I specifically targeted:

Crusader influence: Grants elevated % increased Mana.

Hunter influence: Grants elevated % increased Intelligence.

There's a compelling synergy here. While Elder influence can also roll % Mana, I opted for Crusader because it works with the Bound by Destiny jewel, which offers bonus mana when paired with Crusader items.

Hunter influence adds defensive utility through its notable "10% of melee damage taken as Chaos" modifier-an invaluable benefit for a Chaos Inoculation (CI) build.

Combining these influences maximizes both offense (via scaling mana and intelligence) and defense, making this setup ideal for my Vortex character.

The Challenge: Prefix + Suffix Combination

The real challenge arises because % Intelligence is a suffix and % Mana is a prefix. When combining these using an Awakener's Orb, you end up with both a locked prefix and suffix that you want to keep. This severely limits common crafting techniques like "prefixes cannot be changed" or "suffixes cannot be changed," as these would strip one of your desired mods.

This is where memory strands and beast locks come into play. These tools allow for much more flexible, deterministic crafting, as they preserve or restore key states of the item throughout the process.

Step 1: Building the Base

The foundation of this craft starts with a high-quality helmet base. I began with a 30% quality Lich's Circlet, ideal for maximizing Energy Shield. The first objective was to roll elevated % Intelligence on a Hunter-influenced base.

Memory Strands

Memory strands are a new mechanic that effectively "store potential" in an item. The process involves repeatedly using a Memory Imprint Orb on a normal item until you hit a high strand value (I landed on 92). Once this is set, you can Path of exile currency craft without fear of losing your progress.