PoE2 FilterBlade Guide 0.5

PoE2 0.5 launched on May 29, 2026, dragging with it the Runes of Aldur challenge league, an overhauled Atlas Fortress, six new endgame questlines, and 40+ new unique items. It also dumped substantially more loot on the ground. Without a PoE2 loot filter guide to follow, you will spend Act 4 reading item tooltips while things try to kill you. Congratulations on your new hobby.

The game ships with exactly zero filters enabled by default. GGG, in their infinite respect for your suffering, decided that staring at 200 items on the ground is a feature. A loot filter is not comfort. It is load-bearing infrastructure.

A Breach map in 0.5 can dump four times more loot than pre-patch. Without a filter, the game stops rendering item names entirely. Your only job then is standing in a pile of invisible garbage.

FilterBlade & NeverSink: The Only Option Worth Your Time

There are custom filter editors and there is FilterBlade.xyz. The second one is correct. Built around NeverSink's filter: the community standard since PoE1, carried straight into PoE2: it provides a GUI over a plaintext .filter file so you don't need to understand the syntax to not hate your life. The NeverSink filter PoE2 covers leveling and endgame, scales item visibility by area level, and ships tiered currency, gear, and unique handling out of the box.

For 0.5, NeverSink shipped two new filter styles and an improved Auto-Adjust feature, plus a new Xeno Tier for all the unknown-value items that arrived with patch day. It also introduced Custom Strictness: because "Semi-Strict, but I want to see all currencies" was apparently too much to ask before now.

New in 0.5

• Aura Style: built for WASD and controller players. Uses proximity shaders to make valuable drops glow. Soft pastels for mid-tier gear, aggressive contrast for the good stuff.
• Vaal Style: a returning fan favorite from PoE1. Simple, fast value recognition.
• Xeno Tier: catch-all for new rune types, new uniques, and anything without established economy data.
• Custom Strictness: mix strictness levels per category. Show all currencies on Uber-Strict. Hide magic rares but keep relevant rares for your build. Finally.
• Basetype Matrix fixes: GGG renames bases every league. This is now less of a disaster.

Installation: Four Steps, No Excuses

The how to install PoE2 filter process takes under three minutes on PC. If it takes longer, re-read step one.

PC

1. Go to filterblade.xyz. Log in with your PoE account. Authorize access.
2. Select PoE2 (not PoE1). Choose a strictness level. Semi-Strict is the default recommendation for beginners.
3. Click Save & Download. Name the file clearly: NeverSink_SemiStrict_050.filter
4. Drop it in Documents\My Games\Path of Exile 2\. In-game: Options > Game > Loot Filter. Select it. Done.

The game does not hot-reload filters. After any manual edit, go to Options > Game > Loot Filter and hit Reload. This is not optional. This is just how it works.

Console

1. Go to the official Path of Exile website. Log in.
2. Link your console account to your PoE account.
3. Download or sync a filter from the filter ladder.
4. In-game: Options > Loot Filter. Select. Press Left Stick at any time to reveal all hidden items temporarily.

Strictness Levels: Pick One, Stick With It

The filter offers seven strictness levels, from Soft to Uber-Plus-Strict. Higher strictness hides more items. Simple. FilterBlade strictness guide: the table below tells you which level will not actively ruin your run.

Very Strict or higher should not be used while leveling unless your gear is already sorted out. If it isn't, enjoy missing every upgrade.

Filter Syntax: The Boring Part You Should Still Know

A filter is a plaintext .filter file. Rules run top-to-bottom. First match wins. Every rule starts with Show or Hide. Conditions stack as AND operations: all must be true for the rule to apply. Understanding PoE2 filter syntax at least at a surface level prevents you from writing four thousand redundant rules that measurably cost you frame rate.

# Show large gold pilesShowStackSize>= 5000BaseType== "Gold"SetFontSize40SetTextColor255 255 255 255SetBorderColor255 215 0 255PlayEffectOrangeMinimapIcon1 Yellow Cross# Hide the restHideBaseType== "Gold"

Common conditions worth knowing:

• BaseType: matches item base name
• Rarity: Normal / Magic / Rare / Unique
• ItemLevel: item level at drop
• AreaLevel: scales rules by zone
• StackSize: currency stack thresholds
• Class: item class (Weapons, Flasks, Gems, etc.)
• SetTextColor / SetBorderColor / SetBackgroundColor: RGBA visual
• PlayAlertSound / PlayEffect / MinimapIcon: audio and map markers

Dropping the Show/Hide line is not paraphrasing the rule: the block simply won't work. The syntax parser is not forgiving. Unlike you after your fourteenth death to the same boss.

Trade League vs. SSF: Different Problems, Different Filters

In SSF loot filter PoE2 play, every base is a potential upgrade: nothing is tradeable. Run a looser filter through the entire campaign and early Atlas. Visual noise is the price you pay. In trade league, your filter evolves with the economy: items worth 1 Exalt today may be worth nothing next week. The tradeoff is that tightening too early means missing things that briefly spiked in value.

For Runes of Aldur specifically: this is a fresh economy reset. Prices on new Ancient Runes, Mythical Runes, Fluxes, Runic Ward runes, and the 40+ new uniques are completely unknown at league launch. Run a permissive filter for the first 48 hours. Then update to a current NeverSink revision once community pricing exists. The Xeno Tier in 0.5's filter is there precisely for this window.

If you use FilterBlade's Auto-Adjust for Build feature, configure Rare Items to show only your build's relevant item classes. Half measures produce half results. The loot simulator in FilterBlade will show you exactly what you're hiding before you deploy.

Writing a custom PoE2 filter 0.5 from scratch means accounting for everything new in Runes of Aldur. FilterBlade already handles this. If you insist on manual work, here is what you're dealing with:

The Runes of Aldur filter update from NeverSink handles all of this. Sync through FilterBlade after patch launch, not before: most new features won't function until the league is live.

Common Mistakes & How to Waste Your Own Time

These are the PoE2 filter setup mistakes that plague the forums every league start, with solutions so obvious they hurt to type:

• Using a PoE1 filter in PoE2. Different syntax. Different bases. Partial compatibility means it hides wrong things silently. Don't.
• Not updating after major patches. GGG renames bases every league. Your filter will silently miss new items. Re-download or re-sync via FilterBlade after every major patch.
• Running Uber-Strict at league start. New items have unknown value. Strict is the ceiling until economy data exists. You will miss things that matter.
• Writing a 4,000-line homemade filter. Filters with thousands of redundant rules have a measurable frame cost. Use NeverSink. It is already optimized.
• Forgetting to reload in-game after editing. The game does not hot-reload. See installation instructions. Repeat as necessary until muscle memory forms.
• Using the same filter for SSF and trade. Different economies. Different needs. Separate setups. Yes, this means five extra minutes. Do it.