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Voyages are large endgame expeditions created by combining nine Charts into a single underwater adventure with greater rewards than running individual Lost Charts. After charting enough areas, players can connect them on the Voyage Board to create a Voyage, forming one large expedition across the ocean floor; each Chart included in a Voyage can be revisited, allowing its rewards to be claimed again. The defining characteristic is placement: modifiers on completed Charts affect adjacent slots or the entire voyage, so the order and layout you choose determines your total reward multiplier. You work with Valerie, captain of The Sovereign, to plan and launch each Voyage from a 3×3 grid, and the edges of the Voyage Board feature randomised effects that influence adjacent Charts each Voyage, adding extra rewards.

TL;DR

  • Nine completed Charts combine into one Voyage on a 3×3 board — placement is the skill ceiling.
  • Chart modifiers spill onto adjacent slots or the whole Voyage; edge bonuses add a second layer of adjacency math.
  • Allflame Lanterns create safe zones but fade after you place the seventh — every encounter runs against a clock.
  • The Allflame Crafting Bench shows multiple outcomes before you commit, removing RNG from item crafts.
  • Voyages and Atlas Anomalies are separate endgame systems; do not conflate them.

Why Chart Placement Decides the Outcome

The moment you slot nine Charts into the Voyage Board, their modifiers interact. Every Chart has an implicit modifier that gets revealed once it’s charted; these modifiers apply in one of two scopes: adjacent Charts (the effect only impacts squares directly connected to it) or Voyage-wide (the effect applies to every relevant area in the entire Voyage). A single well-placed Chart in the center of the grid can touch four neighbours, multiplying its bonus across half your run, while corner pieces are enhanced by two edge bonuses, while the center receives none. The community has not yet settled on universal placement rules for every modifier type; GGG revealed examples such as converting equipment drops in adjacent areas into Gold, spawning friendly jellyfish alongside monster packs for additional loot and experience, and empowering adjacent monsters with Wildwood Wisps, but the full modifier pool remains under testing. Border modifiers are randomly chosen each time you complete a Voyage, and will likely influence the strategy of what Charts you choose to run when.

Banking Charts and planning a layout beats firing one off the moment you have enough. Rather than filling every slot with the strongest options, plan from the reward target outward: pick the Chart you most want to revisit, identify every adjacent or global effect that supports it, only then add optional difficulty; a visually full board packed with conflicting modifiers is almost always worse than a lean layout built around one clear goal. If a Chart repeatedly causes deaths or forces you to skip encounters, removing it can improve real returns even when its reward text looks attractive; a board that your character clears reliably is more useful than an ambitious layout that ends before its premium encounters.

Where to Get Lost Charts and Complete Voyages

During the 3.29 Challenge League, you’ll find Cursed Treasure in every zone in the game; killing the surrounding enemies and opening the treasure will drop a Chart and grant a bonus for the remainder of the zone. Every zone contains at least one Chart, and sometimes two; you’ll receive your first Chart from Valerie shortly after boarding The Sovereign, meaning access to the mechanic begins in Act 1. Completing the Lost Chart grants a regular Chart, which can be used to start Voyages. Speak to Valerie after you’ve gathered 9 Charts to begin planning your Voyage, which is a far larger area comprised of 9 connected Charts. The Chart Storage chest allows you to store all of your Charts — whether they’re charted or uncharted; this chest can be added to your hideout, and you can enable the Chart stash affinity to automatically store all your Charts.

Path Of Exile — in-game screenshot

Step-by-Step: Running Your First Voyage

Follow this sequence to get it done fast.

  1. 1

    Collect nine completed Charts

    clear Cursed Treasure encounters in maps, complete the Lost Chart area underwater, and bank the resulting regular Chart in your Chart Storage chest.

  2. 2

    Return to The Sovereign and speak to Valerie

    open the Voyage Board and inspect the edge modifiers; these randomised bonuses affect adjacent tiles and will guide which Charts you place where.

  3. 3

    Place nine Charts on the 3×3 grid

    each Chart's icon has lines on it, which must connect to the previous piece; position Charts with voyage-wide buffs in low-adjacency slots, and place high-value targets where edge bonuses stack.

  4. 4

    Descend in the Bathysphere and manage your Allflame Lanterns

    you can call down the Allflame Lanterns either automatically or by command; talk to Valerie to change the settings; "Automatic" will deploy a Lantern as soon as you cross the air pocket, while "on command" gives you control of where to drop it.

  5. 5

    Push encounters before the light dies

    once you've placed all 7 Allflame Lanterns, the Lanterns begin to flicker and fade, forcing you to rush back to the Bathysphere as creatures of the deep rush towards you.

  6. 6

    Bank loot in Allflame Capsules and extract

    each chart area contains an Allflame Capsule, and therefore 9 in total, which serves as a way to return loot to the surface in a 5 by 12 inventory; this is very useful for any Voyage where you would run out of Inventory space otherwise, as you cannot portal out of the area.

Best Voyage Planning Strategies

Tip

The exact rules for connecting Charts is currently unknown, but it’s likely that all of your Charts need to connect to one another in order to start a Voyage; check the lines on each Chart icon before committing.

Chart TypeWhere to PlaceWhyWhat It Affects
Adjacent-modifier ChartCenter positionTouches four neighboursUp to four Charts
Voyage-wide modifierLow-adjacency slot (edges, not corners)Does not consume valuable neighbour connectionsEntire Voyage
High-value reward ChartCorner positionBenefits from two edge bonusesThe Chart itself plus edge buffs
Named special areaNext to supportive modifiersUnique encounters deserve stacked buffsThe special Chart's unique rewards
Difficulty spike or conversion ChartOnly after testing your clear speedRisk should support a clear goal, not exist for its own sakeAdjacent or voyage-wide depending on text

How the Allflame Lantern Timer Actually Works

Lanterns imbued with a spark of the Allflame provide protection from the crushing waves; while the lanterns remain active, players can explore the area and search for lost Gold, valuable chests and other rewards. These lanterns establish safe, breathable bubbles on the ocean floor; as you push into the darkness to find treasure, Valerie will automatically deploy extra lanterns, though you can also place them manually to carve out custom paths. The critical mechanic: once the final Lantern is placed, the existing Lanterns begin to fade and deep-sea monsters close in; return to the Bathysphere before the water reclaims the area. Once you’ve dropped all of the Allflame lanterns, you’ll be on a timer before the lanterns run out of energy; finish up your tasks, pick up any valuable loot and head back to the bathysphere to avoid drowning.

This is where most runs are lost. Every encounter becomes a timed decision about how deep to push before calling the escape. When your lantern fuel depletes and the light begins to flicker out, hostile deep-sea monstrosities will swarm you; do not get greedy, cut your losses, grab what you have, and head back to the Bathysphere — dying down here means losing your hard-earned expedition rewards. The mechanic is built around controlled expansion: placing more Lanterns reveals more monsters, treasures and Sulphur, but it also commits the player to a longer escape once Vesper’s limited power starts running out.

Using the Allflame Crafting Bench

This new crafting system is somewhat similar to a Hinekora’s Lock; you’ll be able to place your item into the window along with the currency you wish to use on it; instead of providing a single outcome like it would have done if you simply performed the process normally, it will provide you ghostly visions of several different outcomes. Once you have enough Dead Man’s Sulfur, head below deck to visit Vesper in the forge; there, you can use the Sulfur along with an item and currency to get multiple possible outcomes. The Dead Man’s Sulphur that you’ve been stockpiling to power The Sovereign isn’t just for that purpose, as it will also enable you to make use of a brand new, powerful crafting mechanic: Allflame crafting.

Choosing an outcome changes crafting from a gamble into a plan. You see every result before committing, so high-value bases and expensive currencies carry far less risk. Vesper can generate several possible outcomes from one crafting action, allowing the player to keep the best result. The system rewards Dead Man’s Sulphur farming: harvesting Strange Coral yields Dead Man’s Sulphur, the lifeblood of the league’s crafting system, and stronger crafting actions require more Sulphur.

Voyages vs. Atlas Anomalies: They Are Not the Same

Voyages are the underwater league mechanic built around Valerie, The Sovereign, and the nine-Chart Voyage Board. Atlas Anomalies are a separate endgame system introduced in the same patch. Voyages, Mercenaries, Atlas Anomalies, and Vestigial implicits open up new endgame pursuits, but they are distinct paths. Voyages reward Dead Man’s Sulphur, Chart modifiers, and Allflame Capsule loot; Atlas Anomalies are self-contained reward areas tied to Atlas progression. Do not expect Voyage modifiers to affect Atlas Anomaly encounters, and do not confuse the two when reading patch notes or planning your endgame. The confusion is natural — both systems arrived in 3.29 and both involve additional mapping content — but treating them as one mechanic will lead to wasted planning.

Voyage Rewards and What You Unlock

Primary Loot: Dead Man’s Sulphur and Regular Drops

For Curse of the Allflame, the primary loot you get is the Dead Man’s Sulfur along with the regular items like gold, gear, and Uniques. You’ll find Luminous Coral (refined into Dead Man’s Sulphur), gold and valuables, and Messages in a Bottle that grant random rewards. The Sulphur is the real endgame chase: every crafting bench use consumes it, and higher-tier outcomes demand more.

Ducats and Special Modifiers

Another type of loot you can get from the special Lost Chart mods is Ducats, which are another currency item used for getting favorable mods of an item. Find valuable Ducats on the seafloor and use them to warp and twist items in ways not seen in centuries. These are not common; prioritise Voyages with Ducat-specific modifiers if your build benefits from the exclusive crafts.

Capsule Loot and Extraction Rewards

Completing every Voyage in Path of Exile: Curse of the Allflame will also fill up loot capsules on the ship, which you can claim upon returning to The Sovereign for currency and all kinds of items. Each Chart will contain an Allflame Capsule – these Capsules can be filled with loot, and then sent back up to the surface, turning every Voyage into a nine-inventory expedition even if you have limited carry capacity.

Common Misconceptions About Voyages

Myth: You Should Always Fill All Nine Slots

A full board is not automatically a better board. A visually full board packed with conflicting modifiers is almost always worse than a lean layout built around one clear goal. If you cannot clear the monster density or meet the time pressure, fewer Charts with synergistic modifiers will return more loot than nine randomly slotted ones.

Myth: The Lantern Timer Is Fixed

The timer begins when you place your seventh and final lantern, not when you enter the area. Once you’ve placed all 7 Allflame Lanterns, the Lanterns begin to flicker and fade, forcing you to rush back to the Bathysphere as creatures of the deep rush towards you. You control when the clock starts by choosing when to drop that last lantern; delaying it lets you clear more safely but reduces your total explorable area.

Myth: Voyages and Atlas Anomalies Share Modifiers

They do not. Voyages are a league-specific mechanic tied to The Sovereign, Valerie, and the Voyage Board. Atlas Anomalies are a separate endgame system. Chart modifiers apply only within the Voyage; they do not carry over into Atlas Anomaly encounters, and Atlas passives do not affect Voyage scaling unless explicitly stated in the passive text.

Our Take

Voyages reward planning over speed, and that is rare in Path of Exile.

Most league mechanics since 3.13 have been density funnels: throw yourself at monsters, pick up splinters, move on. Voyages ask you to stop, read nine modifiers, calculate adjacency, and commit to a layout before you touch the water. The placement math is not obvious — corner slots gain two edge bonuses but touch only two Charts, the center touches four neighbours but receives no edge buffs, and voyage-wide modifiers do not care where they sit — so the first week will be full of failed boards and wasted Charts. That friction is good. The mechanic has a skill ceiling beyond clear speed, and players who bank twenty Charts to test different layouts will pull ahead of those who fire them off one at a time.

The lantern timer is less forgiving. Seven lanterns, then the light dies, and you either extract or lose the run. It punishes hesitation and rewards route memorisation, which means every Voyage layout demands a clear path from entry to Bathysphere. The best boards will not be the ones with the highest raw modifier count; they will be the ones you can clear in the time you have. That is where the carry demand will concentrate: players with weak defenses or inconsistent damage will hit the timer wall hard, and no amount of placement optimisation fixes a build that cannot move.

The Allflame Crafting Bench is the long-term hook. Seeing multiple outcomes before you commit removes the gut-punch of a bricked craft, and Dead Man’s Sulphur becomes the real endgame grind. Expect Sulphur to be the bottleneck by week two, which means Voyage efficiency — Charts per hour, Capsule loot density, Sulphur per run — will matter more than any single lucky drop. If GGG does not adjust the Sulphur costs or the craft outcome pool, the mechanic will age well; if they overreact to early feedback and flood the economy with Sulphur, the crafting bench becomes a convenience feature instead of a chase system.

FAQ

How many Charts do I need to start a Voyage?
Exactly nine completed Charts. You cannot start a Voyage with fewer, and you cannot store more than nine in a single Voyage Board layout. You'll need to plan your Voyage using the Voyage board, by placing charts in up to 9 slots.
Can I leave a Voyage early and come back?
No. You cannot portal out of the area. You must complete the run or die; there is no mid-Voyage checkpoint. Use the Allflame Capsules to bank loot as you go, and call the Bathysphere when you are ready to extract.
Do edge modifiers change between Voyages?
Yes. These modifiers are randomly chosen each time you complete a Voyage, and will likely influence the strategy of what Charts you choose to run when. Inspect the board before placing your nine Charts, because the edge bonuses are a second variable you cannot control.
What happens if I die during a Voyage?
Dying down here means losing your hard-earned expedition rewards. You lose the loot you were carrying and any progress in that Voyage. Items banked in Allflame Capsules before your death should be safe, but the run ends and you return to The Sovereign.
Is Voyages worth running over other endgame content?
If you want Dead Man's Sulphur for the Allflame Crafting Bench, Voyages are mandatory; no other system drops it. If you are optimising raw currency per hour and your build cannot handle the lantern timer, regular mapping or other endgame mechanics may return more. Voyages reward builds with strong clear speed, reliable movement skills, and the ability to make routing decisions under pressure; slow
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