PoE Campaign Speedrun: Quests You Can’t Skip vs What to Ignore

A PoE campaign speedrun means clearing the ten acts as fast as possible on a new character while still grabbing every passive skill point quest, every Labyrinth trial, and enough resistance gear to survive Cruel and Merciless difficulty. This guide lists exactly which quests you cannot skip, which side content costs you nothing to ignore, and which twink items — gear handed down from a stronger character — turn a slow first clear into a much faster one. If you’re actually asking whether GGG will ever let you skip the acts outright, that’s a separate question answered in our Campaign Skip 2026 article on GGG’s promises; this one is about what you can do right now, in the client, on your own.

A campaign speedrun is a leveling run through Acts 1 through 10 where you skip everything that doesn’t advance your character’s power or unlock the next zone. It sits on top of the normal leveling loop and the league start prep most players already do — the difference is intent: you’re not exploring, you’re routing. Players care about this because Ascendancy points are among the strongest character upgrades in Path of Exile, and delaying Labyrinth completion can leave a character much weaker than expected for its level, so a badly planned first run can burn hours for nothing.

Two categories are non-negotiable. First, the passive point quests: there are only 23 such quests because the final one grants two Passive Skill points at once, adding up to a total of 123 points across the Passive Tree at level 100. Skipping any of these means permanently building a weaker character on that tree — you can’t buy the points back. Confirmed early ones include The Dweller of the Deep, found and defeated in the Flooded Depths, and The Marooned Mariner, which has you bring the Allflame to Captain Fairgraves in Act 1, followed in Act 2 by The Way Forward, completed after defeating Captain Arteri in the Western Forest, and in Act 3 by Through Sacred Ground, which requires finding the Golden Hand in Crypt Level 2.

Second, the Labyrinth trials. There are 12 Lab locations you have to visit during the campaign in order to specialize your class into an Ascendancy, and the useful part for a speedrun is that completion of these trials is tied to your account per league, so once your league starter runs them, you don’t need to run them again on any subsequent character — a huge deal for twink leveling. The trials cluster roughly as Act 1’s first trial in the Lower Prison, then two more in Act 2’s Crypt Level 1 and Chamber of Sins Level 2, with the final three for the Normal Lab in Act 3’s Crematorium, Catacombs and Imperial Garden. Later tiers continue into Acts 6 through 10.

The third unskippable item isn’t a quest, it’s a decision: the Act 2 bandit quest. You can choose to help one of the three Bandit leaders for a specific reward, or slay all of them for a Passive Skill point, and this is a popular choice on league starts because it helps undergeared characters cap their resistances earlier, though the reward can be changed later but is fairly expensive early into a league. Decide once, based on whether your build needs early resistances more than the raw passive point, and move on.

Everything that isn’t a passive point quest, a Lab trial, or the bandit choice is optional in a strict speedrun sense. That includes most lore-only quests, hidden unique-monster hunts that don’t feed a passive quest, and any side objective the game flags as a bonus without a skill point attached. The table below separates what’s actually optional from what looks optional but quietly gates something you’ll want later.

Twink leveling means handing down items from an existing character’s stash to a fresh one, skipping the early gear-upgrade grind entirely. A small, reusable kit covers most of the campaign.

Body Armor and Boots

Tabula Rasa is the most important investment for leveling, due to the sheer firepower it gives to any build by offering six linked sockets from level one with no other stats to fight over. On the feet, Wanderlust is the most accessible and prolific boot choice, offering freeze immunity plus a movement speed roll that most rare boots can’t match this early.

Helmet, Rings, and Belt

Goldrim is excellent due to immediate usability and the large injection of resistances it grants from level one, buying time before your gear can cap resistances properly. For rings, a pair of unique rings such as Berek’s Grip or Perandus Signets covers early damage or utility, and for the belt slot one of the cheap unique belts — Darkness Enthroned, Meginord’s Girdle, or Wurm’s Molt — rounds out the kit.

None of this needs to be expensive. If your main character isn’t sitting on spares, our efficient farming guide covers currency methods that make picking up a Tabula Rasa or a cheap unique belt for an alt a non-issue.

Myth: You can skip Lab trials and just farm them later

You can technically delay them, but every trial you postpone is Ascendancy points you’re not using while leveling through content that assumes you have them. The trials themselves are quick; the real cost is playing acts 4 through 10 without an Ascendancy class.

Myth: The bandit reward doesn’t matter if you’re going to respec anyway

Changing the bandit reward later is possible but fairly expensive early into a league, so treating it as a throwaway choice on a fresh character usually costs more currency than just picking correctly the first time.

Myth: A twinked character skips the campaign, not just speeds it up

Passed-down gear removes gear-upgrade downtime, not the acts themselves. You still walk through every zone and complete every mandatory quest — twink gear just means you’re never under-geared while doing it.