In the dark alchemy of Path of Exile 2 theorycrafting, few builds embody chaos, elegance, and absolute decay like the Decomposed Pathfinder. Revived from its former glory in Season 1, this build — centered around Decompose, Poison Clouds, and the synergistic mayhem of corpse mechanics — has returned in full force. The player known as Scadoo has taken the archetype to new heights, fusing energy shield defense, corpse-based offense, POE2 Currency, and intricate gem rotations into a deadly rhythm that melts bosses and clears maps in clouds of toxic mist.

If you’ve been holding your breath for a true poison-based Pathfinder to rise again, now’s your chance to exhale.

The Core Mechanic: Decompose and the Corpse Engine

At the heart of this build lies the Decompose skill, granted by the Corpse Boots unique item. Each step the Pathfinder takes triggers a Decompose pulse that targets nearby corpses, consuming them to release poisonous gas clouds. These clouds linger, stacking damage over time and spreading poison like a plague.

The key twist? No corpses, no clouds. That’s where weapon swapping and minion sacrifice come in. By summoning undead minions through Raise Spectre and Sacrifice, Scadoo’s Pathfinder creates its own renewable corpse supply. Walking through the battlefield while Decompose triggers on these “living corpses” transforms the arena into a slow-death chamber of toxin and decay.

For map clearing, it’s deceptively simple:

Weapon swap once to summon minions.

Begin walking — clouds spawn instantly.

Activate Plague Bearer and occasionally Contagion to spread the poison field.

Once the first cycle starts, the system becomes self-sustaining: Plague Bearer kills enemies, creating corpses, which trigger Decompose, which in turn refills Plague Bearer. It’s a toxic feedback loop of endless efficiency.

Boss Fights and Corpse Control

Boss encounters introduce a problem — there are no enemy corpses to fuel Decompose. The solution is brilliantly Pathfinder-like: self-generated corpses through minion sacrifice.

Before engaging, the build pre-spawns minions, weapon swaps, and uses the Grim Resurrection ability from the Grim Feast gem. This allows for quick corpse replacement during combat downtime. Once the fight begins, you’ll continually summon, sacrifice, and decompose your own minions to sustain poison cloud production.

Because Persistent Ground III now makes ground surfaces from supportive skills indestructible, your poison fields ignore the six-cloud limit introduced in Season 2. The clouds can’t be erased by new ground effects — even burning ground won’t remove them. As a result, boss fights become battles of attrition that overwhelmingly favor you. Once your green fog fills the screen, everything inside is simply waiting to die.

Defense: Energy Shield and Evasion Synergy

Defensively, the build relies on a hybrid Energy Shield/Evasion setup, enhanced by clever use of Ghost Dance and deflection mechanics.

Scadoo’s character stats summarize the toughness:

5,000 Energy Shield

14,000 Evasion Rating (60% chance to evade)

25% Block Chance

53% Chance to Deflect

Chaos Inoculation (CI) — complete chaos immunity

400 Spirit powering all active gems

With Ghost Dance, every time the Pathfinder is hit, 7% of total evasion converts into Energy Shield recovery. This means that light hits — rather than draining you — actually heal you for up to 1,000 ES per proc. Temporal Chains and Blind further amplify survival by slowing enemies and reducing hit accuracy, while Deflection Rating adds an extra layer of damage mitigation.

Movement speed isn’t stellar, but Sprint compensates, turning the Pathfinder into a slow-motion hurricane of poison and regeneration.

Skill Breakdown

Decompose (Core Skill)

Triggers automatically while walking.

Creates poison clouds from corpses or sacrificed minions.

Linked with Persistent Ground III, Deadly Poison, Encroaching Ground, and Prolonged Duration.

Duration scales to about 15 seconds, longer than minion respawn cooldowns.

Damage scales with the maximum life of the corpse consumed — hence the focus on high-life spectres.

Plague Bearer (Main Clear Skill)

Acts as both a contagion engine and a secondary DPS source. With Deadly Poison, Poison Support, and Magna Poisonfly Spore, Plague Bearer becomes a chain reaction of toxins — refilling itself through corpse explosions. The addition of Old Nut’s Embrace boosts chaos conversion, letting you trigger Withering Touch for even greater damage against resistant bosses.

Raise Spectre and Sacrifice

The chosen spectres are Bogfell Commoners — undead minions with immense life pools and low spirit cost. The non-axe variant is the one you want; it’s found in Act 3’s Sandswept Marsh during the Roth Dredge boss fight. Since Decompose scales off corpse life, these tanky minions become massive poison amplifiers.

Linked supports: Minion Life, Hulking Minions, and Desire. The goal is maximizing life, not damage.

Contagion

Now cast manually instead of via Cast on Minion Death, giving the player better control. When triggered, it spreads all existing poisons in one sweep, often wiping an entire map screen instantly.

Ravenous Swarm

A support gem that summons harmless insects which bleed enemies. This bleed effect further enhances poison damage thanks to the synergy between ailments.

Curses

The build uses Blasphemy to apply Temporal Chains and Despair simultaneously via Whispers of Doom.

Temporal Chains: Slows enemies by up to 68% and extends poison duration.

Despair: Reduces chaos resistance for an immediate DPS boost.

With Magnified Area and Heightened Curse, these auras reach across nearly the entire screen.

Utility Skills

Grim Feast / Grim Resurrection: rapid corpse generation.

Lenses: panic button that instantly restores ES under pressure.

Rapid Casting + Cooldown Recovery: tightens rotation timing.

Ascendancy and Passive Tree Highlights

The Pathfinder Ascendancy complements poison perfectly, emphasizing ailment application, resistance, and movement. The progression is:

Contagion Contamination — spreads poisons more effectively.

Overwhelming Toxicity — doubles the poison cap, effectively doubling total damage.

Traveler’s Wisdom — adds valuable passive nodes.

Relentless Pursuit — grants complete immunity to slows, including Temporal Chains, Maim, and chilled ground.

Defensive nodes like Ghost Dance, Heartstopper, and Subterfuge Mastery keep the build resilient, while offensive notables like Low Tolerance and Expanding Toxins push clear-speed and boss DPS to lethal levels.

Minion-related clusters increase spectre life and revival speed — critical for rapid corpse cycling in long boss fights. A Megalomaniac jewel with Restless Dead (25% faster minion revive) is practically mandatory, cheap Path of Exile 2 Currency.

For poison scaling, jewels with “Increased Maximum Energy Shield,” “Magnitude of Ailments You Inflict,” and “Ailments Deal Damage Faster” turn your toxic output into a multiplicative force. Just avoid shortening poison duration too much — sustaining the poison cap is vital.

Gear Breakdown

Weapons

Maelstrom (Stoic Scepter): High spirit roll and aura magnitude from Perfect Essence of Command.

Trench Timber Mace (Set Two): +2 to all Minion Skills, dual Talisman of Thrana runes for +1 maximum poison each.

Both sets use stoic scepters to keep Energy Shield consistent when swapping.

Shield

Desert Buckler: High evasion, deflection, and block chance. Ideally, with resistances.

Helmet

Ancestral Chassis Base: +2 to Minion Skill Gems, increased Energy Shield, and resists.

Chest

Falconer’s Jacket: Hybrid ES/Evasion base with movement speed implicit. Prioritize Spirit prefix and Energy Shield recharge mods.

Socket Amanamu’s Gaze for +2 armor per Spirit — the build’s sole armor source.

Gloves

Secured Wraps: Hybrid ES/Evasion, Deflection rating, and possible double-socket setup for Wither magnitude.

Boots

Corpse Boots (Mandatory): Provides Decompose. Must be level 20 for five sockets to fit all supports.

Accessories

Amulet: Stellar Amulet for attribute requirements or ES-based amulet for defense.

Belt: Darkness Enthroned with “Magnitude of Ailments You Inflict” on socketed glove jewel.

Rings: One Unset Ring for Coalescence; both with chaos damage, evasion, and resistances.

Flasks:

Stone Charm for stun mitigation.

Dowsing Charm for ignite removal.

Throwing Charm for freeze removal.

Mana flask (optional only for Contagion).

Optional damage swap: Ming’s Heart for extra chaos at the cost of survivability.

Leveling Path

Unfortunately, this build isn’t beginner-friendly. You cannot fully activate it until level 58, when the Sacrifice gem becomes available — the keystone that allows minions to act as corpses.

Before that point, Scadoo recommends leveling as a Poison Bow Pathfinder (Lightning Arrow or Toxic Rain variant). You can equip Corpse Boots early to experiment with poison clouds, but the full synergy only arrives once Sacrifice and the spectre engine come online.