Settlers for the Few: How PoE’s Gold Economy Leaves Average Players Behind

Path of Exile’s current balance around gold drop rates has pushed the game into a place where only players with enormous time investment can make meaningful use of Settlers. The system was pitched as something broadly accessible, yet the reality is that average or below-average players simply can’t sustain it without stepping into playstyles and map investment levels far beyond their reach.

1: Gold acquisition heavily favors players who can chain super-juiced T16.5 and T17 maps, creating a huge gap between “no-lifers” and regular players.
2: Even when running highly optimized content, players far deeper into the game than most barely generate enough gold to keep Settlers active at a reasonable pace.
3: This turns Settlers from a general progression feature into an elite-only mechanic, contradicting its intended purpose.
4: Average players running standard red maps or unjuiced content see dramatically lower returns, making Settlers feel unrealistic or unrewarding.
5: The design signals that GGG’s tuning assumes extremely high-investment mapping as the norm rather than the exception.

This matters because healthy long-term systems should support a wide range of players—not just the top 1% who can push juiced endgame nonstop. Making Settlers viable without extreme investment would keep the mechanic engaging, accessible, and fun for everyone rather than only for the most dedicated grinders.

I wonder, where is the issue exactly, because gold drop like crazy this league. Do you respec with gold?

I can't even afford to respec in gold as much as i would want to use this future. Because the villagers or slaves of Settlers i HAVE to keep em on Level 1 or else im not able to let it run long enough to actually make decent progress.

I havent touched settlers for days now as it would have depleted all my gold while i was doing things irl.