How is the item filter actually supposed to work?

New player here, I've downloaded the semi-strict Neversink filter from Filterblade and loaded it in PoE.

And I don't know if I am supposed to press Z or not. If I do not press Z, only the labels for Gold actually show from anywhere. However, other things that the filter should display (even those with map icons, like Orbs of Alteration) do not display the labels unless I specifically hover over the item.

If I press Z, it seems that everything shows up, even the stuff that's supposed to be filtered, like single wisdom scrolls.

Did I do something wrong? Do I use "Z-mode" or not?

Don’t use Z to toggle off labels; at least, not except for, say, during a challenging boss fight if there’s enough crap on the ground to be distracting.

Can I ask what level is the character you’re currently playing as? If you log in on a freshly made level 1 character, I don’t know whether the filter would attempt to hide literally any piece of equipment or currency item in the game. Whereas if you’re, say, level 90, it will hide most things that drop.

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Sarno#0493 wrote:

Don’t use Z to toggle off labels; at least, not except for, say, during a challenging boss fight if there’s enough crap on the ground to be distracting.

Can I ask what level is the character you’re currently playing as? If you log in on a freshly made level 1 character, I don’t know whether the filter would attempt to hide literally any piece of equipment or currency item in the game. Whereas if you’re, say, level 90, it will hide most things that drop.

So the filtering is level-based? It makes sense then that a lot is going to show up, thanks.

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Ondrashek06#5795 wrote:

So the filtering is level-based? It makes sense then that a lot is going to show up, thanks.

Its probably based on area level. Far as I know a character level based distinction is not even possible.

Edit: Just to be clear: This is not done automatically by the game, it needs to be coded into the filter. So it depends on the filter if it works like that or not.

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So the filtering is level-based? It makes sense then that a lot is going to show up, thanks.

I'm pretty sure the basic NeverSync filter takes area level into account up until level 68, and then swaps to another set of rules for higher level. It's possible it continues further than this, but I think it is static after reaching that level. You can see this on filterblade website, he has two different sections of rules.

You may want to increase the strictness of the filter if you are seeing too much loot. Semi-strict is a good starting point and depending what i'm doing I will use it, but sometimes you may want it much stricter particularly when your build is fairly complete.

My keybinds are different, but there is a key that toggles all ground loot like you are saying, which is useful in some cases. Sometimes you want to be able to check for something that may of dropped underneath your filter. In general though you want the filter to be showing everything you want and hiding everything you don't want and not needing to toggle that button.

Part of it has to do with currency drops were changed. Used to be they were only one at a time, the stacked drops were a much needed quality of life improvement.


With that said, certain currency is considered not worth picking up unless in a stack, like transmutes.

But you want z on normally unless the screen clutter is potentially going to get you killed or its really obscuring the view mid fighting. Like if I'm doing multiple breaches I'll usually have to turn it off for a bit so I can see where I'm going giving all the junk on the ground and I still don't run a proper end game filter (I ID too many rares, tho I think I've seen enough to start leaving them on the ground again).

Oh and since it wasn't clarified --- semi strict shows a lot of junk that normally isn't worth picking up, particularly if you like to id yellows or do chaos recipe.

If you run a stricter filter, you can leave z on and notice its a lot less convoluted. However, you can always hold alt to show all (by default).

Usually if I'm checking the loot under the filter, it is because I've just cleared a very dense area, or killed a boss and the loot from the boss is underneath the loot filter strictness, like the boss drop only legendries. Or I heard audio of something dropping that didn't show and want to look what it was. Sometimes maybe your at the end of a map with empty inventory and you just want to pick up a bunch of things to vendor that you normally wouldn't pick up.