Farming a Mageblood POE currency in 24 Hours: The Harbinger Strategy That Rained Divines in Path of Exile



In the wild economy of Path of Exile, few goals are as iconic-and ambitious-as farming up your very own Mageblood. It's one of the most powerful and expensive items in the game, and the dream of acquiring one through pure grind is something many exiles chase but few achieve.



Let's break down this hilariously efficient farm, how it works, what was earned, and why this might be the strat to try before it inevitably gets nerfed next league.



The Core Strategy: Harbingers on Dunes



The method is straightforward and repeatable: run Dunes maps juiced with Harbinger Scarabs, targeting fracturing orbs, raw divine orbs, and high-value shard drops. The average map yield isn't flashy with uniques or rare gear-it's all about pure, liquid currency.



Here's the setup:



Scarab of Warhosts: Adds more Harbingers to your map.

Scarab of Regency: 50% chance Harbingers are replaced with bosses (better loot).

Empowered Obelisks: Boosted Harbinger mechanics that drop juicy shard bundles.



Add these scarabs to each Dunes map, roll the map for some pack size, and off you go.



"We're chasing Fracturing Orbs (~4.6 divs each) and the jackpot: Mirror Shards, worth 21+ divines and climbing."



Why Dunes? And Why Cathedral First?



Dunes is fast. Its open layout means minimal downtime, no annoying backtracking, and quick Harbinger access.



But first, you'll want to run Vaal Cathedral maps to find a Nameless Seer for Scrying. This allows you to Scry Apothecary cards onto Dunes maps-just in case you get lucky on top of being profitable. Smart layering of opportunities.



Results from 40 Maps: The Numbers Don't Lie



In one 40-map test session, the haul was frankly ridiculous:



3.5 Fracturing Orbs (≈ 16 divs)

18 Exalted Orbs

132 Anulment Orbs

1 Raw Divine Orb Drop

717 Chaos Orbs

50+ Resonators via Azurite farming

High-value Scarabs (e.g., Horn Scarab of Awakening, ≈ 100c)

Memory Maps & Tier 17s worth 1-2 extra divs



After selling the results, the final currency count landed at 33-35 divines. The total cost to run those 40 maps was about 6-6.5 divines, leaving 29 divines profit in just about 6 hours of casual gameplay.



Fracturing Shards: The MVP Drop



The major chase item is the Fracturing Orb, broken into 20 Fracturing Shards per orb. During this session, multiple maps yielded 4 to 10 shards each. Some lucky runs even dropped full orbs, worth 4.5+ divines.



While Fracturing Orbs aren't as rare as Mirror Shards, they're consistent and valuable. Over 40 maps, the player averaged about 1 orb per 10 maps, a sustainable drop rate considering the low cost to run.



Gambling, Goofs, and Chaos



Of course, this wouldn't be Path of Exile without a few side quests into madness:



Apothecary Gambles: Deleted divine orbs trying to juice an Apothecary card-classic regret.

Heavy Belt Bait: Got baited hard by a heavy belt drop that looked like a Mageblood mid-animation.

Ancient Orb Attempts: Used 3 Ancient Orbs on a heavy belt… still not a Mageblood.

Forbidden Shako?: Opened a Balder's Puzzle Box to pull a Forbidden Shako-fun, but worthless.



Tier 16 vs Tier 17 Testing: Mythbusting



Some players argue that farming Tier 17 (16.5) maps could improve currency drops due to increased mob scaling. To test this, the same strategy was run on higher-tier maps to compare.



Early results showed no significant improvement in Fracturing Shard drops, aligning with common wisdom that:



Harbingers aren't affected by pack size or quantity.

Map tier has limited influence on Harbinger currency yield.

So while Tier 17 maps might be cheap POE currency fun, they aren't necessary for this strategy.Liquid Currency: Why This Strat Shines



The best part of this method is how liquid the returns are:



All drops-Fracturing Orbs, Exalts, Chaos, Anuls-instantly sell.

No crafting or flipping needed.

Nothing tied to niche market demand or meta builds.



Just control-click it all to a bulk buyer, and you're done.



Should You Try It?



Absolutely-if you can afford the scarabs and maps, this is one of the best and most accessible endgame strategies this league.



There's no convoluted setup. No crafting. No Heist micro. No trade chat weirdness.



It's just:

Harbinger Scarabs

Good maps

Explosions

Currency