Pacts are a new class of Exceptional Skill Gem in Path of Exile 3.29 (Curse of the Allflame). You self-cast one, and it empowers a fixed number of your following spell casts with a heavy “more” damage multiplier and expanded coverage. The trade for that power is an Affliction the gem places on you, so every Pact is a burst tool you plan around rather than something you hold up constantly for free.
Quick answer: The four Pact gems are Pact of Beidat, Pact of Ghorr, Pact of K’Tash, and Pact of Lycia. They drop from Beyond bosses and from Lycia, the final boss of the Forbidden Sanctum. Each one empowers a specific spell family for a limited number of casts and inflicts an Affliction while active.
Shared rules for every Pact gem
All four Pacts share the same base requirements and behave the same way at a mechanical level. They carry both the Spell tag and the new Pact tag. The Pact tag is important because it blocks automatic triggering, so you cannot fire a Pact from Cast on Crit, a trigger wand, or a similar setup. You have to cast it yourself.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Required level | 70 |
| Mana cost | 33 |
| Cooldown | 4 seconds |
| Cast time | 0.80 seconds |
| Tags | Spell, Pact |
The catch is the Affliction. Using a Pact stacks a debuff on you, drawn from the same flavor as the Beacon of Madness afflictions, such as 20% reduced movement speed or reduced cast speed. Reusing the Pact refreshes the debuff rather than clearing it, so heavy spam keeps the penalty running. Because of that, most players pop a Pact for hard rares, bosses, and juiced maps instead of building their whole rotation around constant casts.
Where each Pact gem drops
Pacts are Exceptional gems, so they do not come from quest rewards or normal vendor rolls. They drop from Beyond encounters and from Lycia in the Forbidden Sanctum. Each Pact is themed after a Beyond Demon, and the matching boss is the direct source.
| Pact gem | Boss source |
|---|---|
| Pact of Beidat | Beidat, Archangel of Death (Beyond) |
| Pact of Ghorr | Ghorr, the Grasping Maw (Beyond) |
| Pact of K’Tash | K’Tash, the Hate Shepherd (Beyond) |
| Pact of Lycia | Lycia, Herald of the Scourge (Forbidden Sanctum) |
To farm the Beyond drops, add Beyond to your maps through Atlas passives or the map device, then run high-density maps so the Beyond portals open and the generals spawn. The Beyond bosses drop these gems fairly often, so a Beyond-focused Atlas produces a steady supply. Lycia is the slower but reliable route if you are comfortable clearing Sanctums for the final fight.
On trade league, the fastest option is buying the exact gem you want from another player. Search the gem name on the official trade site. Expect prices to spike in the opening days and settle as more players farm Beyond and Sanctum.
For SSF, dedicate your Atlas to Beyond scaling and run Sanctums between mapping sessions. The pinnacle-tier Beyond generals and the Sanctum boss are the most consistent sources.
Pact gem effects compared
Each Pact targets a different spell family. Beidat is the projectile and area workhorse, Ghorr is for damage-over-time casters, K’Tash exists to make Vaal spells repeatable, and Lycia rewards channelling. The numbers below are the empowered-cast bonuses at max gem level.
| Pact | Empowers | Key bonuses |
|---|---|---|
| Pact of Beidat | Next 8 non-channelling spells that fire projectiles, hit an area, or chain | 35% more damage with hits and ailments; +6 projectiles in a circle; +8 areas in a spiral; beams chain 6 extra times |
| Pact of Ghorr | Next 3 non-ailment damage-over-time spells | 40% more damage over time; grants Hunger of Ghorr, which triggers Fleshrend every 2 seconds |
| Pact of K’Tash | Your next damaging Vaal spells | Up to 29% more damage; 50% less soul gain prevention duration; refunds all consumed souls on use |
| Pact of Lycia | Next 3 channelling spells you cast yourself | 40% more damage; triggers a Lightning Bolt every 0.3 seconds while channelling (up to 10), then fires again for each earlier trigger on release |
Two extra details matter for scaling. Pact of Lycia’s triggered bolt deals 130 to 2467 Lightning Damage over a 1.4-metre radius. Pact of Ghorr’s Fleshrend projectile pierces every target and applies a stacking physical damage-over-time that also raises the target’s damage-over-time taken by 25%.
Best skills to pair with each Pact
Not every spell gains equally. Beidat draws its extra areas in a spiral, so skills that already overlap or auto-target keep more of their hits on a single enemy. The best fits by Pact are below.
Pact of Beidat
This is the flexible one. It shines on channelling-adjacent and slow-firing spells that will not burn through the empowered casts instantly. Winter Orb is a headline pairing since it already got more base projectiles and crit in 3.29, and the extra projectiles from Beidat stack on top. Storm Call, Cremation of Volcano, Divine Retribution, Forbidden Rite, and Blazing Salvo are all strong candidates. Fixed-pattern novas gain the least because they cannot make use of the spiral coverage.
Pact of Ghorr
Ghorr is built for non-ailment damage-over-time casters. Essence Drain and Contagion are the natural home, since both received buffs this patch and stack cleanly with the 40% more DoT plus the Fleshrend trigger. Keep in mind that Hunger of Ghorr stages only build up when you cast different spells, not by repeating the same one.
Pact of K’Tash
K’Tash removes the main reason Vaal spells stay on the shelf. It cuts soul gain prevention in half and refunds the souls the skill consumed, so you can fire a heavy Vaal hit, get the souls back, and fire again during a boss fight. It works on every damaging Vaal spell except auras. Lingering-damage setups like Vaal Blade Vortex, Vaal Flame Blast Ignite, Vaal Arc Ignite, and Vaal Cold Snap are the cleanest fits.
Pact of Lycia
Lycia empowers channelling spells you cast yourself and turns the channel into a lightning-bolt engine. A popular pairing is Winter Orb: you channel, the bolts add damage and give you some pressure while you are exposed, and when you stop the spell it fires the same number of bolts again for a burst. Any self-cast channelling spell benefits the same way.
Managing the Affliction debuff
The Affliction is the price of every Pact, and you can carry several stacks at once. Each one runs for a short duration and refreshes when you recast, so the more you spam, the longer the penalty sticks. For casual mapping the debuffs are annoying but not build-breaking, and popping a Pact only for tough targets keeps them off you most of the time.
If you want to lean on Pacts harder, invest in debuff expiry and duration reduction. Useful tools include the following.
- Temporal Rift to cleanse recent debuffs
- Runegraft of the Warp, and pairing it with Enhance Support
- Warped Timepiece or Stasis Prison for debuff expiration rate
- Duration mastery and passive tree investment into debuff expiry rate
- The Soul of Arakaali pantheon
Note: reduced soul gain prevention duration from Pact of K’Tash, Yaoax Accord, and the Priest of Yaoac bloodline also shortens debuff windows tied to that duration, which helps if you are stacking Vaal skills alongside a Pact.
You know a Pact is working when the empowered buff appears and your following casts pick up the projectile, area, chain, or damage bonus, along with the Affliction icon on your bar. Once the empowered casts are spent, the buff drops and you recast to refresh it. Because these gems only unlock at Level 70 and depend on Beyond or Sanctum drops, treat them as a mid-league power spike for spells that have struggled to keep up in the endgame rather than a day-one league-start piece.
