Abyssal Depths in 0.4.0 isn't "hard" in the usual way. It's stubborn. You can clear map after map, feel like you're doing everything right, and still never see the content you actually need. If you're chasing those skill points locked behind the boss encounter (the ones that matter once you're trying to go past six), the wait starts to feel personal. People talk about loot, sure, but most of the frustration is the gate: Kulemac's Invitation. I even caught myself thinking about
PoE 2 Currency
more than I should, just because anything that speeds up gearing makes the grind a little less miserable.
If you're not leaning into the bottom side of the atlas tree, you're basically volunteering for pain. The single biggest swing is Abyssal Ire. Before I took it, I'd go dozens of waystones with nothing but normal layouts and the same old pacing. After I allocated it, the rhythm changed. Not "every map," don't get it twisted, but often enough that you can plan around it. Pair it with Dark Bloodlines for the extra bodies on the ground, and you'll notice more chances for the portal to roll. It turns the hunt from a hopeless lottery into a routine: run, check, reset, repeat.
When the Lightless Void finally opens, it's easy to sprint in like you've already won. That's how you brick the run. Tasgul, Swallower of Light, isn't a DPS check so much as a "can you keep your cool" check. The blackout is the whole fight. Your screen goes nearly useless, and the arena turns into a listening game—shifts, thuds, that rolling pressure before a sphere clips you. Those circular grooves on the floor aren't decoration, either. If you're parked in one when the lights drop, you're begging to get flattened. What worked for me was staying in motion almost the entire time, looping wide and only stopping to hit the boss when visibility comes back.
Sometimes you won't get Tasgul at all, and the game throws you into the Dark Domain for Androth instead. The bones of the fight feel similar, but the arena gets messy fast. Corpses pop, green pustules chain, and the space you thought was "safe" suddenly isn't. A lot of players underestimate how much this punishes sloppy positioning, especially if you're used to standing still and deleting bosses. Do yourself a favour and treat resistances like mechanics: cap Cold Resistance, and bring whatever you need to avoid getting locked in place. Freeze in these zones is brutal, and getting frozen with a sphere on the way is basically a death sentence.
The grind still drags, no question. But once you accept that your job is to create attempts, not "get lucky," it gets easier to stick with. Spec into the right atlas nodes, run a steady pace, and don't waste portals by playing greedy inside the arena. When Kulemac's Invitation drops, you'll feel the ceiling crack—those extra skill points and the path to the Well of Souls are worth it, and the jump in power is real. If you're smoothing the last stretch with upgrades, I've seen people bankroll the final push with trades like a
Fate of the Vaal SC Divine Orb
so they can focus on attempts instead of scraping together gear between runs.
