What a craft costs

A craft in Path of Exile 1 has no fixed cost. Each step has a chance, so the same plan is cheap on a lucky run and expensive on an unlucky one. The Craft Planner states the cost of a plan with three figures in place of one.

The three figures of a plan

Figure	Meaning	Use it to
Expected cost	The average over many runs of the plan	Compare two plans
Median	Half of the runs cost less than this, half cost more	Know what a typical run costs
90th percentile	Nine runs of ten cost less than this	Know what the craft costs when it goes badly

Design choice: an average alone hides bad luck. The 90th percentile tells you what to set aside before you start.

The cost of one step

Per step the Planner shows two costs.

Cost	Meaning
Cost of one attempt	The consumables that one use of the method takes
Reset cost	What it costs to bring the item back after a failure, so the step can be tried again

Each step also shows its chance and its expected attempts. The Cost tab ranks the steps of a plan by their share of the expected cost. You see at once which step carries the plan.

The Cost tab: the share of each step in the expected cost, with the cost per attempt and the reset cost.

One method, many runs

The Batch page runs one method many times on a virtual item. It reports the chance per attempt, the expected attempts and the cost, with the median and the 90th percentile.

The Batch page: one routine run many times, with expected, median and 90th percentile figures.

Where the prices come from

A cost is only as good as its prices. Every price in the Planner shows its source and its age. Where no feed has a price, you type it, and a typed price is marked. The Planner names the items it needs and has no price for. All figures can be shown in divine or chaos. See Features, section 7.

When the cost is too high

The cost slider shows what a cheaper target gives up, in named steps: a lower tier, a lower roll, a move into the pool. It also produces a keep list of smaller results that are worth keeping, each with its saving. You decide. The tool does not lower the target for you. See Features, section 8.

During the craft

The Craft Helper keeps a tally during the real craft: spent so far, cost still expected, projected total and the estimate of the plan.