To respec in Path of Exile 2, talk to a refund NPC in town, choose “Refund Passives,” pick the passive points you want back and pay for them with gold. There is no single button that wipes the whole tree for free: you refund points in batches, the gold cost rises with your level, and Ascendancy points are refunded separately at the Ascendancy trials.
Below we cover where to refund, how the cost works, how to reset most or all of the tree, how Ascendancy points differ, and when Grinding Gear Games hands out free resets. This guide covers the Early Access build as of September 2026 (version 0.5.5, the Forbidden Rites event and Runes of Aldur league). The process is the same on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S; on PC the passive tree opens with the P key by default.
Where to refund passive points
Passive refunds are an NPC service, not something you do from the tree screen in the middle of a map. Player guides describe the steps like this:
- Return to a town or your endgame hub.
- Talk to the refund NPC. During the campaign this is The Hooded One, who you meet early in Act 1; in the endgame, player guides name Doryani as the NPC offering the same service.
- Select Refund Passives. Your passive tree opens in refund mode.
- Click each allocated passive you want back. The running gold cost and your available gold are shown at the bottom of the screen.
- Confirm to pay the gold and get the points back as unspent points.
You can then reallocate those points immediately, anywhere on the tree your character can reach.
One rule trips people up: the tree has to stay connected to your class’s starting area. You cannot pull a node out of the middle of a path if other allocated nodes depend on it. To move a whole branch, refund from the outer end inward, which the refund screen lets you queue in a single batch.
What a respec costs
Refunds cost gold, which drops from monsters and chests throughout the game. Player guides agree on how the price behaves:
- It scales with your level. The same node costs more to refund at level 80 than at level 30, so fixing a mistake early is always cheaper.
- Ascendancy points cost far more. Refunding an Ascendancy point is priced well above a normal passive point, according to player guides.
- Attribute nodes are cheaper. Player guides report that the small Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence nodes cost less to swap than regular passives.
Grinding Gear Games has not published a cost table, and gold prices have shifted across Early Access, so check the running total on the refund screen before you confirm. If the number looks high, refund only the nodes you need to change rather than resetting whole sections.
How to reset the entire tree
A full reset is just a very large refund. In refund mode, work from the outermost nodes back toward your starting area and queue everything you want to remove. At high levels this can cost a lot of gold, so many players level a new character instead of fully resetting an old one, especially early in a league.
There is one free alternative. When a major update changes the passive tree, Grinding Gear Games grants existing characters a free full refund. The 0.5.0 patch notes, for example, state that “a free passive tree refund has been granted due to the changes,” and the 0.3.0 notes did the same. Expect this again around big updates like the 1.0 launch on December 11, 2026, but only plan on it once the patch notes confirm it.
Refunding Ascendancy points
Ascendancy points sit on a separate small tree and are not refunded at the town NPC. The 0.2.0f patch notes added the option to “talk to Balbala or The Trialmaster to Refund Passive Points.” Balbala runs the Trial of the Sekhemas and The Trialmaster runs the Trial of Chaos, so you refund Ascendancy points by entering one of those trials and speaking to its host.
Refunding every Ascendancy point is also the first step toward switching to a different Ascendancy class, which has extra requirements. The same patch notes explain that redoing a trial lets you pick a new Ascendancy, but only if the trial “would grant you the number of points you already have.”
Tips to avoid wasting gold
- Plan before you click. Community passive tree planners let you map a build before spending real points.
- Refund early. Because cost scales with level, a bad path at level 25 is much cheaper to fix than at level 75.
- Save gold in the campaign. Gold also pays for other services, so do not spend all of it on vendors before a planned respec.
- Watch Spirit. If you move points out of nodes that raise Spirit or reduce reservation, an aura or minion may switch off. Our guide to how to get Spirit in Path of Exile 2 covers where the rest of your Spirit comes from.
- Know where you are in the story. Our breakdown of how long Path of Exile 2 is and how many acts there are shows when each Ascendancy trial appears.
For comparison, other RPGs handle this very differently: Borderlands 4 respecs happen at a machine that can reset a whole tree in one go, while Path of Exile 2 charges gold point by point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you respec in Path of Exile 2? Yes. Talk to a refund NPC in town, choose Refund Passives, select the points you want back and pay the gold cost.
Is there a free respec in Path of Exile 2? Only when Grinding Gear Games grants one after a major passive tree change, as it did in the 0.3.0 and 0.5.0 updates. Normal refunds always cost gold.
How do you respec Ascendancy points? Enter the Trial of the Sekhemas or Trial of Chaos and talk to Balbala or The Trialmaster, who can refund Ascendancy passive points.
Why can I not refund a specific passive node? Your tree has to stay connected. Refund the nodes further out on that path first, then the one you want.
Does respeccing cost more at higher levels? Yes. Player guides agree the gold cost per point scales with character level, so earlier fixes are cheaper.