Orbs of Alchemy can used to upgrade a normal item into a rare POE items. The resulting rare has randomly chosen affixes and has a random number of affixes. Common use cases include upgrading good normal path of exile 2 items during the questing phase of a character's development, upgrading a normal map in order to take advantage of the large item quantity bonus from having up to six affixes, and upgrading strongboxes.

Orbs of Alchemy are uncommon currency items that can be dropped by slain monsters, chests, and destructible containers. They also drop from Arcanist's Strongboxes. It be obtained by combining 20 Alchemy Shards, which are in turn obtained by selling identified magic and rare items with certain modifiers to any vendor.