Preface
Welcome back to the Path of Exile efficient act and levelling guide, this guide is for act IV. Compared to the previous three acts, act IV is generally considered the point where the difficulty ramps up considerably. As a new player you may find some combat sections tricky with new mechanisms to deal with. I will try and explain things clearly to help you through this tricky part of POE. One useful tip (for all acts) to save on portals is to logout in order to return to town/ waypoint as it serves the same purpose.
The Aqueduct and the Mines
Following on from your defeat of Dominus at the end of Act III you will begin this act by entering the aqueducts. Follow the river up and left in this zone, move to the other side when you reach the end and will come to act III's town, Highgate. Similar to your first entrances to previous act's tows, you don't need to stay around here long, just leave to the bottom left to the dried lake.
The dried lake has a curved arrow layout that is static, you need to find and kill Voll, which can be a bit time consuming as he has spawns in three random locations. Upon his defeat you will receive a banner, take this back to Highgate. The mines entrance is now unlockable and can be accessed using the banner in the top left of the town.
The first level of the mines is fairly simple to navigate with little layout variety, you should quickly be able to find the entrance to the second level, located in the top left. The second level is considerably more complex and varied. As you move through this zone keep an eye out for the Spirit of Deshret (visible by an s marker on the map), simply tagging this spirit will be enough to complete a quest giving you a skill point. It is hard to give exact instruction on direction of movement for this zone, but keep looking around and eventually you should find the entrance to the crystal veins. Head to the top left and go through the winding tunnels, you will come to a waypoint, alongside Lady Dialla, take this waypoint back to Highgate.
Daresso and Kaom's Dreams
Once back in Highgate make sure to collect all your quest rewards by talking to the various NPC's. After that take the waypoint back to the crystal veins. Now you can either go right or left, to enter different dream areas, I will firstly cover Daresso's dream, which is to the right, but you can do them in any order. Here you will be in the pits of the grand arena, move in a top right direction through this someone linear zone. You will be attacked by waves of enemies as you make your way along, until eventually you will reach Barkhul, kill him and his many spawning monsters, and after that you will gain access to the grand arena.
In the area immediately go up and tag the waypoint. Then move down and left coming to and passing a grated door. There will be several hallways and arenas you must pass through until you come to one arena that contains three unique enemies, that could be considered mini-bosses, whilst they can deal large damage to you they are also relatively easy to defeat themselves. Go onwards to the next hallway and keep going until you find yourself in the final arena, get ready for your fight with Daresso. High movement speed as well as skill will seriously help the player in this encounter, particularly towards the end of the fight where Daresso will be moving at full speed him self. He attacks with numerous different moves and can be tricky to learn at first. Once defeated, claim your eye of desire reward and then head back to town. From town, use the waypoint back to the crystal veins, ready for the second dream.
Meet with Dialla, and give to her the eye of desire, next take the portal to Kaom's dream. Moving up and right, going up several flights of stairs until you come to the entrance of Kaom's stronghold. The stronghold is fairly similar to the zone you were just in, keep going through it in the same direction, occasionally having to wind round a bit and you will come to the boss King Kaom. King Kaom is fairly simple to defeat, he just has some fire attacks and a melee attack, also the ability to spawn in some more enemies but this should be fairly light work for a good player. Once you defeat Kaom, take the Eye of Fury and then head back to town. From town you should use the waypoint back to the crystal veins once again.
Belly of the Beast and Piety
Find Dialla and speak to her again, this time giving her the eye of fury, doing so will give access to the belly of the beast. The belly of the beast is a tunnel, with a large amount of dead ends and lots of different layouts, make sure to use the overlay map here as much as possible. You should try and move up and left as much as possible, keep going and you will reach the belly of the beast level 2. The second level is very similar to first but this time you should move more in a left direction until you reach Piety once again.
Fighting Piety isn't too tricky but can seem a bit confusing at first. She only performs either cleave, corrupted balls and corrupted beam and will remain in the middle of the room. Keep on the move as the beams can damage you quite a lot if you are hit by them. After you defeat her you can talk to her, after that move up through the rest of the zone until you reach the harvest.
The Harvest
Immediately go and tag the waypoint, near Piety (who will now help you). There are three mini-bosses and you must defeat them all. For the fight against Doedre Darktongue you should stand in the green aura area, this will have the effect of reducing your damage output, but it is preferable to the effects of the other auras. Maligaro, the Inquisitor can hit you with dangerous attacks so you should try and remain as mobile as you can for this fight. Lastly Shavronne of Umbra will attack you with many lightning based attacks, all of which you should try your best to avoid. You may wish to portal back to town in-between these fights and probably before you go on to face the act IV boss.
Malachai, the Nightmare
Malachai has a few phases, in the first one Piety will help you with weakening him. When you bring him down to 75% health, Malachai will corrupt Piety causing her to attack you again, you need to bring both their healths down together, when Malachai reaches 50% health you can finally defeat Piety. After the you can move to the final arena to face Malachai's last form. Hearts will also spawn as you lower his health, you must defeat these (in the order right, bottom and left) to keep damaging Malachai. Once you have defeated Malachai return to Highgate to receive your quest rewards.
Go to the top right of Highgate and then in this zone, the ascension, simply move up and right, crossing a bridge and then move along a passage by the cliff side. When you reach the top of this route you will find the resonator, after activating it you will have completed act IV, act V now awaits! Here you can also read: POE Efficient Act Guide: Act I, POE Efficient Act Guide: Act II, POE Efficient Act Guide: Act III... and buy 2020 poe currency on MMOEXP now, enjoy us.