Path of Building · Stage 01 · Export · PoE 1 and PoE 2
How to Import a PoE Ninja Build Into PoB
The whole handoff is one long string of characters. Copy it from a character page, paste it into the right box in Path of Building, and an entire character arrives: tree, gems, gear, ascendancy. The two places people lose an hour are pasting it into the wrong box, and trusting the damage number that appears afterwards.
On a character's page, find the option to copy its Path of Building code. In Path of Building, open the Import/Export Build tab and paste it into the box that imports from a code, not the one that imports from a website account. Confirm, and the character loads.
Then stop before reading any damage figure. The import brings the character across faithfully. It does not bring across which setup you actually play, what fight you are in, or which buffs are up. All three are yours to set, and all three move the number more than most gear swaps.
Two ways in, and when each is the right one
Both routes end with the same character loaded. They differ in what they need from you and in what they can reach.
Route A · recommended
Copy the code from the character page
A build overview generates a Path of Building code for any character it lists. You copy that string and paste it in. Nothing needs to know who you are, and it works for any listed character, not just your own.
- Works for other people's characters
- No account details involved
- Fails only if the string gets damaged in transit
Route B · for your own
Import straight from your account
Path of Building can pull a character directly from the official site using an account name and character name. This skips the copy step entirely and is the cleaner option for your own builds, provided your characters are publicly visible.
- Only reaches accounts with public characters
- Always current, with no stale code to re-copy
- Depends on the official site being reachable
If your characters are not public, Route B will not find them, and that same setting is one of the reasons a character does not show in build overviews in the first place.
What is actually in that string
Almost nobody explains this, and it is the part that makes every failure make sense. The code is not a link and not an ID pointing at a server. It is the entire character, compressed and written out as text. Click through the layers.
Sample content written for this page. Real codes run to several thousand characters.
The import, step by step
Written so it survives interface changes: what you are looking for, rather than where a button sat on the day this was written.
Get the current Path of Building first
Use the community fork, which is the actively maintained one. An outdated copy is the single most common reason an import loads but reads wrong: a code produced after a passive tree revision cannot be understood by a build that predates it.
Path of Exile 2 uses a separate application. Codes are not interchangeable between the two, and pasting one into the other fails rather than partially working.
Catch If the tree looks scrambled or nodes appear unallocated, check your version before suspecting the code.Copy the code from the character page
On the character you want, look for the option to copy its Path of Building code. Take the whole thing. It is one continuous run of characters with no spaces and no line breaks, and it is long enough that partial selection is easy to do by accident.
Catch Do not route it through a chat window. Some apps insert line breaks or trim long strings, and the code arrives quietly broken.Open the Import/Export Build tab, and find the right box
This is the step the guide title is really about. That tab contains more than one import path, and they want different things. One imports a build from a code: that is yours. Another imports from a website using an account and character name, which will do nothing useful with a pasted code.
Paste into the code box and confirm. The character loads into whichever build is currently open, so start a new build first unless you meant to replace what you had.
Catch Pasting a code into the account field is the most common failed import, and the error it produces rarely says so.Check which skill it thinks is the main one
Before anything else, look at the skill selection. Imported characters frequently arrive pointed at the wrong setup, because the main skill was never declared by the player in the first place. A six-link swap weapon can carry the label, which is covered in how the main skill is selected.
Everything downstream depends on this. A damage figure calculated against a boss swap tells you nothing about the build's mapping performance, and vice versa.
Catch Both weapon sets come across. Make sure you are reading the one the character actually plays.Open the configuration before you read a single number
The configuration describes the fight: enemy level, boss presets, resistances, whether your buffs are running, whether your flasks are up, whether charges are held. Imported builds arrive at defaults, which almost never match the situation you care about.
This is where the gap between a listed damage figure and your own result comes from, and it is the whole reason the highest DPS build may not be the best one.
Catch Conditional buffs stay off until you switch them on. Nothing can know what you sustain during a real fight.Compare against your own build under matching settings
Import your own character too, then set both to the same configuration before comparing anything. Two builds under different assumptions produce two numbers that cannot be subtracted from each other in any meaningful way.
Damage is only half of it. Effective health, mitigation layers and recovery decide whether a build survives long enough to deal that damage, as covered in comparing build defences.
What travels, and what quietly does not
The import is faithful about objects and silent about intent. Knowing which side of that line something falls on saves a lot of confusion.
Comes across
- The full passive tree, including jewel sockets and their contents
- Class, ascendancy and character level
- Every equipped item with its actual rolled modifiers
- All gem links in every socket group, in both weapon sets
- Gem levels and quality as they currently are
Does not
- Which setup the player actually uses, versus which is a swap
- A configuration that reflects any real fight
- Flask, buff and charge uptime as it happens in play
- What the build cost, or which items are the expensive optional ones
- Anything about the league, the economy, or how it was funded
For the cost side, the build cost calculator totals a gear list before you commit, and why expensive builds dominate rankings explains why an imported ladder character usually costs more than it looks.
When it fails, it fails in five ways
Symptom first, since that is what you actually have in front of you.
Symptom The code is rejected outright
Nearly always a damaged string. Something trimmed it, wrapped it, or added a stray character on the way through a chat app, a note, or a browser extension.
Fix: copy it again directly from the character page and paste straight into Path of Building with no stop in between.
Symptom It imports, but the tree looks wrong
A version mismatch. The code was written against a newer passive tree than your copy of Path of Building understands, so nodes land in the wrong places or fail to allocate.
Fix: update to the current community release and import again. Do not try to fix the tree by hand.
Symptom Gear slots arrive empty
Usually the character genuinely had nothing there when the snapshot was taken, or an item could not be parsed. Newly added uniques and unusual modifiers are the common culprits after a patch.
Fix: check the character page itself. If the item is visible there but missing after import, it is a parsing gap rather than your mistake.
Symptom The damage number looks absurd
Either the wrong skill is selected, or the configuration is at defaults. Both are normal for a fresh import and neither is a fault in the build.
Fix: set the main skill, then open the configuration and describe the fight you actually care about.
Symptom Nothing happens for a Path of Exile 2 character
The two games use separate applications and separate build formats. A PoE 2 character cannot be loaded into the original Path of Building.
Fix: use the Path of Exile 2 version of the tool. See the Path of Exile 2 guides for what else differs.
The habit that makes importing worth doing
Importing one character tells you what one funded player owns. Importing three running the same skill tells you what the build is. Whatever appears in all three is the core; whatever appears in one is that player's budget, and you can usually skip it without losing the build.
Do that before you spend anything, and the overview stops being a shopping list and becomes what it is actually good for: a way of seeing which pieces are load-bearing. It pairs directly with filtering the builds section properly, since the three characters you open are only as useful as the filter that produced them.
Common questions
Do I need an account anywhere to import a build?
Not for the code route. The string contains the whole character, so nothing needs to identify you. Importing directly from an account is the other route, and that one needs the characters on that account to be publicly visible.
Does an import code expire?
No. It is a snapshot written out as text, not a link to anything, so it keeps working indefinitely. It also stops reflecting the character the moment that player changes anything, which is the trade-off.
Which box do I paste it into?
The one that imports a build from a code, inside the Import/Export Build tab. The import-from-website option in the same area wants an account and character name instead, and a pasted code does nothing there.
Why is the damage completely different from the figure I saw listed?
Different configurations pointed at different targets. A listed figure is calculated under one set of assumptions, and your freshly imported copy starts at defaults. Match the configuration on both sides before treating the gap as meaningful.
Can I import a Path of Exile 2 character into the original Path of Building?
No. The games use separate applications and separate formats, and codes are not interchangeable. Use the Path of Exile 2 version of the tool.
The build imported but is set to a skill the character clearly does not use.
That is expected often enough to check every time. Main skill is inferred from gem setups rather than declared, so a swap weapon or a trigger setup can end up selected. Change it manually after importing.
Is Path of Building safe to install, and does it cost anything?
It is free and open source, maintained by the community rather than by Grinding Gear Games. Get it from the project's own repository rather than a mirror, and nothing is hosted or distributed from this site.
Where to go next
Path of Building guide
Configuring the build once it is imported, and reading what comes out.
Why it mispicksHow the main skill is selected
Why your swap weapon setup gets reported as your primary skill.
Then compareComparing builds
Putting two builds side by side under assumptions that actually match.
Also useful: reading build data, how ladder filters change results, character listing, common mistakes, the glossary, and the tools.
Poeninjaa.com is an independent educational website. This product is not affiliated with or endorsed by Grinding Gear Games or poe.ninja. Path of Building is a free, open source community project, not made by Grinding Gear Games and not hosted here. Interfaces and version requirements change, so this guide describes what to look for rather than where a control sat on a given day.
Path of Exile and Path of Exile 2 are trademarks of Grinding Gear Games. Sample code content on this page was written for illustration and is not a real build. For live build data, visit poe.ninja directly, and get Path of Building from its own repository. Something out of date here? Tell us and it gets fixed and logged under our corrections policy.
