Corruption and Irreversible Choices
Understand why corruption is a final-state decision in Path of Exile 2 and how a Vaal Orb combines unpredictable change with the loss of ordinary future modification.
The gamble changes both the item and what you can do afterward.
Path of Exile 2 describes the Vaal Orb as modifying an item unpredictably and corrupting it. The directions then state that corrupted items cannot be modified again. The outcome and the permanent lock are one combined decision.
Corruption sits outside the incremental upgrade path.
Transmutation, Regal, and other currencies can form a sequence of ordinary item decisions. Corruption ends that sequence. Once the Vaal Orb is used, the source record does not offer a normal follow-up correction step, so the item should be treated as finished before the gamble begins.
Risk only an item you can accept as final.
Finish the item's normal upgrade plan, judge its current usefulness, and decide whether the possible unpredictable change justifies losing further modification. Include the value of the prepared item—not only the Vaal Orb—in the decision.
Corruption is not a reversible preview. Do not promise a beneficial outcome, and do not imply that ordinary crafting can repair an undesirable result afterward. Any detailed outcome table must come from a separately verified source.