Strictness Explorer

Choose strictness for the task, not the name

Strictness describes how aggressively a filter reduces visible loot. It is not a game statistic or universal contract between filter authors. This explorer’s seven labels refer to this site’s original starter policies, not another provider’s filter or live market tiers. A developing character, a self-found crafter, and a well-equipped character on a focused route can rationally want different visibility.

The slider reads one row from the complete comparison table and displays its Shown, Highlighted, Hidden, and Suits descriptions. It does not accept a filter file, analyze your rules, measure drops, or change an installed filter. Copy result or Download result saves the displayed description as text; it is not an installable .filter file. Use the builder to produce an actual starter file.

Use controls to review a decision

Start at Soft and move Strictness level one step at a time. Read all four fields, especially Hidden. The table beneath the slider contains all seven descriptions and remains useful if you prefer scanning the whole scale. Result updates as you move the slider. Reset returns it to default; Undo can restore a previous changed input. These controls only affect the browser view.

Write down an item you currently want to pick up, then ask whether chosen policy could conceal it. A label saying Very Strict is not enough information. Check exact condition and place in generated filter. The builder’s preset choice replaces category styles, so keep a separate revision before trying another preset. A manual category Hide is a different, much broader choice than these built-in preset hides.

What seven presets actually change

Soft shows all starter categories with quiet 32px labels and no alerts or icons. Regular still shows all categories but emphasizes currency at 36px with an icon and no alert. Semi-Strict still hides nothing: it emphasizes currency and progression categories at 40px with alerts. Moving among these first three changes attention, not visibility. If you are overwhelmed by sounds rather than labels, quieter styling may be better than hiding items.

Strict introduces a narrow Hide: Normal body armour with ItemLevel below 30. Very Strict raises that boundary to below 60. Uber Strict hides Normal and Magic body armour below 60. Uber Plus Strict hides Normal and Magic body armour below 75. Rare and Unique body armour are not hidden by these preset rules. Other starter categories remain shown by preset, and generator ends with a Show fallback for unmatched items. These are item-level thresholds, not character-level or current-value thresholds.

In builder-generated text, a preset Hide appears before category Show blocks. A later Show for equipment does not undo an earlier terminating match. Conversely, choosing Hide yourself on an equipment category creates a broad category Hide and is not equivalent to the narrow preset. Review both preset description and manual category switches before installing an export.

A concrete boundary check

Suppose you choose Strict and leave builder categories at defaults. In generated PoE 1 or PoE 2 starter policy, a Normal body armour item with ItemLevel 29 matches the preset Hide condition. A Normal body armour at ItemLevel 30 does not match the less-than-30 Hide and proceeds to the equipment category Show, provided its class matches the starter dataset. Magic, Rare, and Unique body armour do not match Strict’s Normal-only Hide. The slider displays policy description, not item-by-item verdicts. Check generated rules and use Item Tester with complete copied English text for an individual supported-path trace.

At Uber Strict the difference is more consequential: a Magic body armour with ItemLevel 59 meets the preset exclusion while one at 60 does not. The test is ItemLevel, not the name of a campaign area. If your crafting project requires a low-level base, even a numerically correct Hide can be wrong for you. Return to a permissive preset or make a carefully reviewed exception in a custom file; do not assume the slider knows your project.

Interpret displayed result

Set the slider to Semi-Strict: the result lists all starter categories as Shown, currency and maps or waystones as Highlighted, and Nothing as Hidden. It gives an example audience. Nothing hidden means this original preset adds no Hide rules; it does not describe an arbitrary downloaded filter. Moving to Strict changes Hidden to Normal body armour below ItemLevel 30. Copying the result creates a description for revision notes, not executable filter syntax. Save actual builder export separately if you intend to install rules.

The complete table is a cross-check when the slider feels like a ladder of prestige. Compare Shown and Hidden cells for adjacent rows, then decide whether the newly hidden class is a drop you still inspect. A player who wants quieter labels but needs low-level bases might choose Regular instead of Strict and adjust styling independently. The move from Semi-Strict to Strict is not a price optimization: no price feed or personal inventory is involved.

Choose by observed pickup habits

During an ordinary session, note labels you consistently ignore and labels you use for upgrades, crafting, or another character. Separate items you skip because inventory is full from items you have no use for. Only the second observation strongly supports hiding a category. List occasional needs too: a base you want later can disappear from a count of recent pickups. A self-found player’s utility need can matter more than resale value.

Change one policy at a time. Save an old export with clear game and revision name, then export a new one from builder and compare exact rules. Review new Hide lines before colors. Test representative wanted items and boundary cases; a clean-looking ground can mean something useful was hidden. Keep earlier file available for rollback until client confirms your assumptions. Returning to Soft for a new character is maintenance, not a failure to progress.

Where comparison stops

This descriptive slider cannot inspect a third-party filter, report that your own file is ‘Uber’, or tell you what a drop sells for today. If you have an existing filter, use Filter Rule Explorer to browse its actual Show and Hide blocks by line number and instruction keyword. That separate tool indexes supplied text rather than classifying it as one of these presets or evaluating an item. Compare old and revised text with Filter Compare instead of using slider labels as a surrogate diff.

The scale does not install anything. To implement a policy, open Loot Filter Builder, select right game and preset, review generated Hide blocks, then download and install that file. The item tester can trace a supported copied item through the actual text. If a wanted resource vanishes, restore less restrictive revision while investigating; fewer visible drops are not proof that fewer dropped.

Questions before escalating

Is Semi-Strict the default recommendation? No. Here it hides nothing but increases alerts. Start with visibility and sound you need, not prestige of a name. Does a higher level increase drops? No. Filters alter presentation, not loot generation. Can I use one level in both games? Pursue the same goal but export each game’s dataset separately and check actual class rules. Why do I still see low-level items? Preset hide is limited to Normal or Magic body armour at specified item levels; other categories and unmatched classes remain visible unless you made manual changes.

Next steps

Read the strictness selection guide for a pickup audit and the safe edit guide before adjusting a live file. Consult the PoE 1 guide or PoE 2 guide for game-specific planning. A preset overview is not an economy ranking or game-client acceptance test; important exclusions need checking against generated text and in the client.

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