Does anyone with experience designing hideouts want to take me under their wing?

Hey there!

I think the hideouts in PoE look super cool and my head spins trying to figure out how a custom hideout was actually a completely different map.

Enter the idiot.

I tried to find layouts online but I didn't have all of the stuff they wanted me to. I also tried to just make my own from the ground up but.. like.. WOW I am goodn't. It's all terrible, it looks like an infant drew a picture of their mom except it's a grown ass man that should know better- they are so bad I hate it lol.

I'm not sure if anyone would want to, but knowing myself I usually jump at the opportunity to help people with hobbies I like.. So maybe there's some people with that same mentality here?

I don't really know how I'd ask for help but I feel like someone not brain dead like myself looking at the hideout might have better ideas. If not that's totally okay too, thanks for considering it at least.

Every hideout decorator was there once, don't worry. I remember in the beginning my 'hideout' was a mess of various decoration experiments for a long time. I've only just plucked up the courage to post anything to the forum (here, if interested: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2905917; I'll also happily show you round and explain how I did things if you like).

Along the way I found some useful resources, this thread listing most of the good ones: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1186285, although it is a little old now. PathOfDerrok's Hideout Decorations University is especially worth a look, but the main thing I took away from it is experiment, experiment, experiment. There are so many different decorations with so many different options within them: take some time to get to know them. A lot of useful ones can be hidden in unlikely places; tiny-cost, tiny size decorations can be as handy as the big, expensive pieces, if not more so.

Decorations can also be placed over one another to create custom, compound decorations - testing out combinations is the only way to figure out what you like/what looks cool.

Lighting plays a huge role in creating effects and setting mood, especially in interior areas.

Example - spore pods are insanely useful: for a mere 140 favour cost from Jun, you have 12 varieties. Within this, you get a soft light source in a choice of blue, green or off; little puffs of spores given off and various size clusters. Because they're so small, you can hide them inside/under/behind other things. Now you can highlight/illuminate things, colour a water pool, naturalise edges... hide them in a rock and maybe that puff of spores is a now thermal vent, etc.

On hideout bases: judge a base area not by its size, appearance or default decorations but by its shape (particularly verticality) and any unique defining features you might want to work with. Two of my hideouts ended up built in areas I initially considered 'small and useless' - smaller can be better especially for full conversions (and favour cost).

Lastly, make sure you level up all your masters to maximum if you haven't already! They have a tonne of decorations to have fun with without needing MTX and most hideouts will consist mostly - if not entirely - of these. I'd also recommend farming up at least a million favour with which to obtain them, plus keeping an eye on Global 820/Trade 820 for people sharing rare bases.