Path of Exile 2 players are calling foul on Elon Musk's high-level hardcore character after he streams his struggles with core game mechanics
As we've reported previously, despite holding executive roles in multiple major corporations and undertaking the busy work of burrowing himself in incoming political regimes, Elon Musk manages to find time to boast some impressive gaming laurels, claiming to hold high placements in Diablo 4 leaderboards and Path of Exile 2 hardcore league rankings. This week, those claims are being called into doubt, as PoE 2 streamers and subreddit sleuths analyze a recent stream in which Musk seemed to fumble over basic gameplay mechanics.
On January 7, Musk streamed an hour and a half of Path of Exile 2 gameplay on his current level 95 hardcore character. In PoE 2, surviving into higher levels in the hardcore league, regardless of ladder placement, is an impressive feat: As you progress, the game stacks layers of enemy modifiers, damage resistance reductions, and hazardous tileset modifiers, and dying once in hardcore means your character is toast. Getting a hardcore character into the 80s is impressive; getting one high enough into the 90s to place high on the hardcore ladder is a feat of skilled gameplay and buildcraft.
The gameplay on display in viewer-recorded VODs of the stream, however, is… well, not that.
Odd signs begin appearing as early as 18 minutes into the stream, when Musk enters his character's stash to reveal a tab that's been named «Elon's map.» Considering the other tabs aren't labeled «Elon's currency» or «Elon's catalysts,» the tab sticks out. Someone of a conspiratorial persuasion might see it as an indicator that, perhaps, another individual had curated the tab's selection of map-generating waystones for ease of gameplay—like if you wanted to be able to show off your high level character without a real risk of getting it killed.
But maybe it was just a fun little way for Musk to brighten up his own day. Who can say what affectations delight the hyper-wealthy?
Things spiral from there. Musk's clearspeed is halting. His movement, at times, seems random. At one
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