How to Craft Tailwind Boots in PoE (and Elevate Tailwind)

Goal

Tailwind boots, with an optional elevated Tailwind stage

Base

Retained boots: ilvl 86; disposable Hunter donor: target-tier minimum

Method

Alt/Aug → imprint → Regal → Dominance; merge variants below

In the app

Magic donor batches; separate Regal and capped Exalt stages

Checkpoint

Make the imprint before Regal; inspect influences before Dominance

Guide coverage

Tailwind preparation; one linked guide compares Onslaught, CDR and spectre donors

Tailwind is one of the best boot mods for crit builds. The modifier reads "You have Tailwind if you have dealt a Critical Strike Recently", and Tailwind grants 8% increased action speed. That makes everything faster, not just attacks or casts.

Three facts shape the whole craft:

• It only rolls on Hunter-influenced boots. Ilvl 75 unlocks Tailwind; it is a donor minimum, not our recommendation for finished endgame boots.
• It's a suffix. A magic item can hold one prefix and one suffix, so Tailwind and a movement-speed prefix fit on the same magic boots.
• It has an elevated version, reached with an Orb of Dominance. That's the endgame step, covered below.

Choose the boots you will keep

For boots you will wear or retain in an Awakener craft, start with ilvl 86 if you want natural 35% movement speed. The modifier data puts that prefix at 86. T1 suppression on eligible evasion boots starts at 85, but that does not unlock 35% movement speed.

Two-Toned Boots are an option when their resistance implicit and defence type suit your build, not a universal best base. An ES build should choose its ES base instead. Match the base, attributes and finishing modifiers before buying; see choosing crafting bases.

A disposable Hunter donor only needs the item level for the Tailwind tier you intend to transfer. Its defence base is much less important. With an Awakener's Orb, the first item is destroyed; the second keeps its base and item level. Use the cheap donor first and the prepared ilvl 86 boots second.

Step 1: land Tailwind with Alteration + Augmentation

This route leaves a magic base that can be imprinted. Compare total costs on your chosen base before committing.

1. Start with magic Hunter boots chosen for their donor or retained-base role above. Use an Orb of Transmutation on a white base, or Scour a rare one first.
2. Alteration until Tailwind appears.
3. If Tailwind rolled alone, an Augmentation fills the empty prefix slot.
4. No Tailwind? Alteration again.

Tailwind is the hard part; the prefix is a bonus. So you fish for the suffix and let the prefix follow.

For the suffix-lock imprint route, stop with Tailwind alone and leave the prefix empty for the lock. In the app, choose Keep one mod after a hit. Adding a random prefix is optional, not a prerequisite to elevating Tailwind.

Fossils need a separate calculation. Tailwind has no Speed tag, so Shuddering Fossil does not directly boost its weight just because Tailwind grants action speed. Fossils can change competing modifiers, but that is not a verified 10–50-attempt recipe. Simulate the exact base, item level and fossil combination first; a fossil reroll also leaves a rare item.

Where Exiled Bench comes in

Step 1 is repeated rolling and reading, which the app can automate. On its Items page:

1. Roll mode: Magic, On my cursor, Alt + Aug, and Single, or Stash to roll a tab of Hunter boots.
2. Set Augment → Always to fill an empty prefix on a Tailwind hit, or Until a hit to preserve a one-mod hit if Tailwind alone is the goal.
3. Target mods: open the Mod DB, filter Boots → your base → Hunter, pick Tailwind and Add.
4. Want a specific prefix alongside it? Set Stop when to One of each, with Tailwind in the first list and the prefixes you'd accept in the second. The run only stops when both are on the boots.
5. Set a Safety limit, press Arm, right-click (without pressing Shift) your Alteration stack in game, and press your start key.

It reads every result from the clipboard and stops the moment the boots match.

Step 2: elevated Tailwind, with imprints and an Orb of Dominance

Use an Orb of Dominance on rare Hunter boots with at least two influenced modifiers. It removes one and upgrades another. Tailwind must be at its highest normal tier to become elevated; upgrading a lower tier only advances that tier.

1. Roll magic boots with the required Tailwind tier and a Hunter prefix. A magic item cannot hold two suffixes. In the app, use One of each for Tailwind plus an acceptable influenced prefix.
2. Make a Craicic Croaker imprint of the magic, non-fractured boots.
3. Regal and inspect the result. Exactly two influenced mods gives the 50/50 selection chance; a third influenced mod changes the odds.
4. Use the Orb of Dominance. If Tailwind is removed, restore the imprint and make a new imprint before the next Regal.
5. Finish the successful rare by hand with bench crafts or metacrafting.

The imprint guide explains eligibility and a separate automatic Regal-only setup after the imprint. Exiled Bench can also add capped Exalts in an appropriate rare stage. Imprinting, influenced-mod inspection, Dominance and bench decisions remain checkpoints; a generic restart loop can Scour your progress.

Tailwind + Elusive: the double-influence classic

The other famous Tailwind boots pair it with Elusive on critical strike, a Redeemer mod. That craft uses an Awakener's Orb:

1. Roll Hunter boots with Tailwind as their only influenced mod. This is Step 1 above, and it's automatable.
2. Roll Redeemer boots with Elusive as their only influenced mod, the same way.
3. Use the Awakener's Orb on one pair and apply it to the other. The result is a rare with both influences and both mods, plus random others.

Both donor rolls are Alt + Aug spam, so both can run hands-free. See the influenced items guide for how the Awakener's Orb works.

Community crafts: which donor are you preparing?

The shared first step in these three walkthroughs is Alt-roll a Hunter base for Tailwind. What happens afterwards depends on the other mods your build needs:

• Onslaught + Tailwind + Elusive: the crafter prepares Redeemer Onslaught and Hunter Tailwind separately, elevates them and merges them with an Awakener's Orb. Elusive is added later with a suffix lock and a critical reforge. This is different from merging Tailwind with an Elusive donor in the simpler route above.
• Tailwind + cooldown recovery: the walkthrough also starts with Alt-rolled Tailwind, then prepares a separate CDR donor. Some variants use beast locks to preview the Awakener result; those are manual choices, not part of the app's rolling loop.
• +2 Raise Spectre gem levels + Tailwind: the reported craft prepares an Elder spectre base and a separate Alt-rolled Hunter Tailwind donor. The spectre preparation and finishing sequence differs from the Onslaught craft.

Where the app helps: roll the required magic donor batches to their chosen tier, then inspect them before the manual steps. A Tailwind hit is a prepared base, not finished triple-mod boots. The posts contain lucky results, historical prices and corrections in the comments; none is a fixed budget or guaranteed outcome. In the first post, “elevate Onslaught” in the Hunter step should read Tailwind. In the spectre thread, the orb that merges donors is the Awakener's Orb, not the Orb of Dominance.

For one shared donor-choice and merge workflow, follow the double-influenced Tailwind boots guide. It compares Redeemer Onslaught, Shaper or Crusader cooldown recovery and Elder Raise Spectre levels, then explains the complete Onslaught/Elusive finish. The Elder mod increases gem levels, not the maximum number of spectres. The CDR and Elder pairs have no Redeemer influence, so they cannot copy that Elusive finish.

Tips

• Check the base first. Tailwind won't roll on boots without Hunter influence, however many Alterations you throw at them.
• Set a Safety limit so a bad streak can't drain your whole stack.
• Batch donors separately. Cheap ilvl 75+ Hunter bases can be Tailwind donors. Finished boots need the right retained base and finishing tiers; a Tailwind hit alone does not make them sale-ready. Boots that already match are skipped.
• Make imprints before the Regal, not after. Once the boots are rare, an imprint can't be made.

Sources

• PoEDB: boot modifier data
• PoEDB: Tailwind
• PoEDB: Orb of Dominance
• PoEDB: Craicic Croaker
• GGG: 3.29 patch notes
• Reddit: completed Onslaught / Tailwind / Elusive craft and corrections
• Reddit: Tailwind / CDR crafting discussion
• Reddit: spectre / Tailwind crafting discussion