Some Path of Exile 2 secrets are hidden in plain sight, and the Depleted Mana Rune is a good example. It looks like a strange one-off drop until you learn that it opens the route to Runeseeker's Call, a unique Runic Fork Wand with serious appeal for rune and mana builds. The catch is that this is not a quest you can brute-force with normal gear. You will probably need a stash of spare equipment, a few passive changes, and perhaps some POE 2 Currency to make the mana check less painful. It is a character-bound chase, too, so it pays to slow down when the rune appears rather than treating it like vendor trash.

Where the Rune Comes From

The first job is getting into Expedition endgame content and finding Uhtred, the Stardrinker. He is the source of the Depleted Mana Rune, and the item is rare enough that plenty of players will clear Expedition encounters for quite a while before seeing one. When it does drop, keep it. Do not sell it, do not throw it into a random stash tab and forget about it. Speak to Farrow after picking it up, since that conversation points the quest in the right direction. The rune can only be obtained once per character through this route, which makes the decision a bit more important than it first seems. You are not farming a pile of copies for every build. You are setting up one reward, on one character, and the next stage asks for a very specific kind of preparation.

Charging the Rune

The Depleted Mana Rune becomes an Infused Mana Rune only when your character has 10,000 current Mana. Current Mana matters. It is not enough for a build planner to show 10,000 as a theoretical maximum if your mana globe is not actually at that number when you use the item. Once you have reached the threshold, right-click the rune in your inventory to charge it. That sounds simple, but this is where most attempts go wrong. A player may swap in mana gear, check the character sheet, then spend mana on an aura, a movement skill, or a cast before clicking the rune. Suddenly the total is below the line. If you are relying on a temporary Mana Overflow effect, use it first, make sure the bonus is active, and click the rune straight away. It is worth clearing your inventory and doing this in a quiet hideout. No distractions, no monsters, no accidental skill use.

Building a Temporary Mana Setup

For most characters, 10,000 Mana is not a normal number. A mana-stacking caster may be close already, but attack builds and conventional life-based setups usually need a temporary rebuild. Start with the obvious pieces: rings, amulets, armour, weapons, and other slots carrying flat maximum Mana or large percentage increases. Intelligence is useful as well, especially when several gear pieces can contribute at once. Then look at your passive tree. A few mana clusters can be enough if you were already near the target; if you are nowhere close, it may take a more committed respec. Energy Shield-to-Mana interactions can help certain builds bridge the gap, though they are not automatically the best answer for everyone. Players often overcomplicate this part. You do not need to create a perfect endgame mana character. You only need a setup that hits 10,000, holds it long enough to use the rune, and can be dismantled afterwards. Borrowed gear, cheap trade purchases, and crafted filler items are all fair game.

Collecting the Wand and Making It Work

Take the Infused Mana Rune back to Farrow to receive Runeseeker's Call. The wand is the reason the whole detour exists. Its five Augment Rune sockets give it a different sort of flexibility from a standard unique weapon, and its rune-focused bonuses can scale well when the socket choices match the rest of your character. It is especially interesting for spellcasters that already value Mana, but it is not a wand you should equip blindly just because it is rare. Check what each socket can do for your actual skill setup. Some players will get more from damage-oriented runes; others may prefer cast speed, defensive utility, or effects that improve consistency in longer fights. Runeforging can add another layer of value through implicit modifiers, so the first version of the wand is not always the finished version. Before spending heavily, test it in the content you actually run. A weapon that looks great in a tooltip can feel awkward if it disrupts your resistances, attributes, or cast rhythm.

Final Thoughts

The Depleted Mana Rune quest rewards preparation more than raw luck. Uhtred has to drop the item, but the real hurdle is arranging that 10,000-Mana moment without wrecking your usual build. Keep temporary mana gear ready, double-check that your pool is full, and do not let an Overflow buff expire while the rune is sitting in your inventory. If respeccing or buying a few stopgap pieces is the cleanest route, cheap POE 2 Currency can make that short-term setup easier to manage before you swap back. Once Farrow hands over Runeseeker's Call, you have a distinctive wand to experiment with rather than another ordinary boss drop.