In the complex crafting system of POE currency, creating a minion helmet on a medium budget can be a daunting task for many players. With the right approach and some fossil crafting, it is possible to make a very powerful minion helmet without breaking the bank. This comprehensive guide will walk through the step-by-step process to craft a minion helmet with +3 to level of socketed minion gems and other great mods.

Understanding the Basics of Fossil Crafting

• Fossil crafting allows you to target specific mods using different types of cheapest poe currency.
• For minion helmets, Bound Fossils give minion modifiers and Frigid Fossils give cold mods.
• Combining these fossils in a Potent Chaotic Resonator lets you repeatedly spam for good mods.
• With some luck, you can hit the combo of +3 minion gems and cold/minion supports.
• Having an open prefix is crucial for finishing the craft with a bench mod.

Choosing the Right Base Helmet

• You need an ilvl 86+ Elder/Shaper Bone Helmet as the base.
• The double influence allows rolling both cold and minion mods.
• ilvl 86+ gives access to the +3 minion gem mod.
• Bone Helmets have inherently useful stats for minion builds.
• You can buy a base or awaken any helmet into Elder/Shaper.

Step-by-Step Fossil Crafting Process

• Take your Elder/Shaper Bone Helmet and use Bound + Frigid fossils.
• You want to hit +3 minion gems, Hypothermia, and Minion Damage support mods.
• Cheapest poe currency takes around 100 fossil sets on average to hit the key mods.
• Don't worry too much about tiers of the support mods early on.
• Keep going until you also have an open prefix to finish the craft.

Finishing Touches with Bench Crafting

• Once you have the core mods and an open prefix, it's time to finish it off.
• You can safely Annul off bad extra mods if needed to open up the prefix.
• Craft +1 to Maximum Number of Zombies and +1 Maximum Skeletons.
• This vital mod pushes your minion count to the cap.
• Congratulations, you now have a powerful and cost-effective minion helmet!

Alternative Options for Min-Maxing

• If you want to maximize your helmet further, there are other options.
• Use Dense fossils to try hitting +1 to Active Skill Gems as well.
• T4 Aisling can add +2 to Support Gems in the helmet.
• Elevated +2 Support Gems is the ultimate but expensive goal.
• Consider using Perfect Fossils to improve quality after finishing the mods.

Tips for Harvest Crafting

• Harvest crafting allows you to modify mods in very targeted ways.
• You can add/remove specific modifiers including influenced mods.
• Very useful for fixing mods or rounding out resists on a helmet.
• Consider using "Reforge keeping Prefixes/Suffixes" to safely improve mods.
• Use with caution as there is still a chance to brick an cheapest poe currency.

Conclusion

With this comprehensive guide, you now have all the knowledge needed to craft a powerful and cost-effective minion helmet in Path of Exile on a medium budget. Fossil crafting combined with smart use of bench crafting and harvest options enables the creation of an incredibly strong helmet. Your minions will become more dominant than ever before with the damage and survivability boost from a well-crafted helmet. Happy crafting, exiles!