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Path of Exile News

Angels and Demons Effects on Sale This Weekend and the Dragon Apparition

Let a mythical creature guard your Exile with the Dragon Apparition Effect! This cosmetic microtransaction summons a graceful blue dragon above the head of your character. For a matching outfit try out a combination of the Revenant Armour Set with the Arcane Helmet, Ice Character Effect, Zenith Weapon, Stygian Weapon Effect and the new Arcane Celestial Shield. Watch the full video of the Dragon Apparition Effect below or click here to get yours.

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This weekend we're holding a sale for all cosmetic effects introduced in the recent Angels and Demons Mystery Box. There are more than 40 microtransactions available at discounted prices, including the epic Pandemonium Armour Set and the Horse Pets.

This sale will run from the time of this post until 7PM November 16th.

Check out the Angels and Demons Mystery Box trailer below to see everything that's available or click here to view the full selection of discounts.

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This is also the last weekend for the seasonal Halloween microtransactions! If you've been considering getting the Dancing Skeleton Pet or the Guillotine Portal, you have only a few days left to do so as these will leave the store on Sunday (NZT) and won't return until next Halloween! Check out the Halloween specials here.

By the way, the Racing Gauntlet community event starts in less than a day, on November 14th at 3:00PM (GMT)! During the next 10 days, players will compete and earn points in a Private HCSSF Heist League by levelling their characters and killing bosses. The winners will share a prize pool supplied by the community and sponsors as well as physical items and microtransaction prizes. We hope everyone who wanted to join managed to apply in time. Good luck!

Thank you for your support! Have a nice weekend!

Path of Exile Lore: Questions and Answers - Part One

We know that many of our players are interested in exploring Path of Exile lore. Over the years we've seen a lot of fan theories about the world of Wraeclast, from the Harbinger language to the true identity of the Strange Voice. Some time ago we received a bunch of lore questions from the community and asked our narrative designers to shed light on some of them.

[h2]Does the PoE calendar/calendar months (Lurici, Vitali, Verusi etc) match the real-world calendar?[/h2]
The calendar used by the Eternal Empire does not completely match what players know from their own lives. It has seven days of the week, but there are thirteen longer time spans known as moons.

The days of the week were generally named after the primary components of existence as the Eternals believed them to be: Solaro, Lunaro, Fiero, Glacio, Galvano, Kaso, Sacrato.

The thirteen moons of the year were generally created in honour of certain renowned figures, or naturally arose as part of the harvest cycle: Verusi, Divini, Derivi, Phreci, Caspiri, Astrali, Eterni, Atziri, Vivici, Lurici, Sagari, Vitali, Azmeri.

Both of these categories were subject to significant drift in meaning and spelling over the centuries.

[h2]Does the PoE world have seasons (spring/summer...)?[/h2]
Wraeclast does indeed experience seasons. Derivi emerged from a celebration of the harvests of the cooler season when the leaves turned vibrant colours and fell. Astrali was marked by the arrival of snow and the Aurora Astralis. Vivici brings a celebration of life returning to the land for the year, and Vitali was a time of heat and sun.

[h2]How did Veruso get the Ankh of Eternity? Did he find it or did someone give it to him?[/h2]
Much has been lost to history, but the Ankh of Eternity required what was described as ‘an Azmeri ritual’ to activate. It is a safe guess that the Azmeri already had it in their possession when Tarcus Veruso led them down into their new land. Inscriptions upon it described it as a gift from the Vaal to Veruso, but the Vaal had long been absorbed into the Azmeri culture and lineages at the time of his leadership. More likely, it was a gift from the 3,126 Vaal survivors of the Fall, given to the Veruso line, perhaps to one of Tarcus’ ancestors, as thanks for taking in the last remnants of their civilisation.

[h2]Where did all the Virtue Gems come from? Was the Beast the reason behind their creation? How many virtue gems are there?[/h2]
The Virtue Gems are all sourced from mines on Mount Veruso, under Highgate. It is impossible to be completely certain with the limited tomes I have available on the subject, but the Beast’s presence under that mountain and the fact that Virtue Gems cannot be found anywhere else in the world does indeed suggest a connection. The number of Virtue Gems in existence cannot be ascertained, any more than one might count the grains of sand on a beach.

[h2]Alano Phrecia 'Drove away the pervasive darkness', was that the Vaal Oversoul?[/h2]
The pervasive darkness that Alano Phrecia drove away is likely the same darkness that the exile releases in the Vaal Ruins near the Forest Encampment. The Vaal Oversoul was merely a construct built to house that darkness, like a massive totem.

[h2]Why was Eramir exiled?[/h2]
A memory found in the Archives may shed some light on this:

“I used to pride myself on taking care of these tomes, but the ancient treatises concerning the Vaal... should be burned. He's making me research for him, and the things I am reading about concern the destruction of all mankind.”

“I would think my fears of the end of the world are ridiculous... except... it's happened before. I must run... I must flee... and take my secrets with me.”

Zana had this to say about that memory: “I've never met him directly, but I think I know whose memory this was. It's someone Helena talks about: Eramir. I believe he lives with the Azmeri now.” It should be noted that Zana knew Eramir when she was very young, having called him ‘Uncle Eramir’ on at least one occasion, so she is likely correct that this was his memory. However, Zana never met him as an adult, so there’s no way to be sure.

If it was indeed Eramir’s memory, the ‘he’ that was making him research would definitely have been Dominus.

[h2]When asking an exile to bring the golden hand, Yeena says 'When the spirit of the altar awakes, I will share it with you.' Whose spirit was it? Whose altar is it? Why does she want it to be awoken?[/h2]
Yeena believes she is guided by what she calls the Spirit. She believes it is in all things. Here she is referencing generally the ‘spirit’ of the stones of the altar, the energy inside it, not a specific entity. She wants to awaken this altar because she believes the Spirit asked her to do so.

The Good Man was the Archbishop Geofri, who attempted to lead a purge against Maligaro and his Chamber of Sins centuries ago, but was defeated and killed. Later, Geofri reanimated as the large undead guarding that altar.

[h2]Did the ancient Azmeri descend from the mountains alongside Tarcus Veruso?[/h2]
The bulk of them did, and they founded the Eternal Empire. The Azmeri of the Forest Encampment did not do so, and are descendants of their original culture.

[h2]How exactly does the Vaal Oversoul set free? Why do we need the Apex if activating the seal seems to set it free?[/h2]
The darkness that ends up inhabiting the Vaal Oversoul was likely the same one imprisoned by the forces of Alano Phrecia. The exile breaks that seal in the Vaal Ruins near the Forest Encampment. Later, the Apex is used in a Vaal temple to summon the darkness into the Vaal Oversoul’s mechanical body so that it can be destroyed.

We'll post the second part of answers in the coming weeks. If you like Path of Exile's lore and want to know more about it, check out the series of videos by KittenCatNoodle here.






Microtransaction Concept Art

We've gathered several exciting microtransaction concepts, created by Yong Yi Lee, one of our concept artists.




If you'd like to see more of Yong Lee's works, check out his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Divination Card Stories - The Fool

In the second entry to our series revealing the backstories of supporter's Divination Card designs, we asked Jmatt to talk about the friendly rivalry that culminated in his Divination Card - The Fool.

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Let me start off by saying that it’s nice to see that a lot of Divination Cards created by the community represent something that is very meaningful and emotional to the creators of those cards. This, however, is definitely not one of those.

My journey into Path of Exile started near the end of the Alpha back in 2011. After finally getting a key from the randomized lottery on the main site me and a few buddies started playing the game on and off throughout the phases of the Beta until we finally started taking the game a bit more seriously in Nemesis League. This was the first time playing an ARPG in hardcore and there was something strangely addictive about losing your character over and over while slowly learning more about the game in the most brutal way possible. Something from there clicked and we would find ourselves putting way too many hours into the leagues over the years from then on.

One of these buddies, let’s call him Tom, took the game quite seriously. Even though we were playing the game cooperatively he would always somehow manage to sneakily push the game into a bit of a competition. We found ourselves racing for higher levels, pushing for more challenges, and seeing who could do more content than the other. We would never actually address this competition directly, but it was definitely implied through back-handed comments and subtle bragging league after league after league.

Although I trusted my superior Path of Exile ability, I needed a way to one-up Tom permanently so that this madness could finally be put to an end so I decided to go with the most obvious thing I could think of. That of course was spending a bunch of money to put him into a Divination Card that makes fun of him.

The title of the card is a homage to Tom that I think captures his personality quite accurately. I think most people that know him would describe him in a similar fashion. The artwork of the card is based off of a real picture of him I submitted. Although I never got a chance to thank them, GGG’s artists did a wonderful job converting it into Divination Card art. I was quite impressed seeing the finished product.

The card reward is a combination of two things. It is leftover from a different idea I originally had for a card where you would get a random amount of Chance Orbs (between 1 and 40) by turning in the set but this wasn’t feasible at the time. I stuck with Chance Orbs because I just really like Chance Orbs as I am somewhat of a gambling man. Also, there were no other Divination Cards at the time that solely gave Chance Orbs so I thought it would be a nice fit for the game. I considered thinking of some kind of item or currency that fits the joke better but I still wanted to make a Divination Card that is at least somewhat useful.

The flavor-text of the card is self-referential as it is describing Tom's downfall of being put into his own Divination Card. The “Learned Man” part is questionable but apparently Tom actually has a PhD in real life. I myself question the authenticity of it, to be honest.

The specifics of who ended up winning more of those competitions we had in Path of Exile over the years are irrelevant to the story. Please stop asking. The only thing that truly matters is that I came out ahead by cementing him into an embarrassing Divination Card. This was worth every penny.

Friendly competition aside, I still occasionally play Path of Exile with Tom and we actually flew to New Zealand last year and explored ExileCon together. There will probably be more back-handed comments and subtle bragging for a long time to come. Even though it was somewhat of a joke Divination Card it was quite an enjoyable experience creating it with GGG’s help and it was very fun to leave my small mark on the game.

Hideout Competition Highlights


We have even more highlights from our ongoing Hideout Competition to share with you! If you're working on a hideout for this competition, you only have one week left to finish and submit your entry! Check out the video below:
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Here are hideouts featured in this video: