Path of Exile News

2023 has been an amazing year for Path of Exile, with ExileCon 2023 being held in New Zealand, as well as reveals of Path of Exile 2 along with three full expansions for Path of Exile 1! Check out some of the statistics below, as we take a moment to look back at this eventful year.

• We launched three expansions: Crucible, The Trial of the Ancestors and Affliction
  
• We broke last year's concurrent player record of 270,260 with 321,180 players!
  
• We teased the Sorceress in Path of Exile 2 at Summer Game Fest, then the Monk at the PC Gaming Show shortly after that.
  
• We held ExileCon 2023, where players from around the world came to New Zealand to celebrate all things Path of Exile.
  
• We announced that Path of Exile 2 will be a separate game from Path of Exile 1, each with their own cycles.
  
• We flew to Germany to attend Gamescom, then to Seattle for PAX West to show off the Druid in Path of Exile 2.
  
• We revealed the Mercenary and announced WASD movement for Path of Exile 2.
  
• We revamped Breach and Abyss, overhauling how they work and changing almost every Breach and Abyss Unique Item.
  
• We introduced an auto-battler style game mechanic in Trial of the Ancestors.
  
• We introduced Tattoos and Omens into the game.
  
• We added the Forbidden Sanctum into the core game!
  
• We changed the Chaos Orb stack size from 10 to 20.
  
• We introduced some QoL to trades, such as holding Alt to see the total currency added to the trade window, and being able to split currency stacks while in a trade.
  
• We temporarily brought back the Lake of Kalandra and Recombinators in our Blast from the Past event.
  
• Ebin Ebon Evan Eben learned how to pronounce "attributes".
  
• Tane vanished from the Atlas. I wonder, is Tane still sane?
• We finally brought back Ultimatum!
  
• We've continued to finetune the balance of the Ruthless game mode.
  
• We held our very first Ruthless Solo Self-Found Boss Kill Event, with playlifee claiming first place and designing the Replica Dragonfang's Flight Unique Amulet as a result.
  
• We held another Boss Kill Event after that, with none other than Ben claiming first prize.
  
• We overhauled the Saboteur, Pathfinder, Chieftain and Guardian Ascendancies, giving them new tools to build around.
  
• We added both the Voidborne Reliquary Key and Valdo's Puzzle Box to the game, letting supporters leave their mark in Path of Exile.
  
• We updated Path of Exile's distance units to work with the Metric system.
  
• We introduced three new alternate Ascendancies in Affliction.
  
• We overhauled Skill Gems, giving a heaping ton of them one or more Transfigured versions, enabling more builds and ways to play.
  
• With the removal of Alternate Gems, we overhauled Heist and buffed all the Heist Base items, like the Simplex Amulet.
  
• We (kinda) buffed Cleave's radius to +0.1 metres to per 3 Rage.
  
• We posted news 371 times, with a first time temporary news break before ExileCon 2023.
  
• We posted approximately 3401 lines of Patch Notes, across 85 patches and hotfixes. We also posted approximately 1898 lines of Patch Notes on Console.
  
• And finally, we sold 185,132 Weta Pets!
  

A big thank you to everyone for playing Path of Exile and for your support. Here's to another year!

This weekend we are running a Wings and Back Attachment Sale! You can view the full selection by pressing M in game. The sale runs all weekend and ends at 4PM Monday January 1st 2024 PST.

Need some inspiration for your next look? Check out the screenshot below which features the Pandemonium Wings that are included in this sale, paired with the Pandemonium Armour Set, Pandemonium Hood and DeepWater Weapon.



In case you need points for this sale, we’d recommend checking out our new Core Supporter Packs!

Thank you so much for your support!

Are you looking for a new hideout, or maybe just some inspiration for your next design? Today we’ve gathered up a few hideouts from some creative Exiles for you to check out in the video below!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Here’s a list of the hideouts featured in the video (.hideout files are available for download)

Crimson Basilica by Max34
Wildwood Trail by Revan_Bane
Lump of Coal by Susihukka5
Knight’s Rest by Synopsis
Crimson Cathedral by Kwinnox

On the 27th of December at 4:30PM PST, Game Director Jonathan Rogers will join Kripparrian live on stream to talk about Path of Exile 2! If you're interested to find out more about Path of Exile 2 and what we've been cooking since the Mercenary reveal, make sure you tune in!

The Interview will be on Kripparrian's Twitch Channel, Kripparrian will be asking some questions from Twitch Chat, so we hope you join in if you've got a burning question about Path of Exile 2!

Don't forget, Jonathan's quite active in the Path of Exile 2 Subreddit and he's answered a lot of questions there already. Be sure to check it out!

If you're interested in finding out more about Path of Exile 2 and what we've been cooking since the Mercenary reveal, make sure you tune in! See you there!

Our Senior Narrative Designer, Matt, has taken a moment to reflect on writing for Affliction League. Here are his thoughts:

Designing the narrative for Affliction League was an exciting task, in that it was an opportunity to finally delve into multiple mysteries from other leagues. Mechanically, we don't do 'sequel leagues,' so it's always been tough to revisit previous league lore. This time, however, the placement and concept of the dark forest was perfect for touching upon other things we've set up in the past.

The first and most obvious connection is to Harvest league's Lifeforce colors. The initial mechanical concept for the dark forest involved collecting three different types of unknown resources—probably some sort of dust—for three different NPCs. As soon as I heard that, I knew it had to be the three colors we've already established as having to do with plants, growth, and nature on Wraeclast. Luckily, that suggestion stuck, and the artists took it from there. We also included Sacred energy as the color of the wisps helping you, and everything else started to come together from there.

It was pretty clear to me who made the Wildwood, given that it's underground and is heavily forest-themed. The league gained the internal name 'Azmeri' very early on. We also considered an Ezomyte direction, and I know many people are excited to see more of them, but this one wasn't a good fit for that culture. We are definitely eager to find a way to explore the Ezomytes more at some point.

Knowing that this was an Azmeri-themed concept gave clear cues for who the three NPCs might be, and several of the uniques and ascendancy passives flowed from that characterization. Notably, I was excited to delve into Maji lore, given that we briefly mentioned them in other places, but never expanded it in ways players could see. In terms of flavor, we decided on a Celtic theme pretty early on, too. There's a mix of Irish and Scottish inspired language and concepts with consistent alterations, and a few other cultures as well. It was definitely a treat digging into styles of mythos that we don't normally work with.

The King in the Mists was a surprisingly well-formed concept right from the start. Normally, it takes some time to figure out who an antagonist is, and what he might be like. This time, though, much of the league's dark eerieness stemmed from his unique look. We also knew he would be doing rituals and creating creepy totems right from the start. The voice actor, Josh Cramond, absolutely went all out in the recording session, mimicking the King in the Mists' memorable animations and giving the most energetic performance I've ever seen. That was an absolute blast to behold.

Many of the monsters also shared visual aspects with Gruthkul, so there was definitely an intentional connection there. That gave me an opportunity to flesh out more of her story beyond the handful of glyphs that appear in Act 7. Players may have noticed she was far less malevolent than the other gods, and now we get to see a bit more of that tragedy and how it played out.

Ultimately, I'm very happy with how we've integrated the Viridian Wildwood into Wraeclast as we know it. I've had to be very careful in this writeup to not give spoilers, but if anything you see or hear in Affliction League inspires you to wonder, you can bet we thought about it. This content is the most explicitly connected to other leagues we've ever done, as far as I can tell, and it's really exciting to make the overall picture more cohesive. I'm hoping we get to do more like this in the future. Stay tuned!