Announcements

If you've ever wanted to solve your problems with an unreasonable number of exploding frogs, this build may be exactly what you're looking for.

Doedre's Undoing is a Lineage Support Gem that transforms curses into areas of cursed ground. While enemies standing within these areas become cursed, the real attraction is that they also begin spawning Witchtoads. These amphibious allies leap toward nearby enemies before exploding in a burst of Chaos damage, making them the true stars of the build.

Watch the full Build of the Week video below to see Yuzo TV's Frogmancer in action!

▶Watch on YouTube

Thanks to Yuzo TV for putting this build together. For more information, refer to their video here.

See you next time!

This week's microtransaction releases are here! Featuring the Verisium Effect Bundle and Wendigo Spear Skill Effect Bundle. Check them out in this news post.

A handful of exciting new microtransactions have arrived in the Path of Exile 2 shop this week. In case you missed them, here's a quick look at what's available. You might just find the perfect finishing touch for your build.

First up is the Verisium Effect Bundle.

Perfect for Runeseekers, this collection pairs especially well with the Knight of Aldur Armour Set for those of you who have completed your challenges and earned the set.

Coat your weapon in living Verisium with the Verisium Weapon Effect. Harness your runic knowledge to summon a portal formed from arcane liquid Verisium, or envelop yourself in ancient power with the Verisium-infused Dodge Roll Effect.

For spear-wielders, the Wendigo Skill Effects let you channel the raw, dark power of the primal Bodach itself. Transform your Twisters, Whirling Slashes, and Whirlwind Lances with savage, spectral energy and a feral dark fantasy aesthetic.

Both the Verisium Effects and Wendigo Spear Skill Effects are available individually, or in discounted bundles if you're looking to complete the set.

Check out the cosmetics roundup in the video below, or visit the shop to learn more.

▶Watch on YouTube

Today’s forecast in Wraeclast calls for a light fog, widespread Chaos Tornados, and an encroaching darkness expected later this afternoon.

Using a mix of unbridled chaos and varied Uniques, FlickerSlide’s Monk build unleashes a storm of purple tornados. Check it out in the video below.

▶Watch on YouTube Thanks to FlickerSlide for putting this build together. For more information, refer to their video here.

See you next time!

Path of Exile 2 loading screens feature artwork created by the talented artists on our team. We've gathered a collection of high-resolution loading screen artwork from Acts One through Four, along with the art for each Ascendancy Class and artwork from other content, that you can use as desktop wallpapers.

We've put together versions of these wallpapers in 1920x1080, 2560x1040, and 3840x2160, all of which you can download here.

You no longer need to download build files! We've implemented a new feature that allows you to subscribe to build guides on the website and receive all updates automatically in the game on both PC and Consoles.

If you want to upload your own builds, click here!

▶Watch on YouTube

Microtransaction Roundup - Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients

We've released a range of new cosmetics following the launch of Return of the Ancients.

Embrace the night with the Vampire's Portal and matching Weapon Effect, and complete the look with the Blood Moon skill set. For something a little more playful, transform into a panda with the Panda Bear Shapeshift Effect.

The Vaal Chronoseer collection has also expanded with new Temporal Chains and Blink effects, while Mercenary players can outfit their lightning-based crossbow skills with the new Sulphite Skill Effects.

Poison-focused archers can take advantage of the Night Lotus Skill Effects, Bow, and Quiver, while spellcasters looking for a darker aesthetic can explore the new Darkshard Elemental Skill Effects, featuring striking red, black, and purple visuals across a range of lightning skills.

Check out the cosmetics roundup in the video below, or visit the shop by pressing M while in-game to check out the new items.

▶Watch on YouTube

Introducing the Stag Launcher! This Spirit Walker build by Phylaris invests fully into the Vivid Stampede ascendancy skill, using dodge-roll and grenade shenanigans to pull it off. Check it out!

▶Watch on YouTube

Thanks to Phylaris for putting this build together. Check out their video here for more information.

See you next time!

The first two weeks of Return of the Ancients have come and gone, leaving behind a trail of triumphs and hard-fought battles. Together with Lily, our Data Analyst, we've unearthed a collection of highlights that capture the scale of the journey so far. Check out this snapshot of sacrifices made, legends forged, and the most-used skills:

The Return of the Ancients has left a staggering toll across Wraeclast.

• Players opened 219,088,375 Waystones and completed 6,187,370 Unique Maps. Over 8 Trillion Gold was collected.
• 262,915,249 Tablets were used when activating Waystones, with 59,115,949 of them being Abyss Tablets.
• 1,633,511 Maps were overrun by the Abyss, and 1,290,936 Corrupted Nexuses were cleansed.
• Yet every triumph came at a cost. Across the Standard leagues, 170,236,613 Exiles were slain, while 178,753 brave souls met their end in Hardcore.
• The most-played Ascendancies were the Martial Artist, Spirit Walker, and Deadeye, leading the charge against the darkness.
• As for the Arbiter of Divinity, the celestial being was struck down 1,249,367 times, proving that even divine power can be challenged.

Most-Used Skills Across All Realms

• Barrage
• Frost Bomb
• Whirling Slash
• Ice-Tipped Arrows
• Twister

Top 5 Deadliest Bosses

• Arbiter of Ash - 3,516,457 Exiles slain
• Arbiter of Divinity - 2,789,506
• The Bodach - 1,519,439
• Count Geonor (Western Enigma) - 1,284,693
• The Vessel of Kulemak - 909,001

Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients features an all-new collection of music from our talented audio team. Discover the full playlist from Kamil Orman-Janowski and Michael James Collier, or check out the highlights below!

▶Watch on YouTube ▶Watch on YouTube

Yesterday, Game Directors Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts sat down with Community Streamer Zizaran to discuss Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients, its new content and some of the many secrets.

If you missed it, check out the VOD below.

▶Watch on YouTube

The opening weekend of Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients is finished, so it's time to take stock and talk about what we are working on, and what still needs to be improved.

The main issues that we were focusing on over the weekend were a significant number of progression blocking bugs in endgame quests. If you run into these, it effectively ends your progress, so they are rated as incredibly critical.

Almost all the progression blockers we know about have now been fixed, but sometimes it's not incredibly clear in the hotfix notes, so if you did get stuck, we would encourage you to try again. In some cases the fixes might require you to rerun some content.

We are also working through the list of the most common crashes that players experience. We have made a pretty good headway here already, but there are still more fixes to make.

In addition to these simple bug fixes though, there are a few other things we are looking to address over the next week.

General Endgame

• We are adding a large number of new atlas tree nodes which add more content to specific biomes. Once we add them, the points for these nodes will be added to existing maps, so you will get them automatically if you have already completed those maps.
• There is currently a bug where you can't independently map from two different hideouts while in a party.
• The atlas will remember where it was opened to if you reopen it in the same area.
• Some players experience a black screen during quest events that open the atlas. We are investigating the cause of this.

Ritual

• When doing the Rite of the Nameless you can currently change your mind about which maps you picked. This allows you to potentially see more mods than if you didn't do that. This isn't as bad as it first appears because all the mods that you can see are prerolled, and it only selects in that set, but technically it's advantageous to do this. We will be changing the system to effectively lock in each choice.
• It's currently possible to get 100% ritual reroll cost reduction. This mechanic is still limited by the number of rerolls you can do per area, but it's possible through various mechanics to legitimately increase this to fairly high values. We will be capping this stat to 90% for safety.
• We are turning off the knockback on the Blood Waves ritual mechanic.
• The Mysterious Rites node needs a buff to its rewards.

Delirium

• Currently it's possible to fail a Delirium by moving forward too quickly, especially if the fog is paused by doing another league mechanic. We will make this no longer possible.

Breach

• Breach hive colony monsters are getting stuck and not pathing sometimes. This often results in the combat of these encounters being very underwhelming.
• The Tear Open The Rift notable will be made multi choice and have another bonus added as it's not always good for all players.
• Instead of replacing the Rare monsters in Stabilised Breaches, Vruun will now spawn after you have defeated them. This means that getting Vruun will not compromise your investment into rare monsters.

Runes of Aldur

• We are turning off the knockback on the Tidal Waves runeshape mechanic.
• The Pinnacle boss uniques that are crafted from Ore are currently not set to the correct item level. This means that the skills are lower level than was intended.

Character Balance and Fixes

• Some extra quality stats on gems that came from the Gemling Legionnaire were missing descriptions, or had incorrect descriptions. These are getting fixed.
• We are adding some new Elemental Damage Clusters to the passive tree near Jewel slots to make elemental conversion jewels more useful.
• We are changing Heavy Stun state to be saved when logging out, preventing abuse where you log out when you are stunned, or near to being stunned.
• We will be adding a new rare Lineage support to Atziri which will allow you to reserve Life instead of Spirit on reservation gems.

Other General Fixes

• Using Click to Move on skills with the "Always Attack Without Moving" option turned on while also holding down the button to move causes some strange behavior where the character stutters or moves when you didn't expect.
• Strongbox keywords shouldn't be clickable unless you are holding Alt to prevent misclicks.
• The MTX shop is not currently showing "Already Owned" on some stash tabs.
• Controller Only: We will be adding Magic/Rare/Boss weighting back into the targeting system and making this a preference that can be modified.
• We are looking into some other reported targeting issues on Keyboard/Mouse where skills are not going where you intend them to.
• Fix to missing drops on Pinnacle bosses when respawning in some cases.

Campaign Improvements

• While we did go a long way to making the campaign smoother, we have some other things that we plan to do over the next week.
• Farrow will reveal the location of his quest objectives when talking to him in campaign areas.
• Singing Caverns: We will make the mechanic of listening to which direction the siren is singing from more obvious so you can find her more easily.
• Journey's End: We will add a portal from the boss back to the NPC to make it more obvious that you need to continue the quest.
• Machinarium: We will make it so that if you checkpoint back to the start, you no longer have to wait for power to be slowly restored.
• Halls of the Dead: We will make the location of the objects that give you permanent character boosts more obvious.
• Azak Bog: Completing the fire ritual in the center of the zone will point you in the direction of the boss.
• The Shark Fin quest currently has a confusing state where you had to do a bit of optional dialogue in order to get the option to turn in it.

Controller Trade Improvements

• Added a button to swap the currency pair while editing a trade.
• Added a button to copy one of your active trades so that you can easily sell more of those items.
• Added a button to open Sale History.
• Added text search back to the top level of the trade UI.
• Adjusted text sizes in some elements.

Of course, these are not the only changes we are planning, just a set of the initial ones that we believe we should be able to get out in the next week.

Watch Game Directors Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts join Zizaran for a special Dev Insights interview to discuss Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients.

Join us live on the Zizaran’s Twitch channel, where the podcast will begin on June 4th at 3pm PDT.

If you’re unable to tune in live, the full podcast will be published on Zizaran’s Youtube afterward.

We hope to see you there!

In Return of the Ancients, gain the upper hand against the Hiveborn and uncover the power of the Genesis Tree to craft valuable currencies and great items!

Inside the monastery of the Keepers of the Flames stands the Genesis Tree, a powerful weapon in the war against the Hiveborn. Stolen from the enemy and gifted to the Keepers by the Dreamer himself, the Tree allowed Ailith to create a breachstone capable of piercing Hiveborn territory. But without Hiveblood, the Tree has begun to wither.

Gather enough Hiveblood to curate and open new paths for experimentation, specialization, and discovery. Check out the video below to see what sort of combinations you’ll be able to make!

▶Watch on YouTube

Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients will launch on PC and consoles soon! In this news post, we’ve gathered all the information you need to know about what happens on launch day.

Free Weekend May 29 1 PM - June 1 1 PM PDT

To celebrate the launch of Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients, we're making the game free to play for three days.

As an additional gift we’re offering a few new cosmetic effects you can earn if you play in the Runes of Aldur during this Free Weekend. To clarify, all new and existing Path of Exile 2 players on all available platforms will be able to receive these microtransactions. Find out more about the Free Weekend here.

50% Off Early Access Supporter Pack

From May 29 through June 12 PDT, save 50% on the Early Access Supporter Pack to unlock the game and 150 points to use within the store! The offer is available on all platforms.

Private Leagues Are Now Available

Those of you who are planning to play in a Private Runes of Aldur League at launch are now able to create them. Click here to set up your Private League (don’t forget to double check your start time upon creating)! Please note you cannot start these leagues until Return of the Ancients officially launches on May 29 (PDT).

Return of the Ancients Launch Information

The realms will go down at May 29 10:00 AM PDT The servers go live at May 29 1 PM PDT

The patch size for the update will be around 40GB on Steam.

Launch Twitch Drops and Discord Quest

You can also claim some free cosmetics by watching your favourite community creators on Twitch and participating in Discord Quest. Check out this and this post for more information!

We can’t wait for you to see all the new content Return of the Ancients has to offer. See you at launch!

Masters of the Atlas provide a new Ascendancy-style progression for your endgame. Choose from one of the three masters, including Jado of the Order of the Djinn and the renowned monster hunter Hilda. Each Master provides unique bonuses that can alter your mapping and gameplay experience.

These bonuses can also be swapped freely between maps, encouraging experimentation and allowing players to adapt their endgame setup to different encounters and goals.

Check out the Masters of the Atlas in the video below:

▶Watch on YouTube

The Runes of Aldur League introduces remnant encounters that grant a huge variety of rewards. Among these are Kalguuran gems, which are fusions of Kalguuran runeshapes and Wraeclast magic that are powered by your Runic Ward instead of Mana.
Learn more about them in the video below.

▶Watch on YouTube

The Atlas Search, Trade Quick-Search, and Fragment Tab are just a few of the new QoL improvements arriving in Return of the Ancients.

Navigating the Atlas is now faster and more intuitive with the new Atlas Search feature, while Trade Quick-Search streamlines item lookups with far less hassle. On top of that, the new Fragment Tab gives players a more organized way to manage their fragments.

Check them all out in action in the video below:

▶Watch on YouTube