Use your favourite features in-game with our Desktop AppPoE 2 just released a Livestream announcing all of the content coming on December 6th.
With the delays that have happened, some players thought Early Access would only have a playable campaign, but they could not be more wrong.
Path of Exile's Early Access is looking to launch with an extremely robust endgame system. This article will summarize the key mechanics revealed in the Livestream, covering everything you need to know about the endgame.
Instead of focusing on building out the full campaign, Early Access will contain Acts 1, 2, and 3 instead of the full 6 Acts.
The developers have decided to spend that same time working on Path of Exile 2's endgame rather than complete the campaign. With a shorter campaign, Early Access will have a "Cruel Mode," where you replay Acts 1-3 before reaching the endgame.
If you played Path of Exile in the past, you'll know that the game, at one point, had only 3 playable Acts that you replayed 3 times before endgame (Normal, Cruel, and Merciless).
For Early Access, players will need to complete Cruel before continuing into the endgame. This will take your character to the expected level.
Normal Difficulty is expected to take approximately 25 hours to complete, with Cruel Mode being faster since your character will get stronger.
This already will be a ton of content for many players, but for those looking to really sink their time in, there will be a huge endgame system to progress and explore.
Once you reach the endgame, you will be introduced to the Atlas, an infinite map that expands in all directions. This will be the core endgame system that you explore.
Each small circle on the Atlas represents a portal to a Map.
You'll traverse these maps, clearing the corruption that's affecting the world, fighting powerful monsters and obtaining powerful loot along the way.
You might notice there's already a key difference in PoE 1 and PoE 2. In PoE 1, you would find maps as droppable items and could choose which Maps to run. In PoE 2, the maps are instead directly onto the Atlas, and you must traverse continuously.
So how do you enter these maps? And what determines the difficulty of these Maps?
This is where Waystones are introduced.
To enter a Map, you will need a Waystone. The tier of the Waystone will determine the tier/level of monsters in the Map. The higher level the monsters, the more XP you gain and the better loot you will receive.
As with most things in PoE, you can also craft on Waystones.
Prefixes will increase the rewards of your maps, while Suffixes will increase the danger.
The more dangerous the Map, the more likely Waystones will drop (or Waystones of higher tier). Crafting on your Waystones is a crucial method to sustain your supply and obtain higher tier drops.
In maps, you'll encounter a variety of monsters, bosses, and mechanics. Here's a rundown of three mechanics you'll see in maps by default.
Precursor Artifacts are the new name for Shrines. These are spots where monsters gather around. Clearing the monsters and pressing on the Artifact will grant you a temporary buff.
Strongboxes are filled with loot and monsters. The Strongbox will also have special modifiers, buffing up the monsters or applying debuffs onto you upon opening them.
Clearing all the monsters that spawn from the Strongbox will drop the loot inside.
Last but certainly not least are Essences. You'll occasionally find monsters trapped within crystals. Releasing and slaying them will drop Essences, items used for crafting.
Essences will guarantee a type of modifier onto an item, making it extremely powerful for crafting the item you want.
Changes from PoE 1
Now that we have a brief understanding of the endgame Atlas, let's cover how to actually progress it. As you might expect, completing maps will let you traverse further and further, discovering more special encounters.
To complete a map: Defeat all Rare & Unique Monsters in the map.
If you die in a map, it can no longer be run, and you must go around the portal.
As you progress the Atlas and defeat higher tier maps, you'll unlock Atlas Passive Skill Points. These will be used on the Atlas Skill Tree. These points allow you to increase the danger of your maps, which in turn increases reward.
You can add more monsters, more rares, strongboxes, essences, etc. As time passes, players will find strategies that optimize the Atlas Tree, but the Tree can also be very personal.
Allocate the passives/mechanics that you enjoy, or what you character can handle.
Another important Atlas mechanic are Towers. These are locations on the Map that allow you to scout further into the Atlas, letting you plan your journey.
Clear the Tower to unveil a larger region of your Atlas. You will also use Towers to insert "Precursor Tablets." We'll cover more on this below in the other Endgame systems.
As you traverse, you'll find special markers on the map. This marker indicates that there is a Map Boss. These Map Bosses are juiced up versions of campaign bosses. Slaying them grants you special Atlas Tree points that you can use in the "Boss" section of the Tree.
Unlike PoE 1, not every Map will have a boss. Approximately 1 in 4 Maps will have a boss. Because of this, their difficulty has ramped up. You can always choose to avoid a boss and go around on the Atlas, but you'll be missing out on loot in doing so.
If the Atlas wasn't enough for you, don't worry, because there are even more Endgame systems to progress. These systems provide unique progression systems and exclusive loot to find. At the start of Early Access, 7 additional endgame systems will be present, 5 of which have special sections on the Atlas Skill Tree.
I'll briefly cover each mechanic/system here, but we'll be sure to cover them in more depth in their own guides. For these 4 mechanics, each will have a special section on the Atlas Skill Tree.
This marker indicates that the map contains a Breach. In the map, you can step on the purple hand to open a Breach. Monsters will flood in from another dimension. Killing them fast enough will make the Breach extend further and further.
Monsters from the Breach will drop Catalysts and Breach Rings. Catalysts are a currency item that give special quality to Rings, buffing up certain modifiers. While a regular Ring (Rare) can have up to 20% quality, Breach Rings go up to 50%.
Breach Rings will be some of the most powerful Rings in the game, so keep an eye out for these encounters if you want some for your build.
Maps with the Ritual marker will contain Altars. As you slay monsters near the altar, they will be consumed. Activate the Altar to fight those monsters revived once more. As you slay these monsters, you'll obtain Tribute.
Use this Tribute at the Altar to exchange for rewards/loot.
Maps will contain multiple Altars. Each Altar combines the sacrifices of all the previous Altars. By the last Altar, you'll fight an army of monsters, get even more Tribute, and hopefully get even better rewards.
Omens are a special reward you can buy with Tribute. These are special crafting items that allow you to bend the rules. This is what's known as metacrafting.
Using these Omens will allow you to create very powerful items, provided you use them well.
Up next we have Delirium. In these maps, you'll find a sinister mirror. Stepping into it will spawn a mist, summoning monsters from your crazed nightmare.
Delirium is a semi-timed encounter, meaning you must delve deeper into the mist to continue, building up more rewards. However, the longer you stay in the mist, the more dangerous it becomes. Monsters will get buffed more and more, until you can't take it any longer.
To make the encounter stop, there will be a button right next to your mana bar, or you can simply stop moving and let the encounter end naturally. You'll obtain rewards based on the monsters you killed during the encounter.
Delirium encounters will also drop "Distilled Emotions." These can be used to "anoint" your Amulet, letting you allocate a Notable on the Passive Tree for free by equipping the Amulet. (Anoint is a term from PoE 1)
This can be very powerful as with the right combination of emotions, you can get any Notable on the Tree, no matter how far it is. This can be build defining for some characters, or just be a nice way to get an extra buff while you're still leveling.
You can also use Distilled Emotions on maps to make them Delirious, making them more challenging, and as always, more rewarding.
Moving on, we have Expedition. In these maps, you'll find Kalguuran settlers looking to unbury treasure. Use explosives to unearth loot, but also monsters.
Slay the monsters to open the buried treasure underneath. You'll also find special currency items you can use with each Kalguuran NPC to trade for items.
Note: Look out for "Remnants" in the dig site. These will buff up the buried monsters. Some of these buffs can absolutely destroy certain builds, so be sure to read what they do before you blow things up.
With these special endgame mechanics, you might find Precursor Tablets. These Tablets can be slot into a Tower to increase the amount of encounters you find in your maps.
If you really enjoy doing Breach, find some Breach Tablets, slot them into your Tower, do more Breach, get more Tablets, and so on.
Keep a lookout for areas with multiple Towers that overlap Maps. Placing multiple Tablets in these areas will let you really juice up your maps for more rewards.
Tablets can also be crafted on with Currency. Each Tablet has 2 maximum modifiers.
Let's briefly cover the Realmgates. These are special locations you'll find on your Atlas, and you can use them to tackle the final encounters of certain mechanics.
For example, when completing Breaches, you may find Breach Splinters. Collect enough to create a Breachstone. You can use this Breachstone in the Realmgate to enter the "Twisted Domain." The entire area will be one large Breach, and if you kill enough monsters fast enough, you can tackle the Breach Boss "Xesht, We Who Are One."
While not directly confirmed in the livestream, we can assume Realmgates will be used to tackle the final encounter for the other mechanics.
Outside of the above mechanics, the Trials you face to Ascend your character will also extend into the endgame. We cover the basics of these mechanics in our Ascendancy Overview.
This Trial resembles the "Sanctum" mechanic from PoE 1. Explore roguelike dungeons with a special resource known as Honour. Getting hit reduces your Honour, and when you drop to 0, you fail the encounter.
The Trial of the Sekhemas will be where you obtain Jewels. These Jewels are slotted into your Passive Skill Tree and can be crafted on to grant powerful bonuses that are more worthwhile than other passive nodes.
The Trial of the Sekhemas will have it's own progression system, which you can explore to obtain Relics. These Relics make your runs easier or harder in exchange for more loot. If you complete a run, you might get a Unique Relic, which will ramp up the difficulty, but reward you with an exclusive Unique item upon completion.
The other trial is the Trial of Chaos. This is the Ultimatum mechanic from PoE 1, where you tackle Trial after Trial of increasing difficulty. Monsters will be buffed up, there will be hazards on the map, among many more dangerous effects.
As you progress Trials, choose what danger awaits you. Completing these Trials will grant you loot such as Vaal Orbs and Soul Cores.
Vaal Orbs are a currency item used to Corrupt items. Using one will make it so you can't craft on an item any longer. In exchange, you have a chance of obtaining a powerful effect. You also have a chance of "bricking" your item, removing modifiers you wished to keep, or completely changing the item.
Corrupted items can become some of the most powerful items in the game, but come at the risk of ruining your item. Vaal Orbs can also be used on Unique items, which normally cannot be crafted upon.
Soul Cores are items that you can socket into your equipment, granting them additional modifiers.
Explore and progress more and more in the Trial of Chaos to unlock the Trialmaster's Tower. We don't know what awaits us there yet, but expect a difficult fight and special loot.
Last but not least, we have Pinnacle Bosses. These are the ultimate challenge in PoE 2, and to not spoil the fun, we don't know what's awaiting us just yet.
Occasionally you will find this mysterious fortress on the Atlas. In order to enter, you will need to find 3 keys. To obtain these keys, you will need to defeat three different faction bosses.
You'll find these faction bosses across the atlas, with their 2 lieutenants guarding them in adjacent zones. Be careful not to fail any of these fights, as doing so will mean the faction will relocate, and you'll need to find them again.
Finally, defeating the Pinnacle Boss will grant you points for the special section of the Atlas Tree.
This wraps up our overview on the current endgame system in PoE 2. While we don't go into full detail on every mechanic, we'll be sure to have dedicated guides for each.
This guide is meant to be a brief overview so you have an idea of each mechanic, but if you want to dive deep, be sure to stay tuned for our upcoming guides.
