Grand Expeditions and Logbooks

In the endgame of Path of Exile 2 0.5 Runes of Aldur league, players will be introduced to Logbooks and the Grand Expedition mechanic. Grand Expeditions are similar to the smaller Expedition encounters that players may find in Maps, but these cover the entire area, are full of Runic Remnants and players are able to place 15 or more Explosives in a chain to uncover league-exclusive rewards.

Players can begin their journey into Grand Expeditions by first finding the Ruins of Kingsmarch to the Southeast of The Ziggurat Refuge

Heading into the Ruins of Kingsmarch will begin a Questline that involves searching for Rog's wife, Gwennen, who has been seeking out an ancient foe. Make sure to turn on Quest Tracking in options and follow along - the quest is straightforward and will lead you through a series of epic Pinnacle boss encounters that end with players reassembling the Triskelion Flame. This guide isn't about that series of quests, but it is recommended that it is completed before venturing forth into further Logbooks and Grand Expeditions

Logbooks and Grand Expeditions

As players venture out into the Expedition area of the Endgame, they'll start finding Boat Icons known as Uncharted Waters. With a Logbook in the players inventory, these can be clicked to unlock a series of Maps, which include several Grand Expeditions as well as regular Maps. Just be aware that activating one of these will consume a Logbook in your inventory.

Grand Expedition encounters can be easily identified by the Triskelion Flame icon, and these will open areas that are different from normal Maps in that they contain only one massive Expedition encounter with tons of Runic Remnants and additional Explosive Charges

Rumours and Omens

When you hover over an Uncharted Waters icon, you'll be shown a popup with several Rumours which indicate which types of Grand Expedition encounters can be unlocked in the chain.

Each Grand Expedition will grant rewards of a special type and many have completely unique Encounters with exclusive rewards. Community member Guitaraholic created an excellent list that helped to create the table below

Don't forget that many of these areas also have special and unique mechanics that can be found within the Grand Expeditions themselves! Keep a lookout for hidden bosses, breakable walls and Xs on your minimap that indicate special rewards that can be activated when detonated by Explosives.

Logbook Omens

There are several Logbook Omens that can be found and activated to affect the Rumours and chain of Maps that are revealed when activating a Logbooks. Vorana's, Medved's, Uhtred's and Olroth's will each guarantee a Grand Expedition with a fight against one of these bosses, whereas Aldur's Saga instead buffs Grand Expeditions to astronomical levels, with several bonus modifiers that often guarantee Runic Remnants with additional Rune Slots.

Saga Omens can also be activated to change the Rumours found on Uncharted Waters, which can make them very worthwhile to activate in case they bring up a more valuable Rumour

Once you've decided on the Uncharted Waters section you're interested in running, you can activate it with a Logbook in your inventory, and a series of Maps will reveal themselves, including some that are Grand Expeditions.

Once you enter a Grand Expedition, you'll be given a series of 15+ Explosives that can be chained together to detonate everything along the chain. It's a good idea to scout out your route ahead of time to ensure that you're hitting everything you want to, because only Remnants and Rewards that are exploded will emerge after hitting the detonator.

Upon entering, the entire minimap will be revealed with icons that represent various rewards

Selecting Rewards

Before you start planning your route, you can scout out the area and select the rewards you'd like to receive from Remants ahead of time

X Icons on the minimap indicate a unique mechanic within this specific Grand Expedition

After you've scouted and planned your route, start placing explosives!

Once you've placed your final explosive, a Checkpoint will pop up which you can click to travel straight to the Detonator which you can activate to begin the sequence of Explosions.

As the explosion chains continue, monsters will erupt from the ground (Red Flags indicate where monsters will be unearthed by explosives) and any reward icons and Remnants that were detonated will begin fight encounters which can be won to receive the reward

Try to not die too often! Grand Expeditions work similarly to regular Waystones and only a certain number of Revives will be allowed depending on the number of Map Modifiers on the Waystone you used

Rune Effect

Each and every Rune within a recipe will also grant a special effect to the monsters spawned by that Remnant. Some will grant the spawned monsters additional effects, making them more powerful and rewarding, and others will grant special effects such as granting a chance to respawn monsters as a higher rarity after they have been defeated.

Transferring Runes

A very important part of Grand Expeditions has to do with the Runes listed. Any Runes in the list seen with a golden border will be transferred to subsequent packs of monsters within the chain. This can lead to the last few packs of monsters spawned by Runic Remnants to be incredibly powerful with huge rewards. It may be worth considering option for creating a chain of Runes to buff up the monsters they spawn, instead of only opting for the rewards granted by the Runes themselves

The Rune with the Golden Border will be transferred to all monsters spawned by Runic Remnants later in the chain of Explosives

Map Modifiers and Tablets

Map Modifiers that increase difficulty and reward will affect the drops from Monsters that are unearthed by explosives, but won't improve the rewards in tile-based loot such as Chests, Strongboxes and Remnants. The same goes for Tablets - using ones with Increased Rarity of Items Found will improve the drops from the emerged monsters, but not the rest of the loot contained within loot tiles.