In just over one month, Path of Exile 2 goes free for everyone with its 1.0 launch, and it’s set to be a monumental moment for the sequel to one of the most beloved action RPGs in recent years. From its early Diablo 2 inspirations, developer Grinding Gear Games has grown into the ARPG powerhouse to beat, and its second outing is aimed at being bigger, bolder, and yet more approachable than ever before. I’m at the big Exilecon 2026 showcase to bring you the full details on PoE 2 1.0 and everything we can expect on release day.
The full Path of Exile 2 launch will see it move out of its paid early access and become a free Steam game, almost two years to the day after it first began. In that time, GGG has massively expanded the campaign and endgame, along with bringing us several new classes – but 1.0 now brings that main story to its grand conclusion. Of course, it’s only the start of what’s to come, with years of seasonal leagues ahead of us, but what’s on show today courtesy of Game Directors Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts is going to leave PoE 2 players feeling very full over the holiday break.
If you want the quick rundown, Acts Five and Six will wrap up the PoE 2 campaign, and after how impressive the fourth chapter was I’m extremely eager to see those play out. The new classes are two returning favorites: the Duelist (specializing in swords) and, as a recent teaser hinted, the dagger-wielding Shadow. The launch league is Conquerors of Wraeclast, essentially a whole strategy layer atop the existing game where you can recruit an army, build your own castle, and wage war against rival factions. Alongside that comes new skills, passive tree reworks, and a massive uniques overhaul.
Those concluding chapters comprise 24 more areas and 18 new major bosses, along with “an encounter with the Blight.” Act Five will take us back to Oriath, to put a stop to the Twilight Order and The Beast. Rogers, however, is keen to stress that a lot of the most fun and exciting battles we’ll run into are the bigger non-boss enemies, so make sure you explore every region thoroughly so you don’t miss a thing.
We’ve already had a pretty deep dive into the Duelist, but we get to see the Shadow in action today courtesy of Roberts, and it starts out with two Ascensions: Assassin and Infiltrator. It’s proficient with daggers and traps, but it’s also a stealth specialist. How does that work? You’ll be able to see enemy vision cones and circles, and if you strike from outside of these ranges you’ll get powerful bonuses. Stealth resets when you score a kill, allowing you to quickly chain efficient finishing blows. Rogers notes that traps in the original Path of Exile have never really worked like actual “traps,” so the way the work here aims to capture that feeling more directly.
The Shadow’s traps won’t detonate while he’s in stealth, and when you attack they’ll go off in the exact order you threw them, allowing you to set up powerful synergies. Follow Freeze Trap with a Concussive Trap to shatter it, for example, or use the Poison Gas Trap, spread it with Concussive Trap, and then detonate the cloud with a Fire Trap. You could, however, go in the reverse direction – use Concussive Trap after the Fire Trap and you’ll fan the flames on any enemies you’ve set ablaze.
There are eight traps, giving plenty of combo variety, but the Shadow has many more options as well. You could also hurl Ethereal Knives into monster’s souls from the shadows, then detonate them for a burst of Chaos damage. Use these on bigger targets and then throw out an Electrocution Trap to amplify the effect of the shock, allowing you to fry even more massive foes. Another option is to suck out all the knives you’ve thrown with Blade Vortex and send them spinning around your character, bearing their elemental buffs.
Unfortunately, Roberts does die in battle during the demo, but this is a great chance to show off the new Death Summary screen, which will break down exactly what killed you so you know what to prepare for next time. Resuming the action, he delves down into the Den of Pleasure, where the upper-class members of Oriath society indulge their darkest desires. A quick build swap gives us a look at more Shadow mechanics, such as a decoy shade that spawns when you slink into the darkness, blinding enemies while it lingers.
There are then ways to have your shades copy the skills you’re currently using. Another option is Blade of Night, which lets you farm enemies for Darkness, acting as “a sort of anti-Rage” that you can then consume to power up other attacks. Shadow Extraction lets you turn Darkness-marked enemies into shades you can use. With enough Darkness, Eclipse causes you to “enter the shadow realm,” temporarily applying stealth buffs to all of your attacks for a set duration. Rogers shows this off to bring down the area boss, Armando the Showman.
Time for another look at the Duelist, and more specifically the Knight Ascendancy. This comes with its very own companion, the Squire, who you can fully equip and load up with the gear and skills you want him to use. It also has the ability to slam down War Banners, choosing from various possible Bannerlords, each with their own effects. Perhaps its most flashy trick, however, is Mounted Charge, where you ride a golden chariot of light into battle, knocking even major foes out of your path.
We then move onto talk about the 1.0 league for Path of Exile 2, Conquerors of Wraeclast. This adds an entire strategy layer on top of proceedings, with Rogers explaining that the goal is to capture the feeling of building your own army and leading them into war. There’s some serious Heroes of Might and Magic vibes at play. You can recruit various troops to your outpost, and then bring them into encounters such as raids. Line your men out on the battlefield, Total War style, before you join the action at ground level to fight through the hordes and take down the enemy commander. Between fights, you’ll need to secure supplies and rations to keep your squadrons healthy and fed.
As you progress through the league, the battles you face will get larger and more dangerous, culminating in bigger castle sieges and major boss encounters against the likes of Valen, the Dread Carnifex. Defeating said bosses will earn you Treasury keys that promise riches and a new crafting material type that lets you reforge items. You can choose which modifiers you want to replace, and they’ll be swapped out for fractured mods, meaning they won’t ever be lost as you continue to craft the object further.
You’ll then be able to build your very own Stronghold, an impressive castle that you’ll then need to defend against enemy assaults. Along with facing down the other factions, you’ll ultimately need to contend with a plot to resurrect the vampire lord Severa. You can also hire unique commanders, capable of taking a set of your troops into endgame maps across the Atlas and clearing them out on your behalf, keeping the gold for themselves but securing any worthwhile items they find along the way. Set out routes of multiple maps or hand them Tablets and leave them to work.
Finally, choosing one of the three factions will put you alongside every other player who joins it. You’ll then be able to head to up to a hundred rival castles found on the endgame Atlas, where you can siege rival fortresses and hold them for yourself, earning rewards for you and your faction. Owning a castle allows you and your allies to make use of the nearby hunting grounds, which are essentially special maps with particularly valuable modifiers. Expect the most lucrative locations to be in extremely serious competition, then.
Uniques are also getting a big overhaul for 1.0, with Rogers emphasizing that GGG wants them to feel more definitive, worthwhile, and better at scaling into the endgame. “Uniques need to really do something.” There will be 40 new additions along with a whole wealth of reworks, and they’ll all bestow special skills and other tricks upon your character, making them much more build-defining.
The passive tree also gets a big makeover, with plenty more nodes for the old classes alongside those for the newcomers. Alongside this, Jewel sockets are being buried more deep in skill clusters, so you have to consider their use more carefully. Then there’s support gem adjustments, tons of other skill additions, a new look for the Acolyte of Chayula, and a rework to the way reloads work for Mercenaries to help it feel slicker.
Finally, the Atlas tree has been stripped back to just 70 nodes, tightening up its design, and GGG promises additional performance improvements across the game to boot. Rogers reveals that the team also stripped back 30GB of its install size – but then added another 40GB for 1.0, so don’t expect the actual disk space requirement to change too dramatically.
Path of Exile 2 1.0 releases on Friday December 11, 2026, when the game will become free to play for all. You’ll be able to jump in either via Steam or the standalone Grinding Gear Games launcher. If you can’t wait until then, Path of Exile 3.30 is just one week away to tide you over.
