Path of Exile replace 3.20 has been revealed by Grinding Gear Video games, and it centres round a brand new roguelike dungeon coming to the RPG recreation known as The Forbidden Sanctum. As well as, the replace is remodeling a number of massive techniques together with the Atlas Tree and Eldritch altars, in addition to offering some massive buffs to underused distinctive weapons. It would additionally see the introduction of recent Path of Exile monster mods to interchange the controversial Archnemesis system, and the complete rollout for a Ruthless mode geared toward hardcore Diablo 2 veterans.
Path of Exile: The Forbidden Sanctum centres across the titular roguelike dungeon. Very similar to many earlier PoE expansions, this dungeon is designed to combine properly with the Path of Exile leveling expertise – which means you’ll have the ability to dive into its lethal depths early on in your journey, although it’ll doubtless take you a lot makes an attempt to make it right through. With each new space or map you discover in the principle recreation, you’ll have the ability to enter the Sanctum.
Your journey into the Forbidden Sanctum is decided by a brand new useful resource known as Resolve – producer Chris Wilson explains that the crew wished to distinguish your progress from participant well being, which may fluctuate wildly from second to second. Getting hit by monsters or environmental hazards will scale back your Resolve – in some circumstances, extra dramatically so than they really affect your character’s well being. Because of this it’s attainable to lose a run within the Sanctum with out truly dying, which might be welcome reduction for these on hardcore characters.
As with lots of the finest roguelike video games, you’ll plot out a course as you go, selecting between completely different room sorts that every have completely different results in your run. Some rooms will provide you with Afflictions that can apply debuffs that accumulate as your run progresses. You’ll be able to even run into Main Afflictions at sure factors, which may have very dramatic results comparable to halting your Resolve restoration altogether. On the flipside, you will discover Boons – and Main Boons – that give you advantages to counter these detriments.
At sure factors, you’ll run throughout Fountain rooms that may replenish your Resolve, within the vein of video games comparable to Hades (which Wilson cites as a key affect for the mode, together with the likes of The Binding of Isaac, FTL, and even classics comparable to the unique Rogue itself). Bothered Fountains can restore much more resolve – however at a value. As you progress, you’ll additionally accumulate a brand new foreign money known as Aureus cash that may be spent at retailers, however aren’t carried over between runs.
In true roguelike vogue, you’ll generally be supplied the choice to take an Accursed Pact. These will give you three highly effective boons, however with heavy prices comparable to dropping hefty chunks of your Resolve or taking up a number of unfavorable Afflictions. You’ll be able to choose any one in all them, although Wilson reassures us that you simply do have the choice to cross them up altogether if the danger sounds too nice for its related reward.
As for what you’ll be able to count on to get out of the Forbidden Sanctum, there are three key takeaways. Firstly, you’ll have the ability to get common merchandise drops from monsters within the Sanctum very similar to you’ll in common play, so there’s nonetheless a very good probability you’ll discover some respectable improve alongside the best way. Secondly, some rooms will supply a foreign money reward with a twist – you’ll be able to select to take it instantly, or gamble it for a better payout do you have to clear the present flooring, or a fair higher reward in case you can beat the entire run. Wilson jokes that the preliminary rewards are very beneficiant, however that the crew hopes the temptation to gamble for even greater payouts will show too robust to disregard.
Lastly, you’ll find Relics over the course of the run that act as a meta-progression of types and could be positioned right into a particular altar to make your future Sanctum runs stronger. Finally, you’ll come throughout a particular Sanctified Relic with mods that may immediately have an effect on your character’s construct – these can’t be crafted or modified by way of standard means, however they are often altered by sure rooms you’ll encounter whereas exploring the Sanctum, as a reward for individuals who conquer its challenges.
The Forbidden Sanctum is actually essentially the most thrilling new function coming within the Path of Exile 3.20 enlargement, nevertheless it’s removed from the one one. There’s additionally a revamp to the Atlas Tree, permitting gamers to focus extra on specialisations, and modifications to Eldritch Altars to be extra express about which rewards you’ll earn from them.
This explicit change displays the aforementioned introduction of a brand new monster mods system set to interchange Archnemesis mods. As mentioned within the pre-update steadiness manifesto, this goals to interchange mods which have a number of completely different results with ones that every have one particular, clearly acknowledged impact, serving to to enhance on-the-fly readability for gamers to rapidly recognise what a monster can do and what may make it harmful.
Additionally launched with Path of Exile 3.20 are a number of new talent gems – Volcanic Fissure is a fiery slam assault that may chase enemies round corners earlier than erupting, whereas Frozen Legion summons a hoop of icy statues round your character that every one assault in a giant sweeping cleave along with your presently geared up weapon. Frozen Legion builds up a number of stacks, that are all consumed on use to summon that many statues concurrently for enormous burst injury throughout a number of overlapping hits.
There are additionally new Vaal melee abilities, which proceed the development of Vaal talent gems. These assist you to accumulate souls as you kill enemies, unlocking a particular Vaal variant of the talent that can be utilized as soon as sufficient souls have been collected. Vaal Flicker Strike sparkles dozens of additional instances – it’s a dangerous manoeuvre, as you’re weak through the course of, however in case you survive till the tip then you definitely’ll unleash enormous injury in opposition to each enemy hit.
In the meantime, Vaal Cleave has two distinctive buffs: one which triggers whenever you kill a uncommon enemy that permits you to briefly steal its mods and use them as your individual, and one which triggers whenever you kill a uncommon or distinctive enemy, buffing your common Cleave dramatically. With sensible utilization, Wilson means that gamers ought to have the ability to preserve this Cleave buff up nearly indefinitely with repeated makes use of of Vaal Cleave.
Together with a variety of recent distinctive objects – some from the Forbidden Sanctum, and others merely discovered within the base recreation – Path of Exile 3.20 additionally introduces some heavy buffs for sure distinctive weapons. Most often, these are objects that are typically underused, and Wilson tells us that the main focus is nearly all the time a giant buff to their injury stat, with “round ten iconic underused distinctive weapons” being focused.
There’s additionally some rebalancing for Curses to make them stronger in opposition to distinctive monsters and pinnacle bosses, and beforehand introduced updates to Jewels that ought to make them a greater supply of ailment mitigation for gamers to utilize. Gamers may also count on some good high quality of life modifications – power shields at the moment are proven as a separate bar above your character, slightly than overlaid in your well being, and Beastcrafting recipes that add mods to flasks will now truly say precisely what the mod will do.
Lastly, the much-touted Path of Exile Ruthless mode, which is a further character toggle that permits much more merchandise shortage, will turn out to be accessible to all in 3.20. Wilson says this non-compulsory mode is focused at old-school Diablo 2 gamers and people who actually need to make certain each improve feels significant, however notes that the crew will likely be aggressive in rebalancing it throughout this preliminary, experimental rollout.
You’ll be able to watch the Path of Exile: The Forbidden Sanctum reveal beneath:
The Forbidden Sanctum actually seems like an thrilling addition, and we will’t wait to attempt it out when Path of Exile replace 3.20 The Forbidden Sanctum releases on December 9.
It’ll be fascinating to see what different updates comply with this as Grinding Gear Video games continues its march in the direction of Path of Exile 2, which Wilson tells us is making good progress. Within the meantime, we’ve obtained extra of the perfect video games like Diablo which you could play on PC.
