After almost a year of waiting, Road to Asylum 3.26 Mark the epic return of the still-carved ARPG champion. Poe 2, Diablo 4 and Last Epoch all have made great strides, but Granding Gear Games’ original free Steam games are still on the top and have been polished under that belt for over a decade. It was on the backburner recently, but with early access to the exile Pass 2 in a stable location, GGG is ready to deliver Atlas’ secrets.
“It was certainly too long because we had one of these,” said coach Jonathan Rogers. “We’ve had some hardships as a studio for a while, but we’ve put shit together. The new path of exile updates Atlas’ secrets and shows the shift in the shattering gear game. It’s not only the answer to the cries that the veteran players are hurting one of the best RPGs ever, but it’s also the first of GGG’s new schedule. From now on, both POEs 1 and 2 will release major updates for the Stigguard four-month cycle, meaning a total of six leagues are released across the pair (one per month).
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The big focus here is on the endgame. Poe1 game director Mark ‘Neon’ Roberts said in the preview event that the team has a very good positioning of long-term, hardcore audiences in this update. Certainly, the introduction of mercenaries – companion characters you can hire to join your adventure and fight alongside you – is definitely a testament to the bounty of people who dip their tentative toes into the waters of the original game.
These Mercks are veterans in the lawless city of Transus, the area that Roberts wants to expand lore around the world. Each of you encountered is equipped with a complete set of equipment and skills that you can study, and if you want to win the right to hire a service, you will need to challenge a duel. Alternatively, if you don’t want their relationship, you can fight against them and to acquire items from their inventory. Or, if you want to see them disappear completely, choose a “exile” battle that will prevent them from appearing again in the mercenary pool for a while.
Having a mercantil on your side means tougher enemies, but greater rewards. Roberts tells me that he sees the game as equal to half the actual players in terms of scaling. You also need money to hire them. This is now the core part of the path of exile, integrating Kalglu League settlers into the main game. Once the city was built, there was no need to deal with the construction elements from last season. Once you reach Endgame, you will simply be able to use it.
At Kingsmarch you can find some of the big features of the Settlers League, but some of the more “broken” ones are gone. Important among them is the ability to supplement gold, currency exchange tools to trade craft materials, and the black market that allows items to gamble. These three will be available in other towns for your convenience, but some of them will not unlock until a specific progression points through the campaign.
Once you arrive in the right city, you will be able to use your transport mechanic again to trade with other areas with lots of gear, currency and other loot. In particular, you can exchange it for Karui Port to claim a passive change tattoo introduced in the trials of the ancestors or a new tool called Kalguur and Runegrafts. These work similarly to tattoos, but instead they are used to replace mastery nodes in passive tree and can be used to refresh quickly, such as changing the type of item bonus.
Of course, all of these mechanisms serve upgraded Endgame. Atlas’ tears appeared, and were made from twisted threads of memory. Master cartographer Zana is trapped inside and works with newcomer Egon to step inside and try to find her. These play as a series of maps (Roberts says they are usually in the range of 4-8 consecutive times). All of these can be completely affected by standard combinations such as atlas trees, scalabs, fragments, and more.
The monsters in these threads are soaked in Memory Petal (an effect reminiscent of Claire’s unclear Expedition 33’s rubber-maged visual), which can absorb petals when defeated. These can be spent on new abilities depending on the current map displayed in the minibar next to your regular skill set. They boast some particularly powerful effects, and as you go further through the thread, you can stack multiple times at once.
For example, impatience memories attract souls from surrounding enemies, making them temporarily much more powerful. Use it and then follow up with memories of panic and mistrust. The former allows monsters to recover once after death and farm twice effectively, while the latter prevents them from dropping their equipment (instead, ensuring their booty pool is filled with more valuable rewards, such as currency and maps).
Combining multiple powers and the effects of the altar, Roberts bullies “some of the most juice maps ever run on the road of exile.” At the end of the thread, you’ll face a distorted upgraded version of the powerful boss (including the super-strong spire). Defeat these and earn special map fragments that open up the ability to take on three whole new Pinnacle bosses. Roberts says they are considered stronger than the current lineup, but not as strict as the Ubers (they have to wait for future updates to allow newcomers to receive their respective ultimate incarnations).
Of course, the new peak battle means rewards that have never been seen before. You can get a glimpse into some, including the x of star characters casting a new skill starfall to melee critics, and you can cover the entire screen with falling stars. Another example is the wine from the Prophet Flask. This will give you the effect of random fortune telling cards when used for 20 seconds. The trio can also drop new craft currency, which is used to manipulate new statistics called memory strands.
Items in the thread map are displayed as a certain amount of memory strands. In general, the larger it is, the more likely it will appear in a better layer for that modifier. Creating objects to exchange or add affixes will consume memory strands and make the resulting mod more powerful. With the new craft currency, you can add memory strands to your regular equipment or consume them to randomly upgrade existing effects on items.
As you can imagine, the Atlas Passive tree has been overhauled to provide a way to provide a way to change new threads in memory. There are also several options that can increase your rewards from Kalguur. Last but certainly, the Poe 3.26 features a hefty rework with a betrayal mechanic. Importantly, you won’t have to reset your progress in the Immortal Syndicate and take on mastermind. This means you won’t lose your hard-earned job manipulating group members.
The fight against the ringleader has been rethinked with a “significantly low immune stage” and has seen an increase in rewards for gloves, including veiled orbs and new Allflame Embers. Add an improved twist on Necropolis League mechanics and replace the monster packs in Endgame Maps with a variety of special monsters that add another level of customization to Endgame. The “Craft Squirrels” found in Safe House also provide pre-generated items, allowing you to build something special in the process without “bricking”, providing a relatively low-risk way.
We are welcome to close the update. These include the ability to pause at any time (almost); additional inventory on map devices, shards of automatically collected shards, vendor Windows that remembers searching, and highlights that show items that certain currency items can be applied to. It can make it easier to interact with objects while enemies are still present, including the ability to separate monsters and non-monster targeting when playing with the gamepad.
The Secrets of Atlas’ Exile 3.26, and the mercenary Path of the Trarthus Challenge League, will be released on Friday, June 13th. It can be played free on Steam or via a standalone launcher. If you’re a longtime Poe veteran waiting for this, I probably don’t need to tell you to come back. If you’re new, perhaps you started with a sequel, this update is the ideal time to try your first and discover why it’s still considered the best in the business.
Or, for some other suggestions, check out more of the best games like Diablo, or try out the best free PC games we recommend.
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