Path of Exile 2’s Endgame Explained

One thing Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile 2 is doing differently than many modern ARPGs is that it is focusing primarily on its endgame content, as the developer believes it would much rather have a campaign of average length if it allows for hundreds of hours worth of endgame content to be present within the game. Many other ARPGs have a tendency to fall flat on their endgame content due to spending too many resources on their campaigns, but Path of Exile 2 is looking primed to be an entirely different story. With seven different endgame systems available during early access, players should have plenty to do once they’ve reached the endgame portion of Path of Exile 2.

Path of Exile 2 will eventually have six different story acts for players to progress through, but only three of those will be available during early access. However, players will still be allowed to access the endgame content during early access, they will just need to complete the first three acts twice. After completing them once, players will be required to complete them again on Path of Exile 2‘s temporary “Cruel” difficulty, after which the endgame will open up for them, and they will have access to a majority of its content, even ahead of the game’s full release.

The Core Gameplay Loop of Path of Exile 2’s Endgame

The Atlas is the core infinite hub for Path of Exile 2‘s endgame, and it is filled with plenty of secrets for players to uncover. The goal of Path of Exile 2‘s endgame is to progress through the Atlas by unlocking various maps and clearing them of the Beast’s corruption by defeating all the powerful rare and unique enemies in them. Players can open portals to these maps in the Ziggurat on the Atlas using Waystones of varying tiers, with these tiers ultimately determining the difficulty of the monsters players will face. When inserting a Waystone into the Ziggurat’s Map Device, portals to the next map will open, allowing players and their allies through.

Waystones can even be modified using an Orb of Transmutation to increase the rewards gained from a map or an Orb of Augmentation to increase the map’s difficulty, and increasing a map’s difficulty simultaneously increases the drop rate of Waystones in that map. Whether a map’s difficulty should be increased (and in what way) ultimately depends on the map itself, so players will need to explore and experiment to learn what works best with which map.

Every area in the endgame is distinct from those in Path of Exile 2‘s campaign. Monster packs in each map are entirely random, with over 400 monster types already present in Path of Exile 2‘s early access, each of which has unique abilities and attack patterns. Furthermore, 1 in 4 maps contains a boss encounter. There are plenty of other random encounters as well, like Precursor Artifacts, which are corrupted monuments that irradiate and empower the surrounding monsters. Defeating all the monsters around the monument grants players powerful temporary buffs like making them faster, making fire rain around them, or increasing their experience or chance to find better items.

There are also rewarding Strongboxes to be found in Path of Exile 2‘s endgame maps, but opening them will trigger a monster ambush and sometimes powerful debuffs and spells. Occasionally, players will find monsters frozen in solidified corruption called Essences. Once these monsters are defeated, players can use the Essences they drop to upgrade their items from Normal to Magic, with a mod added to the item according to the Essence’s category. Some Essences can also upgrade items in Path of Exile 2 from Magic to Rare, along with the Essence’s guaranteed mod.

If players are successful in completing a map, they can unlock and progress to the next map, but if they fail, that map will no longer be accessible, forcing them to find a different route. As areas are cleansed of their corruption, players will gain points to spend in Path of Exile 2‘s Atlas skill tree, which allows players to modify the danger and rewards of every area in the endgame — like increasing the number of monsters or the number of Precursor Artifacts and Strongboxes.

During the exploration of the Atlas, players may happen upon interesting locations and NPCs that offer unique objectives and rewards. One such area may be a Hideout, which, upon being cleared of enemies, offers players a customizable base of operations where various NPCs can even join them. Players can also occasionally find Towers throughout the Atlas, which function similarly to Far Cry‘s Radio Towers and Assassin’s Creed‘s Viewpoints in that they reveal a large area of the Atlas. Finally, some areas on the Atlas have corrupted biomes, which will add unique modifiers to the map encounters within them.

The Seven Systems of Path of Exile 2’s Endgame

There are a total of seven endgame systems in Path of Exile 2, each of which has unique mechanics and rewards. Among these seven systems are the Ascendancy Trials — Trial of the Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos — which are both unlocked during the campaign but extend into the endgame as well. It’s also worth noting that each endgame system present in Path of Exile 2 has deep mechanics and a pinnacle encounter that players will become more familiar with as they spend time with the system. The seven endgame systems in Path of Exile 2 are as follows:

• Breach
• Ritual
• Delirium
• Expedition
• Trial of the Sekhemas
• Trial of Chaos
• Pinnacle Boss

Breach was originally a League in Path of Exile, but has been reprised in Path of Exile 2 as one of its endgame systems. A Breach is a tear in the fabric of reality, and opening it reveals the otherworldly monsters on the other side. Once opened, the radius of the Breach begins to expand, but players will need to quickly kill the monsters that emerge from it to keep the Breach open. As they progress through Breach’s content and complete its pinnacle encounter, players will obtain points that they can add to the Breach section of the Atlas tree, thereby increasing Breach’s difficulty and rewards.

Rituals are sacrificial sites built by the mysterious King in the Mists and can be found on specially marked sections on the Atlas. Once encountered, Rituals require players to defeat enemies within the altar’s circle to feed it, upon which they can touch it and trigger the ritual. More monsters will then spawn, who must be defeated to gain Tribute, which can be spent on powerful items. After completing the pinnacle encounter of a Ritual, which is the King in the Mists himself, players are granted points that they can spend on the Ritual section of the Atlas tree for increased challenge and reward.

Delirium is another modified location occasionally found on the Atlus that have been touched by insanity. When players touch a mirror in these locations, the mists of Delirium will spread throughout the area. Players must then remain within the mist, but the monsters will become stronger the deeper they travel into the mist. In a sense, it seems to function similarly to Enshrouded‘s Shroud mechanics. As with several of Path of Exile 2‘s other endgame systems, players will acquire points for the Delirium section on the Atlas tree once they’ve completed the pinnacle encounter of a map marked by Delirium.

Expedition is the final endgame system on Path of Exile 2‘s Atlus tree that sees players digging up mysterious artifacts using explosives. However, using these explosives attracts monsters to the area, so players will have to fight their way through. Players can then exchange the artifacts they find for useful items. Finally, completing the Expedition’s pinnacle encounter will grant players a point to spend on the Expedition section of the Atlas tree.

The endgame Trial of the Sekhemas and Trial of Chaos are both essentially more challenging but also more rewarding versions of the original trials.

Last but not least is the hardest content in Path of Exile 2: Pinnacle Boss encounters. Players may eventually come across a fortress on the Atlus that is locked until they obtain the three keys required to enter it. These keys can be obtained from three factions somewhere in the Atlas who all wish to enter the fortress, but this is only possible by first defeating each of the faction’s powerful bosses. Unfortunately, failing to defeat a faction’s bosses will cause them to move on, thereby requiring players to find them again. Upon gaining access to the fortress, players will participate in the most difficult content Path of Exile 2 has to offer and be rewarded with a point to spend in the Atlas tree for completing it.