No, your eyes do not deceive you: A new Path of Exile expansion is on the horizon. Secrets of the Atlas will launch at 4:00 p.m. EDT on June 13th, along with its accompanying challenge league, Mercenaries of Trarthus. Of course, this big update brings a plenty of things for folks to sink their teeth into. Secrets of the Atlas expands the endgame with an all-new storyline that features a favorite character, Zana, as well as new pinnacle bosses; the Mercenaries of Trarthus challenge league introduces mercenaries for hire; and the core game gets a revamped Betrayal system and a permanent Kingsmarch from Settlers of Kalguur. Players can even participate in a pinnacle boss-kill race event, complete with prizes.

We also met with POE Game Director Mark Roberts before the big livestream reveal to learn about what folks will experience when Secrets of the Atlas goes live next week. Here’s everything we learned!

Return to regular updates

If you’ve missed the regular update cadence, you may be glad to hear that Grinding Gear Games has recommitted to one, albeit a bit lengthier than the previous one. Before delving into the nitty gritty of the new expansion, GGG’s Jonathan Rogers took a moment to announce that the studio is committed to a four-month update cycle for both POE1 and Path of Exile 2. This puts the next POE2 league in August and the next POE1 league in October. Both Rogers and Roberts admitted that GGG messed up; Roberts noted that more devs have been hired to help, too.

Secrets of Zana

Secrets of the Atlas is all about the endgame. Players won’t really get into the story of it until partway through when they discover tears in reality and meet Eagon. It turns out he is Zana’s brother, and the tears are Zana’s memory thread turned real in the Atlas. Eagon will link the threads and toss them to the map device to create portals to them, allowing players enter and search for Zana… or whatever remains of her. The memories will be opened in sequence.

In these maps (which can be altered by the atlas tree, scarabs, fragments and such), Zana’s memories are twisted into dangerous threats. Monsters there are infused with memory petals that players can absorb after defeating the foe. These petals unleash a new fight mechanic with its own mini skill bar. These are:

• Memory of Disbelief –  causes all affected monsters to stop dropping equipment items and only drop more valuable items like currency and maps.
• Memory of Panic – makes all affected monsters revive immediately after death for twice the loot and XP.
• Memory of Impatience – causes all surrounding enemies to give their souls to players for a temporary power increase.

Players can combine, mixing and matching these skills to change their experience. Roberts said, “This, combined with the special abilities, will allow for some of the most juiced maps ever run in Path of Exile.”

The expansion also introduces three new pinnacle bosses in the atlas, the Incarnations of Dread, Neglect, and Fear. In each of the pinnacle boss arenas, players will find Zana trapped in fragments of her past. Of course, the bosses include new pinnacle items. They also drop new crafting currencies — the orbs of remembrance, unravelling, and intention — that can be used to manipulate the amount of memory strands on an item.

Hiring the Mercenaries of Trarthus

The most notable feature of the new league is the ability to hire mercenaries. Players will run into one per zone and have the opportunity to choose between hiring them for gold to accompany on adventures, take a piece of their equipment (don’t worry, you get to preview the equipment and skills beforehand) or whatever is in their pockets, or even exile them so they won’t appear again for a while. Some unique equipment will be available only if you take it from a merc. As Roberts put it, “Generally speaking, Mercenary gear is more powerful than what you’d normally find from defeating monsters, as they’ve been crafting their items too.”

To earn the right to make this choice, players must first defeat the mercenary in a duel! But what if you lose the duel? Don’t worry: The merc won’t abscond with any of your gear or gold. The only thing you lose is your life. If grouped, each person in the group will decide if they will participate in the fight, and there is some incentive to help out. Roberts explained it thus:

“For each player that opts in, the Mercenary gets more difficult, but if they’re defeated, each player has a 50% chance to get a random reward, which is usually currency items from the Mercenary’s pouch.”

Be wary, though; if one doesn’t participate and is the only survivor, they can take that allocated Divine waiting off-screen!

As for playing with mercs, sorry, you get only one at a time! You can also get a fallen merc resurrected in town for after paying gold for some healing supplies. Players can even upgrade their equipment. (Note: Mercs will never drop their gear upon death.) And if you don’t think the merc you have is working out, you can dismiss them (after stripping all their gear!).

The league has more than just mercs. It also offers 40 optional challenges to complete. Doing the challenges earn the pieces of the exclusive Watcher’s Wrath cosmetic armor set that can also be used in Path of Exile 2.

Welcome to a permanent Kingsmarch

For folks tired of rebuilding Kingsmarch, Roberts has good news: The city is fully and permanently built now. Settlers of Kalguur has gone core, but players will no longer need to rebuild it from scratch, and services can be used to their full effect. Some services once restricted to Kingsmarch are now found throughout Wraeclast, such as paying gold to respec passive points, black market gambling, and the currency exchange (the later starting only in Act 6). Players can go to Kingsmarch itself once they reach endgame.

Those who have reached Kingsmarch can hire workers  to collect and process ores (including new ore veins found in atlas maps) and ship them out for rewards. Sending shipments to Karui ports can also net some tattoos to change stats on the passive tree, while Kalguuran ports will send back runegrafts, a new passive tree mechanic that replaces the Runesmithing service previously offered by the town.

A new Betrayal

In a nutshell, the Betrayal revamp has taken a bunch of repetitiveness away. The Immortal Syndicate no longer resets after encountering and defeating the Syndicate Mastermind, so players no longer need to start from the beginning of the investigation again. In fact, the mastermind has been taken out of the equation of the core mechanic; that fight is now accessible through a new fragment that can drop from Safehouse Leaders at high levels. Players now can build and optimize their Betrayal Board to their liking, fight the Mastermind, and reap the rewards without having to lose all progress every time.

Game pause and other QOL

While there are a number of QOL changes in Path of Exile, here are a couple of note. One significant change is the ability to pause the game! Now, if you open your passive tree or any other fullscreen interface, the game will pause. No more getting eaten alive in the background when trying to allocate a few points. Note that certain pinnacle arenas will apply a debuff that prevents pausing. Additionally, vendor windows will now remember players’ last search on a per NPC basis during a play session; this resets upon logging out. And involving currency items, right-clicking them will highlight all other items which that currency can be used on.

This list is not exhaustive, so check out the patch notes or watch the full reveal below for even more!

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What if your world changed every three months? What would you do differently? Path of Exile does, and MOP’s MJ Guthrie explores and experiences each new incarnation in Wandering Wraeclast. Join us biweekly for a look into each new challenge league and world expansion — and see whether MJ can finally reach the end of one world before it ends!