Path of Exile 2 Sets December 11 Launch, Completing Six-Act Campaign and Overhauling Endgame

On the 7th, at the ExileCon 2026 keynote in Auckland, New Zealand, Grinding Gear Games gave Path of Exile 2 a date: December 11, Pacific time. That is when the game leaves its long Early Access period, becomes Version 1.0, and goes free-to-play for everyone. Game Director Jonathan Rogers presented the plan, which covers a finished campaign, a new class, a new league and a reworked endgame. The stated aim is to realign a game that grew through many separate updates so it can run as a proper live service.

The largest change is the campaign. Early Access offered only some of the acts. Version 1.0 adds Acts 5 and 6 and closes out a six-act story. Together they bring 24 new areas, 18 unique bosses and more than 20 new named rare monsters. GGG has also added new rare monsters to the existing acts.

Act 5 is set in Oriath, a central location in the series, now ruined by repeated cataclysms. Players move to stop the Twilight Order and The Beast. Giant chains blockade the harbor, so a naval assault is out. Players land on the far side of the island, fight through the city center and lower the chains from within so friendly forces can advance. The areas run from ruined slums and wealthy estates to a temple district and a grand arena, each with its own enemies and encounters. Hands-on Act 5 demo stations were set up at ExileCon.

The bosses include a giant rat king in the sewers, priests corrupted by the Twilight Order, and plague-themed enemies. Their fights shift across several phases with varied attack patterns, and GGG calls them some of its most complex and challenging yet. Some rare monsters in the new acts are built almost as mini-bosses, with distinct looks and skills rather than only different stats and modifiers.

The new class is the Shadow, which fights with daggers and traps around a Stealth system. In Stealth, players stay out of enemy sight up to a certain range, and attacking dashes them to the target for an ambush with extra empowered effects. Stealth has a cooldown, but a kill resets it, so ambushes can chain from one target to the next. Viper Strike from Stealth poisons the weapon so follow-up attacks cause toxic explosions. Traps now work as setup: those placed in Stealth stay dormant until it breaks, then trigger in the order they were laid, letting a Shrapnel Trap pair with a Freezing Trap, or poison gas be ignited by fire. The Shadow also uses a resource called Darkness, a illusion called a Shade, and a shadow realm that treats attacks as if from Stealth. Two Ascendancies ship at launch, the Assassin and the Infiltrator. The previously revealed Duelist Ascendancy, the Knight, gets a Squire companion that players equip with gear and skill gems, a War Banner that boosts attack speed and damage, and skills such as Mounted Charge.

The launch league is Conquerors of Wraeclast, where players hire mercenaries with gold, supply expeditions, assemble armies and assault fortresses. They assess enemy compositions and position their forces before joining combat. Varek, the mercenary leader, helps manage the forces. More than 70 points of interest sit across the campaign, with 23 standalone battles, from village defense to breaching castle gates. Wins yield gold, supplies and crafting materials that re-roll chosen modifiers, with limits such as re-rolled modifiers becoming fractured.

In the endgame, players build strongholds in Ezomyte, Maraketh or Karui style, each with over 20 buildings and upgrades. A Commander system lets up to three commanders, given troops and Waystones, clear Atlas maps for the player, with loot claimed afterward. Whether this continues offline was not confirmed. The league's ultimate goal is control of 100 strongholds on the Atlas edges, contested between factions, with a rarity bonus for the holder and perks for the faction.

Beyond that come broad reworks: about 70 existing uniques overhauled, over 40 added (nearly 110 total), and more than 200 new base item types. The passive tree moves from 18 jewel sockets to about 60 inside clusters. The Atlas tree shrinks to 70 nodes, with roughly 50 points expected by the pinnacle bosses, and 25 new maps arrive. CPU performance is about three times better than Early Access 0.1.0, with a further 25% gain in 1.0. Optimization saved over 30 GB, but 40 GB of new content offsets it.

Rogers also named what will miss launch. Of 12 promised classes, 10 ship and 2 come later. Transfer of original Path of Exile microtransactions will be just over half complete, and he apologized, saying work continues after launch.