Today, Grinding Gear Games announced Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5, “Return of the Ancients,” which will launch on May 29. It’s the “largest update” the studio has ever released, and it completely revamps the endgame. The patch adds more bosses, uniques, and activities. It’s a major change motivated by the development team’s goal of offering players a satisfying ending.
The biggest changes to the endgame are the five new storylines. These include venturing into fog-covered areas to face Tangmazu, the Raven Trickster, fighting waves of enemies to help the Keepers of the Flame monks, freeing the spirit of a woman from the King in the Mist, assisting the Atlas Masters, and even exploring the oceans to find Rog’s missing wife. Each storyline will introduce a mechanic from a previous league along with a unique crafting system.
The endgame updates aren’t only about improving old mechanics. The “Runes of Aldur” league will also launch alongside the update and it brings a new crafting system based on runesmithing. The update also adds two new ascendencies, the Spirit Walker and the Martial Artists, which are the heart of the “Return of the Ancients.”
Grinding Gear Games’ second action RPG has been in early access since December 2024 and has seen multiple updates that have added activities, items, and classes. Even after all these modifications, the core gameplay loop remains the same: you create a new character (in the standard or the seasonal servers), play all the available campaign chapters (followed by the interlude chapters introduced in update 0.4), and then begin to work your way through the endgame portion of PoE 2.
