Path Of Exile Announces Next Expansion 'Echoes Of The Atlas'

path of exile echoes of the atlas screenshot bannerGrinding Gear Games announced the next Path of Exile expansion, Echoes of the Atlas, in a livestream earlier today. The expansion will expand on the game’s current end-game content and will also add new content including, new bosses, new builds, new loot, and a new challenge league called Ritual.

In Ritual, players can stumble upon mysterious Ritual Altars scattered around the world. After killing the monsters within the Ritual Circle surrounding the Altar, players can activate the Altar to revive the monsters as more powerful versions. Re-activated Ritual Altars will also spawn unique enemies as well as enemies from previous Altars in that area.

path of exile ritual league screenshot

Each successfully completed Ritual within an area will increase the difficulty of succeeding Rituals and will offer better rewards, including Tribute Points that can be exchanged for Ritual Rewards from the defeated Altar. Players will lose all their Tribute Points once they leave the area but they can make partial payments on Ritual Rewards that they can’t afford to ensure that they re-appear in a later Ritual at a cheaper price.

Echoes of the Atlas will also expand on the Atlas of Worlds progression system introduced in the last expansion. Players will be able to summon a mysterious entity called The Maven to watch them fight bosses in various arenas that have been made more powerful with her presence. Once sufficiently impressed, she will then challenge players to take on multiple versions of the defeated bosses starting with four bosses and progressing to up to ten at once.

path of exile the maven screenshot

The Maven will ultimately challenge players to a duel that will probably be the most difficult challenge that players will face up to that point. Defeating her will reward players with unique items and a new skill tree to invest their time on.

The Atlas Passive Skill Tree will be separate from the game’s ridiculously complex skill tree and will allow players to invest points gained by defeating The Maven to excel in a chosen end-game activity like Harvest or Heist, both of which will be part of the core game when Echoes of Atlas goes live. The Lex Proxima Tree, for example, will allow players to invest points to help them find more Sacred Groves or earn more rewards from them. Others will offer similar perks for certain activities such as increasing experience points gained from Beyond Monsters.

Echoes of the Atlas will also come with 11 new maps, reworked Ascendancy classes, as well as new Unique items and skill gems that players can use to create powerful new builds.

The Echoes of the Atlas expansion launches on January 15th on PC and January 20th on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. You'll find the official trailer just after the jump.

Path of Exile: Echoes of the Atlas Official Trailer