Path Of Exile Dives Deep Into Its New Ruthless Hard Mode Coming In December
Grinding Gear Games talks up Path of Exile’s new Ruthless hard mode in its latest dev blog. The new difficulty option will be making its way to the multiplayer ARPG when Expansion 3.20 rolls out next month.
“Ruthless (previously codenamed "Hard Mode") is an additional character creation flag alongside Hardcore and Solo Self-Found that allows you to opt-in to extreme item scarcity and various other changes,” Grinding Gear explains. “It's brutally difficult, but overcoming that difficulty feels highly rewarding. In a world where your items are far below par, every item drop has the potential to be the breakthrough one you need.”
The new game mode is designed to redesign the endgame experience to make the entire game an endgame experience. Players will be under-geared on purpose, have limited crafting options, cumulative XP penalties after level 68, and won’t be able to purchase gems from vendors.
With that mind, Grinding Gear acknowledges that the new mode might not be for everyone. “If you don't like the sound of it, then it's probably best you continue playing the regular Path of Exile modes,” the studio says. “Some players really enjoy the additional constraints as a way of enhancing their game experience. Many players do not, and that's okay.”
“Ruthless is not a replacement for regular Path of Exile,” assures the devs. “It's a challenging mode for a specific type of player. A change being made in Ruthless is not an indication that we will make that change in the regular game. In fact, if we felt a particular change was good for the regular game, we'd just make it there to benefit everyone.”
Ruthless will be free-to-play and any existing microtransaction purchases will still work in the new mode. The studio is currently looking for volunteers to help test out the new game mode. Those interested can throw their name into the hat by filling up this form. The Ruthless Alpha test will be covered by an NDA so no streaming will be allowed. Not that an NDA ever stopped anyone from leaking test footage before.
The expansion itself is set for release sometime in December. In the meantime, Grinding Gear has a bunch of events lined up for players throughout the entire month of November. You can check out a preview of the said events in the video below.
