Path of Exile 2 gets Return of the Ancients on May 29

Path of Exile 2’s next big update, Return of the Ancients, arrives May 29. It adds a major endgame overhaul, six new endgame storylines, new Pinnacle Bosses, new crafting systems, new Ascendancy classes, more Unique items, and a new challenge league called Runes of Aldur.

It also sounds like this will be the last major expansion before the action RPG leaves early access. Game director Jonathan Rogers said Path of Exile 2’s 1.0 launch is planned for a little after ExileCon, which takes place in November, though Grinding Gear Games still hasn’t given a firm date.

According to the official post, patch 0.5.0 is focused heavily on reworking the post-campaign experience. Rogers said the goal was to make the endgame feel more guided and complete, with quests and boss fights that connect its different systems more cleanly. In the current early access version, the shift from campaign to endgame has been a rough one for some players, and this update is meant to smooth that out.

Rogers also said the studio still expects to ship the remaining two campaign acts and the full set of Ascendancies for the classes already in the game as part of version 1.0. Not every previously announced class is guaranteed to make that launch window, though, which means some weapon types tied to those classes may also slip past release.

Grinding Gear says there could still be balance patches and possibly a smaller league or two before launch, but Return of the Ancients is being treated as the last full-scale expansion before Path of Exile 2 goes fully free-to-play later this year.