Path of Exile 2’s Return of the Ancients Update Goes Live

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Path of Exile 2 gets its 0.5.0 update today, with Return of the Ancients adding a new league, a reworked endgame, build guide tools, and more to Grinding Gear Games’ Early Access ARPG.

The patch is already live as of this post going live and the game has peaked at 407,739 concurrent players today.

GGG has described Return of the Ancients as the final planned content update before Path of Exile 2’s full 1.0 release. The update also arrives alongside a free weekend with unlimited play, and progress will carry over if players buy in later. The standard Early Access Supporter Pack is being discounted by 50%, bringing it to about $14.99 and including 150 currency.

  • The new Runes of Aldur league campaign has players working with a blacksmith to restore rune-embedding techniques for weapons.
  • The rune storyline continues into maps, with an island-hopping endgame thread tied to the league.
  • The Atlas has been reworked around a new Fortress storyline and regional progression.
  • Existing endgame systems now get quest introductions, along with various balance and structure changes.
  • An in-game build guide system lets players import build guides.
  • The patch also adds new Ascendancies, Atlas-style progression trees, and clearer objective indicators.

Players who want the full list of class, item, endgame, and system changes can read the patch notes on the Path of Exile forums.