Here’s everything we know about PoE 2
As the original Path of Exile is still in full swing, it can be hard to filter out only the relevant news about development on Path of Exile 2. So read on below for everything we’ve learned so far about this sequel, including the PoE 2 beta release date, gameplay details, and more.
Path of Exile 2 beta release date
Path of Exile 2 is a top-down ARPG, similar to the Diablo franchise, set in a dark fantasy world. In the game, you level up and unlock new abilities by fighting large hordes of enemies and monsters.
Along the way, enemies drop loot of various rarities that you can equip to steadily upgrade your character and grow even more powerful. With that power comes the ability to take on new bosses, which then drop even better loot, and then you fight more powerful monsters and… so on and so on, for all time, always.
Despite what we were previously told, the developers have confirmed at the recent ExileCon that Path of Exile 2 will be itsown separate gamewhen it launches. This is simply due to the scope of the game increasing, meaning it is no longer suitable as an expansion or update, as was previously planned.
This means Path of Exile 1 and 2 will no longer share an endgame or campaign, with Path of Exile 2 instead becoming its own entirely separate beast. Path of Exile 1 will continue, though. Creative director Jonathan Rogers recently shared with us that “People like that game, there’s no reason to destroy it if we don’t have to, and we can run them both concurrently so we might as well do so.” Furthermore, any in-game purchases you’ve made in Path of Exile 1 will be available to you in Path of Exile 2
The new questline in Path of Exile 2 is set 20 years after the original story, giving players who’ve already rinsed the first game’s plotline for all its worth something new to work through. Two decades after the death of Kitava, a new group of enemies have arisen and begun a power-grab that threatens the peace of Wraeclast.
Path of Exile 2 started as a major expansion for Path of Exile (the original), and indeed, it retains a lot of that identity. You’ll still unlock skills, get passives, and socket gems to upgrade your character. For a better look at how things differ, check out the gameplay trailer embedded above.
If you’re coming to Path of Exile 2 from other popular ARPG franchises (ahem ahemDiablo, ahem ahem), then you might be interested to know that skills do not have cooldowns in PoE2. According to the developers, “one way a lot of games do make it so you have skill variety is that they just add a bunch of cooldowns to a lot of stuff and you just have a rotation where you use one skill, then this skill, then this skill. We don’t actually like that kind of design at all. We much prefer to have it so that you use skills when it makes the most sense to do so and not otherwise.”
Those coming from PoE1 might be more interested to know that Path of Exile 2 will be much harder. As the developers recently told us, “when you die in POE1 on Hardcore, you can just respawn and continue the fight where you left off without having to start it again. In POE2, you do actually have to restart the boss fight and start it again. That’s pretty important, because it means that the balance is quite different. We expect people to die a lot more.”
