Path of Exile is one of the most frequently updated free-to-play titles on the market. It is also one of the most complex dungeon crawlers ever made, boasting hundreds of passive tree nodes and a complex crafting system. What keeps the game thriving, though, is its quarterly updates that include new game types named leagues.
Heist is the new league being introduced, allowing Exiles to infiltrate well-protected facilities to steal some of the most valuable items in the game. Experimental Uniques, new item base types, and even gems with alternative quality stats are all tied to this new mechanic. Here is everything players need to know about Path of Exile’s upcoming Heist league.
10 Heists
As the league name suggests, players will be working alongside a crew of NPCs named Rogues to steal coveted items. Players can’t barge into any location and take what they wish, though. They will need to obtain a Contract first before embarking on a Heist.
Once players have a Contract, they can bring it to Adiyah in the Rogue Harbour and begin recruiting Rogues for a Heist. Rogues are required to cut through security systems or unlock doors. Once the Heist is set, players infiltrate the building and grab as much as they can without setting off alarms. Once players reach their target and claim the item, they need to escape quickly while hundreds of security forces begin to converge on their location.
9 Heist’s Gameplay Loop
Hearing about stealth mechanics and alarms in an ARPG seems like a massive red flag, but GGG has made sure that Heists are intuitive with the core gameplay loop. Players can choose to sneak past guards to obtain items, but there is practically no penalty for charging in and killing every guard in sight.
A Heist’s alert level is mainly based on how many items players steal rather than the noise they make. When players obtain items during a Heist, they are marked as contraband. Should the player die and fail the Heist, all contraband items will leave their inventory. This is the first time in Path of Exile’s history that softcore players will need to worry about losing items on death.
Mapping this league will also be much smoother than Harvest. Instead of needing to complete a league mechanic in the middle of a Map, players will instead obtain Contracts that they can pursue whenever they wish. GGG has also stated that this league has been developed with party play in mind, preventing the awkward moments that arose from playing in groups during Harvest.
8 The Rogue Harbour
In order to find Rogues, players will need to travel to the aptly named Rogue Harbour. This location is the home of 17 different Rogues that have different proficiencies. Some will be better at blowing open doors while others might be better at lockpicking. Choosing the right Rogue for the right job is crucial to completing Heists and Grand Heists. Rogues that succeed in a given Heist Contrat will gain experience towards certain proficiencies, allowing them to tackle tougher challenges.
It is also in the Grand Harbour that players can upgrade their Rogues with new items. Heists can grant players new items that can be equipped on a Heist crew member. These can range from making their hiring fee lower to granting the player extra damage during a Heist. This combination of management and itemization with Rogues could blossom into a full-blown companion system in Path of Exile 2 if it does well.
7 Grand Heists
This league’s meta-progression system is Grand Heists. Unlike most Heists, Grand Heists require thorough planning and plenty of information. Completing these missions will grant some of the best rewards in the league, ranging from experimental base types for items to Replica Uniques.
6 New Rewards
With how much work goes into completing a Heist, how is the loot? In Heist league, players can expect to find new base types for items, enchanted weapons & armor, gems that grant different quality bonuses, and altered versions of iconic Uniques named Replica Uniques. Rare items that drop in Heists will also be using a new system where it will roll an item multiple times before dropping, choosing the best result. Of course, classic currency explosions can still be expected.
In fact, players can alter the rewards of Heists thanks to a new type of item named Trinkets. Trinkets are corrupted items similar to Talismans that have their own dedicated equipment slot. While equipped, they will bias the loot Heists grant such as converting a percentage of dropped Regal Orbs into Exalted Orbs.
5 Replica Uniques
One hundred of Path of Exile’s uniques have been replicated in Heist league. Replica Uniques follow the same core design of their main counterpart but are designed around different builds. For example, a Replica Kaom’s Heart grants increased Lightning Damage and +500 Mana instead of +500 Life, making it a solid damage alternative to the Cloak of Defiance for Archmage builds. Replicas offer an interesting opportunity for long-forgotten Uniques to see light in the current Path of Exile meta.
4 Curse Overhaul
No Path of Exile league would be complete without some core skill changes. This league, players can expect an overhaul to the way curses work. When Heist league launches, curses will be split into two categories: Hexes and Marks. Hexes are area-of-effect curses that can quickly build up Doom, a means for self-cast curses to increase in strength and deal damage when they expire.
Marks are single-target debuffs that are much more potent and aren’t affected by enemy curse resistance. Poacher’s Mark, Assassin’s Mark, Warlord’s Mark, and a reworked version of Projectile Weakness named Sniper’s Mark are now part of this category. When these curses are coupled with the new Impending Doom support, players can finally play a build that focuses on dealing damage with curses instead of traditional spells.
3 New Steel Skills
Melee characters haven’t been left in the dark, either. Steel skills such as Shattering and Lancing Steel have been left on the wayside ever since Impale became accessible for most builds. Grinding Gear Games, or GGG for short, is fixing this by not only overhauling both of these skills but also implementing new Steel skills to Path of Exile.
Steel skills now work on an ammunition system named Steel Shards. Shards are generated by certain skills and can be consumed by others. Lancing Steel, for example, will consume Shards to create impaling projectiles. Splitting Steel is a new skill that will turn Steel Shards into turrets that damage nearby foes. To obtain a massive amount of Steel Shards at once, players can use Call of Steel to turn all impaled targets into sources of ammunition.
2 Alternate Quality Gems
Adding quality to gems in Path of Exile has always granted one static benefit. This is going to change in Heist, allowing all gems to drop with alternate quality bonuses from Heist completions. One example is the Anger aura granting increased burning damage while active instead of increased aura radius. Every gem in the game will have up to three alternate quality bonuses for players to find.
1 Performance Improvements And MacOS Port
Heist league will also introduce a proper macOS port for Path of Exile. For those that worry about the game’s performance, GGG has recently overhauled their file structure to allow for faster load times, fewer hitches during combat, and many bug fixes with the engine. If everything goes well, Heist should run much better than past leagues.
Path of Exile’s Heist league releases on September 18 for PC and September 23 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
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