The new quarterly league is the titular Forbidden Sanctum
This feels like a radically different way to play Path Of Exile, and I'm excited to see what movement-centric builds players put together so they can dance their way through the dungeon.
Grinding Gear Games have been busy of late. In May, the studio released the Sentinel expansion, which let players adjust the game's fighting challenge with the use of special Sentinel drones. The New Zealand developer is also hard at work on Path of Exile 2, which is designed to run concurrently alongside the original game. The sequel likely won't launch until next year at the earliest, so it's as well GGG is keeping expansions for the original game coming on the reg POE currency trade .
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By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.Path Of Exile's December expansion brings a bite-sized roguelike and a brutal new difficulty mode
While it could be argued that the entire modern action-RPG genre is roguelike adjacent, Path Of Exile is doubling down for its next seasonal update, The Forbidden Sanctum. Launching on December 9, this free expansion will add a new roguelike side-adventure to spice up the familiar ascent from castaway to godhood, on top of the usual slew of new features, skills and refinements. It's also bringing some fresh pain to the table in the form of an optional Hard mode.
The new quarterly league is the titular Forbidden Sanctum, a roguelike diversion broken up into bite-sized branching chambers which you tackle one at a time. There's a portal to the Sanctum in every area of the campaign, each one letting you play through a single room; a short encounter, one minute or less, outside of boss fights. A complete run through the Sanctum means surviving 32 of these chambers split across several floors, but most are likely to see several failed attempts before they come away with any fabulous prizes, including some unique drops from Sanctum's final boss.
(Image credit: Grinding Gear Games)
What sets the Sanctum aside from most of Path Of Exile's many dungeons and challenge modes is how it's handling health. While it's still possible to die in the traditional 'losing all of your blood' sense, the greater long-term threat is your character's mood. Sanctum introduces a new player stat called Resolve, which does not regenerate, carries between rooms, and reduces every time you take damage in the Sanctum. Hit zero resolve (no matter how healthy you might otherwise be) and your character becomes too sad and decides that this run is over, resetting you back to the first room of the dungeon when you next enter.
Resolve damage also bypasses any defensive stats that you might have, making absolute evasion through movement skills and fancy footwork more important than soaking up hurt. This feels like a radically different way to play Path Of Exile, and I'm excited to see what movement-centric builds players put together so they can dance their way through the dungeon POE currency for sale .
