《流放之路2》1.0将于2026年12月11日结束抢先体验转为免费游玩

After nearly two years of early access, Path of Exile 2 is finally approaching the finish line toward the full release. New Zealand-based developer Grinding Gear Games used Geoff Keighley’s Gamescom Opening Night Live to inform its many fans that the sequel leaves early access in exactly two months from this article's original publication, going free-to-play and adding the sword-wielding Duelist class alongside the campaign’s final two acts.

Whether you have been playing since December 2024, drifted away after the first few leagues, or have been eagerly waiting for the full release to jump in, here's everything we know about Path of Exile 2's 1.0 launch.

Release Date, Pricing, and Platforms

Path of Exile 2 1.0 launches on Friday, December 11, 2026, ending an early access period that began on December 6, 2024.

Ahead of that, players currently have two leagues to choose from. The 0.5.5 patch introduced Forbidden Rites, an event league with a fresh economy that launched on September 4 and runs alongside the existing Runes of Aldur league. Both are set to end when 1.0 arrives in December.

Path of Exile 2 1.0 launches simultaneously on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X, the same platforms that already support early access. The developers have also commented on the likelihood of a Nintendo Switch 2 port, suggesting they have no plans so far.

The biggest change at launch is the price tag, or rather the lack of one. Early access required a $30 buy-in through a Supporter Pack, but from December 11, Path of Exile 2 turns free-to-play on every platform. Grinding Gear Games has confirmed players won’t need to pay anything to access the full campaign and endgame. Microtransactions and purchases are shared account-wide between Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2 wherever applicable, so cosmetics bought for either game aren't lost when switching between them.

For players who already bought in, account-bound purchases such as stash tabs and cosmetics carry over to 1.0 characters. There is also a small incentive for registering early: after launch, Grinding Gear will email microtransaction codes to everyone who signed up at pathofexile2.com/register, which can then be redeemed on the website.

Genre and Setting

Path of Exile 2 is a hack-and-slash action RPG and the direct sequel to the 2013 original, built in the same isometric, loot-driven fashion. Grinding Gear first announced it at ExileCon in November 2019, when it was originally planned as a new seven-act storyline offered alongside the original campaign within Path of Exile itself. Four years later, at ExileCon 2023, Grinding Gear revealed the shift to a standalone sequel.

The story opens at the gallows, where every condemned prisoner except the player's chosen character is executed. Your character's rope conveniently snaps, allowing you a daring escape by plunging into a nearby river.

Compared with the original, Path of Exile 2 puts greater emphasis on challenging campaign boss fights that demand precise timing and positioning, and its mechanics encourage players to use multiple skills rather than a single main attack.

Gameplay Mechanics

At its core, Path of Exile 2 retains the trademark depth that allowed the series to distinguish itself from Blizzard's Diablo. Characters are defined by their base class, an Ascendancy subclass, and an enormous passive skill tree shared by every class, with each class starting from a different position on it. Skills come from gems, which can be augmented by support gems to dramatically change how they behave.

Combat is noticeably more deliberate than in the original. Boss fights are built around readable attack patterns that reward precise timing and positioning, and the game's mechanics push players toward combining several skills in the optimal rotation.

Once the campaign is complete, the Atlas of Worlds endgame takes over, with players running Waystones across an expanding map and investing in the Atlas passive tree to shape their rewards, culminating in Pinnacle boss encounters.

Like its predecessor, the game is largely structured around seasonal leagues, each introducing new mechanics and a fresh economy, with Standard, Hardcore, and Solo Self-Found variants.

What’s New in 1.0

The headline addition of update 1.0 is the Duelist, the first Path of Exile 2 class built around swords, which Grinding Gear describes as a fast, aggressive, and adaptable melee fighter. Swords arrive as a new weapon type alongside it.

Grinding Gear hasn't yet named any of the Duelist's Ascendancy classes. The long-term plan is to have 12 base classes with three Ascendancies each, for 36 in total, so the Duelist should eventually have three of its own, too. With the Duelist joining the eight classes already playable in early access, that makes nine confirmed for launch, with no word yet on whether any of the remaining three will make the cut, and if so, when.

The other major addition is the final chapters of the story campaign. Act 4 already arrived during early access, and Acts 5 and 6 will complete the six-act story at launch.

What Happens to Early Access Characters?

Existing characters won't be deleted, but they won't carry into the new economy, either. At 1.0, every early access character moves into a separate, permanent league simply called Early Access, where they keep their levels, gear, and stash. The new 1.0 Standard league starts from zero for everyone. In practice, that means nothing from early access, including characters, currency, gear, or maps, transfers to the 1.0 economy. Challenge rewards earned during early access, however, remain on players' accounts.

Early Access Recap

Path of Exile 2 has changed dramatically throughout the early access phase. Here's how it got here:

Early access opened with six classes: the Warrior, Witch, Ranger, Mercenary, Sorceress, and Monk, along with three acts, which players could replay on Cruel difficulty, and the Atlas endgame.

Dawn of the Hunt was the first major content drop, adding the spear-wielding Huntress with the Amazon and Ritualist Ascendancies, plus new Ascendancies for existing classes: the Smith of Kitava for the Warrior, the Tactician for the Mercenary, and the Lich for the Witch. It also introduced over 25 new skills, more than 100 new support gems, and over 100 new uniques.

The Third Edict brought Act 4, while The Last of the Druids introduced the shapeshifting Druid, capable of turning into a wolf, bear, or wyvern, with the Shaman and Oracle Ascendancies, over 30 new support gems, more than 250 new passive skills, and a new Pinnacle boss.

Return of the Ancients, the final full early access league, was also the biggest update yet, featuring a full endgame overhaul with a reworked Atlas tree and revised Waystone progression, along with nearly 200 new skill gems. It introduced the Runes of Aldur league and its Runeforging system, overhauled four of the classic early access leagues with fixed Atlas spawns, new crafting systems, and dedicated Pinnacle bosses, and added third Ascendancies for the Huntress and Monk: the Spirit Walker and the Martial Artist.

Finally, Forbidden Rites placed a guaranteed Ritual altar in every campaign zone and added the Viridian Wildwood mechanic to the endgame, along with a major Trial of Chaos rework. Grinding Gear cited a lack of development time and made no balance changes in the patch.

Tech and Specs

Grinding Gear hasn’t announced updated PC requirements for 1.0. These are the official specifications published ahead of early access:

The game supports NVIDIA DLSS (CNN model) and NIS, AMD FSR 2, and Intel XeSS 1.3. No Frame Generation technique is officially supported yet, though workarounds are available via mods like Optiscaler.

Path of Exile 2 has console-side graphics controls rather than the usual Quality and Performance presets. GGG has said it has improved console performance during early access, and the PS5 Pro version already supports PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR), but there's been no deep analysis on the console versions yet.