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Grinding Gear Games is back with their biggest Path of Exile 1 update since the sequel release. Secrets of the Atlas drops on June 13th, bringing a new memory-warped endgame content system, hired mercenaries, gold integration from Settlers of Kalguur, and a complete Betrayal overhaul. Plus, GGG has confirmed they are committed to 4-month cycles for both PoE games going forward.
Steering the Ship Back on Track
There’s no hiding it. GGG hit some rough patches recently in the aftermath of PoE2‘s release. But they’re owning it. “We had some struggles as a studio for a little while there, but we got our shit together, and we are back in action now,” Jonathan Rogers said during the reveal stream. That’s the kind of straight talk you want to hear from a company that is actually trying to make things right.
The new Secrets of the Atlas expansion launches June 13th, with PoE2’s next league following in August and another PoE1 league in October. Four-month cycles for both games are a little longer time than GGG originally planned (3 months), but if this process means more consistent content drops.
Zana Returns
The core mechanic in Secrets of the Atlas revolves around Zana being trapped in memory fragments scattered across the Atlas. You’ll team up with Eagon, a mysterious NPC who can open portals to these memory threads.
These aren’t just regular maps with different skins, however. Memory-influenced areas come with special abilities powered by Memory Petals you collect from defeated monsters. Think of it as a skill bar extension with some wild effects:
- Memory of Disbelief makes monsters drop only valuable items like currency and maps
- Memory of Panic causes all enemies to immediately revive after death for double experience and drops
- Memory of Impatience temporarily absorbs enemy souls to boost your power
You can stack these abilities as you progress deeper into memory threads, storing the petals to unleash them all at once. The optimal play becomes using Impatience for power, then Panic to set up revivals, followed by Disbelief for better drops, then wiping everything twice.
Each map boss you defeat adds permanent modifiers to all subsequent maps in that thread. These stack up, creating some of “the most juiced content Path of Exile has ever seen”.
New Bosses
The memory threads culminate in fights against warped versions of familiar bosses like Sirus, but the real prizes come from three completely new pinnacle encounters. Each represents a fragment of Zana’s psyche:
- Incarnation of Dread
- Incarnation of Neglect
- Incarnation of Fear
These bosses drop new and powerful loot. One such piece of loot shown off was The Starcaller, a unique Abyssal Axe that casts Starfall on melee crits, letting you carpet bomb entire screens with raining stars. For those more interested in RNG, the standout is the new Wine of the Prophet, a flask that draws random Divination Cards above your head, each providing powerful buffs. For example, draw The Doctor and gain modifiers from rare monsters you kill. It’s like having multiple unique items rolled into one, but with some RNG.
After clearing all three pinnacle bosses, you unlock Memory Influenced tier 16 maps. These can roll tier 17 modifiers while keeping the memory abilities and special monsters, leading to even more juiced-up content.
Mercenaries for Hire
Alongside this update is the launch of the Mercenaries of Trarthus league, which introduces hireable companions. As you explore Wraeclast you’ll encounter veteran fights from lawless Trarthan cities with their own builds, gear, and personalities.
Before hiring them, you duel to test each other’s skills. Win, and you can choose to hire them for gold, take one of their items, or exile them entirely. Lose, and you die; no other consequences.
Mercenary gear will be better than normal monster drops since they’ve been crafting too, which is a pretty exciting premise. Some carry unique items, including new ones exclusive to mercenaries like the Scornflux boots, which convert cast speed bonuses to movement speed and grant Arcane Surge on movement skills.
Infamous mercenaries from major Trarthan houses carry the best gear and exclusive “Infamous” modifiers. These include effects like converting all minion fire damage to chaos or making nearby enemies take more physical damage as you gain fortification.
When dealing with the Mercenaries of Trarthus, your reputation matters. Walk away from fights and other mercenaries will consider you a coward, sending weaker fighters your way. Keep winning and more skilled mercenaries will seek you out. It sounds like this system is a natural scaling element to sending the properly powered mercenaries your way.
You can have up to three mercenaries total, which includes one active and two in reserve. They don’t level up, so you’ll need to find stronger ones as you progress. If they die, you can spend gold in town to heal them back up.
Mercenaries add half the difficulty and rewards that a party member would, so proper use can significantly increase your drops. This alone is a huge game changer because it helps cut down the disparity between going solo compared to running a full group, when it comes to loot drops.
Gold Goes Core
Gold, introduced in Settlers of Kalguur, is now permanent. It funds passive respecs through NPCs like Bestel, Black Market gambling in every town, and the returning currency exchange starting in Act 6.
Kingsmarch returns as well, but (thankfully) is fully built and ready to use. No more town construction, just immediate benefits. You can still hire workers to mine ores and grow crops, then ship resources to Karui and Kalguuran ports for rewards. I asked PoE Game Director Mark Roberts if we would still be able to run maps with workers in Kingsmarch, to which Mark confirmed we could. However, the times and rewards have been altered slightly to make Kingsmarch more of a slower-burn “idle” feature that grants more rewards, which sounds like a win-win.
The Recombinator gets Path of Exile 2’s crafting system as an option. You can choose which modifiers to merge with visible success chances, though failure destroys items. The original random method remains available too, however, with no destruction risk.
Betrayal Gets a Rework
Perhaps the biggest quality of life change addresses Betrayal’s most frustrating aspect, and the Mastermind fight no longer resets your syndicate board. You can optimize your setup and keep running it indefinitely.
In turn, the Mastermind is now accessed through fragments dropped by high-level safehouse leaders. The fight itself has fewer immunity phases and better rewards, including new Allflame Embers.
Allflame Embers replace map monster packs with special encounters. The Allflame Ember of Kulemak adds syndicate monsters that revive after the map boss for intense bonus fights. Meanwhile, the Allflame Ember of Propagation spreads rare monster modifiers to other rares when killed. Finally, the Allflame Ember of Resplendence adds monsters that drop nothing but give stacking quantity and rarity buffs.
Crafting sprees in safehouses now provide pre-generated items instead of requiring you to bring your own. One spree gives you a random amulet or ring with Reflecting Mist crafting tools. Another provides a unique item and special corruption orbs that allow multiple corruptions with lower brick chances.
All crafting bench options from veiled items are now available by default and are found at endgame map boss entrances. You can unveil items by right-clicking them instead of talking to Jun, which is a huge timesaver.
Character Balance Pass and more QoL
Balance changes with this league focus on buffing underused options rather than heavy nerfs, which is always a good thing. Self-casting supports, channeled spells, and specific ascendancies (Guardian, Berserker, Elementalist, Saboteur, Champion) are getting most of the attention, as well as many transfigured gems that never found their footing are getting buffs.
Quality of life improvements include game pausing (except in pinnacle boss fights), automated breach splinter collection, currency highlighting for strongboxes and essences, a map device inventory, improved gamepad targeting, and vendor search memory.
Uncovering the Secrets of the Atlas
Secrets of the Atlas feels like GGG acknowledging what Path of Exile has always done best: complex, rewarding endgame systems with meaningful loot and choices. The memory mechanics add genuine depth without overwhelming newcomers like some previous leagues. Mercenaries provide more build variety and additional power scaling. Making Betrayal actually enjoyable might be the biggest win, as someone who never really bothered to mess with it.
And for the future, the 4-month cycle commitment suggests they’ve found a sustainable development pace for both games. That consistency will lead to new PoE content every 2 months, so there’s not really time for a content drought.
June 13th can’t come soon enough. What build are you going to try with this league?
