ExileCon Delivers Two Launches in a Month

Covens of Umbra arrives November 13

Path of Exile’s next expansion has a name, a date and a new way to play the endgame. Covens of Umbra launches Friday, November 13 (PST), free on all platforms, and it is the expansion Grinding Gear Games spent its ExileCon keynote on — a centuries-old conflict between the Witches of Umbra, with a new league mechanic built around boss fights.

The headline change is the end of Scarabs. Threads of Creation replace them: you set a Thread directly in the Map device, it applies a league mechanic of your choice to the area, and it scales monster rarity and difficulty while raising the chance of random powerful effects on that mechanic. Many of the old Scarab effects do not disappear — they move onto the Atlas passive tree, which GGG has rebuilt with a new layout, new wheels and region-based progression, and 150 Atlas passive points in total. The Atlas rotation swaps 31 maps in and 31 out. GGG calls the loot changes fundamental, but has given no numbers for them.

The league mechanic itself starts in Act 1. Covenites perform rites to summon their Queen; defeat them and you collect Fates — cards you invoke on the area’s boss, which the witch Mora holds in a storm of umbral energy. Each Fate adds rewards and difficulty, and you can invoke up to three: playing two of the same kind combines them and triples the rewards of the first. A boss empowered by Fates can drop Viscera, trophies you impale on your Wickerman — a wicker effigy you bind your soul to — for permanent buffs. At higher Atlas tiers, bosses drop Grim Fates, one attuned to each pinnacle boss; beating Grim Fate pinnacles is the only way to reach the Coven Queen. Campaign layouts have been rearranged so you always find area bosses, with more than two dozen new bosses added.

The rework reaches into the older systems too. Mirage goes core, spawning randomly in maps or as a rollable map modifier. Slaying Beyond bosses no longer stops monster Beyond portals, and a boss may open a portal to its realm. The Sacred Grove no longer appears in maps and is replaced by tangled roots you can modify with currency. Gwennen offers a new service and now gambles on your items. Atziri moves into the Temple of Atzoatl, replacing the Vaal Omnitect. GGG says almost every endgame league mechanic has been augmented, modified or revamped.

Path of Exile 2 goes free on December 11

The second date is the bigger one for the sequel. Path of Exile 2 leaves Early Access on December 11 and launches as a free-to-play game — no launch hour has been announced yet. The 1.0 release finishes the campaign with Acts 5 and 6: a return to a war-wrecked Oriath to end the Twilight Order and the Beast, with 24 new areas, 18 new bosses and more than 20 Champion Rare encounters.

Two classes arrive with it. The Shadow fights with daggers, traps and stealth, with the Assassin and Infiltrator Ascendancies; the Duelist fights with swords and stances, with the Knight and Master-at-Arms Ascendancies. The launch league is Conquerors of Wraeclast, which turns the league into a siege game with armies at your back. The game runs on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with Mac support and Steam Deck Verified status.

The classes have more detail than the keynote summary gave them. The Shadow is the second new 1.0 class: daggers, traps and stealth, built around a Darkness resource, with the Assassin Ascendancy returning and the Infiltrator Ascendancy new — a master thief. The Duelist’s Knight Ascendancy comes with a gearable Squire companion, alongside the Master-at-Arms Ascendancy. Acts 5 and 6 complete the six-act campaign, with 24 new areas, 18 new bosses and a reported 20-plus Champion Rare encounters.

The launch league, Conquerors of Wraeclast, turns the league into a siege game: recruit armies, build strongholds and siege more than 100 castles, against the backdrop of the Blood Lord storyline. Existing Early Access characters do not move into 1.0 — they move to a separate permanent Early Access league. And one cross-game note for PoE 1 players: the Threads of Creation replacing Scarabs work the same way in both games — set in the Map Device, they apply a league mechanic of your choice. The PoE 3.30 patch notes were published November 10 (Content Update 3.30.0), so build planning can now use the real numbers — but check the notes themselves, not the keynote summary.

Early Access meant buying a Supporter Pack — $30 on Steam — to get in. From December 11 it does not, and existing players keep everything they already own. GGG has said both games will keep running side by side, with seasonal leagues bouncing between them.

What ExileCon actually revealed

Covens of Umbra is the bigger reveal for the original game. The Coven Queen league sends players against covenites performing rites to summon their Queen, with Fates invoked on area bosses and Viscera trophies hung on the Wickerman for permanent buffs. The endgame changes are structural: Scarabs are gone, replaced by Threads of Creation set in the Map device, and the Atlas passive tree has been rebuilt around them. New uniques join the expansion too, though GGG has not published a list of them yet.

For Path of Exile 2, the headline is what the December 11 date now contains. That date was set back in August — ExileCon’s news was the contents, not the date: Acts 5 and 6 complete the six-act campaign with 24 new areas and 18 new unique bosses, the Shadow and Duelist join as playable classes, and the Conquerors of Wraeclast league turns the launch into a siege game of recruited armies, strongholds and more than 100 castles. Major balance changes are part of the 1.0 release too, but the details sit in the patch notes GGG has not published yet.

What the keynote did not say

Two caveats sit on top of all of this. First, the full 3.30 patch notes are now published — GGG posted Content Update 3.30.0 on November 10, three days before launch, confirming the 10 Threads, the rebuilt Atlas tree with 150 points and the 31-map rotation. The keynote had given the shape of the league, not the values you would plan a build around; the notes are now the source to plan from. One small note for the record: GGG’s announcement does not print a version number — the 3.30 label comes from press coverage of the keynote.

Second, the handover between leagues is days away: the current 3.29 league, Curse of the Allflame, ends Monday, November 9 at 1:00 PM PST, and its characters and stash migrate to Standard. For Path of Exile 2, the December 11 date is in Pacific time with no confirmed unlock hour, so players outside the Americas will likely log in on December 12.

What it means for buyers

Two fresh launches in a month means two fresh economies, and league start is when both are richest. If you are still holding 3.29 currency, spend or convert it before November 9 — it migrates to Standard and loses most of its trade value. Do not commit to a 3.30 build until the patch notes land; the keynote gave the mechanic, not the numbers. And if you were thinking of buying the Path of Exile 2 Early Access pack, check what it includes first — the game is free from December 11. See the Path of Exile page and the Path of Exile 2 page for the verified sellers listed there.

Games in this story

Path of ExilePath of Exile 2