Path of Exile Opens the Crucible in April

Grinding Gear Games held a new livestream to unveil its latest expansion and Challenge League for free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile. Crucible will release for PC and Mac on April 7, 2023, and for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on April 12, 2023. Like all other Path of Exile content, it will be free for all players.

Crucible focuses on a combination of combat and crafting. It sees players learning about an ancient race of titans that helped shape the surface of the world of Wraeclast, and use their powers to alter their weapons. This comes in the form of weapons gaining their own passive skill trees, in addition to their regular mods. In order to add the new skill trees — which come in different levels of depth — to weapons, players need to complete Crucible encounters. As in other expansions, a Crucible encounter can be found in every area of the game.

 

 

These encounters take place at a Crucible Forge, with players getting the choice of which equipped weapon, including alternates, they wish to focus on for the encounter. By channeling the weapon at the forge, players spawn monsters; the longer players channel, the more danger they face but for greater rewards. Weapons players pick up will need channeling to reveal their skill tree, which also allocates its first skill.

Players are only able to allocate one skill at each level of depth on the weapon skill tree, so need to pick the preferred path for their build. As players get deeper into the tree, more experience is needed to unlock the next, more powerful skills. In addition, shields will also get their own Crucible skill tree.

Endgame Crucible encounters can grant players new currency items called Igneus Geodes. These can be cracked open to reveal Primeval Remnant, which acts similarly to a map item with half upside mods and half downside mods, letting players access the Forge of the Titans. This special forge allows players to merge the Crucible skill trees of two items of the same class together. One of these items is melted down and applied to the other, which keeps its regular properties but has a new skill tree merging elements of both and potentially upgrading, downgrading, or mutating skills in the process. Crucible will also include new unique items, including El’Abin’s Visage, the only non-shield armour piece that can receive a Crucible passive tree.

 

 

The release of Crucible will also introduce improvements and adjustments to other parts of the game. One addition is to the Atlas Passive Tree endgame, where Grinding Gear Games is aiming to improve player mobility. Crucible introduces Atlas Gateways, which are special pairs of nodes that let players jump between them and get between different league specialisations quickly. The game will also receive revamps to its Breach and Abyss league content. Full details will be available in the patch notes, but these changes are designed to make them more competitive with other current league content.

Other changes include an overhaul to many of the masteries on Path of Exile’s core passive skill tree, with roughly half of the masteries adjusted to include more interesting stats and more options where needed. Two of the Ascendancy Classes, the Saboteur and the Pathfinder, are also getting changes to reinforce their identities and adding new potential build options. Finally, nine new Vaal skills will be added. With the previous expansion focusing on melee Vaal skills, Crucible’s additions are geared for other types of build.

 

 

At the start of the release of Crucible, Grinding Gear Games will be hosting a boss kill event. It will be held in the Ruthless Hardcore Solo Self-found mode and requires players kill both the Uber Searing Exarch and the Uber Eater of Worlds bosses. The winner will get to work with the design team on a new unique item in the game and receive a transferable Ultra VIP ticket to July’s ExileCon. Second and third place finishers will receive a transferable VIP ticket to July’s ExileCon.

Finally, Grinding Gear Games announced that it will be livestreaming its upcoming ExileCon event for free. The event will be held in Auckland, New Zealand on July 29-30, 2023, and include updates on Path of Exile 2, Path of Exile Mobile, and the next Path of Exile expansion.

 

 

 

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Alex Fuller

Alex joined RPGamer in 2011 as a Previewer before moving onto Reviews, News Director, and Managing Editor. Became Acting Editor-in-Chief in 2018.

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