Path of Exile 2 is making a surprise Atlas overhaul next week to liberate its players from tower tyranny

Yesterday, Grinding Gear Games dropped a surprise update to announce mid-patch changes to Path of Exile 2, including a long overdue overhaul to how towers work in the endgame. In the video that accompanied the post, game director Jonathan Rogers explained that GGG is pushing pushing those updates now to give them a little more time to breathe before the next content update, which should come sometime around the end of the year.

Path of Exile 2's 0.3 update, The Third Edict, came out at the end of August to warm reception. Introducing Act 4 released us from the hell of running Acts 1-3 twice whenever we want to level a character, the Abyss mechanic is fun and rewarding, and in general the community has been happy with the direction of the game. One thorny issue that continues to plague PoE2, however, is the endgame.

Currently, in order to juice our maps and for the best rewards, we have to navigate the Atlas of Worlds until we find a spot with multiple overlapping towers. The more towers, the more slots we have for tablets, the more loot we get. This leads to a problem where all the maps we run that don't have multiple towers near them feel like wasting time, something to slog through until we get to the good stuff.

With 0.3.1, the tower tyranny is getting toppled. Precursor tablets won't be tied to towers anymore, and we'll be able to use them in any map we're running. To make up for the lack of overlap, GGG is buffing the tablets and adding additional content to each map you run in the form of shrines, rogue exiles, and the like. Towers will still exist, and clearing them will now reward a tablet on top of revealing a large portion of the Atlas.

The other major endgame change addresses how long it takes to complete maps in the first place. A number of the largest maps (including Vaal City, the bane of my existence) are being reduced in size, and they're adding a boss to every map. Now, we'll be able to complete a map just by killing the boss, rather than needing to explore every nook and cranny for all the rare monsters. Existing bosses in maps will be replaced by Powerful bosses that drop extra loot.

These changes should combine to make mapping a more satisfying experience, and I'm looking forward to checking them out next week. There are other changes as well, including a reduction of the size of areas of chilled ground, an increase to citadels, and a change to the way alchemy orbs work. You can check out the update here, and full patch notes should be available in a few days.