Path of Exile: Echoes of the Atlas Update Adds a New Killer Boss and Other Endgame Content

Path of Exile: Echoes of the Atlas has been officially been revealed, and it looks to be one of the game’s biggest updates yet. The expansion largely focuses on free-to-play action-RPG’s endgame, adding new environments to tackle, new passive skill trees, and an ultra-hard all-powerful boss known as The Maven. You can check out a new trailer for Path of Exile: Echoes of the Atlas, below.

And here’s a deep dive into all the expansion’s new content…

Here’s a bit more detail about what’s included in Echoes of the Atlas (update 3.13):

The Maven

When the Elder was sealed, entities far beyond the borders of the Atlas of Worlds took note and turned their attention in our direction. The first such visitor is an entity called The Maven. She is hungry to witness your fight for survival against the Atlas’ most dangerous foes. Accept her challenge to put your talents and mortality to the test. Should you prove worthy, she will offer you a taste of her vast power.

• By slaying three map bosses in the Maven’s presence, you’ll earn an invitation to her realm where she will request that you defeat these bosses simultaneously. Having demonstrated your strength, she challenges you to defeat four bosses, then five, then six and finally ten at the same time. Only then can you take on the new pinnacle boss of the Atlas — the Maven herself.

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• Unlock Atlas Passive Trees – Take control of your Atlas by unlocking regional passive trees which augment the content you encounter and rewards you receive while exploring those regions.
• Explore New Maps – 11 new maps and challenging boss encounters have been added to the Atlas. These include unforgiving new locations such as the Dry Sea, Forking River, Frozen Cabins and Grave Trough.
• Play the Ritual League – Ritual is a combat league that pits you against both the arcane powers of the Ritual Altar and escalating waves of monsters, enclosed within a Ritual Circle. Each successive Ritual in an area is harder and offers better rewards.
• Wield Powerful New Items – One of the hallmarks of a Path of Exile expansion is its items! In addition to new craftable Watchstones, the Maven’s Orb and plenty of Ritual Base Types, we’ve also introduced the Hydrosphere Skill Gem, Trinity Support Gem, 13 new unique items and a slew of Divination Cards which have been designed by our supporters.
• Three types of Craftable Watchstones – These valuable endgame items allow you to upgrade your Atlas and boost what types of rewards you find from maps. Players who are able to earn these powerful rewards will find that they are strictly better than regular Watchstones: they can be traded, don’t expire with use, and their benefits can stack.
• The Maven’s Orb – Affects items that have two or more influence modifiers. When used on such an item, it randomly upgrades one of these influence modifiers and removes the others. If the modifier that’s being upgraded is already at the highest tier, it’ll upgrade to a new elevated tier.
• Choose Your Harvest – Harvest has returned. Instead of having to plant and manage your own Sacred Grove, you will discover portals to established gardens with multiple sets of harvests ready to go. From each pair of options, carefully weigh the encounter difficulty against the crafting outcomes before making a choice.
• Plan the Perfect Heist – Heist contracts drop from Act Six onwards. Rogues level up their skills faster, markers drop with higher stack sizes and quest contracts are now dropped for you at the next smuggler’s cache as soon as that quest is available.

Path of Exile is available now on PC, Xbox One, and PS4. The Echoes of the Atlas expansion will hit PC on January 15 and consoles on January 20.

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