Fall Of Oriath Expansion Coming To 'Path Of Exile' With Six New Acts, 24 Bosses

Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile has had five expansions since its initial release in 2013, and each one added more content to the base game. Today, the studio announced yet another expansion called "The Fall of Oriath," and it adds multiple acts and new mechanics.

The Fall of Oriath includes the game’s fifth act, which will bring you to Oriath, the original home of your main character. So far, gameplay has been limited to the island of Wraeclast, which is full of dungeons, monsters, and other terrors. Oriath has some of these deadly foes, but the real attraction is the change in scenery. As opposed to the exiled island of Wraeclast, Oriath is home to many residents, as evidenced by the wide streets and luscious homes, but you’ll need to fight a horde of enemies within the city to advance the story.

Initially, the fifth act served as the final chapter of the game, and then you would have to play through the entire game again in New Game Plus mode or try your hand at the Atlas of Worlds endgame map content. However, the studio didn’t just implement the fifth act within the new expansion. In fact, it added five more chapters, providing a total of ten acts to play for the entire game. Acts I-V will serve as Part 1 of the story and Part 2 will be Acts VI-X. Similar to the first four acts of the game, Part 2 will bring you back to Wraeclast. However, you’ll find that it’s in a different state based on your actions from Part 1. Some areas will be familiar to veterans (and you can reach them easily through new shortcuts), but most of Wraeclast in Part 2 will be novel to old and new players alike. You’ll also encounter new monsters and bosses within the island. According to CEO Chris Wilson, you can expect more than 50% of Part 2 to be new content.

Speaking of bosses, you will face 24 new bosses in the expansion. Sixteen of these bosses are the Old Gods, who are fighting among each other for control of the land. Throughout your journey in Part 2, you have to face four of them to progress, but there’s an incentive to take out all of them. By killing a God, you get access to its powers, which can help out in multiple situations, and each God has a different power, so you can switch them out at any time. Furthermore, some of these powers have additional abilities, but you can only unlock them by playing through some of the Atlas of Maps content.

Before the launch of The Fall of Oriath, fans can join in a new event called the Legacy Challenge League, which starts on March 3. Previous events in the title introduced challenge leagues, which were special variants of the game with additional objectives and modifications to gameplay mechanics. All in all, there were 16 challenge leagues in the game with a 17th league currently underway. The Legacy Challenge League would allow players to revisit any of the 17 leagues. However, you can choose to play in as much as three different leagues at once for an increased challenge. This will give you the chance to gain exclusive items that were only part of a specific challenge league.

Between the six new acts and the power of the Old Gods, it seems that there are many things to do in The Fall of Oriath. However, you’ll have to wait to experience all these additions, as the expansion is still in development. Wilson mentioned that the team is aiming for a June 2017 release, but it could extend to later that month or even to July. Most of the challenge leagues go on for three to four months. With the launch of the Legacy Challenge League scheduled for next month, you can expect it to keep fans entertained right up to the release of The Fall of Oriath.