The newest expansion for Path of Exile has been announced. Someone watched too many heist films, as Path of Exile 3.12, Path of Exile: Heist is a thing now. Let’s talk about what this new expansion is.
Path of Exile‘s next expansion, Heist, puts you into a new plan entirely. You’re going to be stealing a bunch of stuff, and getting rich doing it. Path of Exile 3.12 is all about making the getaway clean and quick and doing it in style. Basically, you’re George Clooney and you’re building your ideal crew for some grand plan, the Grand Heist.
What is Path of Exile: Heist?
The game is about to get much more interesting and puzzling. Check out the trailer for the new expansion down below. You’re going to have some fun with this one. You will start your journey in the new Rogue Harbour area, acting as a hub for the expansion, but you’re quickly going to move on to knocking over targets. There’s a very slick theme here, and how well you plan your heist can pay off in rewards. Peep some of the loot in the trailer below.
And now that you’ve watched the trailer, I bet you have questions. Let’s talk about what GGG has planned. The new PoE update also features 13 new NPCs, trinkets, a bunch of new quality gems, and so much more. The biggest new addition is the Heist. You will work with a group of new NPCs to plan and execute elaborate snatch jobs. By gathering intel and being sneaky, you get better rewards for the smaller jobs. But your real goal is the Grand Heist.
Think of this all as the evolution of Betrayal League in scope and gameplay. Whether than working to undermine some grand Syndicate, you’re just flat-out robbing them blind. As you take on more jobs, you get more funds to help equip your crew with the tools and knowledge to take on harder jobs. The intel you gatehr will be vital in knowing what kind of traps and guards you’re going to face, and so much more.
Grand Heists Take Planning
As you adventure through the expansion, you will start to notice clues that tie to other threads. There will also be Contracts you can pick up in the hub to take on certain jobs. These jobs will reward intel about larger targets worth a lot more. You will need to take on multiple Contracts in Path of Exile: Heist to earn enough intel to take on these tougher jobs though, and that’s just the start.
You also need to hunt down Specialists that have skill and knowledge that only they possess. Without their help, you will never be able to complete a Grand Heist. Complete the jobs these Specialists hand you to prove your worth and get them on your side. Grand Heists offer exclusive new rewards such as Weapon and Body Armour Enchantments, Heist Trinkets, Alternate-quality Gems and Replica Unique Items. So in short, it’s worth doing all this work.
The Rogue is a new escorted NPC that you will have to protect as well. Yes, the new league is a glorified Escort quest. You’ll need to support your Rogue while they bypass security in order to reach the vault in higher-end hunts. If you fail to either reach the vault or get out, you lose the loot.
There’s going to be a whole complicated system of maps and using intel to reveal hidden rooms, traps and other surprises. Check out the image below to see what I mean.
Replicas and New Items
When you starting taking down these hardened targets, you will notice you’re getting some very interesting Unique Items. More than 1,000 Unique Items have seemingly been cloned, and will spawn as altered Replicas in the new League. Replicas have unique Art, as well as unique effects. They may be a Strength Replica based on a Dexterity-scaling Bow, for example.
These are just two of 100 replica unique items that you’ll find in Path of Exile: Heist’s main activity.
Curse Revamps and More
Curse skills were often used via automatic triggers or application. With Path of Exile: Heist‘s rework to curses, the idea is to encourage players to use self-cast instead. This will likely entail some buffs to the self-cast playstyle in general, at least I hope so. Some new and reworked Gems, like Impending Doom, may help with this. Impending Doom makes cursed enemies explode once the curse’s effect ends. So you get a nice guts shower with your curses.
Call of Steel, Splitting Steel, and Lancing Steel are also some new and reworked skills in Path of Exile: Heist. Lancing Steel and Shattering Steel have also gotten some attention. All of these have been added to projectile classes in some manner, making them more mobile.
The Heist Challenge League begins on September 18. Path of Exile: Heist will launch on PC September 18, and the week of September 23 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Read more about the new league on the official site.
