Grinding Gear Games has finally announced the full details of their 3.5.0 expansion for Path of Exile. The newest expansion brings the new Challenge League, called Betrayal League. Like all previous Challenge Leagues, it brings forth some new League mechanics which offer substantive changes to the core gameplay loop of POE.
Betrayal League
In this case Betrayal League adds some new gameplay mechanics centered around a new set of challenges and a new organization called the Syndicate. A new NPC called Jun Orto is leading an investigation to bring down this shadowy cabal, comprised of 18 individuals. But don’t be fooled, this won’t be easy. These 18 shadowy figures comprise another layer to the end-game in Path of Exile. Each of the 18 bosses within the Syndicate are their own unique challenge, and you’ll have to manipulate them and play them against each other to bring down the whole organization. Those who played Incursion League will feel very at home here. The core mechanics in this league center around raiding Safehouses, and it feels very familiar.
The overall structure of the Syndicate relies on four different branching themes, each with their own challenges and enemy types:
- Fortification – These tanky bosses will use a variety of defenses and turrets to slow an invading player.
- Transportation – These folks are trying to outrun the player and transport valuable artifacts to another secure location. Hunt them down to gain some valuable loot.
- Research – These timed branches each have their own chaotic challenges, and you need to be quick in order to find the hidden secrets before time runs out.
- Intervention – These hunter-killers are specifically created to attack a player who gets to close to uncovering the secrets of the Syndicate. Be on the lookout for these fast-moving assassins.
There are a series of choices you can make as you approach each Safehouse, these are as follows:
- Interrogate – Kill a member, and then press them for information on other members. This will reveal
- Bargain – If you overcome and enemy, you can trade their life for valuable info. You may learn more about other members, or about their future plans.
- Execute – This is the most brutal option after defeating a Safehouse. Killing a Synidcate member will only temporarily bring them low, as they’ll come back from the grave, even more powerful than before. Although this will earn you some interesting rewards for beating them a second time.
- Betray – Another option, should you have multiple Syndicate members submitting to you, is to have one of them betray the other. This is only possible if they have a direct relation or one is a subordinate. Betrayal will tend to switch or change the positions of these members (ie. a subordinate would end up becoming higher ranked).
Members of the Immortal Syndicate can drop items with new Veiled Modifiers. These Veiled items can be taken Jun to reveal their true powers. As you Unveil specific modifiers, you learn the ability to craft these onto other items and can work towards unlocking higher-level versions of these properties.
Master Crafting and Hideouts
And as the community suspected, Mastercrafting and the Forsaken Masters have been fully reworked. Individual Mastercrafting options are now unlocked by completing specific content, such as Incursion rooms or Delve encounters, rather than by grinding Master levels. All of the old Masters have been completely removed, and replaced with just the ones that are vital to certain League mechanics.
Master missions are a way for POE players to bring back previous League mechanics. And the interesting twist is that these missions will allow for multiple runs of the associated mechanics. Master daily missions will now appear in Atlas end-game maps, but will not be required to earn recipes. These will be repeatable in order to obtain Hideout decorations.
The new list of Masters in POE is as follows:
- Zana (Atlas of Worlds)
- Einhar Frey (Bestiary)
- Alva Valai (Incursion)
- Niko the Mad (Delve)
- Jun Ortoi (Betrayal)
Speaking of Hideouts, the separate Hideouts are no more either. All Hideouts will be shared across different Leagues, and will be permanent. The different Hideouts can be unlocked by completing special areas within different maps for each Hideout tileset. All Hideouts will be unlocked at full size, and will be completely usable from the start.
Of course, that’s not all, there’s a bunch of new skills, Unique items and other goodies to uncover in Betrayal League.
All of this feels a fair bit like a melding of the mechanics from Incursion League, what with the new item types and customizable safehouses, combined with a bit of the Nemesis System from Middle-Earth: Shadow of War. It will be interesting to see how GGG approaches this, I hope they pull it off.
Path of Exile 3.5 launches on On December 7, for PC and Xbox One. Check out the trailer for this patch down below. And eagle-eyed gamers may be able to spot some teases of new skills, areas and other gameplay elements. It’s pretty cool if I do say. The launch of this patch also marks the launch of the PS4 version of Path of Exile. Now Sony fans will be able to hack-and-slash their way across the land of Wraeclast.
And of course, the launch of 3.5 marks the end of Delve League. The endless end-game mechanics introduced in that patch will be brought forward into future Leagues, including this one. Standard variants will also get Delves as well.
Check out the trailer for Betrayal League down below. Betrayal League lands in Path of Exile on December 7. Check out all the details on the official announcement.
