While waiting for Path of Exile 2, the first game, is getting an expansion set called “Settlers of Kalguur,” which will launch on July 27.

In the Settlers of Kalguur Challenge League, players will help Kalguuran pioneers build the town of Kingsmarch and establish trade between Wraeclast and their homeland. Players will focus on mining exotic resources, hiring and protecting skilled workers to construct and defend the town, and build out a harbor to establish and manage trading. Once the town is constructed and trade is underway, players will be able to buy and sell currency and other stackable items in the Currency Trade Market, and craft and recombine powerful weapons and items on the Runesmithing Table.

Ascendancy classes will be refreshed with the addition of the new Warden class, as well as a rework of the Gladiator. The Warden will replace the Raider class, focusing on elemental attacks, damage mitigation and a specialization in Tinctures, which can now be found throughout the land. The Gladiator class maintains powerful skills for Bleeding and Block, along with receiving newly designed skills including the opportunity to invest in Retaliation Skills, a new type of skill that allows you to unleash devastating damage upon meeting certain conditions in combat.

Settlers of Kalguur will add a long list of balance work including drastic alterations to Melee Skills, Block, Rage, Warcries, Banners, Bleed, Impale, adding new Base Types to Endgame, buffed Modifiers on Endgame Items, buffed Critical Strike Chances on Weapons, and much more. Endgame content has been addressed with changes to many Scarabs, a 6th Map Device Slot, new encounters in Tier 16 and Tier 17 Maps, updates to Blight and Ritual and more. There will also be a set of new Chisel types and a massive increase in the drop rate of Valdo's Puzzle Boxes.

Path of Exile players on consoles will be delighted to find that the game now takes full advantage of PS5 and Xbox Series hardware, with a huge reduction in load times and texture pop-in. Overall visual fidelity has been improved with the highest available resolution textures and water effects, and a new upscaling algorithm that improves the crispness of dynamic resolution, as well as an additional anti-aliasing pass.

Grinding Gear Games announced that they will soon be running the first Closed Beta Test for their upcoming sequel Path of Exile 2. To be considered for participation in this and future tests, please sign up at www.pathofexile2.com/register.