Path of Exile: Harvest Announced
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Harvest is the rather simplistic title of the next challenge league expansion for Grinding Gear Games’ free to play action-RPG Path of Exile. Launching on June 19, 2020 for PC and June 24 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, this new expansion will introduce the usual assortment of new content, challenges, and revamped systems. Some of the bigger changes involve a two-handed weapon revamp, new Slam, Warcry, and Brand functionality, and numerous passive tree improvements.
Here’s the official trailer to give you an idea of what to expect:
This announcement shares links to a number of Harvest-focused preview articles. And here’s an overview of the expansion’s key features:
Path of Exile: Harvest
In Path of Exile: Harvest, Oshabi is cultivating the Sacred Grove, an ancient garden of mysterious power. Plant seeds that grow into dangerous enemies and craft their Lifeforce onto your items.
Our June expansion contains the Harvest challenge league, powerful new crafting options, eight new skills, two new support gems, revamps of Two-handed Weapons, Warcry skills, Brands, Slams and the Passive Skill Tree itself. We've also introduced 12 new unique items and rebalanced over 50 existing ones.
The Sacred Grove
"It is beautiful, yes? I believe it to be older than the Eternal Empire. Older than the Vaal? I am not so sure. But it does not look like their work. I like to believe it is a work of my ancestral Azmeri. I was once blessed with a deep connection to the land. It would speak to me, and nourish me. But that connection was severed. And in turn, my tribe severed their connection to me. I was alone. Lost. The land spoke no more... until I found this place." -- Oshabi
Plant Potent Seeds
Seek out the Seed Cache in every area you explore. Take its seeds through Oshabi's portal to the Sacred Grove. Sow those seeds to grow dangerous and rewarding monsters. While most seeds grow easily, rarer high-tier ones require more careful planning but yield more valuable results.
Extract the Lifeforce
When your monsters are ready for harvest, slaughter them and claim their Lifeforce. Every enemy you fight in the Sacred Grove is one you intentionally planted. Customise your combat around your character's capabilities and what rewards you're seeking.
Reap a Bountiful Harvest
Every monster you defeat in the Grove grants you a crafting option. Performing one of these powerful crafts consumes Lifeforce from the monsters you just harvested. In order to maximise your Lifeforce and hence crafting potential, you'll want to take on as many monsters as you dare handle. Harvest Crafting provides powerful directed crafting to an extent that Path of Exile has never seen before.
Evolve Your Garden
As you build the ultimate garden, you'll discover exotic seeds with specific needs that must be met in order to grow. Various pipes, condensers and dispersers can help you fertilise your garden with any remaining Lifeforce.
Unearth Legendary Foes
Oshabi speaks of the legend of three primordial beasts: Ersi, Janaar and Namharim. For those able to cultivate these rare seeds, the immense monsters that emerge can yield Harvest's most valuable rewards.
Passive Skill Tree Improvements
The Passive Skill Tree has received many improvements including better support for some mechanics (for example, Two-handed Weapons or Rage) with both numeric buffs and entirely new clusters of passives. In addition, there are many new notable and keystones passives, which include both fan-favourites from Timeless Jewels and even some entirely new ones.
Violent Slams
As part of our two-handed weapon improvements, several melee skills have been recategorised as slams. We've introduced a new slam skill and support gem. We've also revamped several existing slams with new visual effects, improved functionality and greater power for two-handed weapon users.
Deafening Warcries
We've added four new Warcry skills and reworked three existing ones. Warcries now scale based on the power of nearby enemies rather than the quantity. Many Warcries also exert your attacks, increasing their power for a number of attacks.
Lethal Brands
We've introduced three new Brands, one Brand support gem and have revamped existing Brands. We've made Brands a lot more versatile while also reviewing how their core mechanics work. Brand Recall no longer reigns supreme but is a useful tool alongside many new options.
Massive Unique Item Overhaul
We're introducing 12 new unique items and reworking over 50 existing ones.
Deliruim in the Core Game
Delirium and Cluster Jewels are being integrated into the core Path of Exile experience! Because Delirium stacks with other league mechanics to make them more difficult and rewarding, the chance of encountering it rises exponentially with the number of other league mechanics in the area.
New Vulkan Renderer
Last week we released a Beta of our new Vulkan renderer which has greatly reduced stuttering and smoothed out game performance. This renderer has made a massive improvement for many players, and we aim to fix issues that other players have encountered before the release of Harvest. This new renderer comes alongside continued graphics technology improvements such as a new Bloom system that is used extensively in the Harvest league.
Harvest Supporter Packs
We're also launching two sets of Supporter Packs alongside Harvest - the Malice and Benevolence Packs. There are two price points available for each and they feature masses of points alongside new Armour Sets and other exclusive cosmetic microtransactions!
Path of Exile: Harvest will launch on June 19 (PDT) on PC, and June 24 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
