The Perandus League Unique Items

Designing unique items for the Perandus league posed some unique challenges. Previous leagues have had mechanics, items or themes around which unique items could be designed comparatively easily. Rampage, for example, had a mechanic we could trigger crazy stuff from. Warbands had the three warring factions, and through unique items we could build their history and culture.

But the Perandus League simply has Cadiro and his coins. We didn't want to have any items that affected coin acquisition, as that had the potential to feel "mandatory" for league progression. And we already have Perandus-themed uniques (Crest of Perandus and Perandus Signet). Luckily, Steven Spielberg provided the answer.

Indiana Jones sees the Nazis seeking out ancient artefacts of great power -- The Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, the Sankara Stones, and a fourth that we don't talk about. While the films are fictional, the Nazi hunt for Occult artefacts is rooted in truth, and just the sort of thing we suspected a very wealthy family seeking great power might do.

So the uniques needed to not just be powerful, but Indiana-Jones powerful. And ideally rooted in a deep mythos.

Varunastra is heavily inspired by a weapon of real-world mythology that shares the same name. In the Hindu myth, Varuna (the god of water) creates an object that can take the form of any weapon the wielder wishes, but only a master can wield it without harming themselves. A weapon that is considered in-game to be of all one-handed melee weapon-types was the natural progression. While it looks simple on its surface, it required a lot of work and bug-fixing to get the weapon in-game. But the flexibility and range of uses was well worth it.

Based loosely on the surgical practice of trepanning, this was a case where the mod came before the theme. We wanted something completely crazy that would take your typical crit build and turn it on its head. It also provided an opportunity to reinforce the circular nature of the Path of Exile lore, in which civilisations repeatedly become advanced enough to destroy themselves.

Zerphi is a relatively minor lore character when compared to Atziri, but without the ancient serial killer, Atziri would be dust beneath the earth. Zerphi lived for well over a hundred years while maintaining a youthful appearance by slaughtering dozens of innocent Vaal citizens. Maintaining your own life by keeping this flask filled and consuming your mana is a tricky but powerful balance to strike.

Another item based on real-world mythology, Seven-League Step is the fastest set of boots in the game. The tradeoff is that that's all they do, and you can only find them very late. Intended to make leveling your 2nd, 3rd, and 18th characters a quicker experience (a lesson learned from Night's Hold), these boots do the myth justice by covering great distances in the blink of an eye.

Several real-world myths involve bodies (or even just body parts) that last ages without rotting. Taking this as inspiration, we also wanted to draw a twisted motherly connection between summoners and their minions. Like nightmarish babies, your minions will sap you of any benefit you try to gain from your flasks, but in return the effect is amplified for each spectre and zombie you have. Some serious risk for some serious reward.

Getting the flavour right on all these items took a lot of work -- we even showed off an early version of the Varunastra flavour. It had to simultaneously tell a tale about the item's origin, function and tie it into the Perandus family history in the space of four lines. Not easy, but we're pleased with the result!