Last week we announced the long-awaited introduction of Private Leagues, a paid option that allows you to create your own league with friends and select mods that increase the difficulty of Path of Exile. We're happy to announce that these are now available for purchase! This post includes details of how to get yours set up,crowdfunding options and an FAQ about how they work.

How to Create a Private League

To create your own Private League head to this link. On this page you have the option to create a new Private League and view the existing Private Leagues you're playing.

Once you click the 'create' button you'll be able to select your league name, league type, league mods, duration and player capacity. You'll have the option to pay for the league yourself or select 'crowdfund'.

How to Crowdfund your Private League

Once you've created your Private League you can invite people to crowdfund by entering their account name or you can send them the link to your page and they can request an invite. You can select your mutual friends and guild mates with ease from the drop-down list 'Invite Account'.

Once your league has been created, players can find it in the list of currently-running events on the character selection screen. In case you missed it, here's a recap of the pricing and mods that are available. (Scroll further down for the FAQ)

Pricing

Private leagues cost 120 points to create. By default, they last 10 days and have 10 player slots.

• Additional blocks of 10 player slots can be purchased for 60 points.
• Additional blocks of 100 player slots can be purchased for 600 points.
• Additional blocks of 10 days can be purchased for 60 points.
• Additional blocks of 30 days can be purchased for 180 points.
• Additional mods that make the game more challenging can be added for free at league creation.

You can add additional player slots and days at any time once the league has started.

Currently you can't extend a league beyond two months in length, as the system is new and we are still experimenting with it.

League Difficulty Mods

During league creation, the following mods can be added at no additional cost:

Mods that separately increase Monster Damage, Life, Speed, Elemental Damage and Number of Projectiles: These mods often come in several tiers, and make monsters harder in various ways. You can add whichever combination of these various mods you desire to increase the challenge of monsters in the league.

Reduced Player Resistances: Having a blanket resistance penalty not only makes combat harder, but also increases the difficulty of finding a set of perfect gear that meets all your resistance needs.

No Stashes: This one's for the true masochists. Without the ability to store items for later, characters in a No Stashes league need to live off the land with constraints that make completing Path of Exile a lot more challenging. You can parent to an SSF league to disable trade, guaranteeing that your characters are fully self-sufficient.

No Magic or Rare Items Drop: In leagues of this type, you can only find normal and, at their usual drop rate, unique items, so you have to use every currency item you find to add mods to your gear. You'll find yourself actually using Orbs of Transmutation, running out of Essences and treasuring every Chaos Orb for its intended purpose. Trade values of currency items will likely be extremely different in leagues like this, due to opportunity cost.

No Vending: In a No Vending league, you can't buy items from or sell items to NPCs in town. You're still able to complete quest objectives, but can't rely on vendor recipes or NPC shops to gear up.

Famine: In Famine leagues, your life, mana, energy shield and flasks do not refill when you go to town. This can be added alongside other mods to create the ultimate live-off-the-land league.

We have plans for even more mods to add to this system, such as item durability (where item quality can become negative with use and the item is destroyed when it hits -20%).

Many of these existing mods can be designed to create leagues that are like the "ironman" modes that players enjoyed with old-school Action RPGs in the 90s. Adding durability, turning off vendors, flask refills and stashes lets you test yourself using only the items that Wraeclast serves up to you. Alternatively, you could add a pile of punitive monster mods and experience extremely tough combat in a fresh economy. With mods like these, even the existing campaign and low maps can be made extremely challenging for our best players.

Once a league has started, the mods cannot be changed. This is so that players who complete difficult objectives in the league can easily demonstrate that all the mods were present at the point that it was achieved.

Does the whole league migrate at once or can players opt to migrate out at any time?

Players can migrate out at any time, using functionality identical to the existing SSF leagues. Private leagues never forcibly migrate everyone at once. If the league runs out of time, then characters can't access it until more days are purchased. If everyone decides that it is over and no one wants to extend it, then players can migrate characters out when they are ready.

Will we be able to play the current expansion content in the private leagues?

Yes. You have to create a new private league for it. You can't add the new expansion mod onto an already-running private league.

Can you complete challenges in private leagues?

Yes. If your league is parented to a current challenge league then you can complete that set of challenges (just like how Hardcore or SSF work currently, they're also leagues that make the game harder).

Will league specific items be able to drop or are they immune from the rule? For example, some of the drop only Incursion or Delve mods on rares.

The leagues follow exactly the same rules as the one they are parented to. If you are playing in a private Delve league then items drop as they would in the regular Delve league (with the exception of any specific mods you have applied that change these rules).

Does this mean we can play the new expansion in a private league with a group of friends and have the same benefits?

Yes. If you apply no mods to make the game harder, then the only difference is that your trade group is restricted to those friends and you need to permanently migrate out of the league to be able to trade with more players.

How will the trade website handle the private leagues?

While you're logged into your Path of Exile account, you'll be able to search in private leagues that you are currently a member of.

How does the crowdfunding aspect work? If I create a league, will I have to collect people's names and donations?

If you crowdfund a league or an extension of duration or players, then anyone invited to that league can contribute points to the total. If everyone chips in a few points, it should be easy to reach that goal. There's no need to manually manage individual donations. You can invite people up to the capacity you are currently crowdfunding for.

How do invitations work?

You can invite players by their account name. It's also easy to invite mutual friends and guild members.

Is there a maximum player limit?

It's set to 1000 currently. This may be raised in the future.

Does the no vending mod include Skill Gems?

You can receive quest rewards (including skill gems) but can't buy items (including skill gems) from their actual shop.

Will there ever be sales on private league creation?

We are not planning any promotional discounts in the next few months, but may run some in the future.

Will there be ladders?

Yes. You can access the ladder for a private league from its web page.

Will you be able to use vendors in hideouts in no-vendor leagues?

No. The intention with this mod is that you have to live from the land and only use items that Wraeclast has provided for you.

How does global chat work? Can we moderate it?

We had a tough decision about whether to share chat with the parent league (like SSF leagues do) or have completely isolated chat for private leagues. We decided in the end to share it, so that players in private leagues can still talk with players who are playing the equivalent regular league. If players in the private league want to talk privately, we encourage them to use private global chat channels, guild chat, etc. If this becomes a problem, we will investigate other solutions in the longer term.

Global chat moderation is still performed by us. If you report someone's toucan, it will be dealt with in the same way regardless of which league it came from.

What can league owners and officers do?

The league owner can invite players and set up new crowdfunds to increase the player capacity and duration of the league. They can also promote players to officers. Officers can also invite players.

What can I do if I have used slots to invite some players and I want to remove them?

You can remove someone if they have no characters in the league or have not been online in the last two weeks. You can't remove someone who has crowdfunded towards the league in the last two weeks.

How do Elder and Shaper items work in the "No Magic and Rare Items Drop" private leagues?

Like other items, they drop as normal (white) and must be crafted before they have mods.