As we announced recently, we expect to launch Path of Exile's next expansion in early April. This extension has left a gap in March that we are filling with some types of events that we haven't run before. Today's news post goes into more detail about what to expect!

Our approach with the new event types is to try things we haven't done before and to create interesting variations of Path of Exile that put your game knowledge and skill to the test.

There are a few things that are going to be happening simultaneously in March:

Sanctum League

Firstly, we are extending the Sanctum league until April 4. Sanctum has been a really popular league, and we're happy to run it for a bit longer so that you can keep perfecting your builds and finish your challenges.

Weeks 1-4: Ruthless with Gold

Back in 2007, when we were initially designing Path of Exile, we decided to eschew a gold coin system in favour of Currency Items that are used for crafting. We wrote about this in the 2011 Dev Diary entry "Rethinking Gold as a Currency".

With a decade and a half of hindsight, our currency item system turned out to be a great decision, but we have often wondered… what would Path of Exile have been like if we had just gone with gold coins?

The Ruthless with Gold event is a way to try this out. Think of it as an alternate reality version of the early days of Path of Exile, finally made possible by the Ruthless mode we released earlier this year.

In Ruthless with Gold,

• Monsters and chests drop Gold Coins, which can be used to buy items from vendors.
• All vendor prices throughout the game have been replaced by prices in Gold Coins.
• When you sell items to vendors, you receive Gold Coins rather than currency shards. Other Ruthless vendor recipes are unmodified.
• There may also be a few other uses for gold that we'll describe closer to the event's launch.
• Due to how many Gold Coins you find, they auto-pickup as you approach them.
• Gold Coins are itemised like Perandus Coins, and stack up to 5000 per inventory/stash space (50k in Currency Stash Wildcard Spaces).
• In a party, Gold Coins you pick up are shared between nearby party members.
• You can still find currency items, at regular Ruthless drop rates (i.e. not often). Gold Coins are dropped in addition to regular currency, meaning that in Ruthless with Gold, there is somewhat less item scarcity than full Ruthless.
• Sanctum is not enabled.
• Otherwise, base Ruthless rules apply

Ruthless with Gold is a four-week, trade-enabled, non-hardcore event that is both an opportunity to experience what Path of Exile would have been like with gold, while also letting you try out a slightly easier version of Ruthless. Players who have been keen to give Ruthless a shot but haven't wanted to do that at a major league start can use this event as a chance to try it out.

Start date: 1pm March 8th PST
End date: 3pm April 4th PDT

This event is available on PC and Console.

Prizes

You’ll be able to earn one guaranteed Sanctum Mystery Box per account for reaching Level 45 in Ruthless with Gold. Please note that having multiple characters in this event will not grant you more Mystery Boxes.

The event also has a pool of microtransaction prizes that are randomly drawn for characters that reach certain level thresholds. The pool of available prizes is shared between PC and Console players. Having multiple characters will increase your chances of winning a randomly drawn prize. More details on all the prizes can be found below.

Weeks 2-4: Asynchronous Group SSF Events

Alongside the extended Sanctum league and Ruthless with Gold, we're trying out another new concept: Asynchronous Group SSF Events!

So this one's a little complex to explain, but makes a lot of sense once you understand.

Basically, each week we have a special type of event running, which we have described below. During that week, you can create a Private League of that event type for free, and then play it with your friends to try to get the best time. The time is counted from when you make the league, not from when the week starts, essentially making each one a competitive Group SSF race to try to reach a goal with exotic rules applied. The events are asynchronous because your group can have as many shots as you want that week, and don't have to be playing at exactly the same time as the people you're competing against. At the end of the week, whichever group has the best time is the winner.

These events are not run as hardcore events, but do have a one minute delay before you can resurrect if you die (so that deaths are discouraged).

The prizes for these events are exclusive trophy statues that can be displayed in your hideouts.

• Legend's Hideout Statue for Group Rank #1
• Champion's Hideout Statue for Group Rank #2
• Victor's Hideout Statue for Group Rank #3
• Challenger's Hideout Statue for Group Ranks #4-10

Week 2: Friendly Fire Group SSF Event

• League Completion Criteria: Kill Act Ten Kitava
• Based on: Standard (Sanctum/Ruthless/Hardcore all disabled)
• Accounts Allowed in League: 5
• Start date: 2pm March 14th PDT
• End date: 2pm March 21st PDT
• Platforms: PC only

Friendly Fire is enabled. Players can only deal damage when near two other players.

This event requires you to team up with two-four other players and try to complete the campaign without killing each other too much. Note that with full friendly fire on, even your minions will attack your teammates. Be careful what skills you pick!

The league account limit is set to 5 so that you can't have two teams of three progressing in parallel in the league to help each other out indirectly.

Week 3: Krangled Passives Group SSF Event

• League Completion Criteria: Kill both Searing Exarch and Eater of Worlds
• Based on: Standard (Sanctum/Ruthless/Hardcore all disabled)
• Accounts Allowed in League: 6
• Voided - characters and items do not migrate back into Standard afterwards
• Start date: 2pm March 21st PDT
• End date: 2pm March 28th PDT
• Platforms: PC and Console

The Passive Skill Tree and all Ascendancy Trees are jumbled. Minor passive skills, notables, keystones, minor ascendancy skills and major ascendancy skills have been internally scrambled within those categories (so a notable passive is still a notable passive, just a random one). All players have the same trees.

You can only see properties of passive or Ascendancy skills that are adjacent to ones you have allocated.

This event prompts some interesting strategies. Can your party work out what builds or Ascendancy choices are the best in this new crazy meta? Will you share that information with other players? Will you send some members ahead and then restart characters once there's a good build plan?

On Console realms, which don't yet support Group SSF, this event will be run as a regular solo SSF event.

Week 4: "Polarity" Group SSF Event

• League Completion Criteria: Have three level 90 players in the same instance
• Based on: Standard (Sanctum/Ruthless/Hardcore all disabled)
• Accounts Allowed in League: 6
• Start date: 2pm March 28th PDT
• End date: 3pm April 4th PDT
• Platforms: PC only

In this event, both monsters and players have "polarity", which is randomly allocated between two values. You can only harm monsters that are the same polarity as you. Rare and Unique monsters swap their polarity when they reach low life. It will require players to cooperate in groups of at least two in order to be able to clear areas and bosses.

Good luck everyone! We're looking forward to seeing the events unfold. If you're not able to participate, be sure to check the action out live on Twitch!