One Death Maps!!!!! The real truth

While I understand the minorities frustration with One Death Maps, I believe majority of the criticism misses the point of the core design philosophy and mechanics that make the game unique. Let me explain why these mechanics, including the controversial aspects, are not as arbitrary or misguided as they might seem.

Firstly, respecting the Core Game Mechanics

The "vision" of GGG is not just some arbitrary decision—it reflects the developers' intent to create a meaningful, challenging experience where every action, including death, has weight. Removing One Death Maps would fundamentally undermine this principle. The idea isn’t to punish players for the sake of punishment but to force strategic thinking, adaptability, and mastery of the game’s mechanics.

The "brutal" XP loss and One Death Maps work in tandem to make success genuinely rewarding. Without mechanics like these, the stakes would be significantly lower, reducing the tension and satisfaction that come from overcoming difficult challenges. These systems are designed to push players to improve and engage deeply with the mechanics, not just brute force their way through the content.

Secondly, early Access Is a Collaborative Process

Yes, this is Early Access, and player feedback is valuable. But Early Access is also a time for developers to experiment and refine their vision. Listening to feedback doesn't mean catering to every criticism or abandoning a core design philosophy. The current system may feel harsh now, but this doesn’t mean it’s inherently flawed—it just means there’s room for tuning.

Rather than scrapping One Death Maps entirely, the feedback should focus on balancing issues, like mob overtuning, difficulty scaling, or improving party mechanics. These adjustments can make the system feel fairer while preserving its core intent.

Thirdly, challenge vs. accessibility

Challenging design doesn't equate to bad design, and accessibility doesn’t mean removing all obstacles. One Death Maps are intentionally punishing to encourage careful preparation and strategy. If the mechanics feel overwhelming now, it’s likely a reflection of balance issues that will evolve as the game continues to develop, not a reason to scrap a unique feature altogether.

Yes, frustrating moments like losing access to a map after a single death can be aggravating, but the system encourages players to consider their build choices, resistances, and strategy. This isn't meant to be a game where success comes easily—it's meant to challenge players in ways that are both mechanical and psychological.

TLDR: One death maps are very appropriate for the target audience that is likely to stick around for over a decade (similar to POE 1). Very good work GGG. Very much looking forward to how you continue to tune this game mechanic to reduce the friction, whilst keeping a meaningful and challenging experience.

Absolutely agree.

The game definitely needs these types of mechanics. There are definitely some balancing and changes that need to take place but removing these risks would be a huge mistake.

I started of the end game without the best gear and struggled a bit but after some changes to my gear and learning more about the game I worked my way up to tier 15 maps. Now I am comfortably completing tier15 with very few deaths now. The his feels like a great accomplishment and the risks made it a satisfying challenge.

+1

One Death Maps - yes.
XP penalty - no.

Also, maps should be significantly smaller in size.

People need to read this.

+1

What I would do is keep XP loss on death. But have 6 or less tries. In current iteration the game punishes you too hard. Especially considering that there are mechanics that can one shot you. And i mean random white/rare monster attack. Especially with warriors who have to keep in arms reach with enemies.

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cstk#6407 wrote:

In current iteration the game punishes you too hard. Especially considering that there are mechanics that can one shot you. And i mean random white/rare monster attack. Especially with warriors who have to keep in arms reach with enemies.

I would agree with you here. There is definitely tuning to be done.

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Magoraz#6258 wrote:

While I understand the minorities frustration with One Death Maps

Why do you assume that majority is pro 1 map XP penalty? Do you have any data to back it up? Even people who like the game as is might prefer the death punishments go away. Like myself - I love the game as is, however would love it waaaay more if 1map xp penalty was gone.

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Magoraz#6258 wrote:

The "vision" of GGG is not just some arbitrary decision—it reflects the developers' intent to create a meaningful, challenging experience where every action, including death, has weight. Removing One Death Maps would fundamentally undermine this principle. The idea isn’t to punish players for the sake of punishment but to force strategic thinking, adaptability, and mastery of the game’s mechanics.

If that is GGGs core principle, why doesn't it apply to the campaign as well? PoE 2's campaign is the best aRPG experience I've had, ever. It's really hard for a casual player like me and it doesn't need death penalties to achieve that. I can wipe to bosses as long as I want, I can even learn mechanics conciously wiping to see how much damage each boss mechanic really does. I can brew and test new builds as much as I like, and that is one of the best parts of any aRPG game imho.

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Magoraz#6258 wrote:

The "brutal" XP loss and One Death Maps work in tandem to make success genuinely rewarding. Without mechanics like these, the stakes would be significantly lower, reducing the tension and satisfaction that come from overcoming difficult challenges. These systems are designed to push players to improve and engage deeply with the mechanics, not just brute force their way through the content.

Again, there are really no death penalties in the campaign, yet every boss fight feels really good. I did not have so much satisfaction from killing bosses since WoW WotLK raiding days. And again, no penalties here. Why shouldn't endgame be like that too?

Also, do you really feel any accomplishment for clearing a map without death? I do not, it's just super easy, even the bosses and citadels. However I do feel frustration when the occasional one-shot happens and I lose all the stuff and XP and need to replay an "empty" map.

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Magoraz#6258 wrote:

Yes, frustrating moments like losing access to a map after a single death can be aggravating, but the system encourages players to consider their build choices, resistances, and strategy. This isn't meant to be a game where success comes easily—it's meant to challenge players in ways that are both mechanical and psychological.

I think it's quite the opposite. In endgame, players are being incentivized to "stick to what they already know". They're being punished for trying new things because those new things might end up being "shitty" and only lose you hours of XP farming. It incentivizes new people to play other peoples builds instead of trying out things themselves. And it makes the "ESC" button to be the single best defensive skill in the game, and that's just bad design imho.

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Magoraz#6258 wrote:

Challenging design doesn't equate to bad design, and accessibility doesn’t mean removing all obstacles. One Death Maps are intentionally punishing to encourage careful preparation and strategy.

What preparation and what strategy?

Log in.
Go into map, AOE everything, collect loot, go out.
Repeat 100 times.
Log out.

Do the same next day.

What strategy man?
It POE 1 strategy...