Playing as one of six character classes, players find themselves banished for their past misdeeds to the dark fantasy world of Wraeclast. There, they will encounter hundreds of species of opponents laden with loot and mysterious artifacts as they explore the abandoned continent.

Players will be able to purchase in-game perks, such as extra victory animations, clothing and special effects. To protect the integrity of the game for all players, Grinding Gear Games has decided not to sell abilities or experience points – ensuring a level-playing field for everyone in game.

With an open-ended and flexible skill and item system, randomised items and random dungeons, the game promises three acts of visceral combat gameplay, with additional expansions already planned.

Path of Exile: Incursion is now available for the PC, with the Xbox One version out next week on June 4.

Path of Exile: Incursion sends players on a journey over a thousand years into the past to the long-dead Vaal Empire (introduced in PoE's very first expansion, Sacrifice of the Vaal, in 2014).

The ancient Vaal treasure temple of Atzoatl has been lost to the world for thousands of years, swallowed up by the jungle. Alva Valai, a relic hunter, has learned that she can locate the ruins of the temple by thrusting you back into the past, through a series of Temporal Incursions into the temple while it was being constructed. Path of Exile: Incursion examines the effects of temporal causality by allowing you to change the future of the temple through your actions in the past. During your Temporal Incursions, you can open doors and slay Vaal Architects, modifying and upgrading rooms in the future. Be careful with the direction that you modify the temple though, as upgraded rooms confer great risks alongside their great rewards.

In the Incursion Challenge League, explorer Alva Valai is searching for the ancient Vaal treasure temple of Atzoatl. Travel back in time to discover the location of the temple and change its history to maximise your reward.

"Incursion is Path of Exile's largest league yet, with more content than we have put into some expansions in the past," commented Chris Wilson, managing director of Grinding Gear Games. "Playtesting Incursion is the most fun we've had in Path of Exile yet, so we can't wait to see what the community thinks."

Path of Exile's June Update includes the Incursion League, new items, new gems and a massive revamp to many iconic skills.

Built at the height of the long-dead Vaal Empire, the Temple of Atzoatl holds stores of untold wealth and the population of a small city. But in the wake of a cataclysmic event, the temple and its secrets were swallowed by the jungle, forgotten by the world... until now.

Each time you encounter Alva in the wilderness, she can open a time portal, allowing you to visit the Temple of Atzoatl during its construction. Your brief visit can be extended by laying waste to its inhabitants. These visits allow Alva to learn its location in the present day, and allow you to influence its contents and reap its rewards.

After roughly a dozen Temporal Incursions, Alva will have narrowed down the present-day location of the Temple of Atzoatl. Together, you can explore the jungle, discover the temple and claim its treasures. Each type of room in the temple has its own unique risks and rewards.

Your actions in the past have significant consequences. By killing the Vaal Architects who guide the temple's construction, you can influence what rooms appear in the present-day version. During your Incursions, you may find keys that can be used to unlock doors in the past, allowing access to additional rooms in the future.

By traveling into the past and influencing the Vaal Architects to upgrade the rooms they are building, you can access even greater treasures. Many upgraded rooms come with rewards worthy of the significant danger they introduce into the temple.

Content Update 3.3.0 introduces 12 new gems. Because Incursion is a Vaal-themed expansion, we're adding six new Vaal Skills. In addition, there are five new Trap Skills and a new Trap Support Gem which help solidify the Trapper as a build to be reckoned with.

In addition to the 12 new gems mentioned above, we've reworked around twenty existing skills in order to unlock even more gameplay options. We've made changes to the effects, mechanics, function and balance of these gems to bring them up to the power and quality levels of modern Path of Exile skills. Various systems like Ignite have also been improved.

In addition to the 12 new gems described above, Content Update 3.3.0 also includes 28 new Unique Items, 20 new Divination Cards and many other changes.

We're also launching two sets of Supporter Packs alongside Content Update 3.3.0 - the Conquest and Council Supporter Packs. There are two price points available for each and they feature exclusive Armour Sets as well as Portal Effects, Weapon Effects, Cloaks, Social Frames, Forum Titles and more!

Path of Exile: Incursion, like every major expansion of Path of Exile, is completely free-to-play (and of course, never Pay to Win; your success in the game is dependent on the depth of your skill, not your wallet).

Key Features:

• Download and play for free, but never pay-to-win
• A dark and deep action RPG
• Unlimited character combinations with the game's gigantic skill tree
• Combine skill gems to create unique combat strategies
• Explore a dark and gritty world rendered from a fixed 3D perspective
• Explore randomly generated levels for nearly infinite replayability
• Craft weapons, magic items, and even end-game maps to
  become more powerful
• Cooperate or compete with thousands of other Exiles in a
  persistent online world
• Ascend online ladders in every game mode