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.

In the Trial of the Ancestors expansion, you will visit the Karui afterlife and defeat ten tribes in a series of tournaments to earn valuable new rewards.

Releasing on August 18, 2023, the expansion introduces the Trial of the Ancestors challenge league, 16 new Atlas keystones, reworks of the Guardian and Chieftain Ascendancy classes, 14 new support gems and the return of a fan-favorite past league, The Forbidden Sanctum.

The fallen chieftains of each Karui tribe participate in a tournament called the Trial of the Ancestors. You will journey to their Afterlife to compete against these tribes by assembling your own team of Karui warriors. You'll battle their chieftains in the tournament to earn valuable rewards.

In this league, use tradeable silver coins to gain passage to the Karui Afterlife. You'll start out with a basic team of three Karui warriors to enter the Trial of the Ancestors.

In each match, you can select which tribe to compete against, based on the reward offered. You can examine the battlefield configuration of the enemy team and strategically place your warriors to challenge theirs. Then you and your party will compete alongside your warriors to destroy the opposing team's totems and win the match.

When you compete in tournaments, you'll accumulate favor with each of the tribes. This can be spent on recruiting warriors and purchasing field items and equipment to power up your team. Each tribe has their own specialities and you can mix and match warriors from different tribes to build a team that embodies your strategy.

You earn rewards for each match you win. In addition to a selection of regular items that may be offered, there are some exclusive new rewards that you can only get from the Trial of the Ancestors. Passive Tree Tattoos are one such reward. These are not applied to your skin but are instead engraved on your soul. Applying your tattoo will change what the attribute skills on your passive tree do.

If you win the entire tournament, Hinekora can also offer you a new type of item called an Omen. They can be stored in your inventory until a condition is met, at which point it is consumed and its effect occurs. You can only consume one Omen per combat area. She may also offer a lock of her hair, which allows you to foresee the result of an item crafting outcome.

Each of the ten Karui tribes guard an exclusive unique item that embodies the essence of their tribe. These valuable heirlooms can only be earned by defeating that tribe in the Trial of the Ancestors. Hinekora, the Goddess of Death, also has four powerful unique items that may be offered to winners of the tournament.

After meeting Divinia in Act Ten, you'll find Sanctum items while playing maps in the endgame. These tradeable items each represent a whole floor of the Sanctum. Upon successfully completing that Sanctum floor, the next floor is generated as a tradeable item, with all your Boons, Afflictions and Resolve states built-in.

We have rebalanced The Forbidden Sanctum to provide more variety in the mechanics and monsters you encounter. Most notably, your primary character defences are now able to protect your resolve. Relics have also been rebalanced and are now tradeable.

Trial of the Ancestors introduces 16 new keystone passives to unlock on the Atlas Passive Tree. These keystones allow you to double down on content that you want to play, and offer control of how you want to experience Path of Exile's endgame. With the right keystones allocated, you can craft Vaal Side areas, become possessed by a Tormented Spirit, place a single gigantic explosive charge in Expedition, or play any Kirac mod regardless of what he offers you.

As part of this expansion's metagame rebalance, we have introduced 14 new support gems. These gems have been designed to take existing categories of skills and provide entirely new ways to play them, for example making your Warcries deal damage, having your projectiles return to you, or causing your totems to launch fiery mortars at enemies that hit them.

The Guardian Ascendancy Class has been revamped to bring it more in line with the modern power level of other Ascendancy Classes. It still keeps its focus on synergistic party play but with many more exciting options. Harmony of Purpose now powers up parties using Link skills. Time of Need now completely heals and cleanses you every four seconds. Radiant and Unwavering Crusade both fully embrace the "Holy Summoner" theme by giving you access to some exciting new types of minions that are exclusive to this ascendancy class.

We have completely redesigned the Chieftain Ascendancy Class. It offers all new passive skills, many of which focus on themes of fire and other elemental damage alongside specialising in Totems, Strikes and Slams. Its new skills let you cause enemies to explode, turn off enemies' fire resistance while you're stationary, convert passive skills to apply to fire damage and have your fire resistance apply to your cold and lighting resistances, among many other abilities.

To celebrate the release of Trial of the Ancestors, we'll be hosting a boss-kill event. To enter, you will need to create a Hardcore Solo Self-found character in the Ancestor league, and race to kill all seven pinnacle bosses on the same character. We'll post more information about the event and its prizes in the news before release. Best of luck to everyone!

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

Path Of Exile is available for PS4, Xbox One and PC.