Path of Exile 2 1.0 Revealed: December 11 Launch, Shadow and Duelist, Acts 5–6 and Conquerors of Wraeclast

Nearly two years after early access opened, Path of Exile 2 finally has its full release locked in. At the ExileCon 2026 keynote on November 6 (PST), Grinding Gear Games laid out version 1.0 in detail: the game leaves early access on December 11, 2026 and goes free-to-play, bringing two new classes, the last two acts of the campaign, a new challenge league built around raising an army, and a heavily reworked endgame.

The essentials

• Launch: December 11, 2026 (PST). The exact launch hour has not been announced yet.
• Price: free-to-play from 1.0. New supporter packs are available, and pre-registration on the official site unlocks cosmetic rewards.
• Platforms: PC (Steam, Epic Games Store and GGG's standalone client), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
• New classes: the Shadow and the Duelist, for 10 classes at launch.
• Campaign: Acts 5 and 6 complete the six-act story.
• League: Conquerors of Wraeclast, a strategy-flavored mechanic where you recruit mercenaries and fight alongside your own army.
• Path of Exile 1: version 3.30, Covens of Umbra, arrives November 13 (PST), so the original game isn't left out.

Two new classes – and two still to come

The Shadow is the long-awaited dagger class, built around traps and stealth, and arrives with the Assassin and Infiltrator ascendancies. The Duelist picks up swords and gets the Knight ascendancy, which brings a Squire companion, War Banners and a mounted charge – easily one of the flashiest kits shown on stage.

That takes the roster to 10 classes and, according to the developer, 26 ascendancies in total. Grinding Gear Games originally promised 12 classes, and director Jonathan Rogers addressed that directly: the remaining two are still coming, just not at launch. Neither the classes nor a date were confirmed, so treat any names you see floating around as speculation for now.

Several existing ascendancies are also being reworked, including the Infernalist, Blood Mage, Acolyte of Chayula and Mercenary, so returning players should expect their favorite builds to change.

Acts 5 and 6: the campaign is finally whole

Early access never had the full story. Version 1.0 adds Acts 5 and 6, taking the story back to Oriath to face the Twilight Order and the Beast. Across the two new acts, GGG lists 24 new areas, 18 unique bosses and more than 20 named Champion rare encounters. One thing that is still missing: the Trial of the Ancestors, the third ascendancy trial, is not part of 1.0, with the reworked Trial of Chaos serving as the route instead.

Conquerors of Wraeclast: Path of Exile goes strategy game

The launch league is the boldest part of the reveal. In Conquerors of Wraeclast, you recruit mercenaries, position your units before a battle and then fight in the middle of it yourself. Units have counters – shield-bearers block arrows, for example – and siege engines are part of the mix. The story hook has you rescuing captured defectors led by a mercenary named Varek.

Three factions are involved – the Karui, Ezomyte and Maraketh – and more than 70 league points of interest are spread through the campaign, including 23 battles. In the endgame, the league gives you up to three commanders that can be sent out to clear Atlas maps on your behalf, with loot to collect when they finish. On the edge of a shared Atlas, 100 castles are up for grabs: factions compete to hold them, and holding one grants an item rarity bonus plus faction-wide perks.

It's a big swing for an action RPG, and how well army battles mesh with PoE's moment-to-moment combat will be the league's real test on December 11.

Endgame, items and quality-of-life

The endgame gets just as much attention as the campaign:

• Atlas passive tree trimmed to roughly 70 nodes, with points earned from objectives, boss kills and special maps.
• 25+ new maps, pushing the total past 150, and a new endgame storyline.
• Items: around 70 reworked uniques, 40+ new ones and more than 200 new base types.
• Passive tree: around 60 jewel sockets are being moved into clusters.
• Skills: elemental penetration support gems are consolidated into one, alongside new active skills such as Molten Forge and Soul Extraction.
• Quality-of-life: a death recap that shows what killed you, plus a hub that lets you teleport to Delirium, Breach, Abyss, Ritual and Expedition content.
• Performance: GGG cites CPU performance gains of up to about 25%.

Rogers also put the scale of the jump in numbers: monster types grow from around 400 to more than 800, uniques from around 200 to more than 400, and the skill count from 175 to 320.

What it means for players

If you bought into early access, December 11 is the point where the game you've been testing becomes the finished product – and the moment everyone else can jump in for free. Expect a crowded launch: a full reset into a fresh league, two new classes everyone will want to try, and the first chance to play the complete story in one run.

For the cautious, the key open questions are the launch hour, how the army league feels after a few hours, and when the last two classes arrive. For everyone else, the plan is simple: pre-register for the free rewards, pick between Shadow and Duelist, and clear your schedule for the second week of December.