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Iconic ARPG Path of Exile has reclaimed its throne with the launch of PoE patch 3.25 and its new city-building league. Landing cleanly between the launch of the second Last Epoch cycle and the upcoming Diablo 4 Season 5, Path of Exile Settlers of Kalguur is one of the most dramatic overhauls developer Grinding Gear Games has ever delivered to a game already notorious for big seasonal updates. The changes have clearly proven popular, as its seen a new Steam high for the decade-old RPG.
Already a special game back in 2013 when it became publicly playable, the free Steam game has continued to grow and evolve with dozens of major seasonal overhauls introducing new skills, mechanics, progression systems and more. Built by Diablo 2 fans eager for a new installment, Path of Exile is the game that actually sold me on the ARPG format, and its new league is a great time to come back or start for the first time.
Path of Exile Settlers of Kalguur is the newest update, and kicks off another season. The focus this time is on building the city of Kingsmarch. You construct and upgrade facilities to help you with all manner of aspects from gathering and honing gear to trading for valuable resources. You can even send out NPCs to tackle dangerous endgame maps that you don’t fancy yourself – as long as you’re okay with the risk of them dying.
It’s a fantastic and long-requested concept for a PoE season. More than that, however, the 3.25 update introduces some of the best quality-of-life upgrades that Path of Exile has seen in a long while. Among these are a new trade market to make exchanging crafting currency vastly more user-friendly, the ability to respec with gold or use it to gamble for powerful new items, and even an increased item pickup radius to make grabbing gear feel much smoother.
The results speak for themselves. Prior to this weekend, the highest concurrent player count Path of Exile had reached on Steam was 211,637 users, during the Crucible league in April 2023. With the launch of Settlers of Kalguur, that leaped up to a new high of 229,337. It’s also important to note that this doesn’t paint the whole picture, as many long-time players use GGG’s standalone launcher, but it’s representative of the excitement for the new league.
With a lot of hype building for the sequel, news that the Path of Exile 2 release date has been pushed back has likely tempted many to try the original for the first time. It’s also worth noting that, despite some overlaps, the two games play quite differently and both will continue to update independently with new seasons after the sequel launches.
For my part, I’ll always advocate for giving Path of Exile a try – it might seem intimidating at first, especially when you open that colossal passive skill tree for the first time, but just take it at your own pace and don’t worry about learning everything immediately. For as deep and complex as its endgame is, Path of Exile is also fantastically satisfying at the very basic level of running through early areas with a big hammer or a fistful of fireballs and splatting a multitude of monsters.
If that’s not enough to satisfy your craving for loot, here are the best games like Diablo to play in 2024. Or you could have a look through even more of the best free PC games that you can jump into without spending a thing.
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