Path of Exile 2 1.0 Goes Free to Play on December 11
Path of Exile 2 1.0 leaves early access on December 11 as a free-to-play game, adding Acts 5 and 6, the Shadow and Duelist classes and a castle-building league.
Hakkı ALKANPublished 3 min read
Path of Exile 2 1.0 launches on December 11, ending almost two years of early access and making the game free to play on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S the same day. Grinding Gear Games confirmed the date on November 6 and laid out the full release on November 7: the final two acts, two new classes, a strategy-style launch league and a big performance push.
What comes in Path of Exile 2 1.0?
The headline is the finished story. Acts 5 and 6 complete the six-act campaign, sending players back to the war-torn city of Oriath. According to the official Steam announcement, the new acts add 24 areas, 18 unique bosses and more than 20 Champion Rare encounters.
Two returning favorites join the class roster. The Shadow is built around daggers, traps and stealth, while the Duelist brings swords and a new Stances mechanic that upgrades Ready Stance into Sand or Blood Stance. The Duelist also gets two Ascendancies, the Master-at-Arms and the Knight, which can recruit and equip a Squire companion, plant War Banners and ride into enemies with a Mounted Charge.
What is the Conquerors of Wraeclast league?
The launch league adds a strategy layer on top of the action RPG. Players pick one of three factions, Ezomytes, Maraketh or Karui, build fortresses with more than 20 buildings and upgrades, and lead armies of up to 1,000 soldiers. Siege engines, war elephants and two-headed Chimeras join the fight for 100 castles across the Atlas, with the vampire lord Severa waiting at the end.
What else changes at launch?
| Area | What changes in 1.0 |
|---|---|
| Price | Free to play from December 11 |
| Platforms | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, plus a Mac debut on M2 and newer |
| Items | 200+ new base types, 40 new Uniques, 70+ revamped Uniques |
| Endgame | Atlas passive tree rebuilt into 70 more impactful nodes |
| Performance | Up to 25% better CPU performance, lower memory use |
| Steam Deck | Now Steam Deck Verified |
The main economy also resets, and early access characters move into a separate permanent league rather than carrying over. The passive skill tree gets a major overhaul too, so returning players should expect to rethink their builds. For a sense of how PC players' hardware stacks up for demanding games like this, see the latest Steam hardware survey.
Our Take
Going free to play on the day it leaves early access is a big bet, and it puts Path of Exile 2 in front of a much larger audience than the paid beta ever reached, at a time when Steam is crowded with big releases and revivals like EA's restored classics. The strategy league is an ambitious swing that could either define the launch or overwhelm new players. One gap stands out for readers in Türkiye: Turkish is not among the announced 1.0 languages, and Steam still lists no Turkish support, so local players will be playing in English at launch.