Path of Exile 2 Developers Discuss Changes to Temples, Abysses, and Rift Fortresses

In June, Path of Exile 2 developers introduced update 0.5.3, which includes balance adjustments, technical fixes, and more.

Grinding Gear Games discussed "late-game changes." Now, a failed attempt to complete a map will impose a 50% reduction in experience gained, in addition to existing penalties to rewards.

They also warned of a threat from the followers of the Master in the Mists — they have entrenched themselves in the labyrinth in the Essence of Nothingness and "will try to kill you if you attempt to leave the labyrinth."

Additionally, they mentioned that "various improvements have been made to the market interface when playing with controllers."

Temple Changes:

• The Temple's notable passive skill "Queen's Offerings" in the Atlas no longer grants "50% chance for rare Vaal beacon chests to contain additional random Temple currency" and "unique Vaal beacon monsters have a 25% chance to drop additional random Temple currency." Instead, it now corrupts a rare or unique monster in the area when Vaal beacons are activated.
• Reduced the frequency of special biome rooms in Atziri's Temple, enabled by the Temple's notable passive skill "Secrets of the Ancients." In conjunction with the notable skill Royal Prerogative, this now always results in a positively increasing number of special room uses.

Some Abyss Changes:

• Conquering the Kulemak's Vessel can now drop Ancient Jaws, Ancient Ribs, and Ancient Clavicles.
• Tasgul, the Light Devourer now always drops Blighted Currency.
• Vandrot, the Black-Blooded Enslavor now always drops Blighted Currency.
• The final large Abyss Cache in the Abyssal Depths now always contains Blighted Currency.

Some Rift Changes:

• Increased the number of maps appearing in Rift Fortresses.
• Added new properties, such as "All monsters spawned by Rift Hives are at least magic" and "Eilith can create a Sleeper's Gaze. A new skill that increases the rarity of monsters entering it."

The developers also noted that the interface behavior has been improved when consuming Rift fruits in large quantities:

The full description of update 0.5.3 for Path of Exile 2 is available at the following link (it has already been translated into Russian).

In the overview video, PoE 2 Game Director Jonathan Rogers mentioned that update 0.5.4, coming "next week," will feature additional improvements for hives, with even more Eilith abilities and improved Rift tiles to better empower hives.