Path of Exile 3.27 adopts Elden Ring's most grotesque mechanic for the free ARPG's first-ever sequel league

Path of Exile 3.27 is 'Keepers of the Flame,' and it's the ARPG's first-ever sequel league. While public attention has certainly been more focused on PoE 2 since its early-access launch, there are a lot of reasons to care about its continuing predecessor. The first game is much more substantial, with a decade-plus of love and development from Grinding Gear Games honing it into one of the best RPGs on PC today - and you can play it for free. Its latest update is a great reason to do so, too, because it's packed with some deliciously dark systems that let you modify your character's body or grow fleshy, warped gear.

Path of Exile Keepers of the Flame is pitched by game director Mark Roberts, who I spoke with ahead of the reveal, as "a true sequel to the Breach league." First introduced to the free Steam game back in 2016, Breach has remained one of PoE's core mechanics over the years, beloved for its simple but satisfying loop of racing against time to smash through hordes in a slowly expanding circle. Its new-look form kicks off right from the opening moments of your campaign, when you run into the eponymous Keepers in act one's starting zone, The Coast.

The Keepers of the Flame are sworn to defend Wraeclast against the Breachlords, with their founder Ailith accompanying you in these twisted encounters. In areas where the hiveborn have built up impediments, she'll lend you a spark of cleansing fire, allowing you to push through their barricades and clear enough of a path for her to demolish the hive with a full-on blast. Elsewhere, she'll join you for a more traditional Breach-style encounter, but one where enough progression will stabilize the rift.

Managing to create a stabilized breach will earn you the ire of Vruun, Marshal of Xesht, kicking off a boss encounter that you must overcome to permanently seal the entry point and claim your rewards. The other type you'll find are full-blown Breach Hives, which are "visions of the Breachlords made real in Wraeclast." Head in, fight your way through the toughest hiveborn foes, and help Ailith to set off a detonation capable of bringing the whole thing down. Just make sure you're able to get out of there before it goes off.

"We've taken all the lessons we've learned since the release of Breach nine years ago and improved upon it every way we can," Roberts remarks. "However, much of the joy of Breach came from its simplicity. While we want to modernize the mechanic, we don't want to undermine the core experience. You're still mostly just slaughtering hordes of enemies in a circle."

In return for your hard work, Ailith will take you to the Monastery of the Keepers, where you're introduced to the Genesis Tree. Yes, get your jokes in now, they've added yet another tree to Path of Exile. Indeed, not only is this a literal, giant plant, it's also got a brand-new specialization network of its own to put points into, because sometimes reality is the funniest thing of all. This is used to modify the fruits of the Genesis Tree, which includes everything from items and equipment to currency, and even new limbs.

These special "breach-hands" are called Grafts, and they're fused "directly to your body in a completely safe process" to let you harness the power of the Breach for yourself. Some grant passive benefits, others can unlock active skills to fill gaps in your kit. There are a total of sixteen Graft types to chase after, and you'll eventually earn the ability to pop on a second one to amplify the power gain even further. Your grafted arm has another use, too. It'll collect Graftblood from the monsters you defeat, which can then be fed to the tree to grow all of your chosen rewards.

Depending on how you invest into the Genesis Tree, you're able to choose specific pieces of equipment to grow and apply various modifiers to their production process. Roberts gives an example: "You can specifically target boots, with a dexterity requirement, with an increased chance for speed modifiers, and a reduced chance for cold modifiers." Most of these influencing nodes aren't guarantees, but they're extremely large multipliers that stack the odds in your favor, so you'll usually get something close to what you want.

Grafted gear typically can't be modified by normal crafting currencies, but there's even a solution for that, because another passive point allows the tree to forge "fleshy mockeries of currency orbs" that will do the job. You can even discover special 'Foulborn' variants of some that lock out lower-value rolls to guarantee you get a good outcome when using them, a bit like PoE 2's new, tiered offerings. It's not only crafting items that can be Foulborn, however; it can also happen with unique items you grow, causing them to have mutated modifiers that could transform how they're used.

Another powerful way to augment your loadout in 3.27 is Bloodlines, which work much like a secondary Ascendancy that imbues you with the powers of PoE's most iconic bosses. They're unlocked by defeating the foe in question; overcome the Trialmaster's final challenge in Ultimatum to earn the right to the Chaos Bloodline and its boosts to Vaal skills and corrupted items, or surpass Oshabi at the climax of Harvest to absorb abilities drawn from the three varieties of Azmerian lifeforce. You can spec into one Bloodline and one Ascendancy per character, and spread your points between them however you wish.

If you played PoE 3.26, Secrets of the Atlas, you'll remember the three new pinnacle boss battles introduced with Zara's questline. Well, surprise surprise, they're back again as even-tougher uber variants, unlocked through fragments from tier-17 map bosses. The Incarnation of Fear and Incarnation of Neglect are tough enough alone, but the new fight with the Incarnation of Dread will actually require you to defeat both of the others as it progresses. Good luck.

Asynchronous trade makes its way over after a successful test run in PoE 2's most recent season. While it's unable to give an exact statistic due to the likes of friends swapping gear, GGG tells me that roughly "40-50% of trades" since the update have been made using the new Merchant tabs introduced with The Third Edict. It's been a real godsend that's finally tempted me to sell unwanted items for the first time in a decade of playing Path of Exile, so it goes without saying that I'm thrilled about this.

Of course, there are also plenty more additions in PoE 3.27, including a selection of new skill and support gems, and plenty of quality-of-life upgrades. One of the most valuable is the ability to mass-identify your entire inventory in town without using any Scrolls of Wisdom, but you'll also be able to access disenchanting in towns and hideouts, level multiple skill gems with a single click, respec your Atlas passive tree with gold (including the whole thing at once, if you like), and rapid-open stacked decks to either your inventory or the ground.

Last but not least, Heist is getting some much-needed love. To this day, it's the mechanic that made the strongest first impression on me. I love the vibe of breaking into a heavily guarded facility, snatching up as much loot as possible, and then making your escape as the alarms ring and guards flood in. I haven't revisited it for quite some time, however, because of the grind required to level up your accomplices. GGG has thankfully removed this requirement at last, and your rogues will now immediately start at max level from the get go.

Path of Exile 3.27 'Keepers of the Flame' launches Friday October 31. You can play for free on Steam or via the standalone client. Head here to get started and discover what's made it so beloved.

Whether you're looking for even more of the best games like Diablo, or want to elevate your clicks with the precision and comfort of the best gaming mouse in 2025, we've got you covered.

You're also welcome in the PCGamesN Discord, where you can chat all things ARPG with thousands of fellow readers.