Grinding Gear Games has locked the date: Path of Exile: Curse of the Allflame launches July 24 (PDT). The July expansion for the first PoE goes nautical — sunken artefacts and “horrors of the deep” — and by content density it’s one of the fullest leagues in years. The race starts Friday; get your builds ready.
What 3.29 brings
The official announcement lists an impressive haul:
- A new challenge league — the sunken-artefact mechanic: raise relics from the seabed and pay for your greed with encounters against deep-sea horrors.
- Significant Abyss and Legion reworks — two veteran mechanics get modernized; for Abyss it’s the first major overhaul in years.
- The return of the Mercenaries of Trarthus — last year’s mercenary mechanic joins the permanent content pool.
- A new Ascendancy class for the Scion — a genuinely rare event: the Scion hasn’t seen alternatives in ages.
- An all-new endgame system — GGG is drip-feeding details, but the phrase alone means the atlas routine is changing.
- Reliquarian Ascendancy changes (partial 3.29 patch notes are already out) and Twitch Drops at launch.
In a separate post GGG showcased new unique items: from jewels that consume Abyssal Jewels to a unique that summons an army of spellcasting crabs. Build-makers are already rubbing their hands.
Why this league matters
PoE 1 lives alongside PoE 2 — and GGG keeps demonstratively investing in both. Curse of the Allflame is the answer to the skeptics who buried the original: a new Ascendancy, an endgame system and two mechanic reworks add up to a full expansion, not a maintenance patch. League start will, as always, draw the year’s peak player count.
What this means for players using software
League start is the most sensitive moment of the cycle:
- A major client patch lands July 24 — all software will need updating. Stay out of the game until status is confirmed on the cheat updates page.
- The first two weeks bring botter ban waves. GGG purges farms while the league economy is young; behavioral discipline (a human session rhythm) matters most right now.
- The hardcore race is Auto ESC time. Threshold-triggered auto-logout saves characters through launch-day lag — we covered how it works in our PoE cheats guide; the software carrying it is Phoenix.
Bottom line
Curse of the Allflame shapes up as one of PoE 1’s richest leagues: a new mechanic, two reworks, a Scion Ascendancy and a mysterious endgame system. On July 24 Wraeclast pulls the veterans back in for hundreds of hours — see you at the starting line.
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