Grinding Gear Games officially locked in the date: May 29, 2026 (PDT) — the largest Path of Exile 2 update so far, Return of the Ancients, ships. Alongside the announcement, the studio published a post breaking down exactly what’s changing in the campaign.
PoE 2’s biggest pain point: navigation
PoE 2 picked up plenty of praise during early access for the depth of its systems, but virtually every critic landed on the same complaint: locations are too big, and traversing them turns into a tedious sprint. It hurts the most on a third or fourth playthrough, when you already know every “secret” and just want to reach the boss.
In Return of the Ancients, GGG is fixing this systematically:
- Some long corridor zones are shortened or connected via shortcuts
- Several “dead-end” areas are removed entirely, with loot redistributed
- Checkpoints in larger locations now have telegraph markers for easier wayfinding
The post includes side-by-side screenshots of key Act 2 and Act 3 zones. Areas where the average player spent 8–12 minutes should now run 5–7 minutes.
What changes for runs
If you maintain multiple characters and regularly level alts, this update is a big quality-of-life win. Roughly speaking, total campaign time drops by 25–35% based on beta-server testers.
GGG also hint that a new league is expected to follow Return of the Ancients — exact date isn’t named, but “a few weeks” after the release.
Supporter Packs leaving
A separate announcement: Last of the Druids Supporter Packs leave the store permanently on May 29 — the same day the update lands. If you wanted the Kalguuran and Precursor cosmetics, you have two weeks.
Software and PoE 2
Path of Exile 2 doesn’t ship a heavyweight anti-cheat (same as the original), but GGG actively bans on suspicious patterns: botting, dupes, autoclicker scripts with “perfect” interval timing. Among our customers, popular tools include:
- Loot ESP — item filter highlighting only items worth picking up at current market price
- Map overlay — minimap with markers for active monsters and chests
- Auto-pickup — configurable, so it doesn’t look like an obvious bot
Within 1–2 days after the May 29 release, our software updates will catch up to the reworked location coordinates. Map changes in PoE 2 break radar and ESP positioning — so we recommend avoiding radar tools on day one of the patch, wait for the developer update.
Bottom line
May 29, 2026 — a date worth remembering for anyone playing PoE 2. The campaign gets shorter, additional content arrives a few weeks later, and the current supporter pack disappears. A good window to come back to the game, especially if the long maps soured your earlier early-access experience.
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