Path of Exile: Heist preview -- Everything you need to know

Path of Exile's next expansion, Heist, puts you in a high-stakes scenario where you'll need to steal artifacts at the risk getting trounced by deadly guards. Along the way, you'll enlist the service of rogues, NPC companions who can help you throughout the daring operation. The expansion will also have numerous new unique items, replica unique items/replicas, alternate quality gems, and skills such as Flame Wall and Splitting Steel. Here's our Path of Exile: Heist in-depth preview. Just click on the pages below for the info that you'd like to know more about: I. Path of Exile: Heist - The Rogue Harbor, rogues, mechanics, and the Grand Heist II. The rewards - Replica unique items, experimented base types, alternate quality gems, heist trinkets, and more III. The new and reworked skills - Flame Wall, Impending Doom, Splitting Steel, Void Sphere, and the Corpsewalker unique item https://www.youtube.com/watch?v5CrhXb33Gf0 Note: All other videos in the article other than the official trailer are from a preview build. These may change accordingly as we get closer to Path of Exile: Heist's launch on September 18. Path of Exile: Heist - The Rogue Harbor The Rogue Harbor is a new location you can visit in Path of Exile by using a "marker," a special currency that's included in the league. In this location, you'll find several NPCs and, naturally, rogues, who are able to join your crew. At the start, you'll only encounter a handful of these colorful characters. But once you've progressed further in the league, there will be 13 rogues in total: Four rogues will stay in the Rogue Harbor since they mostly offer transportation or intel decryption services (more on this later). The other nine, meanwhile, can be recruited to your crew for a heist. Rogues in your crew These rogues have one main skill which they're really good at and up to three sub skills that might need a bit of work. Examples of skills include demolition, engineering, or lockpicking. You can only bring one rogue as part of your crew for regular heists. If you successfully complete the said heist, the rogue will also gain XP for their specialization. Rogues can also be equipped with their own items that improve their capabilities during heists. Note: To avail of a rogue's services or get them to join your crew, you'll need to pay them using markers. Don't worry, markers drop from monsters and heist completions. Heist contracts To start a heist, you'll first need a contract (these also drop from monsters or heist completions just like markers). Additionally, crafting modifications with your regular currencies apply to contracts as well, and certain changes will increase the difficulty and rewards (seen below). In some ways, you can think of contracts as an offshoot of Path of Exile's maps. Whereas maps are for those who want to focus on the endgame, contracts let you experience some semblance of that mechanic as you progress. Contracts will show a particular Artifact that you can steal. But, before you can start the activity, you'll first need to speak with The Wayfinder at the Rogue Harbor. Pay for transportation or a rogue crew member's fee, and off you go. Once you reach the new area, you'll notice enemies patrolling around. Your rogue companions can help you during a fight, but their main reason for being there is to use their specializations (such as lockpicking or engineering). You also have an alert level bar at the bottom of your HUD. The alert level increases through the following means: Stealing items from chests or trunks. Killing guards. Grabbing the Artifact which automatically raises the alert level to maximum. Lockdown What exactly happens when it's at maximum? Well, let's just say you won't like it. Lots of guards will start spawning out of corners, swarming you until you have nowhere left to go. Your goal now is to escape this "lockdown" phase and get back to the Rogue Harbor. If you die, you'll lose all the items you've picked up during the heist since they're considered contraband. One more thing to take note of is that if you've raised the alarm level to maximum and the lockdown has begun, you still have a scant few seconds left to grab the Artifact. If you're close to it, maybe you should take the risk. Alternatively, you might want to get out of Dodge in case you don't want to lose all your loot from various rooms and chests. Note: It's possible to remain in a heist map for a prolonged period even during the lockdown stage. It's just that it'll take a very sturdy character with a lot of survivability and, even then, the sheer number of mobs might be too much. In any case, here's a gameplay video of Path of Exile: Heist's main activity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?vUrPE01sDfsY Grand Heists Let's say you've successfully stolen an Artifact during a heist. Go ahead and return to an NPC named Whakano. He'll reward you with markers and gain some intel. At the same time, it's possible that you've found a blueprint. Similar to contracts (and maps), blueprints are also craftable itemized world areas. The difference is that a blueprint will eventually lead you to a Grand Heist. If you bring this blueprint to Whakano, he can use the intel he's gained to help you plan your Grand Heist, revealing important info such as wings, escape routes, reward rooms, and more. Path of Exile's Grand Heists will require your best effort—and your best rogues—because it's going to be a doozy. Unlike a regular heist, which is a shorter activity, a Grand Heist may have several wings, each with its own alert level. Oh, and these wings have multiple obstacles with which you're allowed to bring three rogues to tackle those depending on their specializations. The objective of a Grand Heist is to eventually reach the vault in each wing. These vaults have multiple rewards displayed in glass cases. However, you can only choose one and forego the rest. From there, you can make your way to another wing and reap all the rewards from the vaults, or make your escape in case things get dicey. Here's a Grand Heist gameplay video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v0ilgp1rai2A So, what exactly can you expect from your sneaky activities? Well, head over to part two of our Path of Exile: Heist preview. It's time to check the rewards. Grand Heist rewards After grabbing items in the vaults of Path of Exile's Grand Heists, you'll finally earn your rewards. Bear in mind that these are from the Grand Heist activity only and not part of the regular world drops. Replica unique items Think of all the unique items you've discovered or heard about in Path of Exile. Next, imagine what they'd be like if they somehow had different capabilities. That's what replica unique items (or replicas) are. These are just some of the rewards you'll find via one of the vaults in a Grand Heist's wing. Here's an example of the Replica Iron Commander bow where it uses strength instead of dexterity, and it affects Shrapnel Ballista instead of Siege Ballista: Next, here's the Replica Ambu's Charge. The effect causes you to lose HP, but it allows you to recharge endurance more often: Note: These are just two of 100 replica unique items that you'll find in Path of Exile: Heist's main activity. Experimented base types I'm willing to bet that Path of Exile players will just abbreviate this as EBTs. But, what are experimented base types? Well, think of basic weapon types and imagine if they deal a different kind of damage -- that's what experimented base types are. There's one EBT for each weapon type and several varieties for jewelry. Here's the EBT for the bow (which has built-in fire damage instead of physical damage): Alternate Quality gems Alternate Quality gems are, technically, the Path of Exile gems with which you've grown accustomed. However, just like replicas and EBTs, there's a twist. Increasing their quality will tend to boost a different kind of stat or effect. There are around 900 of these; roughly one to three for every skill and support gem in the game. Once example is Cast on Critical Strike which normally increases crit chance. The alternate quality version of this, meanwhile, provides more attack damage: Heist trinkets and Heist enchantments Path of Exile: Heist will also introduce a new equipment slot for trinkets. This new equipment slot, probably the first since the game's release many years ago, let you equip items that buff your capability during heists only. They're not meant to compromise or become detrimental to your actual build. You'll see two examples below: Armageddon Shine - increases the rarity of items, the chance for them to be corrupted, and divination cards too. Ancient Glimmer - increases drop chance of markers, maps, and scarabs; a chance for Regal Orbs to be replaced by Exalted Orbs. These are ridiculously powerful effects that can completely change the way you approach Path of Exile's RNG-based loot system, earn even better rewards, or even make you a millionaire if you're lucky with the drops. Lastly, some of the rewards you find in vaults might be Heist Enchantments. You'll see a couple of examples below (take a look at those juicy bonuses): The idea behind Path of Exile: Heist is to present a refreshing, high-stakes activity. You need to be on your toes, deciding on the fly if you still need to continue exploring, or if you need to make a break for it. Plus, it's also a means to build your own party as a solo player to see how far you can go. Some enemies found in the heist maps were also originally created for Path of Exile 2, so you might notice distinct visual upgrades and special effects. But, there are a few more things we need to talk about. We still need to discuss new and reworked skills that are included in this league. Head over to part three of our Path of Exile: Heist preview. New and reworked skills There are several skills that are being reworked, as well as new ones that are being introduced as part of Path of Exile: Heist. We also talk about a couple of new (non-replica) unique items. Curses: Impending Doom Curse skills were often used via automatic triggers or application. With Path of Exile: Heist's rework to curses, the idea is to encourage players to self-cast them more often as they'll grow in intensity over time after being cast. There will also be new and reworked gems that interact differently with curses. One example is Impending Doom, a support gem that makes cursed enemies explode once the curse's effect ends. This will only work on self-cast curses whether it's from the end of the duration of the spell or because the player removes the curse prematurely (or applies a different curse). https://www.youtube.com/watch?vOjLVlIrfL7w Steel skills: Call of Steel, Splitting Steel, and Lancing Steel A new skill has been added — Call of Steel — and it's automatically available whenever you have a steel-type skill equipped. The idea behind this is to use the "shards" mechanic where Call of Steel causes blades to burst from the ground, tear apart enemies, and then create shards that act as "ammunition" of sorts for other steel skills. Assuming multiple enemies have already been impaled, Call of Steel will let you recover a lot of shards instantly. Call of Steel interacts differently with each of the game's steel skills. Path of Exile: Heist even adds two new ones including Splitting Steel. This creates a single projectile that explodes, rupturing into multiple shards that also hit other enemies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vP_SWe1Fnpr4 Lancing Steel and Shattering Steel, meanwhile, have been reworked. In the case of the former, Call of Steel lets a turret rip through opponents with shards with the duration and attack speed also increased. Flame Wall and Void Sphere Flame Wall works well for those who wish to play a bit defensively while self-casting spells. This creates a burning wall of fire that immolates enemies that pass through it. Additionally, any projectiles you use will catch fire and do extra damage if they pass through the Flame Wall. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vx9WX6_zqNV4 As for Void Sphere, it looks absolutely cool. The spell creates a black hole that pulls enemies, which is pretty good for crowd-control. Enemies that die near the vortex are sucked into it for some nifty visual effects. Oh, and before you ask, no, it does not affect unique bosses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v4amcFmUGWQs Corpsewalker unique boots As mentioned earlier, Path of Exile: Heist includes 100 replica unique items. In addition to those, there are also 25 new unique items. When I say new unique items, these are gear pieces and equipment, not tokens or other stuff. One of those happens to be the Corpsewalker. These unique boots let you role-play as a necromancer effectively because you'll spawn a corpse every 0.3 seconds while you're moving. You can also consume the corpses to gain some HP regen, or find builds that support raising or detonating the dead. In the gameplay video below, you'll see the Corpsewalker Boots used in conjunction with General's Cry. This creates Mirage Warriors that attack enemies before they disappear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?vMkXtfmxt4yU Path of Exile: Heist releases on September 18 for PCs and September 23 for consoles. You can check out the game via its Steam store page or official website.

Path of Exile: Heist preview — Everything you need to know

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