Patch 0.5.0, officially titled Return of the Ancients, launched on May 29, 2026. This is the largest single update to Path of Exile 2 since Early Access began and serves as the final major content patch before the game’s full 1.0 release.
The update introduces the Runes of Aldur challenge league, a complete structural overhaul of the Atlas endgame, two brand-new Ascendancy classes, and sweeping balance changes to skills and items.
Because of the massive scale of these passive tree updates, all existing characters will receive a free passive tree refund upon logging in. The key changes affect league-start crafting, Atlas progression, Ascendancy choices, skill balance, and the 0.5.0b hotfixes.
1. Path of Exile 2 Return of the Ancients Overview
Return of the Ancients changes the endgame by tying Atlas progression to questlines, Fortress maps, and master bonuses. It also adds Runic Ward as a new defensive layer on armour, making itemization one of the patch’s biggest practical changes.
1.1. Most Important Changes in 0.5.0
Return of the Ancients covers an enormous amount of ground. These are the changes that will most directly affect how you play, regardless of your class or preferred content:
- Atlas endgame rebuilt from scratch: The Origins of Divinity storyline replaces aimless map entry with six structured questlines, each with its own hub, crafting options, and pinnacle boss.
- Atlas Passive Tree expanded to 300+ nodes: The entire tree can now be fully allocated through Fortress progression, and passive respecialization has been removed.
- New challenge league and crafting system: The Runes of Aldur league introduces Remnants, Runic Ward, Verisium Runeforging, and over 100 new runes and crafting currencies in a fresh economy.
- Two new Ascendancy classes: The Martial Artist (Monk) and Spirit Walker (Huntress) add new build archetypes built around combo timing and animal companion management respectively.
- Fate of the Vaal is now permanent core content: Atziri’s Temple and all associated mechanics are available in every league going forward.
- Leech reworked, defences rescaled: Only the highest active Leech instance applies at any time, hits above 40,000 damage are capped for Leech calculation, and Armour and Evasion on items are significantly stronger at higher item levels.
2. Runes of Aldur League Mechanics
Return of the Ancients Infographic
The new challenge league revolves entirely around risk-versus-reward crafting encounters scattered throughout the world. Players must interact with ancient artifacts and manage new currency types to forge specialized defensive and offensive gear.
2.1. Remnants and Runic Recipes
In every area, players will encounter a Remnant. This object allows you to craft an item of your choosing through Runic Recipes engraved into its slots. Interacting with these objects introduces several scaling mechanics:
- Risk and Reward: Using more Runeshapes in the recipe spawns extra waves of enemies with tougher modifiers, but provides access to significantly rarer items.
- Remnant Capacity: Remnants spawn with a random capacity ranging from 2 to 10 slots, with higher slot counts being extremely rare.
- Verisium Drops: Defeating the monsters summoned by Remnants rewards you with Verisium metal, the core currency fueling the league’s crafting ecosystem.
2.2. Verisium Runeforging and Runic Ward
Runic Ward
Farrow’s Act 1 questline unlocks Verisium Runeforging. Spend Verisium through this system to add Runic Ward to armour pieces.
Runic Ward activates once your character reaches 1 life. It absorbs incoming damage independently and regenerates on its own outside of standard life recovery mechanics. Armour behavior changes based on item level:
- Below Level 55: Armours gain Runic Ward with no negative downsides.
- Level 55 and Above: Armours trade a portion of their base defences to acquire Runic Ward.
Unlocking Unique Verisium Runeforging in Act 3 allows you to upgrade low-level unique weapons and armours into competitive endgame versions featuring higher damage or improved defensive stats.
2.3. New Kalguuran Skills and Ocean Expedition
Fragments of the Past Skill
The new craftable content falls into four practical groups: weapon runes, early-game runes, modifier currencies, resistance conversion items, and Remnant-crafted skills:
- Ancient Runes: 13 runes providing powerful weapon-specific bonuses, unlocked after Farrow’s Act 4 quest.
- Mythical Runes: 13 runes offering strong early-game bonuses for characters above level 15.
- Alloy Currencies: 13 distinct items that add new crafted modifiers by replacing an existing one, functioning similarly to Perfect Essences.
- Fluxes: 3 items capable of transforming resistances from one element to another.
- Kalguuran Skills: 23 Skills and 7 Supports craftable from Remnants, including Frostflame Nova and Voltaic Barrier.
A separate endgame Expedition story involves exploring the Ocean to chase a meteor of pure Verisium. Faction leaders Medved, Vorana, Uhtred, and Olroth appear as island bosses. Defeating Olroth drops a key to a new Pinnacle Boss exclusive to the league.
3. Origins of Divinity Atlas Overhaul
The Atlas endgame has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. The Origins of Divinity storyline replaces the previous map entry system with structured progression driven by six new questlines. Each questline features its own hub area, crafting options, unique encounters, and a dedicated pinnacle boss.
3.1. The Fortress System Progression
New Fortress System
Completing your first Tower causes a massive Fortress to rise on the Atlas. Clearing maps inside this Fortress grants Atlas Passive Tree points, entirely replacing the old progression method.
The Atlas Tree now features over 300 nodes. Clearing all Fortress maps provides enough points to fully allocate the entire tree. Because full allocation is now possible, passive respecialisation has been removed, though multi-choice nodes can still be freely swapped at any time.
3.2. How to Unlock Masters of the Atlas
Hilda’s Hunting
Masters of the Atlas is a new Ascendancy-style system for the endgame. Players align with one of three masters to secure asymmetric bonuses that can be swapped freely between maps. Each master features 12 nodes, with 4 active at a time.
- Doryani: Unlocked by clearing a Corruption Nexus through the Doryani’s Science questline.
- Hilda: Unlocked by visiting Hilda’s Campsite located southwest of the Atlas starting location.
- Jado: Unlocked by completing an Anomaly map near the starting location via the Spycraft questline.
3.3. Delirium Endgame Additions
Withered Willow
Delirium receives a dedicated hub called The Withered Willow. The updated interface features a new progress bar displaying fog depth and time remaining, introducing several new mechanics:
- Mirror Shards: Colored shards now appear at specific fog depths to trigger unique combat encounters.
- Trial of Madness: Locating Grand Mirrors spawns a duplicate of the map boss. Killing both unlocks a fog-spreading mechanic capable of pushing maps to 200% Delirium.
- Simulacrum Updates: The survival arena is now a 7-wave encounter that drops a key to the new Delirium Pinnacle Boss.
3.4. Breach Hub and Genesis Tree
Breach is now centralized at The Monastery of the Keepers. The mode introduces a new progress bar showing exactly how long a Breach remains open, alongside several massive crafting changes:
- Stabilised Breaches: Reaching 100% on the progress bar triggers new challenge waves and spawns a new boss named Vruun, Marshal of Xesht.
- Genesis Tree Crafting: This exclusive system consumes Wombgifts and Hiveblood to craft rings, amulets, belts, and specialized currency.
- Catalyst Sourcing: Catalysts no longer drop directly from monsters and are now obtained solely through the Genesis Tree.
3.5. Rite of the Nameless
Ritual content is now hosted at Caer Tarth. The endgame reward structure has been narrowed to ensure higher-quality payouts for dedicated farmers:
- Targeted Rewards: All endgame Ritual Reward screen items are now exclusively Uniques or Omens.
- Audience with the King: Unspent tribute can now be directly sacrificed to earn an audience with the boss.
- Rite of the Nameless: Defeating the King drops a key to enable this new mechanic, forcing players to run five consecutive maps as a single continuous ritual while carrying over monsters from every prior map.
3.6. Abyss Map Encounters
Large Abyss cracks now appear natively on the Atlas map. Successfully completing an Atlas Abyss permanently closes the crack and guarantees an Abyssal Depths portal with a boss fight. Additionally, Abyss Omens will no longer drop in areas below level 65.
4. Fate of the Vaal Core Mechanics
Fate of the Vaal set the new quality standard for Path of Exile 2's endgame progression. To match this incredible mechanical depth, the development team completely overhauled older systems like Abyss, introducing massive
Fate of the Vaal officially transitions out of challenge league status and into the permanent core game. This integration ensures its ancient temples, powerful infusers, and deep progression mechanics are available in every future league.
4.1. Lira Vaal and Temple Upgrades
Players will encounter Ancient Beacons starting in Act 3. Energising these beacons opens portals to the Vaal Ruins, eventually revealing Atziri’s Temple on the Atlas inside the city of Lira Vaal.
Several major structural changes have been implemented to improve the Temple run itself:
- Tier 4 Rooms: Players can now upgrade rooms to Tier 4 after unlocking the corresponding ability on the Temple Atlas Tree.
- Faster Pacing: The number of starting rooms has increased to help players reach Atziri more quickly.
- Pathing Fixes: The old “snake” strategy that prevented room deletions is no longer possible.
- Better Loot: Reward Rooms from defeated Architects have been significantly buffed with enhanced base items and higher varieties.
4.2. Expanded Infuser System
The item Infuser system has expanded from a single entity into four specialized crafting types. All Infusers now require the target item to possess at least 20% quality before application.
- Vaal Armourer’s Infusers: Upgrades and modifies defensive armour pieces.
- Vaal Blacksmith’s Infusers: Enhances martial and physical weapon types.
- Vaal Arcanist’s Infusers: Modifies wands, staves, and sceptres for spellcasters.
- Vaal Catalysing Infusers: Targets and improves rings and amulets.
5. Martial Artist and Spirit Walker Ascendancies
Patch 0.5.0 adds two Ascendancy classes: Martial Artist for Monk combo setups and Spirit Walker for Huntress companion play.
5.1. Martial Artist Ascendancy Features
Martial Artist Ascendancy
The Martial Artist is the new Monk Ascendancy. Empowered by runes socketed directly into his body, this class summons illusory bells to manipulate the battlefield and excels at unarmed combat.
The core kit completely alters the Monk’s traditional playstyle by focusing on rhythm and setup:
- Tempest Bells: Players can summon multiple illusory bells to create massive burst damage windows.
- Combo Management: The passive tree includes the Martial Master node, which strictly dictates how specific attacks generate and spend combo points.
5.2. Spirit Walker Ascendancy Features
Spirit Walker Ascendancy
The Spirit Walker is the new Huntress Ascendancy. She calls upon animal spirits to assist in combat, with allocated notables aligning the player with the Stag, Owl, or Bear to grant distinct buffs.
This class leans heavily into the expanded Companion mechanics added in this patch, offering two primary playstyles:
- Beast Subjugation: The Spirit Walker can subdue formidable wild beasts and bind them in spirit.
- Spectral Companions: Players can summon dedicated spectral animal companions to fight directly alongside them and hold aggro.
6. Ascendancy Balance Changes
Six existing Ascendancy classes received targeted balance passes in this update. While some underperforming notables received direct buffs, others underwent substantial mechanical reworks to improve consistency and eliminate exploit loops.
6.1. Chronomancer Rework
Chronomancer
The Chronomancer received the most drastic adjustments of any existing class, fundamentally changing how its defensive layers and spell echoes operate in high-tier content.
- Now and Again: Cascadable Spells now have a 20% chance to Echo, while Repeatable Spells have a 20% chance to Repeat.
- Phased Form: A new notable that reduces incoming damage by 30%, but forces you to take damage equal to 30% of that hit’s value 4 seconds later.
- Temporal Rift: Cast time reduced to 0.1 seconds. It now successfully removes Phased Form’s stored delayed damage upon use.
- Inevitable Agony: Reworked into a Life Loss effect dealing 25% of hit damage over time, featuring a 2-second cooldown and a 12-second duration.
6.2. Core Ascendancy Adjustments
Gemling Legionnaire
Outside of the Chronomancer, several other classes received numerical tweaks to balance their defensive utility, resource sustain, and damage output.
- Acolyte of Chayula: Into the Breach now Leeches 20% of maximum Life when collecting a Red Flame and 20% of maximum Mana for a Blue Flame.
- Blood Mage: Vitality Siphon now grants 20% of Spell Damage Leeched as Life. Sanguine Tides now completely prevents Life Flasks from recovering life, instead requiring charge consumption to trigger its damage buffs.
- Gemling Legionnaire: Crystalline Potential replaced by Essence of Virtue, granting a barrier that accumulates Attribute Motes.
- Pathfinder: Overwhelming Toxicity now inflicts 50% less Poison Duration, heavily nerfing existing poison applications.
- Witchhunter: Obsessive Rituals now applies a harsh 50% penalty to Armour and Evasion Rating while active.
7. Path of Exile 2 Skill Adjustments
The 0.5.0 patch implements a massive volume of skill tuning designed to elevate underused melee interactions while reigning in dominant ranged and spellcasting outliers.
7.1. Major Skill Buffs
Cull the Weak Buff
The biggest buffs improve reliability, burst setup, and damage scaling: Cull the Weak gains “Can’t be Evaded,” Tempest Bell supports more active bells, and Earthquake’s aftershock damage rises across gem levels.
- Cull the Weak: Now features “Can’t be Evaded.” Damage increased to 109-281% of Attack Damage at Gem Levels 3-20. Maximum dash range extended by 15%.
- Tempest Bell: Maximum active bells increased from 1 to 3. The skill can now be Ancestrally Boosted as a Strike attack.
- Rolling Magma: Now Chains 3 times at Gem Level 1, scaling up to 5 chains at Gem Level 20.
- Earthquake: Aftershock damage increased to 184-666% of Attack Damage at Gem Levels 1-20.
- Barkskin: Energy Shield conversion to Armour increased significantly to 50% at level 8.
7.2. Major Skill Nerfs
Comet Nerf
The nerfs mainly cut damage, cooldown bypassing, repeated single-target chaining, and defensive uptime from several dominant skills:
- Comet: Base damage reduced across all gem levels, with Fire-Infused Comet receiving the heaviest penalty.
- Ghost Dance: Ghost Shroud gain interval increased significantly to 11.7-10.1 seconds at Gem Levels 4-20.
- Feral Invocation: No longer bypasses the cooldowns of your socketed skills.
- Lightning Arrow: Multiple Lightning Beams can no longer chain onto the same target.
- Pounce: Cooldown increased to 6-5.1 seconds at Gem Levels 3-20.
7.3. Seal Mechanic Standardization
Seal Mechanic Changes
Grinding Gear Games has completely standardized how multi-cast setups function. The Unleash, Expand, Salvo, and Freezing Salvo Supports now all share a single, unified Seals system with consistent activation rules.
- Casting Restrictions Removed: The previous restriction preventing Salvo and Freezing Salvo from gaining Seals while performing the linked skill no longer exists.
- Salvo Support Rework: The gem now gains a Seal every 1 second (up to a maximum of 6), providing 1 projectile per Seal instead of 2.
- Burst Windows: While the total projectile output potential is now higher, the altered cadence changes how builds must sequence their burst damage windows.
8. Campaign and Quality of Life Improvements
Patch 0.5.0 addresses numerous quality-of-life concerns accumulated throughout the Early Access period, focusing heavily on streamlining campaign navigation and improving Atlas readability.
New Search Function for The Atlas
Campaign navigation is faster in 0.5.0, with clearer visual cues, fewer campaign friction points, and more readable Atlas tools.
- The second Dreadnaught area has been removed; the Act 2 boss now appears in The Dreadnaught directly.
- Monster density in the second half of the campaign and Interludes has been reduced.
- The Atlas now features fixed points of interest at specific coordinates and a new search function.
- Clicking a Town on the Atlas takes you there immediately via a waypoint.
- Tablets of the same type can now be stacked in the Map Device to increase their specific league content spawn rates.
8.2. User Interface and System Updates
Trade Market Filters
The interface updates focus on faster trading, easier party recovery after bosses, and more convenient access to crafting during mapping.
- Players can now skip NPC dialogue sequences instantly by pressing Escape.
- In party play, you can now quickly revive any fallen party members after defeating a boss.
- Shift-Alt Clicking on an item automatically populates the trade market search filters for quick price checking.
- A Reforging Bench has been added directly to the entrance of the Trial of the Sekhemas for easier crafting access.
9. Post-Launch Hotfixes: What Changed After May 29
Patch 0.5.0b arrived on May 30, 2026, one day after Return of the Ancients launched. It addressed several player-impacting issues that emerged immediately at league start, including a widely reported problem with high-tier Waystone sustain and a blocker in the Abyss questline. These fixes are already live.
9.1. Waystone Sustain Improvements
Full Patch 0.5.0b Details
GGG stated the intent was to alleviate concerns about sustaining Waystones from map bosses specifically at higher tiers. Four Atlas Passive Tree nodes received additional bonuses to Waystone quantity dropped by map bosses. The updated values are:
- Atop the World (previously 33% increased Precursor Tower reveal radius only): now also grants 10% increased Waystone quantity from map bosses
- Archeological Interest (previously 15% increased Tablet quantity only): now also grants 10% increased Waystone quantity from map bosses
- Valuable Paths (previously 50% increased Waystone rarity only): now also grants 10% increased Waystone quantity from map bosses
- Pathkeepers: increased from 10% to 15% increased Waystone quantity from map bosses
These bonus values are live in-game but will not appear on the Atlas Passive Tree tooltips until a future patch updates the UI to reflect them.
9.2. Bug Fixes and Balance Adjustments
Patch 0.5.0b also fixes progression blockers, Atlas tracking issues, command-skill abuse, arena bugs, cooldown problems, and unreachable Ocean maps:
- Abyss quest: A bug blocking progression through the endgame Abyss questline has been resolved; however, the quest tracker will not redirect players back to the Well of Souls after defeating Tasgul if Kulemak’s Invitation was not picked up
- Atlas wound maps: Players now correctly receive completion credit for all Atlas wound maps; opening the Atlas in a fresh hideout or map instance resolves any prior tracking issues
- Kelari’s Deception nerf: The consecutive-use damage stacking on this command skill has been capped at a maximum of 300% more damage
- Martial Artist exploit removed: A movement exploit that bypassed the Hollow Form movement penalty has been closed
- Pyromantic Pact: Damage sources of this type now correctly function inside boss arenas
- Lunar Blessing: The cooldown now recovers as intended while the buff is active
- Atlas Passive Tree: Fixed a bug preventing allocation of the final tree skills; fixed Cities Atlas Passive Skills applying multiple times
- Ocean maps: Fixed rare cases where Ocean maps were unreachable due to missing map connections
