Betrayal, Path of Exile’s latest expansion and challenge league are now live. The main attraction of this sizable content update for Grinding Gear Games’ action-RPG is the so-called Syndicate system that will have you investigating The Immortal Syndicate, fighting and manipulating your way through its ranks, and ultimately raiding their safehouses for shiny loot.
Apart from that, the expansion introduces a fair amount of new skills, items, and mechanics, while also revamping some of the existing ones. You can read all about Betrayal and watch the official trailer here, check out the new and updated Skill Gems here, and find the complete patch notes here.
And here are Betrayal’s major new features:
The Betrayal Challenge League
- Challenge leagues are a great opportunity for a fresh start in a new economy. All of your old characters and items are still present in the Standard and Hardcore leagues, but you’re encouraged to join the new leagues, complete challenges and demonstrate your mastery of Path of Exile!
- With 3.5.0, there are Standard and Hardcore, and Solo Self-Found Standard and Hardcore, variations of the Betrayal challenge league available. They have the same core mechanics and items. You can create private league versions of these leagues, with mods that make the game harder.
- In the Betrayal Challenge League, you will investigate the Immortal Syndicate, whose sinister operations have begun to appear across Wraeclast and Oriath.
- Help the newest master, Jun Ortoi, as she investigates the disappearance of several prominent exiles in relation to the sudden rise of the Immortal Syndicate. She will aid you as you seek to dismantle Syndicate fortifications, halt the transportation of Syndicate resources, prevent the Syndicate from destroying vital evidence in their research compounds, and fight off their attempts to assassinate you.
- Track your progress on the Investigation Board, and force the Syndicate members you defeat to bargain with you, betray their allies, face interrogation or be executed. Use the information you gain from these actions to raid Syndicate safehouses.
- Battle your way through the safehouses to learn who leads the Syndicate. Gain valuable rewards based on who you defeat in each safehouse, including items with powerful Veiled mods. Jun can help you pull back the veil, revealing untold power on these items.
- The new challenge leagues include a set of 40 new challenges. When you complete 12 challenges, you will receive the Betrayal Helmet Attachment. When you reach 24 challenges, you will receive the Betrayal Aura Effect. At 36 challenge completed you’ll receive the Betrayal Cloak. These microtransactions are only obtainable in this league.
- From the 19th challenge onwards and for every third challenge after that, you will receive pieces of the Betrayal Totem Pole decoration to display in your hideout. The Totem Pole permanently showcases how many of the Betrayal challenges you completed during the league.
Major New Content and Features
- There’s a new roster of Masters! Alva, Niko and Einhar have returned and have brought their respective League features with them. They, along with Zana and the Betrayal League’s Jun Ortoi, make up the new roster of Masters. Einhar’s Bestiary content has been revamped – he now accompanies you on the hunt and manages nets for you.
- Overhauled the Hideout system: Hideouts, favour and decorations are now shared account-wide. You will now encounter Hideouts throughout the game after rescuing Helena in Act 2. Hideouts must be cleared of enemies before they can be claimed. You can now reclaim all your hideout decorations (except stashes, the waypoint and your crafting bench) with the click of a button, and even export your Hideout layout if you’re particularly proud of your creation! Special map-only hideouts are waiting in the end-game, but are rare to stumple upon.
- Overhauled Mastercrafting: You now have a single Crafting Bench in your Hideout that covers all item types and crafting mods. You now gain new crafting mods from a variety of different sources, including through exploration and helping the new Masters. You can also overwrite previously crafted mods at the cost of an Orb of Scouring.
- Added a new Strength/Dexterity Skill Gem – Shattering Steel: Swing an Axe or Sword, releasing projectiles in sequence. The projectiles shatter when colliding with an enemy or after travelling a short distance, with the shattered pieces dealing damage in front of the impact location.
- Added a new Strength/Dexterity Skill Gem – Lancing Steel: Thrust an Axe or Sword forward, releasing a primary projectile that impales enemies it hits. Additional projectiles appear nearby as smaller metal shards that fly forward after a short delay.
- Added a new Intelligence Skill gem – Winter Orb: Channel to conjure an orb above you which pelts nearby enemies with projectiles that explode when they hit the ground. Channel for longer to build up stages on the skill. The orb loses stages over its duration after you stop channelling.
- Added a new Intelligence Skill Gem – Storm Brand: Create a magical brand that can attach to a nearby enemy until it dies or expires. It periodically activates while attached, firing beams which damage nearby enemies and the enemies around them.
- Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem – Armageddon Brand: Create a magical brand that can attach to a nearby enemy until it dies or expires. It periodically activates while attached, causing a meteor to fall from the sky.
- Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem – Brand Recall: Detach your Brands from enemies and return them to you, activating their effect. Your Brands will have increased branding range until they next brand an enemy.
- Added a new Strength Skill Gem – Dread Banner: Cast to reserve mana and carry a banner which lets nearby allies inflict Impale with attacks, and lessens the accuracy of nearby enemies. Gain stages by impaling enemies while carrying the banner. Casting the skill again places the banner, ending the mana reservation. Once placed, it becomes more powerful for each stage gained while carried.
- Added a new Strength Skill Gem – War Banner: Cast to reserve mana and carry a banner which increases the accuracy of nearby allies, and the physical damage taken by nearby enemies. Gain stages by killing enemies while carrying the banner. Casting the skill again places the banner, ending the mana reservation. Once placed, it becomes more powerful for each stage gained while carried.
- Added a new Strength/Intelligence Support Gem – Multiple Totems Support: Supported skills have +2 to maximum number of Summoned Totems. When you use a supported totem skill, you summon two totems instead of one. Supported skills deal less damage.
- Added a new Dexterity/Intelligence Support Gem – Bonechill Support: Supported skills have increased effect of Chill on Enemies. Enemies in Chilling Areas from Supported Skills take increased Cold Damage over Time, and have Damage Taken increased by Chill Effect. Enemies Chilled by Supported Skills take increased Cold Damage over Time and have damage taken increased by Chill Effect.
- Added a new Skill – Focus: By itself, Focus does nothing, but new Veiled item modifiers (available in Betrayal League) have powerful and build-enabling interactions with it. The Focus skill is enabled when you equip any item with a mod that interacts with Focus, but is not supportable.
- Added the Advanced Skill Gem Tutorial. By clicking on the new button on Skill Gem quest rewards throughout Act 1 you can see a preview of how that skill will act with a variety of different Support Gems.
- Added Atlas Objectives, which are guaranteed Master Missions indicated on the Atlas of Worlds. Whenever you complete a map, there’s a chance for a new objective to appear (or, if you already have an objective of that type, move). Objectives can appear on any non-unique map, but will favour completed maps or maps adjacent to completed maps. They also refresh every day, like daily missions used to.
- Added 13 new unique items.
- Added one new Fated unique prophecy.
- Added 5 new Divination cards, designed by our supporters.
- Added 13 new Hideouts.
- Added 3D art for the unique body armour Iron Heart.
- Added 5 new maps, which replace existing basetypes.
- Added Labyrinth enchantments for the new and reworked skills.
