Path of Exile: Echoes of the Atlas Q&A and Details

The upcoming Echoes of the Atlas expansion for Path of Exile will be launching in less than a week, on January 15, 2021. And if you’d like to learn more about what it has in store for us, you should check out this community Q&A that originally took place right after the expansion’s reveal.

But before we get to some of the sample questions, you might want to take a look at the challenge rewards you’ll be able to earn by participating in the Ritual league:

Here are some of the questions:

The Maven & Her Challenges

How does The Maven’s gameplay progression work? Does it occur alongside the Sirus/Watchstone progression?
The Maven’s progression is not tied to Sirus/Watchstone progression. After your first encounter with the Maven, you can call her to witness map boss kills using her beacon on the map device. Her presence makes the boss more difficult.

From time to time, you will be invited to the Maven’s arena to fight an escalating number of bosses in the arena (3, 4, 5, 6 and 10). The 10 boss fight is repeatable and can be farmed. After the 10 boss fight, you may have the opportunity to fight the Maven herself.

The progression is on a per region basis with each successful fight in the Maven’s arena awarding two passive points which can be allocated to the Atlas Tree for that region.

How do progression and rewards work for The Maven in party play?
If you invite the Maven to witness a boss fight and complete that fight with other members of your party, they’ll also be counted as having completed that fight. You can also take on the bosses simultaneously with a party, but the success of that fight is awarded to the instance owner.

How exactly are bosses captured for use in The Maven’s Challenge?
When you enter a map, you can click the Maven’s Beacon on the map device to summon her to witness your fight. If you’re successful, this boss will automatically be counted as witnessed. Once The Maven has witnessed enough boss fights in that region, an item will drop that allows you to travel to her arena to fight those bosses again.

The Maven seems like the expansion to the Sirus and Conquerors endgame in a similar fashion to how the Elder was an expansion to the Shaper endgame. Can we expect Maven’s story to be connected to the Sirus arc or is this more independent?
The Maven’s storyline exists in parallel with the Conqueror’s storyline. Lorewise, the Maven is an Eldritch entity and more of a continuation of the Elder storyline, which is separate from Sirus and the Elderslayers.

How will the boss fights be scaled in difficulty within The Maven’s arena fights?
The first invitations are quest items to progress through the increasing number of bosses you are fighting in her arena. After you have first completed the 10 boss fight, you have the chance to receive invitation items which can have mods and are craftable, allowing you to scale the difficulty of that fight. You cannot have duplicates of the same boss in the Maven arena, and the bosses are scaled to a fixed monster level based on the number you’re fighting at once.

Yesterday’s reveal mentioned The Maven is the “first” – is this planned as an expandable system?
The Eldritch entities have noticed that the Elder is missing. The Maven is the first to come seeking us but she may not be last.

Can the Maven witness unique map bosses?
No.

Does the tier of the map boss affect the captured boss, like how Watchstones alter tiers of maps?
The Maven’s challenges have fixed monster levels, so the tier of the map doesn’t directly impact the level of the map boss when you fight it again. Harder Maven challenges do also require that you capture bosses in higher-tier maps though.

How will bosses with more complex attacks, such as Rigwald’s Wolf Barrage, Shock and Horror, Konley the Unrepentant, function in the arena?
Boss skills that are usually tied to that boss’s arena have generally been adjusted to make sense in the context of the Maven’s challenges rather than being removed entirely. Exactly how this was done was on a case-by-case basis.

How does the Maven interact with twinned maps?
Upon defeating both bosses, the Maven will add one copy to her challenge.

Can we instruct the Maven to witness boss fights on maps occupied by Elder Guardians?
Yes.

What happens if you die in The Maven’s Challenge? Can you re-enter the arena?
It’s opened from the Map Device and there are six portals like normal. You can re-enter if you have enough portals left.