PREVIEW: Build Your Own Commercial Empire In Path Of Exile’s Next League

With every Path of Exile league, Grinding Gear Games always tries to do something different. While the base of the action RPG Game always remains traveling around Wraeclast killing as many monsters as you can as fast as you can to acquire as much loot as you can, there’s always something to spice things up with each new league.

Now, GGG has decided it’s about time for the citizens of Wraeclast to join the world in commerce – or at least establish trade with Kalguur. This new enterprise will be aided by some characters players have met in the Expedition League: Dannig, Rog, Tujen, and Gwennen, who all hale from Kalguur. The project will kick off when players encounter a servant of the King of Kalguur in Lioneye’s Watch. Johan – otherwise known as the King’s Hand – is recruiting individuals to help build a new city named Kingsmarch, which is intended to be a trade hub. Of course, he will recruit the players and take them to the building site, which is currently just a tavern in a field. It’s up to the players to help it grow.

As with any city management game, players will need to find resources that can be used in building the town – including hiring people. Most of the non-human resources will require players to adventure in Wraeclast and survive dangerous situations to obtain them. What situation players end up in will depend on what the resource being acquired is. For example, Petrified Amber is surrounded by Blighted Enemies, Bismuth causes the elements in an area to be unstable, and Verisium is guarded by powerful enemies.

In addition to finding resources, players will need to obtain gold as well. That’s the only currency your workers are going to accept. Luckily, it now drops throughout Wraeclast. You’ll want to hold onto some of it for yourself as it can be used to respec Passive Points. (It’s worth noting that is is a bit of a test to see how this kind of trading impacts Path of Exile. If it goes poorly, don’t expect to see it back.)

Speaking of workers, players have full control over who is hired to work on building Kingsmarch. All employees have their own specialty and cost. Players will want to find the best workers at the best prices. Also, keep in mind that it’s your job to keep these workers alive. Part of this will entail clearing the area around resources so that workers can get to them safely.

As things progress, it will be up to the player to put up buildings, workstations, and more. They’ll also be doing a bit of light farming to keep everyone fed. The good news is that with most of this – other than the fighting – there will be ways to delegate the work.

Once Kingsmarch is in a good enough place, players will want to begin trading. This requires building a harbor and establishing shipping routes. Resources can be placed on these ships and sent to another port where the traders will do a bit of selling. Try to send the resources each port wants, as that’s the way to make the most profit.

There will be risks in the whole shipping business. The sea is not a safe place and the ships will have to deal with monsters, pirates, and more. The only way to prevent disaster is to hire the appropriate workers. The more of them there are on a ship, the less dangerous the trip will be.

Of course, a lot of effort means rewards. There will be some interesting things for players to look forward to, like Kalguuran technology. This will come in handy for the end game when players want to run maps and they’re able to build a series of Kalguuran-modified Map Devices.

The map devices aren’t the only thing players will be able to build either. That’s what a city full of workers is for. For one thing, players will be able to have runic magic carved into weapons if they have a Runesmithing Table in their town.

Of course, the new League type isn’t the only thing happening in the update. Players can expect a variety of improvements and changes. That includes character balancing, endgame adjustments, and more.

On another note, the work being done on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S has resulted in reduced loading times, improved textures and fidelity, better refresh rates, and more. It should be an overall nicer experience.