3.26 Secrets Of The Atlas Reveal

GGG has concluded their 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas reveal livestream so we compiled all the important information around the upcoming 3.26 Mercenaries of Trathus Challenge League, as well as a full write-up of the follow-up Q&A with Mark, Jonathan and ZiggyD. As potentially the largest patch in a while, 3.26 brings a massive amount of new content, balancing, endgame expansions, system reworks, quality of life changes and so much more.

10/06 Update: Added GGG's new FAQ post

Secrets of the Atlas Endgame

The upcoming 3.26 Mercenaries of Trathus Challenge League allows players to interact with a brand new Endgame gameplay loop in the form of the Secrets of the Atlas mechanic.

Midway through the Endgame players may encounter Eagon standing next to a Memory Tear. Interact with the Memory Tear to start a Thread of Memories with Eagon in your Hideout.

Engage with the new Petal influenced monsters that fuel brand new abilities, click special persistent Altars that carry their effects over into the next area, and work your way towards the 3 new Pinnacle Encounters. Defeat all 3 of them to be able to drop the brand new Memory Influenced T16 maps which have the chance to drop items that are certainly worth identifying.

Memory Petals

Monsters inside the Thread are imbued with Memory Petals that when slain, increase the counter of a special memory ability next to your skill bar. Gather enough petals to use the memory ability in order to gain special effects, such as the following:

As you complete each map, more abilities unlock to be used during the Thread chain. Combine these in creative sequences in order to maximize your rewards!

Altars

The final map in each thread is guarded by a powerful, altered version of an existing boss. Defeat these Warped Memory Bosses to drop a special map fragment.

3 New Pinnacle Bosses

With them you can access the three new Pinnacle bosses: The Incarnation of Dread, Neglect and Fear. These bosses come with brand new Unique drops, such as the Starcaller Axe, which triggers powerful "Starfalls" on Melee Critical Strikes. Or perhaps you are more interested the Wine of the Prophet Gold Flask, which grants a random Divination card inspired buff for 20 seconds on use.

Memory Influenced Tier 16 Maps

Defeat all 3 new Pinnacle bosses to unlock the ability to find a brand new map type: Memory Influenced T16 Maps. These maps are influenced by the previously mentioned Petal mobs as well as the special Memory Abilities that come with it. Additionally they can also roll map modifiers typically found on Tier 17 Maps, making them far more rewarding.

Memory Strand Modifier

But that is not all. Monsters inside these special maps may drop items imbued with the new Memory Strand mechanic. This modifier causes the item to:

• Roll higher mod tiers when identified
• Consume some Memory Strands to increase the strength of mods added through crafting
• The higher the amount of Memory Strands on your item, the better the outcomes on average
• The 3 new Pinnacle bosses drop currency which can be used to manipulate the amount of memory strands on an item: Orb of Remembrance/Unravelling/Intention

Mercenaries of Trathus Challenge League

In the Mercenaries of Trathus Challenge League players encounter one special Mercenary per zone, each with their own personalities, different skills, items and builds. You may also find "Infamous" Mercenaries, which are far less common, but carry far better items.

Defeat them to gain different rewards based on which option you picked before the duel:

• Hire
  • Players pay an upfront gold cost before the duel begins
  • Upon defeat the Mercenary joins the player in combat
  • Freely change their items once they join your team or dismiss them
  • Only one Mercenary can accompany you at a time, with up to 2 more waiting in Town to swap between them
  • Their level is locked to the area level you find them in so frequently upgrading them is recommended
  • Revive fallen Mercenaries in Town for a Gold fee
    • They do not lose items upon death
• Take Item
  • Select one of the Mercenaries item to drop on death, including currency items they're holding
  • Mercenaries can spawn with special "Of Trathus" versions of Skill Gems which are similar to Transfigured Gems
    • These can be selected as a reward
  • "Infamous" Mercenaries may wear special Rares with the "Infamous" item modifier, granting brand new exclusive effects
• Exile
  • An exiled Mercenaries archetype is blocked from appearing for the next ten encounters
  • Up to two Mercenary attribute types (STR/INT/DEX) can be exiled at once

Kingsmarch Goes Core

The 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas reveal shows that Kingsmarch from the Settlers of Kalguur league is going core, with some major quality of life adjustments. The biggest part of that is that players are no longer required to build their town from scratch each time. You may now use Gold to respec your Passive Tree Points from Act 1, gamble for items with gold starting from Act 2, and access the Currency Exchange after reaching Act 6. Atlas Passive Nodes for Kingsmarch are now available, as well as three new Scarabs that modify Mining Ores in your map.

Runegrafts

Receive Runegrafts as a potential reward from Shipping. These replace Runes used for Runesmithing in Settlers of Kalguur and allow you to replace a Mastery on your Passive Skill Tree with a Runegraft. They are limited to 1 per type but may be used on any Mastery on the Passive Tree.

Recombinators

Recombinators managed to stay in the game (somehow). Additionally, you can now pick between two different modes of Recombination:

• Recombining two items picks a random base as well as random mods from each item.
  • This is identical to how the Recombinators worked in Settlers of Kalguur
  • Retains all the Recombinator tricks the community has discovered in order to increase odds of success
• Recombine two items by clicking the mods you want from each item inside the UI
  • This shows players the percentage chance of a successful Recombination
  • Failure results in the items being destroyed
  • Identical to how Recombinators work in Path of Exile 2

Betrayal System Rework

Safehouse leaders now have a chance to drop a Syndicate Medallion, which allows players to fight Catarina in the Mastermind's Lair. This means players no longer frustratingly lose their Board state when defeating Catarina as it no longer resets it. She now drops Veiled Exalted Orbs whereas Safehouse Leaders can now drop the re-introduced Veiled Chaos Orbs to allow for easier crafting progression. Furthermore Catarinas immunity phases have been reduced significantly. Check out what else the 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas Reveal has in store:

Allflame Embers

Additionally Catarina now drops Allflame Embers, which can be used in the Map Device (like Scarabs, or alongside them) to replace some monster packs with the special Allflame variants instead. These special packs grant specific bonuses when slain as shown on the Allflame that is used. These can get very lucrative as they provide powerful effects such as granting a Rare monsters modifiers to surrounding monsters.

Safehouse Rewards

"Crafting Spree" rewards, where the player is tasked to craft an item with a specific pool of temporary currency, are now a lot stronger and more interesting. They now more often grant pre-generated items to reduce the time spent of finding a suitable crafting base, grant far more time to craft them (up to 80 seconds instead of 10 to 20) and offer more interesting currencies. For most Sprees, the rank of the Syndicate member raises the quality of the provided item, the amount of currency given as well as increasing the time players have to craft.

Veiled Items

Veiled items have gotten a significant change to make the process easier for the player. All of the crafting bench options normally granted by unveiling items are moved to the core game. These recipes are now found at the entrances of Bosses and certain Endgame Maps to remove the need to run Betrayal for them. You may now also simply right click a Veiled Item to open the Unveil screen anywhere.

Quality of Life Improvements

Various Quality of Life Improvements have been shown in the 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas Reveal, such as:

• Pause the game at any time by pressing Escape or opening any full-screen interface such as the Passive Skill Tree
  • Automatically pauses when detecting lag, or when disconnecting
  • Cannot pause in areas with the "Cannot Pause" debuff, mainly in Pinnacle Boss Areas
• A new Currency "Quick Bar" underneath Strongboxes and Essences to remove the need to open your Inventory to roll them
• Horizon Orbs can now reroll Elder Maps
• The Map Device now has a small stash tab attached to it
• Breach Splinters now drop at the end of the Breach
• Vendor windows now remember your last search
  • Their text limit has been increased from 50 to 250
• Holding a currency item highlights all items it can be used on
  • Example: Holding an Orb of Transmutation highlights all non-corrupted white item bases

Q&A Write-Up

After the 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas Reveal, ZiggyD sat down with Game Directors Jonathan Rogers and Mark Roberts for a Q&A

• Jonathan is confident to adhere to a 4 month schedule for Path of Exile 1 and 2 from now on.
  • This means PoE1 and 2 alternate releases every 2 months.
• Allied Mercenaries count as half a player for monster difficulty and loot scaling.
  • Mark says that there is no downside to this as the Mercenaries are strong enough to offset the extra HP monsters would gain.
  • At the top end players have enough DPS to not notice the increased HP and simply gain more loot due to party loot scaling.
• Mercenaries do not count as Party Members, meaning a 6-man party can have 6 extra Mercenaries.
• WASD implementation in PoE1 is ultimately a goal for GGG but they are aware of the many challenges that come with it.
• Mark and Jonathan address the concern of people that buy supporter packs for PoE1 but are afraid their money will be used for the development of PoE2 instead:
  • Each game gets the amount of attention it requires in the moment, with an attempt to strike a healthy balance to sustain each games 4 month cycle.
  • A lot of assets created for PoE2 are easily re-used for PoE1, causing development time to be very efficient.
• Endgame changes were intended to keep a layer of familiarity as players come back to PoE1 after a longer time while still improving upon it.
  • Next Endgame expansion might be more transformative.
• Large content updates such as Secrets of the Atlas take up a lot of time. This makes major balance changes such as the melee rebalance harder to do at the same time.
  • Challenge leagues that do not release with a large content update are more balance focused to compensate.
• They're less concerned about PoE1's new player experience now that PoE2 serves as a good way to onboard new players.
  • Allows them to put a larger focus on Endgame updates instead.
• Some Scarab changes are not yet listed in the Patch Notes.
• The 3 new pinnacle Bosses will have a deterministic quest version, similar to Searing Exarch and Eater of Worlds.
• Consuming an items Memory Strands at the end of the craft in order to guarantee a T1 exalt seems very promising.
• Memory Threads are an iteration of regular memories, which have been moved to Kirac.
• Mark considers Memory Influenced Maps "T16.5", with them occasionally being even better than T17s.
  • Hopes farming T16s becomes more lucrative with the new additions as opposed to T17s dominating.
• He likes the amount of points the Atlas Passive Tree grants because choice should matter.
• Atlas device craft and Atlas Passive Nodes that grant additional chance to encounter a certain mechanic now also boosts their respective Scarab drop rates.
• Mercenaries are aimed to be worthwhile and fun to use.
  • Only severely under-leveled and under-geared Mercenaries should be a detriment to the player.
• Around 16 special Trathus Skill Gems are available.
• Mercenaries:
  • Do not count as Minions for damage scaling purposes but take less damage from certain Boss abilities the same way minions do.
  • Recover their life back to full after not being in combat for X seconds.
  • Can use items like Headhunter and benefit from the buffs.
  • Cannot be revived inside the instance when they die.
• Kingsmarch Shipping routes take longer but are more rewarding to reduce tedium
  • "If it feels mandatory we've missed the mark" - Mark
• Mark promises that the Gambling Strongbox from PoE2 is coming to PoE1 at some point.
• He is "99% sure" they didn't nerf the functionality of the old Recombinator.
  • If there are nerfs in the future he'd prefer to nerf the cost of using it, not the way it functions.
• Gold generation across different content is being monitored.
  • It's okay for otherwise lucrative content such as Sanctum to generate less Gold.
• Sanctum ideally should have its own exclusive reward instead of outright pure currency.
• Bestiary, Blight and Delve are on their radar for a similar overhaul as Betrayal.
• Identifying all items in player inventory is coming at some point.
• The Auction House has been a definitive success.
  • More systems that reduce player friction will first be tried out in PoE2 as it has more leeway for making mistakes that damage the economy.
• Mark: "We're back."

Balance Changes

Click here for the 3.26 Patch Notes for a full list of balance changes.

Secrets of the Atlas FAQ

GGG released a post that goes over the most frequently asked questions that did not make it into the livestream. Here are the questions and answers:

How does equipping Mercenaries with items work? Can any Mercenary be equipped with any item?

Each Mercenary is associated with Attributes. Mercenaries will generate with gear that matches the Attributes they are associated with, and will only be able to be equipped with new Armour gear that matches their Attributes in the following way:

For Mercenaries with a single Attribute, any Armour gear that requires that Attribute is valid. For Mercenaries with multiple Attributes, any Armour gear that requires an Attribute not associated with that Mercenary is invalid.

As an example: A Strength Mercenary will be equippable with gear requiring just Strength, Strength + Dexterity or Strength + Intelligence. A Dexterity/Intelligence Mercenary will be equippable with gear requiring just Dexterity, just Intelligence or Dexterity + Intelligence.

Mercenaries do not need to meet attribute requirements outside of the above rule. Mercenaries need to be within 70% of level requirements of an item to equip it.

Mercenaries also have preferred weapon types, and will not equip weapons that do not match their preferred types. Generally, they are going to prefer weapons that they can actually use their skills with.

Will Map modifiers affect rewards from Mercenaries?

Increased Quantity on a Map Area from Map Modifiers will increase the chances that you find an Infamous Mercenary in that area.

Are Link skills able to target allied Mercenaries?

Yes, you can link to an allied Mercenary. Just make sure they don’t die on you.

Can Gold appear as a reward in a Mercenary's pouch?

No.

Can Mercenaries be renamed?

No.

Can Mercenaries use items with influenced trigger skills (like Shaper weapons with Cast on Crit)?

Short answer - No.

Longer answer - Mercenary Skills are not socketed into gear in the way that player skills are. They are inherent to the Mercenary rather than being the result of a socketed gem, so in the case of something like a Cast on Crit weapon, it would be hard to determine what skill should even be triggered - or indeed, do the triggering.

Will Mercenaries be tradable with other players?

Mercenaries are not tradeable.

Are Mercenaries account bound or character bound?

Account bound.

Do Mercenaries get passive skills from gear, such as the anointed notables on amulets or keystones from Uniques?

Anointed passive skills will work. Keystones from Uniques also will work.

Will the Trarthan gems also appear in the Divine Font at the end of the Labyrinth, or are they only available from Mercenaries?

Trarthan Gems are only available from Mercenaries (starting in level 68+ areas), and each individual Gem is only available from a specific variety of Mercenary.

Will Animate Guardian get an equipment interface similar to Mercenaries? How will that work?

No. However, it's worth mentioning that Animate Guardian has been changed in the following way:

• Animated Guardians now retain their items when they die. However, if your Animated Guardian dies you cannot summon an Animated Guardian again in that area (unless that area is a hideout).

Are the new Pinnacle bosses able to be witnessed by the Maven?

No (maybe in the future though).

Are there Uber versions of the new Pinnacle Bosses?

No (maybe in the future though). Although note the quest version of the boss is easier than the repeatable endgame version.

Are there going to be the "tier 4" Syndicate leader rewards after killing Catarina? The treasure room after the Catarina fight, is that still there or is it randomized/gone?

They're gone.

Does interacting with Syndicate members pause the game too?

Yes.

Are we still going to have to hire workers in Kingsmarch?

Yes, the town is pre-built and completed but workers will still need to be hired and paid for.

Does a Runebind count as a "different" mastery for the purpose of skills like Trickster's Polymath, or do they count as the same mastery, for the purpose of things like the life mastery that grants 10% more life if you have 6 life masteries?

Yes, although all Runegrafts count as the same type of Mastery. They do not count as Life masteries.

Summary

The 3.26 Secrets of the Atlas Reveal has been absolutely excellent. With PoE 3.25 running for 11 months expectations were high and GGG seems to have met them. Between the Endgame additions, the new Mercenary league mechanic, implementation of Kingsmarch, Betrayal Rework and balance changes, 3.26 is shaping up to be a strong return for PoE1. Looking for more news on Path of Exile 1? Then head over to our Discord and select the Path of Exile role in #roles to stay up to date with our content development. Stay sane, Exile!

Written by: Cptn Garbage

Reviewed by: Crouching_Tuna