Everything Revealed During the Path of Exile: The Forbidden Sanctum Announcement

Greetings, exile! Finally, the reveal stream for Path of Exile’s next leave, The Forbidden Sanctum, has concluded, and we’ve got all information revealed, neatly organized for you to digest. GGG had already posted several manifestos detailing upcoming changes for mechanics such as jewels & ailment mitigation, monster mods & Archnemesis, Eldritch Altars and curses.

It’s also no secret that the previous league, Lake of Kalandra, was very poorly received. One major pain point was the reworking of monster mods, which does seem to be partly solved in the manifesto linked above, but several questions, such as the problem of loot feeling good again, remained unanswered. Let us see what The Forbidden Sanctum has in store for us!

Trailer

Here’s the full gameplay trailer for The Forbidden Sanctum:

Launches on the 9th of December!

The Sanctum Challenge League

The Forbidden Sanctum is an old Templar enclave under Fellshrine Ruins.
The Sanctum is a rogue-like game. Explore one room at a time.
Choose which room to explore next.
You can see the contents of a few rooms ahead, allowing you to choose your path to them.
Don’t expect to complete an entire Sanctum run on your first trip!
The Sanctum has four floors, with a final boss at the end.
Resolve is a resource that tracks how well your run is going. When you lose all your Resolve, your Sanctum run ends.
Resolve is reduced when you’re hit by monsters or traps in the Sanctum.
Afflicted rooms cause you to gain an affliction when you enter. They can be minor or major.

Examples of affliction:

Boons are beneficial buffs that help you. There’s minor and major boons.

Some rooms contain a fountain, which will restore some Resolve. Afflicted fountains restore even more Resolve at a cost.

Aureus is the new currency. It is lost when you die. They can be used to purchase boons from a merchant that sometime shows up.

Accursed Pact: Big upside, big downside.

You may receive a currency offer at the end of your room, but you can gamble for better currency!

Templar Altar: Put relics in the altar. Their effects are present in every run. They cannot be crafted or traded.

The end-boss drops unique items that are restricted to the Forbidden Sanctum league. Here’s Eternal Damnation:

Defeating the boss of a floor is a difficult achievement, but it rewards a huge chunk of experience.
Sanctified Relics: You can only use one, but it directly affects your build.

Endgame Improvements

The Atlas Tree is being revamped.

All boss bonuses from the Atlas Tree are removed, but many are now baked directly into the boss fight.

New passives that increase the chance to spawn a specific league even more than before.
Eldritch Altars are being reworked (detailed in the manifesto linked above).
Eldritch Altars of different types now offer their own unique rewards. For example, Eater of Worlds altars will net you roughly 50% more Divine Orbs than Searing Exarch altars.

New Atlas Memories.
Einhar (Bestiary) memory, fills a map with Bestiary monsters. There’s 9 new Bestiary crafting recipes!
New Kirac memory that introduces new shrines as well.

New shard can drop from Harbingers: The Fracturing Orb, which fractures an item with at least 4 modifiers!

The Harvest crafting option that lets you Fracture an item is no longer available, of course.

New Skills

Volcanic Fissure: Creates a chasm towards your target, then explodes into projectiles.
Frozen Legion: Summons a ring of icy statues that deal your weapon damage around you. Can be used with Staves, Maces and Axes. Has several charges that are used up at once.

New Vaal Melee Skills. Vaal Flicker Strike! Causes you to flicker dozens of extra times, dealing no damage. If you survive, you’re rewarded with a huge damage hit to all the monsters you tagged.
Vaal Cleave: Killing a rare monster with Vaal Cleave gives you its modifiers for a while; budget Headhunter!

New Unique Items

Progenesis, designed by Ben, drops from the Uber Maven.
Rational Doctrine, designed by Rawlinks, drops from Uber Venarius.
Entropic Devastation, designed by GucciPradas.

Massively Buffed Unique Weapons

Endgame Unique Weapons are getting juiced.
Ten Unique Weapons are being giga-buffed and becoming giga-rare, as in, Headhunter/Mageblood rare.

Jewel and Ailment Changes

Ailment mods on jewels are buffed.
Removed a few Corruption-only ailment mods that are now available in the regular mod pool and stronger.
Firesong, new Unique Jewel.

Hex Rework

Reworked unique items that previously interacted with Doom, which no longer exists.
More details in the manifesto.

Ruthless Mode

Beta coming alongside The Forbidden Sanctum’s launch, but won’t have league rewards enabled.
Expect mid-league balance changes in Ruthless, since, y’know, it’s still in beta.

Quality of Life Improvements

Divine Vessels can now be used by right-clicking instead of taking them to Sin.
Right-click a Temple of Atzoatl to see the rooms.
Bestiary Flask crafts are now detailed.
Energy Shield is now visible as a separate bar above your character’s head.

Supporter Packs

Clockwork Back Attachment: Build pressure when you streak monster kills. Releases pressure when out of combat for a bit.

clockwork back attachment charging — Clockwork Charging!

clockwork back attachment releasing — Clockwork Charging!

Spooky Chalice Thing: Releases Delirium Mist in your hideout.

delirium chalice — Comes with spooky whispers for free.

Forgeguard Armor Set: Summons a hammer and anvil when you use orbs.
Absurd Linking Vision: When linking your items, everyone sees if you succeed and can congratulate you!

Beehive weapon effect: Bees erupt from your weapon when you hit an enemy. Run!

Perandus is back as an microtransaction. Plop him in your hideout, listen to his hundreds of voice lines while selling him items and trading divination cards.

That’s all for now! The Q&A follows up soon, and we’ll have a recap of that as well once it’s concluded.