Grinding Gear Games has shown off Curse of the Allflame, the new Path of Exile 1 League that arrives alongside the 3.29 patch on July 24, 2026. Here is everything we've learned.
Key Points on Curse of the Allflame
The new league launches on on July 24, 2026 at 1 PM PDT.
Big changes are coming to some of the older league systems.
You can embark on voyages!
Allflame is a crafting-focused league with its own crafting mechanic.
Mercenaries of Trarthus are making a return.
Abyss is getting a rework.
Legion rewards are overhauled.
Atlas anomalies!
Luminary ascendancy class!
Socket colours have been reworked.
Spellcasters have received a rebalance.
New spellcaster skills.
Sockets are no longer colored by default.
Keep reading for more information about each of these different aspects of the new expansion. There is a ton of information to get through.
Voyages
Once you have a chart in-hand, you can take it to the ship to go visit the location.
Each chart has its own modifiers to change how the area works. Much like maps!
Fully charting the area will reveal a Voyage Modifier.
There are coral growths that turn into "Deadman Sulfur" which must be collected to keep Vesper alive.
You can also use Deadman Sulfur to craft (more on that later).
Before you go on the voyage, you must chart the area first.
You chart areas by going down into the water and placing lanterns to light up the area.
You can only place a limited number of lanterns before you need to leave.
Once you place your last lantern, creatures of the deep rush towards you and you must rush back to your drop point.
One by one the lanterns fade so you don't have forever.
When you get enough charts, you can go on one "giant sea floor excursion".
The edge of the voyage board also has additional area modifiers can can switch how you want to play your charts.
Each capsule sent down on the voyage can hold about a full inventory of loot, and voyages will have multiple of them.
Allflame Crafting
Placing an item into the interface and a crafting currency allows you to see three different options for the craft.
You can then choose one of the three items to keep, the other two disappear.
You can do this with any crafting currency, which allows you to craft better items easy.
Abyss Rework
Path of Exile 2 saw functional changes for the Abyss mechanic.
Abyss content in Path of Exile 1 was feeling dated.
Abyss in Path of Exile 1 is now taking a lot of improvements from Path of Exile 2.
You now will see where the crack is instead of having to possibly backtrack through maps.
More audio and visuals cues are added.
There are different skills for many of the monsters you will encounter vs the ones in Path of Exile 2.
Abyss Jewels and Abyss Sockets are the same as they previously were in Path of Exile 1.
A new Abyss Pinnacle boss, Zorath, will be available to fight. "Good luck".
Legion Rework
You no longer need to kill every monster to begin the encounter automatically.
You just have to break out the key monsters, chests, and majority of monsters.
Incubators are being removed from the game.
Stygial Unique items are uniques which are contain an additional modifier from another unique.
You can enshroud an item with a currency to start the process.
Take your enshrouded items to the Domain of Timeless Conflict.
You can insert your items into crystals around the map.
As you kill monsters the crystal will gain power transforming your item.
At full power, you crack the crystal, unveiling an item.
A "Vestigial Implicit Modifier" is added to the new unique item that spawns, which has a piece of the old unique.
Legion monsters will now drop larger stacks of splinters, no more having to click so many times on single splinters.
Scion's New Luminary Ascendancy
Scions are getting a third ascendary - Luminary!
Luminaries are "natural leaders" and can have a permanent ally via the Mercenaries of Trarthus, content from last year's Mercenaries league (3.26). They are also able to hold two extra mercenaries in their hideout to switch between. Effectively, you can become a support for your mercenary or allow your mercenary to support you.
You can equip your mercenaries with gear to give them sick builds.
Additionally, you can use ascendancy points to allow your mercenaries to equip unique items in certain slots.
You can also use Scarabs on your maps to help you find better mercenaries. This isn't unique to the Scion, but it felt worth mentioning here. Infamous mercenaries are more powerful than regular ones too.
Spellcaster Rework
Spellcasters have received major improvements across the board, particularly for those that cast Spells themselves. We've rebalanced over one hundred existing spells, trying to add more points of difference for spells of different damage types.
The Assassin, Inquisitor, and Occultist Ascendancies all have new or reworked notables supporting Casters.
There is also improved caster itemisation, particularly staves, and added new ways to help solve Mana as a caster. Buffs have been applied to several caster Unique Items, and we've added a new Keystone and much more.
Additionally, a new set of Exceptional Skill Gems called Pacts that you can get from Beyond bosses and Lycia in the Forbidden Sanctum. Make a bargain with a powerful Beyond Demon to empower your Spells at the cost of afflicting yourself.
In addition we've added a new reservation skill for spellcasters using staves called Mana-Infused Staff, as well as several new Transfigured Skill Gems.
Talisman Changes
Introduced back in 2015, they have been long neglected.
Talismans are now from beastiary content with each beast type having its own Talisman.
Read beasts have a chance to drop their specific Talisman.
Talismans are no longer dropped as corrupted items.
Talismans don't have implicits but instead they have an enchantment.
They now compete with Blight Annointments, so their effects can be much more powerful than before.
Unique Talismans have all been improved and have a chance to drop from all beastiary bosses.
Socket Rework
Socket colors no longer prevent a colored gem from being placed into it.
Instead, socket colors give you a 10% quality bonus if you can place the same colored gem into the same colored socket.
This allows you to find upgrades easier and worry less about perfect colors right away.
Atlas Anomalies
Atlas anomalies!
When you finish a map with a waystone, there is a chance the next time you open your atlas, an anomaly will appear.
Like regular maps, anomalies can be selected to enter them, but no item is required to go inside.
These areas are not modified by your atlas skill tree.
You cannot use any fragments to augment them either.
One of the anomalies offers Cadiro Perandus who will give you valuable items in exchange for gold.
You can reject his offer and he will create a new offer, that is more expensive.
If you don't have enough gold for his offer, you can return at a later time to still obtain the item for the price.
This anomaly doesn't disappear from your atlas until you either purchase the item or reject all his offers.
Reflecting Mists and Nameless Seer no longer randomly spawn within maps and now are anomalies.
There is an anomaly which creates a fully revealed Heist blueprint wing with random rogue companions.
Another anomaly has a full Sacred Grove to defeat.
That's a wrap for 3.29 Curse of the Allflame, at least for the initial content reveals. I highly recommend watching the content video to see the new league content in action to get a better idea of it all. Are you playing next week?
Leave a Comment