Summary
Welcome, exiles! The Curse of the Allflame League is arriving July 24th at 1 PM PDT for PC, Mac, and Consoles. This expansion takes us beneath the waves of Wraeclast to explore sunken artifacts, battle deep-sea horrors, and uncover long-forgotten treasures with the help of Valerie, a dangerous corsair captain. If you're planning to POE currency buy to stay ahead, Valerie's treacherous routes might just test your investment. This guide covers everything you need to know about the new league mechanics, revamped systems, and fresh content coming in this July expansion.
Core League Mechanic: Descend into the Depths
The Curse of the Allflame sends you to the ocean floor where lanterns powered by the Allflame protect you from the crushing waves. Your goal is to investigate and gather what you can while the opportunity exists—hidden treasures, valuable chests, and potential dangers are all present on the seafloor.
The Lantern Mechanic
As you explore the depths, your Allflame lanterns gradually dim. You must quickly return to the safety of the Bathysphere before the light fades completely. When the lanterns go dark, creatures drawn to the light emerge from the darkness. Managing your light level and knowing when to retreat is essential to survival.
Charting Your Voyage
After charting a sufficient number of areas, you can link them together to form a Voyage—creating one extensive exploration of the seafloor. Each chart you create reveals a modifier that affects the Voyage, and the edges of the Voyage Board include randomized effects that impact adjacent Charts during each Voyage, leading to additional rewards.
Voyage Strategy
Strategically plan a rewarding Voyage using special Charts that guide you to lucrative locations on the ocean floor. These locations may include chests filled with treasures, sunken Abyssal pits, and ancient artifacts ready to be retrieved. You can revisit each chart to reap its rewards again while also enhancing those rewards in various ways.
Allflame Crafting
Belowdecks on The Sovereign lies the heart of the ship's crafting system. Feed it an item, and it will split into a multitude of ghostly outcomes, one of which you can keep for yourself. This creates interesting crafting opportunities where you can gamble on multiple potential results from a single item.
Additionally, you'll find valuable Ducats on the seafloor. These currency items allow you to warp and twist items in ways not seen in centuries—effectively offering new crafting methods exclusive to the league.
The Black Current
Keep an eye out for special types of Charts on your travels throughout Wraeclast. Some Charts lead to notably unwelcoming waters—areas with increased danger but potentially greater rewards. These Black Current encounters are optional high-risk, high-reward content that adds spice to your Voyage planning.
Mercenaries Return
The Mercenaries of Trarthus are currently active in Wraeclast, looking for opponents. This system, returning from previous leagues, has been integrated into the core game with full Atlas Tree and Scarab support.
How Mercenaries Work
By defeating a Mercenary in a duel, you can obtain a powerful item they carry. More importantly, you can recruit them as an ally in the surrounding area. In Maps, if you're unsatisfied with a Mercenary's items, you can request a Warrant to summon that specific Mercenary in a future Map with the same skills but a different set of items.
This creates an engaging loop where you can hunt for the perfect Mercenary with the right skills and items to complement your build.
The Luminary Ascendancy
The Scion is getting a brand new Ascendancy class in Curse of the Allflame: the Luminary.
What the Luminary Does
Upon becoming a Luminary, you can permanently hire a Mercenary as an active ally in combat. Unlike regular Mercenaries, a Luminary's hired Mercenaries can have their equipment changed, unlocking countless new build possibilities. This essentially gives you a fully customizable permanent companion that scales with your gear choices.
The Luminary opens up entirely new playstyles where you can build around your Mercenary companion, equipping them with items that synergize with your own build or fill gaps in your character's capabilities.
Abyss Rework
The Abyss has undergone a substantial rework in Curse of the Allflame, transforming it from a relatively simple mechanic into something far more engaging.
New Abyss Behavior
Abyssal cracks are now active, releasing energy into the vicinity and affecting nearby enemies. Defeating these empowered enemies will attract Abyssal hordes that emerge from below. The gameplay experience now offers enhanced feedback with audio and visual cues guiding players more effectively through the encounters.
Rewards and Progression
You can still acquire Abyssal Jewels and Stygian Vises through the Abyss, but this system has been completely revamped. The Scarabs and passive tree investments for Abyss have been redesigned to support the new mechanics. A new Abyss boss has also been added, giving endgame players a new target to chase.
Legion Rework
Legion has received a major reward overhaul that changes how you approach Timeless Conflict encounters.
Enshrouding Crystals and Vestigial Uniques
The new system introduces Enshrouding Crystals that you can use on your Unique Armours. Place these in a crystal within the Domain of Timeless Conflict to create a Vestigial Unique Item—a powerful new item with modifiers transferred from the Unique you've selected. Vestigial Unique Items are exclusive to Legion and replace the old Incubator system.
This creates a new layer of item progression where your existing Unique items can be transformed into something even more powerful through Legion content.
Atlas Anomalies
Strange locations have begun to manifest across the Atlas in this expansion. When you complete Maps affected by a Voidstone, there's a chance that an anomaly will appear on the Atlas.
What Are Anomalies?
Anomalies are areas that can be run once, granting potentially powerful rewards. Examples include:
Cadiro Perandus – A mysterious trader offering strange curios for your Gold
Revealed Heist Blueprint Wings – Access to high-value heist content
Various other anomalies tied to specific Atlas quadrants
Each anomaly offers unique rewards and can significantly boost your progression if you encounter the right ones.
Socket Colours Reworked
Socket colours will no longer restrict which Skills and Supports you can put in them. Any coloured gem can now be socketed into any socket colour.
What This Changes
This is a massive quality-of-life improvement that removes one of the most frustrating gearing barriers in Path of Exile. You no longer need to spend chromatic orbs hunting for the right socket colours or use the crafting bench to recolour sockets.
The New Purpose of Socket Colours
Red, blue, and green sockets still serve a purpose—they now grant additional quality to gems of the matching colour. This means socket colour still matters, but it's now a bonus rather than a requirement. You can use any gem anywhere, but you're rewarded for matching colours with extra quality.
Spellcaster Rebalance
Spellcasters have undergone significant enhancements overall, especially for those who cast spells directly. Over one hundred existing spells have been rebalanced to introduce greater variation among spells of different damage types.
Ascendancy Changes
The Ascendancies of Assassin, Inquisitor, and Occultist have received new or reworked notable skills that specifically support casters. These changes make each class more distinct and offer new build pathways for spell-based characters.
Itemization and Mana Management
Improvements have been made to caster itemization, focusing specifically on staves. New methods have been introduced to address mana management for casters, addressing one of the most common challenges spell builds face. Several unique items for casters have been buffed, and a new Keystone has been added, among other changes.
New Spellcaster Skills
This expansion introduces a new set of Exceptional Skill Gems known as Pacts, which can be obtained from Beyond bosses and Lycia in the Forbidden Sanctum.
How Pacts Work
Players can make a deal with a powerful Beyond Demon to enhance their Spells, albeit at the expense of incurring a drawback. This risk-reward system adds a new dimension to build planning—you can push your damage significantly higher but must build around the associated penalty.
Additional Skills
A new reservation skill called Mana-Infused Staff has been introduced specifically for spellcasters who use staves. Several new Transfigured Skill Gems are also available, expanding the build diversity for spell-based characters.
Summary of Key Features
The Curse of the Allflame League brings together a compelling mix of new content and improved systems. The Voyage system offers strategic depth as you plan expeditions across the seafloor. Allflame Crafting and Ducats provide fresh ways to manipulate your items. Mercenaries return with full Atlas integration, and the Luminary Scion gives you a customizable permanent companion.
The Abyss and Legion reworks breathe new life into existing content, while Atlas Anomalies add variety to your mapping experience. The socket colours rework is a massive quality-of-life improvement, and the spellcaster rebalance opens up new build possibilities.
Final Tips for League Start
Plan your Voyages strategically—the charts you choose determine your rewards, so think about what you need most. Don't ignore the Black Current charts; the increased danger often comes with proportionally better loot. If you're starting as Scion, the Luminary Ascendancy offers a completely different playstyle worth exploring. For spellcasters, the new Pacts and reworked Ascendancies give you more options than ever before—and if you need cheap POE currency, MMOEXP is a common go-to for topping up your stash.
