Path of Exile update 3.20.1b arrives in the RPG game on January 12, and Grinding Gear Games has revealed the patch notes ahead of release. The patch introduces a change that makes the Death Toll affliction more deadly in the Forbidden Sanctum, the mode introduced as a central feature of the new league for Path of Exile update 3.20. The update also includes the introduction of a Voidborn Reliquary key and changes how Betrayal crafts work, along with several other bug fixes and tweaks.
Perhaps the most dramatic tweak in the patch is a change to the way the Death Toll major affliction works in the Forbidden Sanctum. The new mode that draws inspiration from roguelike games has proven a fun addition, although some players are a little frustrated with the way you can be easily dragged into the dungeon when it spawns.
Death Toll is one of the major afflictions that can come from taking pacts in the Forbidden Sanctum, and previously caused monsters to stop dropping Aureus Coins, a currency specific to the mode. However, Grinding Gear Games has clearly decided this was a little too generous, as it now instead causes you to lose 250 resolve after completing eight rooms, making it a rather heavy hit to the unique resource that keeps you in the Sanctum.
Also introduced with the patch are Voidborn Reliquary keys. These are functionally chests, which can be used to gain one from a list of unique items. The items were drawn from suggestions submitted by players who bought the Voidborn supporter pack, and Grinding Gear Games says it is still working through the list of submissions to add more items to the pool.
Elsewhere, Path of Exile’s ultra-hard Ruthless mode has a change to one of the Atlas tree passives. Imagined Pursuits now causes cluster jewels from Delirium rewards to have a 10% chance of being rare and corrupted, replacing its previous 800% increased rarity of cluster jewels from Delirium encounters. A bug was also fixed that allowed Ruthless players to erroneously obtain the Vaal Venom Gyre skill gem.
Path of Exile patch notes – 3.20.1b
Sanctum Changes
- The Death Toll Major Affliction no longer causes monsters to drop no Aureus Coins. Instead, it now causes you to Lose 250 Resolve after completing 8 rooms. This change does not affect existing Sanctum runs.
- Herald of the Scourge’s lightning waves skill now spawns more lightning bolts with each wave, though the lightning bolts are now smaller. The delay between each wave has been slightly increased, and the damage of the skill has been lowered by 20%.
- Improved the visibility of the ground degen effect when fighting Lycia, Unholy Heretic.
- Added an error message for attempting to change your Relics while you have an active Sanctum.
Improvements and Changes
- Introduced the Voidborn Reliquary Key. The Voidborn Reliquary currently has 1231 options for foiled Unique items that it can yield. We are still working through the list of submissions from Voidborn Supporters to get the others in as soon as possible.
- Improved the description of the Sandstorm Visage Unique stat to clarify it only modifies spell critical strike chance of spells, and will not affect spells dealing non-spell damage (such as heralds).
- Updated various descriptions to clarify which stats only apply to Summon Skeletons, and which apply also to Vaal Summon Skeletons (such as the modifier on Alberon’s Warpath). Melee Skeletons from the Vaal Summon Skeletons are now referred to as “Soldiers” rather than “Warriors” in descriptions.
- The visual effect applied to monsters with modifiers that cause Minions to Fire, Cold, or Lightning Explode on Death has been removed as it caused visual issues in some circumstances.
- Betrayal crafts that reroll socket numbers, links or colours a certain number of times can no longer be used on items with fixed socket numbers, links or colours respectively.
- The “Geared Up” achievement no longer requires a Rare or Unique item in the Relic slot.
Ruthless-Specific Changes
- The Imagined Pursuits Atlas Passive in Ruthless now causes Cluster Jewels from Delirium Rewards to have a 10% chance to be Rare and Corrupted, instead of “800% increased Rarity of Cluster Jewels from Delirium Encounters in your Maps”.
- Fixed a bug where Vaal Venom Gyre was able to be obtained in Ruthless.
Further details and bug fixes can be found on the Path of Exile forums.
Returning Twitch streamer Kripparian hails the new Path of Exile Ruthless mode as an exciting addition to the RPG. We’ve got more of the best games like Diablo on PC that you can enjoy while waiting for the Diablo 4 release date, along with plenty more great free games that won’t cost you a penny to play.