Path of Exile announces third season of signature events, including brand new mode, "Descent"

Still-in-development action RPG Path of Exile is known for its race leagues and signature events , special tournament versions of the game where players build new characters and race through the game as quickly as they can to level up and earn community prizes. These events have become wildly popular, helping the player base grow to over two million registered accounts —and the game is still a few months from release. Next week, Path of Exile will announce a new third season of race events, including a brand new mode called Descent Events.

According to information given exclusively to PC Gamer, Descent will reward players who have already sped through the core Path of Exile game a few times with a brand new setting. In Descent, you cannot return to town or use waypoints or portals to travel. A completely solo experience, Descent will feature its own economy of high-powered loot and monsters that exist only for the duration of the league. At the end of the event, all characters and items are destroyed.

It's a bold move from Path of Exile, and it runs contrary to the traditional model of clicky-click-click action RPG games. Because the focus in Descent is not on building a character or collecting gold or items, developer Grinding Gear has designed Descent to be more like a traditional single-player RPG: explore a new world and experiment with new builds to survive the harrowing landscape.

Descent events will last an hour each and are the Signature Event for season three. About 50 of them will take place over six weeks beginning on June 29. Check out Path of Exile's website for a full schedule, to be posted next week.