Path of Exile Crucible League guide - Start dates, mechanics, endgame, and more

The Crucible League, the latest in Path of Exile, starts today, April 7, on PC. The developers occasionally drop these challenge leagues in the game, offering players a way to play the hit action RPG in a whole new way. They can create a fresh character, take advantage of powerful new systems, unlock rewards, and so much more.

In this update, you can also do more than simply play the Crucible League. If it’s not challenging or boring, you can even ramp up the difficulty.

You now have access to Standard, Hardcore, Solo Self-Found, and Ruthless versions of the Crucible League. You can even create private league versions and can mod it further to make the game even more difficult. However you want to do it, that’s up to you. So precisely what awaits you in this latest Path of Exile challenge mode? We’re here to help.

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Exploring what awaits players in Path of Exile’s Crucible League

Path of Exile’s Crucible League starts with the 3.21.0 update, on April 7, 2023, for PC and Mac platforms. Xbox and PlayStation players won’t have to wait long. The PoE league will start on April 12, 2023, for both of the console versions of the game.

In the Crucible League, Path of Exile players will learn about the ancient titans that once ruled over the land of Wraeclast. If you can make it through the challenging battles in this league, you can access brand-new power for your weapons. This happens at the Crucible Forges, which are zones that are scattered about the land.

When you arrive at a Crucible Forge in Path of Exile, you can channel into the forge with your weapon. The longer you channel, the more foes combine and become a bigger and bigger threat. It gives you control over how challenging you want it to be, which is fantastic.

This will also unlock the Passive Skill Tree for your currently equipped weapon in Path of Exile’s Crucible League. This only works on two-handed weapons (bows count), one-handed variants, and shields. The skill trees are random, and the skills granted will make sense for the weapon type.

Even if you turn the weapon into a unique (Orb of Chance), the same goes for Ancient Orbs and Awakener’s Orbs. However, if you use a Recombinator, it destroys the Skill Trees on both items. You can even unlock passives that change how skill gems work, which can create some titanic new effects.

Completing Crucible Forges grants experience that lets Path of Exile players unlock these skill trees and progress through them. You can also find Magmatic Orbs, which grant experience to a Crucible weapon of your choice. As of now, the only place they are present is Vendor Passives (in the weapon skill trees), and a special modifier on Primeval Remnants.

In the endgame of this league, you can do some truly fantastic things as well. In particular, you can combine weapons that have Passive Skill Trees. At the Forge of the Titans, you can combine two non-unique items of the same type to create a new, powerful weapon.

At the end of a Crucible League map, you find these Forges, which are usually a reward from Primeval Remnants. Using this Forge will combine the Skill Trees of two items and destroy one of the items to do so.

The new Skill Tree will feature passives from both, and while it’s supposed to be random, the developers stated there are ways to help shift the odds a bit. There’s very little information on this right now, however.

Not everything will be an upgrade, though. Your Skill Trees, as they combine, can improve, weaken, or mutate the various passives on the weapon. Some Passives can only be unlocked this way and will not appear anywhere else in the game.

If you complete a Tier 2 Remnant, the Forge will also let you combine Unique and Corrupted items, so that you can create even potentially more powerful weapons than you could before.

Path of Exile’s Crucible League is an incredibly fun new way to play the action RPG, with new abilities to unlock and ways to increase the power of your characters. The action kicks off today on PC, with April 12, 2023, on consoles.