Path of Exile 3.30, called Covens of Umbra, launches on Friday, November 13, and the original game stays free to play on Steam and through the Grinding Gear Games launcher. The update brings a new league built around witches, a rebuilt endgame and a rework of how items drop, according to details shown at Exilecon 2026 and reported by PCGamesN.
Grinding Gear Games makes the game, and the studio has said both Path of Exile and Path of Exile 2 will keep running side by side, passing seasonal leagues back and forth. Path of Exile 2 is due to launch its 1.0 version in December, so this is the last big league for the older game before that.
What is the Covens of Umbra league about?
The league drops players into what the studio calls a centuries-old conflict between the Witches of Umbra. You meet the Coven Queen’s minions from the opening areas, and witchy rites let you twist their spells to your advantage by taking on fates that make major boss fights harder and the rewards bigger.
The further you go, the more fates you collect. PCGamesN reports that you can hold four or five in one area and combine up to three of them for a single fight. Some pairings carry combo effects, and stacking duplicates sharply boosts them.
The second new piece is the Wickerman, a figure you can bind your character’s soul to. Beating fate-enhanced enemies can drop grisly trophies such as limbs, and you infuse them into the Wickerman to gain power. It holds four at once (head, body, arm and leg), and trophies come in three tiers of rarity and strength.
Grim Fates are special variants tied to individual pinnacle bosses, changing or empowering their attacks. Each one you collect is stored in a slot on your Wickerman, and beating a boss under a Grim Fate can drop its own trophies. The Coven Queen herself is the final challenge.
How is the endgame changing?
Game Director Jonathan Rogers describes it as a “far-reaching and comprehensive endgame shakeup”, with changes to almost every core league mechanic. The Atlas map now has colored regions that decide which mechanics show up, and stacking more of them in a zone raises both danger and payout.
Threads of Creation replace Scarabs. There is a Thread for each primary mechanic: Abyss, Blight, Legion, Breach, Incursion, Betrayal, Bestiary, Expedition, Ultimatum and Ritual. You feed them into the map device to boost that mechanic, up to a total of eight, and deeper in you can run three mechanics at once. The Atlas remembers your last Thread loadout so you can repeat it quickly.
The old Scarab effects are not simply deleted. Rogers says they are spread into other systems, mainly the refreshed Atlas passive tree, so the average player should get a similar amount of benefit as a baseline, with Threads adding extra random outcomes on top.
Individual mechanics get new twists:
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Blight adds modifiers such as Mycotic lanes and lanes full of Rogue Exiles carrying uniques
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Ritual lets you invite the gaze of the Bodach or spend excess tribute to summon a minion of the King in the Mists
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Ultimatum can offer a chance to double down, doubling the rounds without a way to pull out
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Expedition lets you flip a coin to gamble between two possible crafts on an item
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Bestiary no longer requires yellow beast captures
Mirage, first added with the 3.28 league, now becomes a core mechanic. PCGamesN says it covers the whole of the maps it affects, more than doubling the area you explore.
What changes with loot?
Rogers says the core drop pool had grown stale. Magic and rare ground loot can now appear at specific tiers, and tier-five magic items can drop as fractured bases. A rework of magic find and rarity bonuses means your best currency should come from unique monsters and bosses, so items on the floor are worth picking up more often.
Prices
Path of Exile is free to play. The sources name Steam and the Grinding Gear Games launcher as the ways to play, and they do not list any price for the 3.30 update. No regional prices or currencies are given, so check the store listing in your own country for any optional purchases.
Who it suits
Returning players. If you left after an earlier league, the new Atlas layout and Threads of Creation system mean you will be relearning how maps work, so expect a fresh start rather than a continuation.
Mapping and mechanic farmers. The Thread loadout memory, colored regions and the Mirage change are aimed squarely at people who stack league mechanics, and the overlapping interactions Rogers teased are where the extra payout is meant to come from.
Newcomers. The campaign puts league bosses in your path from the start and the game costs nothing to try, but the endgame covers a lot of systems, so treat the early hours as a way in rather than the whole picture.
Players focused on Path of Exile 2. If you are waiting for the 1.0 launch in December, this league is optional. GGG says both games will keep running.
What is still unknown?
The sources do not give launch times by region, patch size, platform details beyond Steam and the launcher, or any balance numbers for the new fates and trophies. Read the official patch notes from Grinding Gear Games before the league starts on November 13, and check the Steam page for the news post that carries them.
