Path of Exile 3.30 scraps Scarabs and reworks loot as Covens of Umbra lands November 13

Path of Exile 2 is weeks away from its full release, but Grinding Gear Games is not leaving the original behind. Version 3.30, Covens of Umbra, arrives on November 13 (Pacific time), free on PC and consoles, and it rebuilds a large part of the endgame on the way.

The biggest change is the end of Scarabs. The consumables that players have been stacking in the map device for years are being removed in favour of Threads of Creation, which put a chosen league mechanic into a map and raise the rarity and difficulty of its monsters. Every thread spent also adds a chance of a random, stronger twist on that mechanic.

The league itself is about witches trying to summon their Coven Queen. Beat their followers and you pick Fates for the local boss: extra modifiers that make the fight harder and the rewards richer. Body parts from those bosses, called Viscera, go onto a Wickerman, an effigy that passes a piece of the boss’s power to your character. PCGamesN, which saw the reveal at ExileCon, says it holds up to four at once: head, body, arm and leg. Grim Fates bring the same idea to the Atlas’s pinnacle bosses.

Almost every existing endgame league has been touched. Mirages return as a random map encounter, killing a Beyond boss no longer stops Beyond portals from opening, the Sacred Grove gives way to tangled roots you can modify with currency, and Atziri has pushed the Vaal Omnitect out of the Temple of Atzoatl. The Atlas passive tree has a new layout, and many bonuses that used to come from Scarabs can now be guaranteed there.

The studio also promises a loot rework “unlike anything we’ve done before”. According to PCGamesN, the aim is fewer throwaway drops and more valuable items on the ground. That is a lot of change for a game that now shares its studio with its own sequel, and the sequel’s 1.0 release follows on December 11, leaving Grinding Gear four weeks between two big launches.

Reported by Grinding Gear Games on Steam, PCGamesN. Compiled with AI tools.