Grinding Gear Games has announced a major overhaul to Path of Exile 2's item drop system in response to widespread player feedback. Patch 0.2.0g, deploying on April 30, 2025, introduces significant changes to monster loot, boss drops, and reward structures across all content types to make the game's rewards feel more meaningful.
Reworked Item Rarity System
The cornerstone of this update addresses one of the community's biggest complaints: underwhelming item drops. According to the developers, the current implementation of Monster Item Rarity hasn't been impactful enough to feel rewarding, even in high-rarity scenarios like Azmerian Wisp encounters.
The patch introduces a rebalanced rarity threshold system, ensuring unique bosses no longer drop normal (white) items except in early Act 1. Players will see 4x more Tier 2 rare items and a 30% increase in Tiers 3-5 drops, with improved modification quality through the removal of low-level mods.
Guaranteed Boss Rewards
Perhaps the most welcome change for many players is the introduction of "drop protection" for boss encounters. All unique bosses (excluding early Act 1) will now guarantee a rare item drop. For campaign bosses, this guarantee applies to the first kill, while map bosses will offer this reward consistently.
Additionally, monsters possessed by Azmerian Wisps will always drop a rare item, and a bug preventing proper Item Rarity/Quantity stats on the first Wisp in Grelwood has been fixed.
What's changing with chests and strongboxes?
Chests are receiving a substantial upgrade across all difficulties. Magic chests now feature drastically increased Item Rarity/Quantity with a guaranteed magic item minimum, while rare chests guarantee a rare item with significantly boosted rarity and quantity modifiers. These bonuses are further amplified by 50% in Cruel Difficulty and 100% in Endgame content.
Strongboxes have been adjusted to match the new rare chest balance, with Researcher's Strongboxes now offering higher chances for rare currency drops rather than magic currency.
Endgame Content Improvements
The Path of Exile 2 team has also addressed reward structures in endgame activities:
- Trial of the Sekhemas: Bronze chests improved to match rare chests in Normal Difficulty, with significantly higher Item Rarity/Quantity for Silver/Gold chests
- Trial of Chaos: Higher levels now offer Rare Currency stacks instead of corrupted rares
- Expedition: Doubled artifact drops and 50% more Exotic Coinage
- Delirium: 2.5x increased Item Rarity per depth, with maximum difficulty reduced from 5x to 3x for better build diversity
Easier Access to Pinnacle Content
To help players reach endgame challenges more consistently, splinter drop rates for both Breach (50% increase) and Delirium (80% increase) have been significantly buffed. The chance to find Audiences with the King in Ritual has been increased by 50%, and Corrupted Nexus now grants 5 skill points while being visible from greater distances.
Published on May 1, 2025, 03:18 AM UTC