Feedback on XP Loss and Corpse Recovery – From One Hardcore ARPG Player to Another

Dear GGG Team,

First, thank you. I've been playing ARPGs since Diablo II, and Path of Exile—both 1 and 2—has carried the torch in a way that few games have. The combat, the complexity, the vision—it's clear that your team deeply loves what it’s building.

I’m writing today not out of frustration, but out of shared passion. I believe you’re on the verge of something brilliant with Path of Exile 2, but there's one piece of the design philosophy that’s not landing: the implementation of XP loss without any form of corpse recovery.


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I’m Not Afraid of Death—But I Do Miss Hope

As a Diablo II veteran, I never balked at punishment. I’ve lost corpses to bosses and walked away knowing I earned it. The system was hard—but it was also fair. It respected my time while demanding my skill.

PoE2's current XP loss system doesn’t offer that same balance. It punishes, but it doesn’t inspire. There’s no tactical decision after death. Just a raw loss. You’re not giving me a mountain to overcome—you’re giving me a crater to sit in.

That’s not motivating. That’s demoralizing.


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Omens Aren’t Teaching Anything

The omen system feels like a mechanical bandaid. It doesn’t encourage engagement. It doesn't change my behavior—it just blunts the punishment without adding depth.

Corpse recovery, by contrast, creates tension and opportunity. It forces the player to rethink, re-engage, reassess. That’s meaningful risk. I’m not asking for a free pass. I’m asking for a system that challenges me to fight smarter, not play safer.

Omens? They encourage passivity. Corpse recovery? It encourages growth.


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A Core Problem: You're Not Teaching the Player the Right Habits

The campaign trains players that death is mostly harmless. They die, respawn, keep pushing. That’s the design loop for 70+ levels. Then, suddenly, they hit endgame and get slapped with brutal XP penalties—with no prior warning, no scaling, and no tactical comeback.

That’s a philosophical disconnect. Not challenge. Not difficulty. Just a break in trust.

And we see it in the numbers—players start falling off around level 75–80, not 90+. The system isn't creating healthy friction; it's creating quiet exits.


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Why Corpse Recovery Could Be the Answer

If you reintroduce a form of corpse recovery—even partial XP retrieval—it does three things:

1. Respects Player Time: Even if I fail twice, I feel like I had a chance to fight smarter.


2. Teaches Engagement Over Avoidance: I’m rewarded for re-engaging, not for avoiding risk altogether.


3. Restores Hope: And this, to me, is the heart of it. Without hope, players quit. With hope, we chase greatness.



Right now, the system leans too far into despair without offering redemption. Even Dark Souls gives you that glimmer—recover your souls. Fight back. Be better.

I want death to matter. But I also want to believe I can do something about it.


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TL;DR

I’m not asking you to make the game easier. I’m asking you to make it smarter.

Omens are passive. Corpse recovery is tactical.

If you want players to adapt, give them a way to do so after failure—not just a slap on the wrist and a loading screen.

Hope keeps us playing. Despair, unbalanced, just drives us away.



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Thank you for reading—and for everything you’ve built so far. I care about this game enough to write this because I want to see more people fall in love with it. I want the systems to be as strong as the vision behind them.

From one hardcore ARPG player to another—let’s make death feel meaningful again.