Unpopular Opinion: League Challenges Should Require Solo Completion

I see where you're coming from, but I think there's a big difference between actually engaging with challenges yourself, even if it's with a "broken AFK" build versus just jumping into a hideout, paying, and waiting to be carried.

Even with AFK builds, players still need to set things up and engage with the content to a certain degree. It’s not just a hands-off experience.
Buying carries, on the other hand, completely bypasses any involvement in the actual gameplay, turning it into a purely transactional experience with no effort required. So, while both might seem similar on the surface, the key difference is in the level of engagement.

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VoidWhisperer42#5989 wrote:

Next league, challenges should require solo-only completion.

No credit if another player enters your instance, No kill credit from tag-alongs or co-op cheese.

You want the reward? Do the content yourself. Period.

I'd be in favour of this in places.

I agree with the notion that e.g. the Pinnacles Paired challenge should award progress against it only if you (and your chosen AI friendo) are the sole participants in the fight. This is - in theory - a test of player skill / player familiarity with the boss fight / player's OP gear just trivialising the fight / whatever. This is egregiously vulnerable to "WTB Challenge" in trade chat or TFT.

I don't know if I can quite agree with you slapping that criterion in the blanket fashion you appear to be arguing for, however. Throwing it on, say, Maniacal Magnitudes would do far less to combat the problem and far more dictate whether people are allowed to play with their friends.

Then there's e.g. Peddler's Produce which, I think, objectively should not be given this change.



tl;dr: This would be a worthwhile tool in GGG's toolkit for challenges going forwards. But just because we give them a hammer doesn't mean every challenge should be viewed as a nail. Employ it sparingly in cases where GGG will get their best 'bang for their buck' in terms of making the change. Be cognizant of the collateral damage it will impose and be fair-minded in its application.

as long as game is centered around trading - and it is - buying them (aka - getting enough orbs) is as 'good' playing the game as anything else

it is on GGG to make challenges in a way that does not force people into this 'solution'

last league i did 36/40 completely solo and the only thing i had to to do outside of what I would normally do was a) running memories b) cheezing lazer fight with starfal crater boss (log out once laser phase starts)

'challenges' like 'do a 1 in 500 boss in a very unnatural way' should not exist. there is no wonder people resort to buying this shit

stuff like complete 1400 map mods, 200 scarabs on 90%+ maps or whatever - these are both somehow interesting and unbuyable

'witness something obnoxiously rare' is not a challenge, it is a dice roll and a very frustrating one

these should go.

it would leave only unbuyable challenges on the list solving both problems

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sidtherat#1310 wrote:

as long as game is centered around trading - and it is - buying them (aka - getting enough orbs) is as 'good' playing the game as anything else

it is on GGG to make challenges in a way that does not force people into this 'solution'

last league i did 36/40 completely solo and the only thing i had to to do outside of what I would normally do was a) running memories b) cheezing lazer fight with starfal crater boss (log out once laser phase starts)

'challenges' like 'do a 1 in 500 boss in a very unnatural way' should not exist. there is no wonder people resort to buying this shit

stuff like complete 1400 map mods, 200 scarabs on 90%+ maps or whatever - these are both somehow interesting and unbuyable

'witness something obnoxiously rare' is not a challenge, it is a dice roll and a very frustrating one

these should go.

it would leave only unbuyable challenges on the list solving both problems

This.

So long as access to some challenges are rare or require currency to even attempt, it's unreasonable to expect players to solo challenges.

a note about RNG aspect

i did the 'mappers complete 200 rare maps' challenge (with a hefty surplus, so i would guess somewhere close to 300 maps in total)

i have exactly ZERO bandit lords. ZERO. few of my T10 mappers died, despite 1% chance and 90-100% completion chance. but i had ZERO bandit lords across 3 devices

if the challenge had 'face all 3 bosses' i would simply buy this shit. luckily there was an option (and I know I was kinda lucky completing starfall crater one (had 3 in ALL settlers leagues despite my map device claiming ~2000 red maps - i got THREE of these (2 svallin, lol)

IIRC i was very lucky with that uber-rare map - but i do not remember. Kirac is pog anyway.

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sidtherat#1310 wrote:

as long as game is centered around trading - and it is - buying them (aka - getting enough orbs) is as 'good' playing the game as anything else

it is on GGG to make challenges in a way that does not force people into this 'solution'

last league i did 36/40 completely solo and the only thing i had to to do outside of what I would normally do was a) running memories b) cheezing lazer fight with starfal crater boss (log out once laser phase starts)

'challenges' like 'do a 1 in 500 boss in a very unnatural way' should not exist. there is no wonder people resort to buying this shit

stuff like complete 1400 map mods, 200 scarabs on 90%+ maps or whatever - these are both somehow interesting and unbuyable

'witness something obnoxiously rare' is not a challenge, it is a dice roll and a very frustrating one

these should go.

it would leave only unbuyable challenges on the list solving both problems

Exactly, I don't remember in which league it was but it was whenever they re-introduced Ultimatum into the game. We didn't have the scarab or atlas nodes that increase chance to see Trialmaster after round 10, yet there was a challenge to kill him in a red map. That was the most RNG BS challenge I've ever seen in all the leagues I've played. I just had to spam maps again and again and again. You couldn't even buy a carry for it because nobody knows if he will appear after round 10, you'd have to afk in your friend's map. Might aswell rush into white t16s yourself then lmao, this was sooo bad for people that wanted 40/40, they were basically screwed by this single RNG challenge.

RNG-heavy challenges or "kill this boss while doing advanced gymnastics blablabla while not being hit by blablabla" should not exist. They're cringe af and that's why people just buy a carry for those conditional boss ones, cus nobody can be bothered to do em.

At least this league I was able to completely bypass them by killing the boss in 2 seconds on my 200 mil glass cannon build, the bosses had no chance to even do a single mechanic so I didn't even see the things I'm supposed to "not get hit by" for those challenges. So that's nice.

Nah bad idea.

I made 39/40 myself and only bought uber bosses and level 100.

Because I am not making another character for bossing. It's not fun to force everyone to make the boss killer then sell it after clearing single challenge.

And level 100 solo isn't hard, just tedious and boring (you have to avoid dangerous mods, mercs etc.). Remove the XP loss on death first, then sure.

I got lvl 100 solo in Settlers and it was boring.

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Hornsent#1110 wrote:

Nah bad idea.

I made 39/40 myself and only bought uber bosses and level 100.

Because I am not making another character for bossing. It's not fun to force everyone to make the boss killer then sell it after clearing single challenge.

And level 100 solo isn't hard, just tedious and boring (you have to avoid dangerous mods, mercs etc.). Remove the XP loss on death first, then sure.

I got lvl 100 solo in Settlers and it was boring.

Well any decently okay min-maxed build, no need for mirror-tier perfection, can handle those Ubers. Sure, they’re harder and more punishing than regular content, but with the way player power has scaled over the years, they’re already pretty trivialized. They’re still aspirational content, but any solid build can handle them without needing to go full boss killer mode. You can go 1 shot cheese but it's certainly not required unless you farm ubers for pure profit.

As for level 100, the core game is already throwing XP at you like crazy these days, so hitting 100 isn’t even remotely a hard grind anymore. It's more of an auto-complete by day 4 if you're playing a lot during league start, or by the very end of week 1 if you’re more casual. XP loss on death definitely makes it a grind, but once you’ve got a solid build, it’s really not a challenge unless you’re dying every map, and if you are, that’s usually a sign to avoid playing a ZHP build. A well optimized build can easily prevent those issues, so the XP penalty becomes almost a non factor.

So yeah, while level 100 might seem tedious, it's really not a major roadblock unless you’re playing a build that’s begging for death. And there are always other ways to tackle the EGG challenges if you don’t want to do level 100.

I honestly think it’s a good idea to lock these challenges behind personal effort. It pushes players to actually learn the content and get better, instead of just relying on carries. There's a lot of misinformation from people who haven't even played through the content themselves, and it's really getting out of control to be honest.

If you’ve already done all the other challenges by yourself, I’m sure Ubers, level 100, or any other missing EGG part wouldn't have been that much of a task for you.

This is never happening, and stop telling other people how to play the game. SC Trade is the main game mode, the most popular gamemode. Carries and stuff like that are a huge part of the player economy, and people make bosskillers to sell carries for the first few days as their currency making strat.

If you wanna do solo challenges then SSF is right there. But forcing it on all players is ridiculous, it would just make the game worse and make GGG lose players and money, which is why this is never happening lmfao

Who's gonna buy supporter packs if nobody is playing the league? Because I can tell you its the more casual players that stick around for longer that buy them, making the game more unappealing to them would just be a net negative.


And by the way, it still takes pure skill to plan out what build you're gonna play and how you're gonna speedrun challenges, deciding which ones to buy a carry for. A huge chunk of the playerbase's one and only reason to play this game is getting 36/40 then logging off. Espeeeecially if its a portal effect reward kek


Like someone else said before, if some of the challenges weren't such giga-cringe to do on a random build then most people wouldn't resort to carries. But you can't expect everyone to farm hundreds of divines to make a bosskiller/t17 runner. That's absurd. When I was buying my t17 carries there were constantly new people joining the party and it was filling up, they were all happily paying 1 div per 5 t17 map completions because why would anyone waste their time doing that cringe ahh content lmao, carries are super popular. Have been ever since Legion came out and the 5-way rota exp carries started, or even way back in Breach league with the breachstone exp leech runs where people invited randoms for more group quant. Its a core part of the game's experience, and a valid way for someone to choose to play it. Like imagine wasting your time farming exp normally and dying randomly in maps when you can just throw 30 divs at a 5-way legion rota host and get your lvl100 safely and guaranteed, while you afk with your game window running in 800x600. Ofc people will choose this, because leveling is cringe with exp loss in this game.

They should be doable by as many builds as possible, and they've been doing good to make the challenges more loose in the recent leagues, letting you choose which league mechanics to do and which to skip. So that's nice, I'm happy knowing that GGG understands how to make better and more fun league challenges.

Now if they could only stop making every league be a boring armor set reward, that would be cool too. I don't need more armor, I want portals/ritual hideout/pets literally anything else that's cool. The armor sets were a nice idea in Sentinel and the first few leagues they did them, but we need some variety and rotating types of rewards. It gets stale af getting a boring armor set every league now.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

This is never happening, and stop telling other people how to play the game. SC Trade is the main game mode, the most popular gamemode. Carries and stuff like that are a huge part of the player economy, and people make bosskillers to sell carries for the first few days as their currency making strat.

If you wanna do solo challenges then SSF is right there. But forcing it on all players is ridiculous, it would just make the game worse and make GGG lose players and money, which is why this is never happening lmfao

Literally nobody said this has to be SSF only. The point is to make it a true solo achievement, still doable in Trade League, but requiring you to put in the actual work yourself instead of just chilling in the trade hall waiting for someone else to pay for your progress. It’s about earning it, not buying your way through. That doesn’t invalidate carries or the player economy, but it does highlight a different way to challenge yourself if you want to. Different playstyles can coexist without one overshadowing the other.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

Who's gonna buy supporter packs if nobody is playing the league? Because I can tell you its the more casual players that stick around for longer that buy them, making the game more unappealing to them would just be a net negative.

I’m not sure where you’re getting the idea that fewer people would play the league or buy supporter packs just because some challenge rewards require personal effort. Most players grab their supporter packs before or right at league start, GGG has confirmed that. That behavior wouldn’t suddenly vanish just because people are expected to engage with content rather than skip it through carries.

And let’s be real—most players don’t even care about MTX rewards. A huge chunk of the playerbase quits by week 2 or 3 anyway, after min-maxing their build or briefly poking the new content. That pattern has happened in league after league. If anything, adding actual challenge could improve retention. When players can’t speedrun or buy their way through, they’re forced to stick around and earn their progress. That keeps player count up longer, and gives the content more staying power.

The market could even become more dynamic. Instead of people selling the same carry service for the 10th league in a row, players would have to get creative again—figure out new ways to engage, trade, and build value. That sounds like a healthy shift for the game overall.

And yeah, I can see this is getting under your skin a bit—the idea that you might not be able to grab your MTX rewards the usual cozy way, with minimal effort and a bit of currency. But that’s kind of the point. If a reward takes more than doing the bare minimum or sitting in a trade hub waiting for a carry, that’s a good thing. It makes it feel earned, not bought—and that’s what makes these games worth sticking with in the first place.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

And by the way, it still takes pure skill to plan out what build you're gonna play and how you're gonna speedrun challenges, deciding which ones to buy a carry for. A huge chunk of the playerbase's one and only reason to play this game is getting 36/40 then logging off.

Let’s be real—it doesn’t take any actual skill or planning to pick some random build, glass cannon or not, and corpse-rush your way through T16 maps just to farm basic currency. You can do that by day two after hitting red maps, using nothing but ground loot. We’ve all been there at some point. But some players choose to spend that early currency on carries instead of investing in their build—and then turn around and complain that the game’s too hard, or that content is unfair. It’s a tired cycle.

And honestly, if your entire league goal is just to log in, speedrun a checklist of challenges, buy your way through the hard parts, and then log off to complain on the forums about how “bad” everything is… maybe it’s time to re-evaluate your relationship with the game. Most people are here to have fun, explore builds, and engage with the league, not treat Path of Exile like a tedious job just to unlock some free MTX in a game they clearly aren’t enjoying.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

Like someone else said before, if some of the challenges weren't such giga-cringe to do on a random build then most people wouldn't resort to carries. But you can't expect everyone to farm hundreds of divines to make a bosskiller/t17 runner. That's absurd. When I was buying my t17 carries there were constantly new people joining the party and it was filling up, they were all happily paying 1 div per 5 t17 map completions because why would anyone waste their time doing that cringe ahh content lmao,

I’m genuinely curious where the idea comes from that it takes hundreds of divine orbs worth of gear to farm T17 maps or Ubers. It sounds like something that wasn’t earned through firsthand experience, because in reality, that’s definitely not the case.

You don’t need an absurd amount of currency to build a solid character that can farm those maps yourself. Ironically, the few divine orbs spent on carries could have gone a long way toward gearing a self-sufficient build.

But I guess it’s easier to always find excuses or blame the game anytime you start to hit a wall, usually because the real reason is a refusal to improve.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

They should be doable by as many builds as possible

Honestly, isn’t that already the case? There’s no challenge that demands a super specific build or insanely fast kills like Uber Maven under 2 minutes. Most challenges, even the tougher recent ones can be done with a solid league starter build, given some investment for harder content.

Nothing requires mirror-tier gear or hundreds of divine orbs. Realistically, players already trivialize most of all content by mid to end of week one with fairly mediocre gear across all modes, trade, SSF, and HC. So the skill and gear ceiling for challenges is actually pretty low since they mostly revolve around core game content with just a touch of the new league mechanic, which, let’s be honest, gets figured out and trivialized within a few days.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

Now if they could only stop making every league be a boring armor set reward, that would be cool too.

Totally agree.
It’s been a while since we got a real standout MTX instead of just another armor set with a gimmick. Variety would definitely freshen things up.