What's Being Kept from Ambush/Invasion? (Updated July 4)

Four month challenge leagues (like Ambush/Invasion) are a great place to test out new game mechanics while receiving plenty of feedback and data about how players interact with them. When four month leagues end, we have to choose what parts of these new features to roll into the core game. Some systems like Rogue Exiles (Anarchy) and Shrines (Domination) came from challenge leagues in this way.

This article has our current feelings about what parts of the leagues are likely to be retained. It's going to be updated over time, especially with regard to aspects that haven't yet been decided.

The updates will not happen as soon as the leagues end. These changes will be rolled into the 1.2.0 patch.

Ambush League
The Ambush strongboxes are great fun and will be integrated into the core game. Their spawn rate will probably be reduced slightly and we will delay the first strongboxes appearing until later in the game.

We will rebalance the chance of chest types and mods on them. We'll specifically rebalance how Cartographers ones work in end-game Maps, as the bonus they can give when dropping higher level maps is extreme and is very unevenly applied across the player base.

Invasion League
There are three main elements that make up the Invasion League. There was a different method of pack spawning used in Invasion. This allows us more flexibility in what packs we can assign to areas. It will now be used in other leagues.

The system of guest base monster types was successful and will be integrated into the core game. It will be toned down substantially so that guest monsters are mostly noticeable in higher difficulties (we ramped it very high for Invasion).

The concept of invading Unique monsters will not be integrated into the core game for now. The Invasion bosses that are the most fun will be kept to help bolster our set of Unique monsters that have been statically allocated to each world area (i.e. some world areas that were missing Unique monsters will now get them). Invasion bosses will be kept as a mod we can use for events.

Other League-Specific Content
The new progression of quivers has been successful. Our current plan is to introduce them to the core game when these leagues end and stop the old quivers from dropping at that point.

Unset Rings will also be introduced to the core game.

Unique Items
We generally do not add unique items from challenge leagues to the full pool when the league ends. With Ambush/Invasion we have examined our roster of unique quivers, and we allow all the new unique quivers to spawn when the new quiver progression is swapped in at 1.2.0.

Voideye and Vaal Caress will not be added to the general unique pool. They may return in some other form in the future.

All of the content and features that make their way from the challenge leagues to the core game add up over time to contribute a lot to Path of Exile's ongoing evolution. We have awesome plans for the next challenge leagues :)