The dark and treacherous world of Wraeclast is about to witness a new era of exploration and settlement. Settlers of Kalguur is the latest expansion by Grinding Gear Games for the free-to-play action role-playing video game Path of Exile. From the new content to balance updates, here is everything about Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur.

Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur – Building a New Legacy

Settlers of Kalguur is an ambitious and innovative league that redefines the Path of Exile experience. This new Version 3.25 expansion is set to drop on July 26, 2024.

With its blend of real-time mechanics, extensive resource management, and dynamic trading, this expansion offers a fresh and engaging challenge for both new and veteran players.

Prepare to embark on a journey of exploration, construction, and trade as you help the Kalguurans establish a new legacy in the dark world of Wraeclast.

A Reunion with the Kalguurans

In Settlers of Kalguur, players will reunite with characters from the Expedition League: Dannig, Rog, Tujen, and Gwennen. These Kalguuran adventurers are on a mission to create a thriving trade route between their homeland and Wraeclast. Leading this effort is Johan, the King’s Hand, who is recruiting workers, traders, and exiles to build a new city called Kingsmarch.

The Birth of Kingsmarch

Your journey begins in Lioneye’s Watch, where Johan briefs you on the grand vision for Kingsmarch. Starting from humble beginnings—a lone tavern in a field—the goal is to transform this fledgling settlement into a bustling hub of commerce. As an exile, your role is crucial in gathering the necessary resources and manpower to bring this vision to life.

Resource Gathering and Construction

Building a city is no small feat. Throughout your adventures, you’ll encounter various resources essential for construction. Crimson Iron, Orichalcum, Petrified Amber, Bismuth, and Verisium are just a few of the valuable minerals you’ll need to collect. Each resource comes with its own set of challenges, often guarded by dangerous foes that you must defeat to secure these precious materials.

Managing Your Workforce

In Settlers of Kalguur, resource management is key. The Kalguurans have recruited numerous workers, and it’s your job to hire and manage them effectively. Using in-game Gold, which now drops throughout Wraeclast, you can recruit miners and other specialists to aid in your construction efforts. Each worker has unique skills and wage costs, and it’s up to you to optimize your workforce for maximum efficiency.

Building and Upgrading

As you gather resources and expand your workforce, you’ll have the opportunity to upgrade various buildings in Kingsmarch. Start with the Tavern, the heart of the town, to improve recruitment prospects and host important NPCs. Next, enhance the Mining Station to boost the efficiency of your miners. Over time, you’ll add a Smelter for refining ores, a Disenchanter for breaking down magical items, and even farms to sustain your growing population.

Trading and Shipping

Trade is at the core of Settlers of Kalguur. Establish shipping routes between Kalguuran and Karui ports to trade your resources. Each port offers unique rewards and has preferred types of goods, creating a dynamic trading environment. Managing shipment risks is crucial, as dangers lurk both on land and at sea. Hiring specialized workers can reduce these risks, ensuring safe passage for your valuable cargo.

Real-Time Mechanics

For the first time in Path of Exile, Settlers of Kalguur introduces true real-time mechanics. Tasks such as mining, building, and trading continue even when you’re offline. This innovative feature ensures that you always have ongoing projects and rewards to look forward to, enhancing the game’s immersive experience.

Endgame and Kalguuran Technology

Once you reach the endgame, the Kalguuran’s technological advancements come into play. Isla, a familiar face from the Heist League, helps you build modified Map Devices. You can queue up maps and hire Atlas Runners to complete them for you, bringing in rewards over time. Additionally, crafting services like Runesmithing allow you to engrave powerful runes onto your weapons, pushing the boundaries of item customization.

Facing the Endgame Bosses

With the growth of Kingsmarch comes new threats. Three endgame bosses will challenge your operations, each with their own unique mechanics and rewards. Sasan, the Bandit Lord, is one such adversary who may kidnap your workers, forcing you to make tough decisions—rescue them, pay the ransom in Gold, or simply abandon them to their fates.

Quality of Life Improvements

Settlers of Kalguur also introduces significant quality of life features.

Gold can now be used to respec Passive Points, a feature borrowed from Path of Exile 2. Moreover, a new Currency Trade-Market allows for asynchronous trading of currency and other stackable items, facilitated by the NPC Faustus. This system promises to streamline trading and eliminate common frustrations.

Besides that, here is a quick rundown of other quality of life features:

  • You no longer need to interact with Waypoints to unlock them. You can just walk by and they’ll activate automatically.
  • When using Keyboard & Mouse you’ll be able to pick up items from further away.
  • We’re adding Static Life bars to some bosses. Not all bosses will have them just yet, but we’ll be adding more over time.
  • You can now see which Divination Cards drop in each Map by hovering over them on your Atlas.
  • When you die, you can now resurrect without having to re-activate all your reservation effects like Auras and Heralds.
  • You can start Harvest encounters with just a single action.
  • The amount of Quality provided by currency items like Whetstones is now based on item level, rather than Item Rarity. Those currencies now apply 20% quality to very low level items, with that amount reducing as the item level increases.

Campaign Improvements in Settlers of Kalguur

Building on the enhancements from update 3.24, the Settlers of Kalguur expansion introduces even more intriguing encounters and secrets to the Campaign. While not all details will be spoiled here, adventurers should be on the lookout for new and unfamiliar elements throughout their journey. Here are some teasers of what’s in store:

New Hidden Locations and Challenges:

  • Underground Bunker in the Refinery: Guarded by powerful robots, this mysterious bunker holds secrets waiting to be uncovered. What lies within its depths?
  • Mysterious Door: Unlocking this door could lead to untold riches. How will you find the key?
  • Underground Sewer Access Points: Discovered access points to underground sewers pose a daring challenge. Will you brave the depths to uncover what lies below?
  • Blighted Growths: New blighted growths have emerged in the Gardens and Sewers of Sarn, adding another layer of mystery and danger.
  • Vault of Riches: A vault filled with treasures awaits in the Reliquary. Will you be the one to claim its bounty?

Character Balance Improvements & Changes

Alongside this expansion comes a slew of character balance improvements and changes. Peep at the comprehensive changes to the character classes and others down below.

Rebalancing the Gladiator

The Gladiator has undergone significant changes, focusing on enhancing its bleeding and block mechanics. Key updates include:

  1. New Passive Skills:
    • War of Attrition: A new skill ideal for prolonged boss fights.
    • Dual Wielding Bonuses: Holding different weapon types provides various bonuses. For instance, a dagger increases critical strike chance, while a mace enhances the area of effect.
  2. Retaliation Skills:
    • Eviscerate: Requires a shield and deals significant damage.
    • Swordstorm: Designed for dual-wielding, perfect for boss battles.
    • Divine Retribution: Activated by blocking, it calls down lightning bolts in an X-shape, dealing massive damage.

These changes make the Gladiator more versatile and powerful, allowing players to tailor their builds for different combat scenarios.

Introducing the Warden

Replacing the Raider, the Warden brings a fresh approach to elemental attacks and defensive strategies. Inspired by its predecessor from the Affliction league, the Warden focuses on:

  1. Elemental Attacks:
    • Shock, Freeze, and Scorch Enhancements: These elemental effects are more potent, offering diverse gameplay mechanics.
    • Elemental Damage Skill: Allows for periodic bursts of high elemental damage.
  2. Barkskin: A defensive skill that mitigates physical damage and boosts evasion after taking hits, making it a solid choice for survivability.
  3. Tinctures:
    • Alternative to Flasks: Offering powerful buffs while active, Tinctures introduce a strategic layer to combat.
    • Prismatic Tincture: Increases elemental damage but adds a mana-draining debuff called Manaburn.
    • Poisonberry and Rosethorn Tinctures: Cater to poison and critical strike builds respectively.

These features make the Warden a unique and versatile class, providing new ways to engage with Path of Exile’s complex combat system.

Core Mechanics Overhaul

The update also brings substantial changes to core game mechanics, aiming to simplify access to powerful abilities and ensure a more balanced gameplay experience.

Melee Skills

  1. Removal of Melee Totem Skill Gems: Encourages direct engagement and rewards players for personal combat.
  2. Damage Buffs: Most melee skills now deal approximately 75% more damage at level 20. For example, Heavy Strike’s attack damage increased from 313% to 552%, and Sweep’s from 281% to 664%.
  3. Defensive Options: Introduction of new base types with higher defensive values in endgame content. Additionally, life modifiers on equipment have been buffed, with Body Armours providing up to 189 additional maximum life.

Quality and Endurance Charges

  1. Quality Changes: Now applied multiplicatively, offering a 20% increase in physical damage for weapons and a 20% increase in local defenses for armors.
  2. Endurance Charges: No longer grant elemental resistances but provide additional elemental damage reduction, making them more synergistic with resistances.

Passive Tree and Skill Gem Changes

  1. Revised Block and Life Leech Passives: Easier access to block cap and improved life leech passives.
  2. Flesh & Stone Rework: Now offers damage mitigation in Sand Stance and increased physical damage in Blood Stance, favoring melee or close-range gameplay.
  3. Ward and Rage Enhancements: Ward items have faster restoration, and rage now offers multiplicative attack damage, with more ways to invest in the mechanic.

Offensive and Utility Adjustments

  1. Mana Management: New clusters in the passive tree make mana management easier for attackers.
  2. Weapon Buffs: Higher critical strike chances for wands, daggers, sceptres, claws, and staves, with increased attack speed for wands.
  3. Impale and Warcry Buffs: Improved impale passives and more significant, universal warcry buffs.
  4. Banners and Rage Rework: Banners now require placement for activation but offer powerful effects. Rage mechanics are more accessible and powerful as a baseline.

Endgame Content Improvements & Changes in Update 3.25

The very comprehensive guide for Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur continues. This time, let us talk about the endgame content improvements and changes they added in Version 3.25.

Scarabs and Map Device Slot

Scarabs have been revamped to offer more variety and strategic depth. While specific details are best explored in the patch notes, here are a few new additions to look forward to:

  • Titan Scarab of Legend
  • Divination Scarab of Pilfering
  • Cartography Scarab of Escalation

Additionally, an extra Map Device Slot has been introduced, unlocked after completing your first 10-Way Maven Encounter. This new slot, combined with the existing slot unlocked by completing your first Tier 17 Map, brings the total to six. This allows for more complex combinations of Scarabs, enhancing both difficulty and rewards.

New Special Encounters: The Nameless Seer

A major highlight of this update is the introduction of special encounters in the endgame. One such encounter is the Nameless Seer, who appears in Tier 16 and 17 maps. This NPC offers players a selection of unique items, allowing them to choose one for free. In Tier 16 maps, the Seer also provides a new feature called “Scry a Map,” enabling players to swap Divination Card drops between maps on their Atlas. However, the same map cannot be involved in multiple swaps simultaneously, and changes can be reverted using a Scouring Orb.

League Updates and New Content

Several leagues have received significant updates to enhance their gameplay and rewards:

  1. Blight League:
    • Atlas Passive Skill Changes: Improved passives for better rewards.
    • Double-Anointed Amulets: Can now drop in Blight-Ravaged Maps.
    • New Oil: Exclusively dropping from Blighted and Blight-Ravaged Maps, used to anoint secret notables on amulets.
  2. Ritual League:
    • New and Reworked Base Types: Fresh items to discover.
    • New Unique Items: Exclusive drops from rituals.
    • Spectre Corpses: New options for raising as spectres.
    • King in the Mists Fragment: Grants access to a boss fight from the Affliction League, dropping familiar unique items and a modular jewel from the Necropolis league.
  3. Affliction League:
    • Wildwood Encounter: Now found in Tier 16 and 17 maps, offering a mysterious forest filled with magical Wisps that empower monsters, increasing danger and rewards.
  4. Sentinel League:
    • Random Sentinels: Found near map starts, follow players and buff nearby monsters, enhancing difficulty and rewards.
  5. Kalandra League:
    • Reflective Mist: Offers a jewelry item with enhanced or inverted modifier values, or a Reflecting Mist item to apply the effect to existing jewelry at a chosen time.

Simulacrum and Beast Updates

  • Simulacrum: Removed the first fifteen waves, making encounters more engaging and rebalancing rewards to improve the chances of finding unique jewels.
  • Beasts: Added beasts from Einhar’s Memory of Harvest Beasts, including the Black Morrigan, to the core pool.

New Chisel Types and Map Changes

  • Chisel Types: Introduced new chisels that increase map bonuses such as item quantity, rarity, pack size, and chances for currency items, Divination Cards, and Scarabs. Quality application rates vary by map tier, with higher quality for lower-tier maps.
  • Tier 17 Maps: Now more versatile with additional currency types for rerolling, including Chisels and Vaal Orbs. The difficulty of these maps has been adjusted to better fit progression, with reduced monster life and damage.

Valdo’s Puzzle Boxes

The drop rate for Valdo’s Puzzle Boxes has been increased, while the probability of obtaining high-value unique items like Mageblood has been reduced. This ensures more frequent encounters with the boxes, enhancing the fun without significantly impacting the overall economy.

Much-Need Console Improvements

Besides changes in Path of Exile’s core gameplay, Settlers of Kalguur have also applied much-needed improvements for the console platforms.

The Path of Exile team has been diligently working to enhance the gaming experience on next-gen consoles. Players on PS5 and modern Xbox Series consoles can now enjoy a host of improvements designed to take full advantage of the advanced hardware capabilities. Here’s a detailed look at the benefits these enhancements bring to the table:

Enhanced Performance and Visual Fidelity

Reduced Loading Times and Pop-In:

  • Loading Times: Thanks to the improved hardware, loading times have been significantly reduced. Players can now jump into the action more swiftly, without lengthy waits between scenes.
  • Reduced Pop-In: The issue of texture pop-in has been addressed, ensuring a more seamless visual experience. Scenes now load more smoothly, with fewer interruptions in texture rendering.

Texture Management:

  • Consistent Textures: In heavily populated scenes, textures will no longer start unloading. This ensures that the visual quality remains high even during the most intense battles.

Improved Visual Fidelity:

  • High-Resolution Textures: Path of Exile now utilizes the highest available resolution textures, making every detail of the game world sharper and more defined.
  • Water Effects: The water effects have been upgraded to offer more realistic and visually stunning representations of in-game water bodies.

Advanced Upscaling and Anti-Aliasing:

  • New Upscaling Algorithm: A new upscaling algorithm enhances the crispness of dynamic resolution, ensuring that the game looks great even when the resolution changes during gameplay.
  • Anti-Aliasing Pass: An additional anti-aliasing pass has been implemented, reducing jagged edges and providing a smoother visual experience.

Support for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR):

  • VRR Support: Players with VRR-compatible TVs and monitors can enjoy a smoother gaming experience with reduced screen tearing and stutter. This feature is available on PS5 and all modern Xbox consoles.

Customizable Visual Settings

Players now have the option to tailor their visual experience according to their preferences. In the game’s options menu, you can choose to focus on one of the following aspects:

  • Resolution: Prioritize the highest possible resolution for sharp, clear visuals.
  • Image Quality: Enhance overall image quality, including texture detail and visual effects.
  • Target Frame Rate: Aim for the smoothest gameplay experience by focusing on achieving a higher frame rate.

Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur Drops on July 26th

Whew! That’s basically everything that you can expect from our very comprehensive guide for Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur. Now that’s over, dive into the Settlers of Kalguur expansion to explore these new features and uncover the secrets that await.

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