Path of Exile 3.29 drops socket colors, adds underwater league

Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile 3.29 removes socket colors from most equipment, eliminating the long-standing requirement to match gem colors to item sockets while preserving socket counts and links. The update launches July 24 on Steam and the standalone launcher and introduces the Curse of the Allflame underwater league.

Game Director Mark Roberts announced the change during the 3.29 reveal, stating, “Sockets, at a basic level, don’t have colors any more.” Most sockets will be colorless, with occasional red, green or blue sockets remaining to grant a quality bonus to gems of the matching color. Roberts said the color requirement limited gear upgrades and build experimentation, and that removing it benefits both new and veteran players: “some of them need to be broken.”

The Curse of the Allflame league sends players below the surface aboard The Sovereign with corsair captain Val and Vesper, a bound spirit. Vesper lets players plant Allflame Lanterns that create breathable pockets of air on the sea floor. Lanterns can be placed manually or fired by Val; when a lantern limit is reached their light begins to flicker, attracting more enemies and forcing a final rush back to the Bathysphere.

Exploration feeds into a Voyage system. After mapping underwater regions, players place chart cards on a nine-square Voyage board; each chart applies modifiers to adjacent squares or the entire board. Currents of corruption around the board increase both threats and rewards. Each mapped region contains a capsule that can hold roughly an inventory’s worth of loot for retrieval at the end of a Voyage.

The league adds two new resources. Dead Man’s Sulphur is used with Vesper to perform league-specific crafts: handing in an item plus a crafting material and a fee presents several possible outcomes and allows the player to keep one. Ducats are a new crafting currency that can change an item attribute or split a unique into four spectral copies, each carrying a single modifier to use as a crafting base.

Mercenaries of Trarthus, introduced briefly in 3.26, become a permanent feature and begin appearing from Act Three. Players can wager gold against a mercenary’s equipped item in a duel; victory awards the item and allows temporary recruitment. In their permanent form mercenaries act as temporary companions and no longer count as player-level party members, avoiding the associated monster life and drop scaling. A new Scion Ascendancy, the Luminary, focuses on commanding mercenaries and can hire up to three (one active, two stored in a hideout) and equip them with powerful unique gear.

Two existing mechanics receive major reworks. Abyss receives quality-of-life improvements inspired by Path of Exile 2 while retaining features such as Abyssal Jewels and Abyssal Sockets, and gains a new endgame pinnacle boss with a unique access method. Legion removes Incubators and replaces them with Enshrouding Crystals: wrapping a unique armor piece in a crystal at the Domain of Timeless Conflict transforms it into a new unique that carries a vestigial implicit from the original. Legion encounters now require clearing a significant majority of monsters rather than every foe, enemies drop fewer Splinters in larger stacks, and the progress UI has been simplified; Unrelenting Timeless Emblems have been removed with their effects folded into regular variants.

Talismans are now exclusive to the Bestiary, with each red beast in the compendium tied to a specific Talisman drop. Talismans no longer appear corrupted and their special properties are implemented as enchantments rather than implicits. Unique Talismans can appear within encounters.

Atlas Anomalies can spawn after completing Voidstone-impacted maps. These locations do not require an item to enter and remain available until all objectives are completed. Anomalies can contain powered-up versions of league mechanics or special encounters, such as a Manor Foyer with Cadiro Perandus trade options, fully revealed Heist Blueprints with rogue companions, or an Expedition Logbook filled with remnants, monsters and chests.

Balance work targets more than 100 spell gems, with a developer estimate that adjustments could reach about 160 primarily affecting spells. Caster staves will more frequently roll caster-friendly modifiers, including higher chances for Spell Gem levels. A new staff skill, Mana-Charged Staff, increases block chance, reduces mana costs and returns arcane lightning on hit. A new category of Exceptional Skill Gems called Pacts offers strong scaling at the cost of an affliction debuff.

Mirage, a popular recent league mechanic, will not be included in 3.29. Game Designer Christopher “Octavian” Laferriere expressed he “would very much like” to see Mirage return in the future but noted it will require technical consideration before being added to the core game. Roberts observed that leagues that are being integrated into the core sometimes return later after further refinement.

Path of Exile 3.29, Curse of the Allflame, goes live on July 24 on Steam and the standalone launcher.