Last week we concluded our Hideout Competition. Over the past several days we've checked out hundreds of impressive and creative hideouts and are ready to announce the winners today!

Check out the video with the top five winners below!


Click here to view the rest of the winners.

This December, we've lined up three epic events for Path of Exile players to test themselves against. We've planned a one-week Mayhem Event (December 4), a one-week Endless Delve Event (December 11) and three-week Heist Flashback (December 18).

Find out all the juicy details and prizes in the full announcement

We've recently discovered a number of great pieces of artwork created by our players and we're excited to showcase them to the wider community today. Check them out below!

Uniques Personified by Gunoo



'What do You See in the Mirror?' by HoldimProvae


Einhar and Niko's Crazy Azurite Alter Ego by mecmb



Check out more submissions here!

In continuation of the series of interviews with our developers, we took a moment to talk with QingYi, one of our concept artists. Throughout his time with us, QingYi has created a lot of key concepts for Path of Exile, from the Shaper and Innocence, to Sister Cassia and the Vox Twins from the Heist expansion. In this interview, QingYi tells us about his background and work at Grinding Gear Games as well as shares some pieces of his awesome artwork.


I'm an art geek who designs something crazy like monsters, MTX, NPC, environments and graphics as a daily routine. But after work, I do nothing crazy even adopt some grandpa’s hobbies like bonsai and carpenting.








That’s a long story! After university, I tried a few art-related jobs like an interior designer, primary school art teacher, pixel artist but didn't stay long at any of them because I always wanted to be a game developer.

In 2009, being jobless for nearly a year I decided to take a 3D course in a training camp for game outsourcing companies because China had the world's largest 3D outsourcing industry at that time. During the 4-month militarized training I learned the whole workflow of next-gen game modelling and texturing. So, I got a job offer from a ‘big-name’ studio right after my studies. When working as a 3D modeler at minimum wage I drew a lot after work because I'd like to do something more creative.

One year later the studio closed down for the growing labour cost in China, and fortunately, my art director started a new company and hired me as a concept artist because he knew I could draw.




Back in 2015 when I just finished my postgraduate study in New Zealand I was eager to find a job with my post-study work visa. Fortunately, I've already had over 4 years of industry experience before the study, so when I emailed my portfolio to Erik, he was pretty happy with my work and keen for me to start as soon as possible.




I would say, Sister Cassia. My brief was to create a Leonardo Da Vinci kind of nun who also is good with engineering. I struggled to balance the steampunk theme with religious elements and tried to add a hint of mystery as well. After locking on one of the sketches I was trying a 3D concept pipeline which is quite challenging for me because I used to photobash or paint everything from scratch. In the process, I used 5 different 3D apps which are Daz3D for posing, Marvellous Designer for cloth simulation, Maya for hard surface modelling, Zbrush for sculpting, Keyshot for rendering. It worked pretty well after finally touching up in Photoshop.






As a concept artist, I need to deal with tons of problem solving and design decision making. So, I have to be resourceful. Painting can get quick ideas, and 3D modelling, on the other hand, can help me design in an engineering way to create a precise form and a realistic rendering that could help the 3D modeler later on. So, they are both essential skills which I use depending on efficiency.


To finish a concept I need to plan well rather than just doodle. My latest workflow as below:

• research (google)
  
• ]brainstorm (writing)
  
• sketch (drawing)
  
• model (3D apps)
  
• paint over (Photoshop)

You could see it's a design methodology. The two main questions I keep asking myself is what the idea is and how to visualize the idea efficiently.


I usually put as much as I could in the early sketches. Then those ideas will be refined by the team and eventually become practical during execution. It's the happiest thing if my original thoughts survive in the game.


Any concepts I've done usually have at least 3 up to 15 options at the sketch stage, only one of them could survive till the end. Most of those ideas will be dumped but very few among them would become monsters or new MTX in some cases.




Sci-fi is the most enjoyable area to me. So, I would say the Thaumaturgy Mystery Box is the most interesting concept I've done in Path of Exile. Because steampunk is the only science that I could explore in this dark fantasy world.




Yes, reading books and watching movies for obvious reasons. Also gardening and playing guitar to relieve stress. Recently, I've picked up woodworking as a side hobby because I decide to craft something in the real world rather than in the virtual world.




Yes, I do pencil drawings and oil paintings for meditation. Probably will take them seriously after retirement.


There are a lot:

• Claude Monet
  
• John Singer Sargent
  
• Zdzisław Beksiński
  
• Masakazu Katsura
  
• James Gurney
  
• Craig Mullins
  
• Jason Hong
  
• Jama Jurabaev
  
• Daisuke Tsutsumi

I assume all of you guys can draw a little bit, then stop doing endless fundamental drawings, or watching random tutorials. Take courses instead. There are so many good online courses with mentorship from Learn Squared, Schoolism, Brainstorm, CGMA. They can teach you not only skills and apps but also workflows of the industry. If you just spend a year taking 4 concept courses seriously and prepare a well-presented portfolio, I'm sure you can get a job.

In the third entry to this series, we asked SinnerSteven to share the backstory of creating two divination cards, first The Skeleton and then The Bones.

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Starting back in mid-2016, I heard about Path of Exile when I saw some friends talking about it online and posting art of the game's unique items. I've always loved ARPGs with my first ones including Nox, Darkstone, Sacred and of course, Diablo.

Like many people my favorite class in those kinds of games was summoners, more specifically a necromancer archetype. It had been a long time since I played just a good game with a necromancer in it, so when I heard of there being one in Path of Exile I was very interested. I jumped right into the Prophecy League with some loose advice from friends playing in a party and put together a pretty terrible spectre build using the giant bonestalker skeletons. It was a hilariously ineffective build at the time, but I had so much fun messing around with the summoning skills and passive tree I didn't even care.

Naturally I got hooked in with how interesting the skill system was and went on to try dozens of other builds over the years. Grinding away with the goal of getting currency to fund even more builds to try league after league is what keeps me coming back. There is, however, one build that always pulls me back no matter how many times I play it, and that's Summon Skeletons.

For the longest time I've always adored the concept of a skeleton-raising necromancer so I played the build practically every league. From skeleton mages to the even more recent skeleton archers, I've had the most fun and success playing around with some undead bone boys. And of course, I'm always fearful of necromancer nerfs come time for patch notes.

Now that brings us to the cards, at least the very first one I did, The Skeleton. By 2019, I've supported GGG quite a bit through supporter packs and was pretty happy with that, but I always felt like I wanted to do more. Previously before I contacted support to see if I could create a unique, the original idea being an amulet that buffed skeletons and made them bigger, but they weren't accepting unique designs at the time. Of course this led me to the next best thing, a skeleton-themed divination card. The idea was simple enough, a card that gave a high quality summon skeleton skill gem, fitting for a high quality skill.

It's a pretty basic concept for a card, but it means a lot to me since I really do like skeletons a lot and summoners as a whole. The art and flavour text of the card was meant to be more of a nod to the joke of "there's a skeleton inside you", just a bit of silly fun I wanted to have with the card.
The second card I did, The Bones, was meant to be a continuation of the first card. I originally wanted the first card to be a vaal summon skeletons but I quickly decided to make another card instead as a follow up that was a higher than normal level instead of quality.

With this card I had a much more clear idea for the art and text, with it being a full skeleton now surrounded by many others. I wanted to capture that feeling I first got when I used vaal summon skeletons, since having an army of skeletons as a skill is a really amazing thing. The art for both of the cards far exceeded my expectations and I was pleased with the dynamic of the cards.

Even though they aren't the most rewarding of cards, I'm proud of the marks I've left on the game. Summoners are the bread and butter for myself and many others in this game and I'm glad I could put some love of that into these cards. I hope my fellow exiles can all enjoy the occasional skeleton friend at their side sometime, because there are plenty of them to spare in Wraeclast!

This week we're planning to deploy the 3.12.5 update with a number of fixes and changes, including improvements to the recently introduced Stash Tab Affinities system. We expect this patch to be released within a few days, potentially tomorrow (Wednesday NZT). In the meantime, check out a preview of its patch notes below.

Please note that the following list may be changed prior to the 3.12.5 release.

• Fixed an issue where some Heist doors between your current location and the Heist Target room could lock when Lockdown occurred, preventing you from accessing the Heist Target room.
  
• Fixed an issue which could prevent a door in the Death to Darnaw unique Heist from being opened.
  
• Fixed an issue where Rusty Crusher's beam skill could continue dealing damage if it was Frozen immediately after using the skill.
  
• Fixed an issue which could cause you to get stuck in Heist doors after using Dash.

• The Create New Folder button has been moved to the top right corner of the stash interface..
  
• The "+" button to add a new stash tab now follows the same rules it did prior to 3.12.4d. It is displayed if you have room for it on the tab, but hides when the bar is full (which is generally around 10 tabs).
  
• Fixed an issue where stash tabs could be placed into an invisible stash folder if that folder only contained remove-only tabs.
  
• Fixed an issue where the displayed order of stash tabs within a folder could vary when in different areas.
  
• Fixed an issue where, when enabling an Affinity on a stash tab, if you had no characters at level 25 or above on your account, an error would be displayed.

• Improved performance in the Sirus, Awakener of Worlds encounter.
  
• The Doomsday Keystone passive skill can now appear on Skin of the Lords unique body armour.
  
• Fixed an issue where the quality effect on Divergent Crackling Lance didn't work.
  
• Fixed an issue where Phantasmal Splitting Steel was missing its "chance to Impale Enemies on Hit" quality effect modifier.
  
• Fixed an issue where The Eternal Apple unique shield could trigger multiple warcries at once when you lost Endurance Charges.
  
• Fixed an issue which could prevent Purifying Flame from hitting Kitava or Arakaali.
  
• Fixed an issue which could prevent Ballista Totems using Blink Arrow from targetting Kitava or Arakaali.
  
• Fixed a memory leak that could occur when using Tempest Shield.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Debilitate debuff was using the wrong art and was missing a description.

• You can now take Screenshots.
  
• When Dynamic Resolution is enabled, you can now adjust a Resolution Factor slider, which will cause the game to use this fixed factor resolution, rather than dynamically adjusting it.
  
• Fixed an issue which caused changes to keybinds to not be saved between sessions.

• Fixed four instance crashes

We've finished accepting submissions to the Hideout Competition. Over the next few days we'll be reviewing your hideouts and will announce the winners very soon! In the meantime, check out the recent competition highlights in the video below.


Here is a list of hideouts featured in this video:

• Treehouse Sanctuary at the Shrine by keldemahll
  
• Lioneye's Watch by TallBird
  
• Palace Owners' Association by woozel
  
• Celestial Hideout of the Shifting Memories by Christopher93
  
• Japanese Resort & Onsen by AzazeIIe
  
• Thieves's Den by Lina5555
  
• Delirium Hideout by MaxSpringer
  
• Solemn Cathedral by HDragonson
  
• Bioengineering Lab by ajaarrkkss

Let a mythical creature guard your Exile with the Dragon Apparition Effect! This cosmetic microtransaction summons a graceful blue dragon above the head of your character. For a matching outfit try out a combination of the Revenant Armour Set with the Arcane Helmet, Ice Character Effect, Zenith Weapon, Stygian Weapon Effect and the new Arcane Celestial Shield. Watch the full video of the Dragon Apparition Effect below or click here to get yours.



This weekend we're holding a sale for all cosmetic effects introduced in the recent Angels and Demons Mystery Box. There are more than 40 microtransactions available at discounted prices, including the epic Pandemonium Armour Set and the Horse Pets.

This sale will run from the time of this post until 7PM November 16th.

Check out the Angels and Demons Mystery Box trailer below to see everything that's available or click here to view the full selection of discounts.



This is also the last weekend for the seasonal Halloween microtransactions! If you've been considering getting the Dancing Skeleton Pet or the Guillotine Portal, you have only a few days left to do so as these will leave the store on Sunday (NZT) and won't return until next Halloween! Check out the Halloween specials here.

By the way, the Racing Gauntlet community event starts in less than a day, on November 14th at 3:00PM (GMT)! During the next 10 days, players will compete and earn points in a Private HCSSF Heist League by levelling their characters and killing bosses. The winners will share a prize pool supplied by the community and sponsors as well as physical items and microtransaction prizes. We hope everyone who wanted to join managed to apply in time. Good luck!

Thank you for your support! Have a nice weekend!

We know that many of our players are interested in exploring Path of Exile lore. Over the years we've seen a lot of fan theories about the world of Wraeclast, from the Harbinger language to the true identity of the Strange Voice. Some time ago we received a bunch of lore questions from the community and asked our narrative designers to shed light on some of them.

The calendar used by the Eternal Empire does not completely match what players know from their own lives. It has seven days of the week, but there are thirteen longer time spans known as moons.

The days of the week were generally named after the primary components of existence as the Eternals believed them to be: Solaro, Lunaro, Fiero, Glacio, Galvano, Kaso, Sacrato.

The thirteen moons of the year were generally created in honour of certain renowned figures, or naturally arose as part of the harvest cycle: Verusi, Divini, Derivi, Phreci, Caspiri, Astrali, Eterni, Atziri, Vivici, Lurici, Sagari, Vitali, Azmeri.

Both of these categories were subject to significant drift in meaning and spelling over the centuries.

Wraeclast does indeed experience seasons. Derivi emerged from a celebration of the harvests of the cooler season when the leaves turned vibrant colours and fell. Astrali was marked by the arrival of snow and the Aurora Astralis. Vivici brings a celebration of life returning to the land for the year, and Vitali was a time of heat and sun.

Much has been lost to history, but the Ankh of Eternity required what was described as ‘an Azmeri ritual’ to activate. It is a safe guess that the Azmeri already had it in their possession when Tarcus Veruso led them down into their new land. Inscriptions upon it described it as a gift from the Vaal to Veruso, but the Vaal had long been absorbed into the Azmeri culture and lineages at the time of his leadership. More likely, it was a gift from the 3,126 Vaal survivors of the Fall, given to the Veruso line, perhaps to one of Tarcus’ ancestors, as thanks for taking in the last remnants of their civilisation.

The Virtue Gems are all sourced from mines on Mount Veruso, under Highgate. It is impossible to be completely certain with the limited tomes I have available on the subject, but the Beast’s presence under that mountain and the fact that Virtue Gems cannot be found anywhere else in the world does indeed suggest a connection. The number of Virtue Gems in existence cannot be ascertained, any more than one might count the grains of sand on a beach.

The pervasive darkness that Alano Phrecia drove away is likely the same darkness that the exile releases in the Vaal Ruins near the Forest Encampment. The Vaal Oversoul was merely a construct built to house that darkness, like a massive totem.

A memory found in the Archives may shed some light on this:

“I used to pride myself on taking care of these tomes, but the ancient treatises concerning the Vaal... should be burned. He's making me research for him, and the things I am reading about concern the destruction of all mankind.”

“I would think my fears of the end of the world are ridiculous... except... it's happened before. I must run... I must flee... and take my secrets with me.”

Zana had this to say about that memory: “I've never met him directly, but I think I know whose memory this was. It's someone Helena talks about: Eramir. I believe he lives with the Azmeri now.” It should be noted that Zana knew Eramir when she was very young, having called him ‘Uncle Eramir’ on at least one occasion, so she is likely correct that this was his memory. However, Zana never met him as an adult, so there’s no way to be sure.

If it was indeed Eramir’s memory, the ‘he’ that was making him research would definitely have been Dominus.

Yeena believes she is guided by what she calls the Spirit. She believes it is in all things. Here she is referencing generally the ‘spirit’ of the stones of the altar, the energy inside it, not a specific entity. She wants to awaken this altar because she believes the Spirit asked her to do so.

The Good Man was the Archbishop Geofri, who attempted to lead a purge against Maligaro and his Chamber of Sins centuries ago, but was defeated and killed. Later, Geofri reanimated as the large undead guarding that altar.

The bulk of them did, and they founded the Eternal Empire. The Azmeri of the Forest Encampment did not do so, and are descendants of their original culture.

The darkness that ends up inhabiting the Vaal Oversoul was likely the same one imprisoned by the forces of Alano Phrecia. The exile breaks that seal in the Vaal Ruins near the Forest Encampment. Later, the Apex is used in a Vaal temple to summon the darkness into the Vaal Oversoul’s mechanical body so that it can be destroyed.

We'll post the second part of answers in the coming weeks. If you like Path of Exile's lore and want to know more about it, check out the series of videos by KittenCatNoodle here.

We've gathered several exciting microtransaction concepts, created by Yong Yi Lee, one of our concept artists.








If you'd like to see more of Yong Lee's works, check out his Instagram and Twitter accounts.