In preparation for our 3.14 expansion, we've been working on an engine patch to help improve performance. We're planning to deploy this patch by the end of the working week, likely tomorrow. In the meantime, we've prepared a preview of the patch notes for you, which you can check out below.

Please note that the patch notes below may be changed prior to their deployment.

• Texture Streaming has been further improved. Loading should now be quicker and you should see fewer low-resolution textures.
  
• Added automation to remove old minimap and shader data. This process occurs during the Grinding Gear Games logo video upon launch and may take some time. Old minimap and shader data will typically be cleared once per league in the future.
  
• Updated the patcher to reduce ggpk fragmentation during the patching process. This means that the ggpk file won't grow so large, so quickly, in the future. We're working on a graphical interface to the PackCheck tool so that you can easily condense it back down.
  
• Owners of M1 Macs can now play Path of Exile through Rosetta, with minimal impact on performance. A native version will be available in a future update.
  
• Various renderer systems have been made roughly 15-20% faster, which doesn't necessarily translate to a performance improvement for all users but anecdotally it seems like it's around 5% faster on average for us.
  
• Fixed a common client crash.

You may have spotted ThisIsBadger sleuthing around teasers as Badger P.I. or climbing up the ranks in racing events. Continuing our series of community streamer interviews, we sat down with Badger to learn more about his life outside of streaming.

Hey everyone! My name’s Badger, and I’m one of those peeps who makes content for this wonderful game. I’m 24 and hail from Australia (Victoria represent!)

Contrary to what people think due to me being on the scene for a relatively short amount of time, I’ve been playing, albeit casually, since the end of 2013. I joined just after the release of 1.0.0, but didn’t become seriously invested until Breach League. I took a break during Delve and Betrayal, and fell in love again when Synthesis was released.

Path of Exile has always had a unique approach to classic ARPG systems, so it’s hard to nail down exactly what enchanted me. I was particularly drawn in, however, by the sense of dread the skill tree gave me, and the determination I felt to ‘conquer’ it. I’ve always been an obsessive gamer, focussing on the micro instead of the macro, and Path of Exile felt like the perfect area to cultivate these obsessions. Call it addiction, but having a massive game update every three months to my favourite game? I’ve found my soulmate.

The stream consists of shoddy gameplay, scuffed ideas, and positive attitudes. In all seriousness though, I try to promote a very inclusive space where anyone in the community, new and veteran alike, can come and ask questions and get genuine responses. In terms of gameplay, I steer clear of the tried and true and instead focus on unique interactions within the game, or arduous data collection.

I never considered streaming prior to the day I actually tried it. I got started off by a viral post series on Reddit called ‘The Road to Headhunter’, where I spent 17 days farming Monoliths in Legion League from 0 currency to be able to purchase a Headhunter, and meticulously documented each step (you can see the results here). There was an overwhelming amount of people asking me to stream my progress, so I bought a cheap webcam and streamed in 480p, all that my internet could handle at the time. After the series, I stopped streaming until around February of 2020 (when the lockdowns started happening here in Melbourne), where I picked it back up in my downtime - and I haven’t looked back - even quitting my regular job a few months later. It’s been a fast blur since then, but one I’ve enjoyed every step of the way!

As of right now, I consider streaming (and creating YouTube content) my full-time job. I’m lucky enough to have grown with such a supportive community that I can make this choice, but I still do contract work for my old work sometimes - my original profession is Audio Engineer and Music Composer, so I do odds and ends recording and music-writing for a local Escape Room Company called Ukiyo. I stepped down as manager at this establishment to pursue streaming further, and though a tough decision, it will be one I will never regret.

It started back in high-school, when a great friend of mine randomly mentioned ‘hey, your last name (Bradbury) kind of sounds like Badger, you should use that’ when I was thinking about a new gamer handle for my League of Legends account. It stuck like glue.

Yoji and I are having an absolute blast with Inspired Learning! We try to focus on episodes focussed on the new to intermediate player to Path of Exile, and though still in its relative infancy (19 episodes in), our direction is slowly solidifying. We also try to get another guest from the community on most episodes! Honestly, it’s a tonne of fun - If you want to check it out, you can find the VODs on Yoji’s YouTube channel here, or you can find the audio version on all major podcast platforms as well!

The first build I made when I came back to streaming was a necromancer Minion build focussing on the damage on Purity Sentinels, the minions spawned from Herald of Purity. I made it in Metamorph and it demolished the game, but then released a build guide during Delirium which had some disgusting stacking available due to cluster jewels, raising the maximum sentinels from 5 to 9. It was a glorious build, and got demolished the next patch after Delirium with the removal of the stacking of sentinels. In a sense however, it immortalised the build for me. I must revive it some day.

I had this crazy idea at the start of teaser season for Heist League. I’d always seen people speculating on community manager Bex’s sly clues, teasers and red herrings for upcoming leagues, but I hadn’t seen any unique content based around this. I decided to use my music production, video editing, and (very) amateur acting skills to make a noir-inspired short film of ‘Badger P.I.’, trying to solve the clues Bex would send out into the void. It turned out to be such a fun project that I did it again for Ritual League - you can check the Heist vid here and the Ritual one here!

I do! As stated before, I’ve worked in the industry before creating music and Audio Design for Escape Rooms, and indie game soundtracks on the side. I also grew up playing piano and singing, and have my fair share of awards during my mid-teens for jazz competitions and the like. However, most recently I have really enjoyed teaching myself guitar and making folk music, somewhere between Sufjan Stevens and a scuffed John Mayer. And in terms of Path of Exile music, shoutout to the wonderful Kamil for all his work on the soundtracks! They are all absolutely brilliant, but in fact my favourite part about the music in Path of Exile is the smooth transitions of soundtracks and blending of pieces together within zones, for example Legion - the music changes to and from the legion theme seamlessly when starting and finishing the monoliths. Pulling this off in a reactive real-time environment like Path of Exile is way more difficult than people realise and deserves awareness. Shoutout to all the engineers who make stuff like this possible in games.

You do you. There is a lot of a vibe out there that you must play the best and fastest classes and builds to have fun in Path of Exile, and I see that turn many individuals away. Free yourself to experiment, make mistakes, and find your own fun in this game. Not to dismiss that fast, guns-blazing playstyle too! That’s fun for a lot of people out there as well.

I know I will miss some brilliant creators, and it feels silly to spotlight some and omit others, because there is so much great content out there hiding underneath the lights. However, some notable creators doing amazing work out there are CaptainLance9 for his crazy build content, DadBodGamingGod for his community work and dedication, and ThatsRealNeato for his super attentive eye on all things mechanics.

Ooh! Self-promotion time, hey? I do have a series in the works all about highlighting community builds, where people can submit during a league their most interesting and unique build idea, get the idea voted on, and the winner gets a full build guide video made by myself about the build. Expect it within the next league or two! There are so many crazy awesome builds out there that people don’t have the platform to showcase them properly, and I want to give them that.
I also am working behind the scenes on a folk singer-songwriter EP, completely separate from game content! I’m shy about it, but I think I’ll share it with you all when it’s eventually ready!

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Thanks so much for the interview! If you'd like to follow ThisIsBadger, you can do so on Twitch, YouTube and Twitter.

Across two massive weekends, veteran community member, streamer and racer, Havoc616, will be hosting the Havoc Blitz event! Players will compete to earn points for each race throughout the four day event, with the final standings being determined by their cumulative points total. This event is an opportunity for experienced and upcoming racers to hone their skills prior to the launch of our 3.14 expansion.



Day 1 Start: April 3 8AM PDT (countdown available here)
Day 2 Start: April 4 8AM PDT (countdown available here)

Day 1 Start: April 10 8AM PDT (countdown available here)
Day 2 Start: April 11 8AM PDT (countdown available here)

• 1st: $500
  
• 2nd: $450
  
• 3rd: $400
  
• 4th: $350
  
• 5th: $300
  
• 6th - 10th: $250
  
• 11th - 15th: Transcendence Helmet and 2x Warlord Mystery Boxes

• 1st: $50

Additionally, Transcendence Helmets and 2x Warlord Mystery Box MTX Packs will be given away on Twitter and during the live cast.

If you would like to catch the action live, RaizQT will be casting the event over on his Twitch channel. Highlights will also be posted on RaizQT’s YouTube channel and Havoc616’s YouTubeChannel.

For more information about the event, how to enter or what rules are in place, click here. You can also join the POE Racing Discord here.

Shout out to community members Faderon, Rex, Brittleknee, SK_Gunoo, RaizQT, Muqve, DadBodGamingGod and Xayazi for their work behind the scenes to help make this event a reality.

Good luck to everyone who’s participating!

In just two weeks, we'll be hosting an exclusive livestream to reveal Path of Exile's April expansion! Watch live on April 8th at 1pm (PDT) at twitch.tv/pathofexile to get the full details on what to expect. In the meantime, check out our teaser trailer!




Tune in at 1pm on April 8th (PDT) to find out all about our next expansion and get your first look at Path of Exile 2 since its debut at ExileCon.

The livestream will consist of new content reveals, followed by a live Q&A with ZiggyD and Chris Wilson, closing out with the Baeclast podcast featuring Senior Designer, Rory Rackham.

You'll catch everything you need to know at twitch.tv/pathofexile - We welcome co-streaming so be sure to encourage your favourite streamer to watch along with us. And yes, Twitch Drops will be enabled from the start of the livestream until 9pm April 8th (PDT) and for all channels streaming Path of Exile during that time.



You'll be able to play Path of Exile: Ultimatum for free on April 16th (PDT) on PC and on April 21 (PDT) on console.

We can't wait to see you then!

For the final poll in our community-designed Divination Card series, we are inviting you to vote for the card’s artwork! In the second poll, our community voted that the card will redeem for ‘Any Unique Watchstone’ and in last week’s poll, you decided that ‘The Hook - Every obsession began with a single, innocent taste’ will be the name and flavour text of the card. Check out the ‘hook’ inspired art and vote for your favourite here.

Once the artwork has been decided, the card will be complete! We are expecting to release the Divination Card alongside our 3.14 expansion. Thank you to everyone who participated in this process. We can’t wait for you to find your creation on your adventures through Wraeclast!

Over the years, our community has shared their love for Path of Exile with us by creating incredible pieces of art inspired by the world of Wraeclast. Join us in looking back at some of the wonderful works from the past that celebrate some of our favourite characters and bosses.

























If you have any Path of Exile inspired creations that you would like to share with us and the community, be sure to post them in the Community Showcase forum.

In the coming weeks, we will be announcing our 3.14 expansion. At that time, we’ll introduce a new set of League Supporter Packs, which means the Heist Supporter Packs will permanently leave the store.

There are two pairs of Heist Supporter Packs available in the store; the Spellblade Supporter Pack and the Eagle Supporter Pack. Each of the two pairs is designed in its own style with different contents, so you can choose whichever you prefer; or if you can’t decide, you can get both! If you have previously purchased a smaller pack, you have the option to upgrade to the larger one. All of the microtransactions included in the Supporter Packs are exclusive and will not be available in the store again.



If you're interested in getting one of the Heist Supporter Packs but you're not sure you'll be able to do so in time, we'd recommend setting up a payment plan which can reserve a pack for you for up to three months after the commencement of your plan. Just email us in advance at support@grindinggear.com; we'll be happy to help you!



Additionally, if you have purchased any plain points packs since September 1st 2020 (PDT), you can use this in an upgrade to one of the Heist Supporter Packs! You can credit up to 80% of the value of your desired supporter pack towards an upgrade. For example, if you purchased a $10 point pack you could then upgrade to the Spellblade or Eagle Supporter Pack for $20. You'd then receive the remainder of the contents of the pack, excluding the points you already purchased before the upgrade.

The Heist Supporter Packs will be replaced with the new ones on consoles alongside the launch of our next expansion.

Thank you so much for your continued support!

While you’ve been collecting bosses for the Maven, we’ve been collecting screenshots of bosses from Path of Exile’s campaign for you! These screenshots include much loved characters from Path of Exile’s first act such as Captain Fairgraves and Merveil. Check them out below! If you are interested in having a look at even more screenshots, you can check them out clicking here, here or here.

With our 3.14 expansion announcement lurking in the near future, we can't help but think back to our biggest reveal ever at ExileCon. Today, we wanted to look back at some of our favourite memories from the event to celebrate the past and future of Path of Exile!

Shortly after ExileCon, we put together a montage of highlights featuring some of the best moments from the entire weekend. In case you missed it, you can check it out below.


Getting to hear the founders of Grinding Gear Games share their passion for Path of Exile and spilling secrets from the game's early development is one of the many insightful talks that took place at Exilecon. Watch it below!


If you are curious to know more about how the technology of Path of Exile has changed over the years, be sure to watch this video about the evolution of the Path of Exile renderer.


Thank you for joining us on this trip down memory lane. We can't wait to share more about the future of Path of Exile with you soon!

Up next in our series of polls for the upcoming community-designed Divination Card is to decide on the name and flavour of the card. The options in this poll are based on the theme ‘Temptation of the Atlas and its consequences’, which our community voted for in last week’s post.

This poll will be open for one week so if you would like to participate in the process, make sure to cast your vote here.