Path of Exile Curse of the Allflame
Path of Exile is diving beneath the waves later this month, as Grinding Gear Games launches Curse of the Allflame, a deep-sea themed expansion that reworks core systems, adds a new Scion Ascendancy, and folds several legacy mechanics back into the endgame on July 24 PDT.
A plunge into Wraeclast’s frozen seas
Curse of the Allflame sends players below the surface of Wraeclast’s frozen oceans, guided by corsair captain Valerie and her cursed navigator Vesper aboard the legendary vessel, The Sovereign. Each expedition begins in an Allflame-powered Bathysphere that descends to the sea floor, where survival hinges on careful placement of Allflame Lanterns that push back the water and create temporary safe zones. Hidden in these submerged zones are forgotten treasures, hostile sea creatures, and coral formations that can be harvested for Dead Man’s Sulphur, a new resource that fuels both your voyage and Vesper’s curse, while the ever-encroaching darkness forces players to complete encounters before the lantern light fades.
Voyages and the new ocean-floor metagame
Every successful descent records a Chart in Valerie’s journal, and these Charts become the backbone of a new Voyage Board system that lets players construct interconnected expeditions across the ocean floor. Up to nine Charts can be chained into a single Voyage, with each Chart contributing modifiers that can affect adjacent routes or the entire expedition, from transforming equipment drops into gold to summoning friendly jellyfish, empowering monsters with Wildwood Wisps, or injecting Tormented Spirits and other bespoke encounters. Shifting “Corruption Currents” add a further strategic layer by randomising effects around Charts with each new Voyage, while special Charts reveal unique destinations such as abandoned anchor fields, lost Kalguuran shipments, and sunken Abyssal pits packed with high-value rewards.
Allflame crafting and ancient Ducats
Back aboard The Sovereign, Dead Man’s Sulphur powers an entirely new crafting system that reframes traditional currency use. Players can combine an item, a crafting currency, and Sulphur to have Vesper split the item into multiple ghostly possibilities, each representing a different crafting outcome that can be inspected before one is chosen and the rest vanish permanently. Most existing currency-based crafting methods can be routed through this interface, giving players more control over expensive, high-risk decisions, but repeated use progressively makes an item more intangible, reducing the number of possible future outcomes and adding long-term planning to high-end crafting.
The deepest waters also hide rare Ducats, relics of Wraeclast’s pirate lords that unlock unique crafting effects unavailable anywhere else. Kishara’s Ducat creates multiple ghostly copies of an item while preserving its individual modifiers, Genteel’s Ducat can transform one attribute requirement into another, and Brinehook’s Ducat grants mysterious Aspects inspired by the ancient gods. These Ducats drop only from specialised Charts, rewarding players who take on the expansion’s most dangerous routes in search of the most powerful loot.
Mercenaries of Trarthus and Luminary Ascendancy
Curse of the Allflame also cements the Mercenaries of Trarthus as a permanent core mechanic, integrating them into both the campaign and the Atlas. From Act 3 onwards, players can duel honour-bound warriors for gold and the chance to claim their equipment; winning not only yields gear but also grants temporary Mercenary allies who fight alongside the player without inflating monster life or item rewards. In Maps, Mercenaries can award Warrants, enabling that same warrior to be resummoned in future Maps with their signature skills and fresh equipment, or traded between players, backed by full Atlas Passive Tree and Scarab support to tune encounter frequency and rewards.
The Scion receives a new Ascendancy Class, the Luminary, built around permanent Mercenary recruitment and command. Luminary turns the Scion into a true battlefield leader, able to recruit, equip, and customise Mercenaries as central components of new companion-focused builds, with several new Mercenary types, including an elusive variant found only in rare deep-sea encounters.
Endgame overhauls: Abyss, Legion, Talismans
Beyond the ocean content, Curse of the Allflame makes significant changes to several long-standing endgame systems. Abyss has been rebuilt to mirror many of the quality-of-life improvements introduced in Path of Exile 2, replacing the old crack-chasing gameplay with encounters that start from open pits corrupting nearby enemies; defeating these foes feeds souls into the Abyss and eventually unleashes Kulemak’s legion in a faster, more focused battle. Abyss also becomes the exclusive source of Abyssal Jewels and Stygian Vises, gains its own refreshed Atlas Passive Tree and Scarabs, and culminates in a new Pinnacle Boss with exclusive uniques and a more mysterious discovery method.
Legion receives an overhaul centred on Vestigial Unique Items as its new signature reward, driven by Enshrouding Crystals that drop from Legion Generals. These crystals can transform Unique armour in the Domain of Timeless Conflict, allowing modifiers from one Unique to be transferred to another, with encounters streamlined through automatic combat start after enough key enemies are freed, larger Splinter stack sizes, a rebalanced Domain, and a redesigned reward tracker for clearer progression. Talismans, meanwhile, are repositioned as Bestiary-exclusive drops, with more potent enchantment-based modifiers, new crafting hooks, and updated Unique Talismans aimed at restoring their relevance in modern builds.
Atlas anomalies and self-contained encounters
As Zana’s actions continue to destabilise the Atlas, Curse of the Allflame introduces Atlas Anomalies—strange locations that appear throughout regions after completing Voidstone-influenced Maps. Unlike traditional Atlas content, these anomalies require no Map item to enter and can often be revisited until their rewards are exhausted, positioning them as self-contained pockets of content that players can tackle on their own schedule. Individual Anomalies focus on specific mechanics, from bargaining with Cadiro Perandus for gold-purchased items to dedicated versions of systems like Reflecting Mists, the Nameless Seer, Heist, Expedition, and the Sacred Grove, suggesting many more hidden variants to uncover over time.
Spellcasting, sockets, and Pacts
On the character side, Curse of the Allflame delivers one of the most sweeping updates to spellcasting and early-game progression in nearly twenty years. Socket colours are fundamentally redesigned so that any coloured skill gem can be socketed into linked equipment, while coloured sockets themselves now represent progression through quality bonuses rather than hard gating specific skills behind specific colours. Spellcasting sees a broad balance pass that further differentiates elemental archetypes, improves Intelligence Ascendancies, significantly buffs caster staves, and adds a new class of “Exceptional Skill Gems” known as Pacts.
Pacts give self-cast spells dramatic new behaviours in exchange for demonic afflictions that attach real risk to the extra power, opening new build paths for players willing to play around those drawbacks. Taken together with the socket changes, these updates aim to make early builds more flexible while deepening the decision space for dedicated casters in the endgame.
New supporter packs: Plague and Remidus
Alongside the expansion, Grinding Gear Games is launching two new supporter pack series, The Plague and Remidus. Each pack includes its full value in points and bundles a themed set of cosmetic microtransactions( armour sets, weapon skins, pets, weapon effects, hideouts, portals, map devices, stash cosmetics, and more) built around two opposing forces: one embracing corruption and disease, the other focused on purification. All cosmetics are strictly visual with no gameplay impact and are fully compatible with Path of Exile 2, maintaining continuity for players planning to move between both titles.
Curse of the Allflame continues Grinding Gear Games’ pattern of layering new systems on top of the existing Path of Exile infrastructure while feeding improvements back from Path of Exile 2’s development. The expansion launches July 24 PDT, with media materials and further information available through Grinding Gear Games’ official channels and media drive.
Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.
