After 11 months of waiting, the new season of Path of Exile “Secrets of the Atlas” starts on June 13, 2025. Just before the launch, the developers have a surprise in store.
What distinguishes the new season? In Path of Exile, the new season “Secrets of the Atlas” is primarily characterized by the new mercenary mechanics. You will encounter mercenaries throughout your gameplay and can either fight them to obtain their items or pay them to fight alongside you.
As a third option, the function known as “Exile” has also been available, where you challenge the mercenaries to a duel, but if you win, you ensure that they are driven away and do not appear for a while. This is especially helpful if a character seems particularly useless because they do not combine well with your class or their items do not look appealing.
Now, just before the start of the season, the developers have revealed a new aspect of the mercenary mechanics that will be important at the beginning of the league.
Here you can watch the trailer for the new season “Secrets of the Atlas”:
Don’t just leave mercenaries standing
What is the surprise? On YouTube, the developers released a new video just before the release. In it, they explain that you cannot just leave mercenaries standing without facing consequences.
As soon as you speak to a mercenary, you should either fight against them or hire them. If you do not do this, you will lose reputation with the mercenaries. The same applies if you lose a duel against them.
What does reputation bring? Reputation with the mercenaries increases the chance of more dangerous, better, and infamous mercenaries appearing. If you have low reputation, these are much rarer.
At the start of the game, it can be sensible to fight against mercenaries or hire them, even if you do not find them very good, just to make it easier later in the game to access the infamous mercenaries.
When does the new season start? The new season of Path of Exile “Secrets of the Atlas” starts on Friday, June 13, at 10:00 PM German time. The patch is expected to be 9.6 GB on Steam and will be available in the evening. As is usual at the season start of Path of Exile, long queues are to be expected. Many players from Path of Exile 2 have a specific reason for not wanting to check out the new season of its predecessor: Fans explain why they cannot play Path of Exile, a feature is sorely missed
