Path of Exile 2 Leaves Early Access December 11 With Free-to-Play Relaunch
Path of Exile 2 leaves Early Access on December 11, launching free-to-play with Acts 5 and 6, the sword-wielding Duelist and the returning Shadow class.
Path of Exile 2's full release adds Acts 5 and 6, two new classes and a free-to-play relaunch on December 11. Image: Grinding Gear Games.
Path of Exile 2 leaves Early Access on December 11, almost two years after Grinding Gear Games let the first four classes loose on Wraeclast. The version 1.0 update finishes the campaign, drops the game's price to nothing, and throws two classes nobody has gotten to play yet into the mix. Here's what actually changes on launch day and what's worth doing before it arrives.
A Paid Early Access Becomes a Free Full Release
Grinding Gear Games confirmed on its own store page that "Path of Exile 2 is leaving Early Access on December 11, 2026 PST" and will relaunch as a free-to-play action RPG the same day. That's a real shift from how the last two years worked: Early Access required buying a supporter pack to get in, and the game now drops that barrier entirely. The full release lands at the same time on PC through Steam, Epic Games Store and the standalone client, plus PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Acts 5 and 6 Finally Close Out the Campaign
Early Access stopped the story cold at the end of Act 4, and the four-act loop has carried the campaign since release. Version 1.0 adds Acts 5 and 6, which Grinding Gear Games says together bring 24 new areas and 18 new bosses to a six-act story. Grinding Gear Games packed the reveal with specific locations and monster names, and a shot-by-shot look at the new footage catches details easy to miss on a single watch. It's also the first time the campaign has matched the six-act length of the original Path of Exile.
- Acts 5 and 6 complete the six-act campaign
- Duelist and Shadow join the existing class roster
- Conquerors of Wraeclast challenge league starts on day one
- The game moves to free-to-play across every platform
Duelist and Shadow Join the Class Roster
The Duelist is the headline addition: it's the first class in Path of Exile 2 built around swords, a weapon type the game has done without since Early Access began. Grinding Gear Games has shown it wielding a blade in each hand with a stance-switching combat style, though full skill and Ascendancy details are still thin ahead of launch. The Shadow, a dual-wielding class familiar to anyone who played the original Path of Exile, returns alongside it, giving the roster its sixth and seventh classes. Six existing classes (Warrior, Monk, Ranger, Witch, Sorceress and Mercenary) stay exactly as they were through Early Access, so none of the current builds get invalidated by the two additions; players just get more starting points to pick from.
Conquerors of Wraeclast Resets the Ladder
Full release also means a new challenge league. Conquerors of Wraeclast launches with 1.0 and gives everyone, new players and Early Access veterans alike, a level playing field on day one: fresh characters, a reset economy and a league-specific mechanic layered on top of the finished campaign. It's the same rhythm the original Path of Exile has run for over a decade, just applied to the sequel's first full-release season instead of a quarterly update. Expect the usual day-one scramble too: trade prices swing hardest in the first 48 hours of any Path of Exile league, and that volatility only gets louder with a free relaunch pulling in players who skipped Early Access entirely.
Getting Ready Before December 11
There isn't much to prepare beyond deciding which of the eight classes to run first, since Conquerors of Wraeclast starts everyone from zero the way every new challenge league does, Early Access veteran or not. Players who want a head start on cosmetics rather than power can register on the official site ahead of time; multiple outlets that covered the gamescom reveal reported pre-registration rewards tied to signing up before the 1.0 date.
Background on the series, including how Path of Exile 2 relates to the decade-old original, is on Wikipedia. The official Path of Exile 2 site has the pre-registration page, Grinding Gear Games posted the full ExileCon 2026 rundown on the official forum, and the Steam store page has the full platform and pricing details plus the current build's screenshots.