Path of Exile 2 Act 5 and 6 Trailer: Everything Confirmed

Grinding Gear Games closed out ExileCon 2026 in Auckland by confirming the date the Path of Exile 2 community has been waiting years for: the game leaves early access and goes free-to-play on December 11. The centerpiece of that reveal is GGG's own cinematic trailer for the campaign's final two acts, A Return to Oriath, posted straight to the official Path of Exile YouTube channel. Paired with the studio's ExileCon 2026 Announcements post, it confirms exactly what changes when 1.0 ships — the full campaign, two new classes, a new launch league and a long list of balance and endgame changes. Here is everything in and around the trailer, broken down.

01What the Trailer Confirms

The trailer's subtitle does the heavy lifting: Acts 5 and 6 send exiles back to Oriath, the city at the center of the first Path of Exile's own endgame turning point, closing the loop between the two games. GGG says the pair of new acts add 24 areas and 18 new bosses to the campaign, finally giving Path of Exile 2 a complete story from the Ritual of the Order through to Oriath's fall. That is a sizable jump for a sequel that has spent its entire early access run capped at four acts, and it is the single biggest piece of content GGG has shipped for the game outside of seasonal leagues.

For players who only know Path of Exile 2, the Oriath callback will read as pure lore setup, but it is a deliberate structural choice: the original Path of Exile folded its own ten-act campaign down into a shorter story centered on the Fall of Oriath, and GGG is using the same destination to signal that Path of Exile 2's campaign is now a complete, standalone experience rather than an early access slice. That matters for anyone who held off starting the campaign until it was finished — after December 11, there is no longer a four-act wall to run into partway through.

GGG's official Act 5 & 6 cinematic trailer, revealed at ExileCon 2026 on November 6.

02Path of Exile 2 Leaves Early Access on December 11

Path of Exile 2 entered early access in December 2024 and has run through several seasonal leagues since. GGG's ExileCon post confirms the full 1.0 release lands December 11, going free-to-play across PC — Steam, the Epic Games Store and GGG's standalone client — plus PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. That makes 1.0 a simultaneous console and PC launch rather than a staggered rollout, matching how the original Path of Exile 3.30 expansion, Covens of Umbra, is timed for its own release two days earlier on November 13.

03Two New Classes: Shadow and Duelist

The trailer and the accompanying announcement confirm two new starting classes join Path of Exile 2 at 1.0. Shadow is built around daggers and traps, leaning into a stealth-focused playstyle that has been missing from the current four-class roster. Duelist arrives with its Knight ascendancy, which fields an equippable squire alongside cultural War Banners, the Glory and Valor mechanic, and a Mounted Charge skill. Between the two, GGG says 10 of the 12 classes it originally promised for Path of Exile 2 will be available at launch, with the final two following in a later update.

That still leaves build planning somewhat open-ended ahead of December 11. GGG hasn't published full skill trees or ascendancy passive layouts for Shadow or the Duelist's Knight ascendancy outside of what the trailer and keynote showed, so treat any specific numbers you see elsewhere online as unconfirmed until the official patch notes land alongside the release. What is confirmed is the identity of each: Shadow trades the bulkier melee kits of Path of Exile 2's existing classes for a faster, trap-and-dagger stealth loop, while the Knight ascendancy pushes Duelist toward commanding a squire and buffing allies with War Banners rather than playing a pure solo striker.

04Conquerors of Wraeclast: The Launch League

1.0's launch challenge league is called Conquerors of Wraeclast, and it is built around territory rather than the usual currency gimmick. Players recruit armies, build castles and besiege rival strongholds, feeding into a faction war shared across a 100-castle map with its own Hunting Grounds. GGG also confirmed commander NPCs that can run maps on a player's behalf — a concession to how much endgame content Acts 5 and 6 are adding on top of an already dense itemization system.

The Hunting Grounds specifically function as a sub-zone of the shared castle war, where GGG says players can gather resources to feed their faction's siege efforts rather than just farming maps in isolation. It's the clearest sign yet that Path of Exile 2's leagues are drifting away from Path of Exile 1's largely solo-instanced loop and toward something closer to a persistent, shared conflict — though how much of that is visible to a given player at once, versus abstracted into numbers on a war-table UI, isn't shown in the trailer itself.

05Everything Else Changing at 1.0

Outside of the campaign and the league, 1.0 is also a significant itemization and balance patch. GGG says around 70 existing unique items gain built-in skills, with more than 40 brand-new uniques and over 200 new base types joining them. The passive skill tree picks up hundreds of new stats and roughly 60 cluster jewel sockets, and support gems get a full rebalance pass. On the endgame side, the Atlas tree grows to 70 nodes, fortress objectives now grant Atlas points directly, and GGG is adding more than 25 new maps alongside a performance pass the studio says delivers a 25% CPU gain. Several skills and ascendancies are also being reworked, including new Molten Forge and Soul Extraction skills and changes to the Mercenary, Infernalist, Blood Mage and Acolyte of Chayula ascendancies.

06Where This Leaves Early Access Players

GGG's ExileCon post does not spell out exactly how existing early access characters and the current Standard league carry over once 1.0 opens its own fresh Standard and Conquerors of Wraeclast leagues. Treat that detail as unconfirmed until GGG publishes dedicated 1.0 patch notes closer to December 11 — the studio's own full release page is the place to watch for that update.

How to Get Ready for the December 11 Launch

1. 1GGG is running a rewards sign-up ahead of the 1.0 release on the official Path of Exile 2 site — do this now if you want in before December 11.2 min
2. 2Both new classes are confirmed for launch. If you want to try one on day one, start researching dagger-and-trap skills (Shadow) or War Banner support builds (Duelist) now, since full skill trees aren't public yet.10 min
3. 3GGG hasn't confirmed exactly how current characters carry into 1.0's new leagues, so decide whether to keep pushing your current build or hold off until official patch notes clarify carryover rules.5 min
4. 41.0 launches simultaneously on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, standalone), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S — check your platform's store page reflects December 11 before launch day.5 min
5. 5GGG's pathofexile2.com/fullrelease page is where the studio is posting launch details as they're confirmed, including the eventual 1.0 patch notes.5 min

ExileCon 2026 itself wrapped on November 8 after two days of panels, a developer-run race finale, and the keynote that produced this trailer. The Path of Exile 2 Steam page already reflects the December 11 date, and GGG is running a rewards sign-up for players who want in before launch.

That concludes ExileCon 2026! Thanks so much to everyone who joined us in person and online. Stay tuned for more details on Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2, and check out what we've announced at https://t.co/AJw0Hkf8G2. Until the next one!

— Path of Exile (@pathofexile) · Nov 8, 2026 on X