It's basically DELVE... and I LOVE IT! | Path of Exile: Return of the Ancients 0.5
Summary
- Expedition Overhaul: In Path of Exile 2’s 0.5 expansion (Runes of Aldor), Expedition has been completely redesigned into a seafaring exploration mechanic that closely mirrors the “Delve” system from the original game.
- Ocean Exploration: Using logbooks reveals nodes on an ocean map southeast of the Atlas, allowing players to discover new islands, biomes, and treasures.
- Runecrafting Integration: The mechanic is a primary source for Runes of Aldor crafting remnants and recipes, offering significant power acquisition.
- Diverse Island Content: Each island features unique encounters, including Siren egg defense, freeing caged beasts/exiles, and interacting with ancient technology.
- Infinite Scaling: Much like the Delve mine, the ocean allows players to “go as deep as they like,” encountering rare bosses and vaults with increasing difficulty and rewards.
The New “Water Delve”
In the Runes of Aldor expansion, logbooks are seeing a massive transition from static maps to a seafaring exploration system. To the southeast of the Atlas lies a vast ocean with new environments and treasures. By using logbooks on the ocean map, the fog of war recedes, revealing a node-based progression system. This works exactly like the Delve mechanic: you travel through an area, explore, and reveal new nodes that host separate encounters and unique rewards.
Island Encounters and Runic Crafting
The revealed islands contain traditional Expedition encounters where you blow up buried Kalguurans to slay them for loot. However, the system now includes the Runes of Aldor crafting remnants. These provide a wide selection of recipes and immense opportunities for build-enabling crafts.
Expedition appears to be the most lucrative mechanic revealed so far for PoE 2. It serves as a significant currency and time sink, providing high accessibility to advanced gear through runecrafting byproducts.
Biomes and Specific Mechanics
Each island features distinct environmental mechanics:
- Bleached Shoals: Contains Siren eggs and clams. Clams act similarly to Delve chests, providing high amounts of raw riches and currency drops. Destroying enough Siren eggs will cause a Siren boss to emerge.
- Craggy Peninsula: Features Kin hovels and caged beasts. These caged creatures may have unique auras or properties, potentially serving as valuable companions for certain builds.
- Caged Exiles: Some islands feature exiles forced to fight each other. This presents an opportunity to target-farm Rogue Exile loot outside of standard mapping.
- Inland Heath: Houses gigantic remnants with multiple runestone slots. Blowing up smaller stones activates slots on the massive remnant, allowing for complex, high-tier crafting recipes.
Exploration Loop and Infinite Depth
To progress further into the ocean, you must acquire more logbooks by killing Runic monsters (marked by large flagpoles at dig sites).
- Infinite Progression: You can go as deep as you like. This suggests a difficulty and reward scaling system similar to the infinite depth of the Delve mine.
- Ancient Vaults and Bosses: The ocean contains hidden vaults and a variety of new bosses. These bosses likely have specific unique drop tables, making them ideal for target farming build-enabling items.
- Special Events: Some encounters feature ancient precursor technology, trapped wisps, and massive enemies like the Comet (a giant spider creature).
Strategy and Build Outlook
The robust nature of the new Expedition makes it a primary focus for league starting. Because the mechanic is deep enough to provide progression without requiring constant mapping, it may allow for specialized farming strategies. While it doesn’t require a hyper-specific build, a character with high damage output or strong defensive layers (such as a Shield Wall or Knightfall transition) is recommended for the higher-difficulty islands.