Path of Exile 2 leaves Early Access on December 11, 2026 (PST), and the 1.0 build is free to play. Grinding Gear Games’ full release announcement lists Acts 5 and 6, two new classes, sweeping balance changes and a new Challenge League, and its registration post says the game launches free on December 11 PST. It runs on PC and console, with Steam, Epic, PlayStation and Xbox named in GGG’s own registration FAQ.
What lands on December 11
| Change | What GGG says you get |
|---|---|
| Campaign | Six acts, with Acts 5 and 6 added: 24 new areas, 18 new bosses, 20+ new Champion Rares |
| New class | The Shadow: daggers, traps and a Stealth mechanic, with the Assassin and Infiltrator Ascendancies |
| New class | The Duelist: stances that change how sword skills land, with the Knight and Master-at-Arms Ascendancies |
| Endgame | Conquerors of Wraeclast, a new Challenge League with a real-time army layer and three factions |
| Gear | 40+ new Unique Items, 70+ revamped, Support Gems rebalanced and a reshaped Passive Skill Tree |
| Skills | New skills for classes that lacked them, such as the Warrior and the Witch, plus a reshaped Passive Skill Tree with hundreds of new stats |
Challenge League is the extra-hard seasonal version of the endgame that Path of Exile runs each league, and an Ascendancy is the elite branch a class picks later on.
What it costs, and what your PC needs
The game itself is free. The money is in supporter packs: GGG said the Early Access Supporter Packs are leaving the store for good and being replaced by five new packs, and our supporter pack breakdown has what each one includes. Console early access is a paid purchase, which our launch story covers.
Disk space is the one hard requirement. The Steam store page asks for 100 GB of space. The minimum is an i7-7700 or Ryzen 5 2500X with 8 GB of RAM and a GTX 960 with 3 GB of VRAM. The recommended tier asks for an i5-10500 or Ryzen 5 3700X with 16 GB and an RTX 2060. Our PC specs and Steam Deck guide has every tier and the Deck verdict, and our cross-platform page covers grouping up to six players.
The 1.0 build is an endgame release, not a new game. Early Access already has Acts 1 to 4, and December 11 adds the rest of the campaign plus a league with a real-time army layer that does not exist anywhere else in the game. The supporter packs are the part with a deadline, because GGG is closing the Early Access tiers for good and replacing them with five new ones.
What this means for you
If you play on PC, the only thing between you and December 11 is disk space and a download. If you are on console, early access costs $29.99 through the PlayStation Store. GGG has published December 11 in Pacific time but no start hour, so the countdown on our release calendar will carry the exact moment when it lands.