Path of Exile 2 Reveals the Shadow Class, Acts 5 and 6, and Free-to-Play 1.0 Launch for December 11
Grinding Gear Games used its ExileCon opening keynote on November 6, 2026, to lock in the Version 1.0 full release of Path of Exile 2 for December 11, 2026. The milestone update officially brings the action RPG out of Early Access, transitions the game to its permanent free-to-play model, and introduces two playable classes at once: the Duelist and the Shadow.
Long requested by fans of high-tempo critical and poison builds, the Shadow arrives alongside the final two chapters of the six-act campaign and the ambitious Conquerors of Wraeclast challenge league. When Version 1.0 drops on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, players will have access to 10 classes and 36 Ascendancy specializations just weeks before Titan Quest 2 launches on January 19, 2027, to challenge Path of Exile 2 in the isometric ARPG arena.
Stealth, Daggers, and Shades: How the Shadow Class Works in 1.0
The arrival of the Shadow introduces a brand-new weapon archetype to Path of Exile 2: daggers, complete with a dedicated roster of skill and support gems. At the core of the class is a new Stealth mechanic that prevents monsters from detecting your character until you step directly into close range.
While Stealth carries a baseline cooldown, scoring a kill resets that cooldown instantly. In practice, this allows players to dart out of the shadows with a backstab dash, eliminate a priority target, and immediately vanish again to chain assassinations across an entire pack.
Entering Stealth also leaves behind a Shade that blinds nearby monsters and acts as a decoy. That decoy copies your melee attacks to effectively double your strike output, while a dedicated Darkness resource can be gathered from darkness-spreading skills to supercharge the burst damage dealt the moment you break concealment.
8 Interconnected Trap Types and Two Ascendancies at Launch
Grinding Gear Games has completely redesigned trap play for the sequel. Whereas traps in the original game were simply tossed at enemies' feet mid-fight, traps deployed from Stealth in Path of Exile 2 remain dormant and will not detonate until you reveal yourself, turning every encounter into a calculated ambush.
- 8 interconnected trap types: Poison Gas, Freezing, Shrapnel, and Concussive traps interact with one another to trigger layered elemental and physical combos the instant you strike.
- Stealth-enhanced dagger skills: Iconic abilities like Viper Strike gain altered properties when triggered from Stealth, coating the blade in venom so subsequent chain strikes set off toxic explosions.
- Two Ascendancies on Day One: Shadow players can specialize as the returning Assassin or pick the brand-new Infiltrator Ascendancy on December 11.
- The Duelist joins the roster: Arriving alongside the Shadow, the Duelist brings sword combat, stance switching, and the new Knight Ascendancy featuring an AI-controlled Squire companion.
Acts 5 and 6 in Oriath and the Conquerors of Wraeclast League
Beyond the two classes, Version 1.0 completes the campaign storyline with A Return to Oriath, adding Act 5 and Act 6. Players return to a devastated Oriath to break naval blockades and battle the Twilight Order across 24 new areas, 18 multi-phase bosses, and more than 20 named rare encounters.
December 11 also kicks off the Conquerors of Wraeclast challenge league, blending real-time strategy, base building, and troop command into the Atlas of Worlds. Players can recruit frontline shield units and ranged fighters across 70 points of interest and 23 standalone battles while hunting down over 110 new and reworked unique items, raising the bar in a genre where Path of Exile's creator has openly wished for Diablo 5 to succeed so fierce competition keeps pushing action RPGs forward.
The Strategist's Take
Dropping two flagship classes in the Shadow and the Duelist, swords, daggers, two full campaign acts, and a strategy-infused league on the exact same day the game goes free-to-play is a massive flex from Grinding Gear Games. Making traps wait in standby until you break Stealth finally gives the archetype a genuine ambush identity instead of feeling like clumsy grenade spam.
The only real boss fight left for December 11 is server capacity once the free-to-play floodgates open. If the infrastructure holds up over launch weekend, no other ARPG on the market is getting a quiet holiday season.
Born and based in Montreal's Mile End district, Maëlle "Kaelen" became close friends with Chaya during their university software engineering years, bonding over late-night coding labs, campus LANs, and World of Warcraft raids alongside Grimtag and Heimdall. A game systems balancing consultant and lifelong theorycrafter, she cut her teeth in the early 2010s writing boss walkthroughs, frame-data breakdowns, and competitive meta guides for specialized French-language MMORPG and esports portals, including Mondes Persistants, as well as North American strategy collections. On Pro-Gamer, she leads in-depth walkthroughs, build optimization, and tactical esports coverage.
