The full launch of Path of Exile 2 is nearly upon us, and it’s already a big milestone for several reasons. It’ll bring the conclusion to the main campaign, finally introduce swords to the action RPG with the addition of the Duelist class, and mark its transition from paid early access to a full free-to-play game. That means it’s the perfect time to start if you haven’t, or come back if you tried it a while ago, and now there’s another great reason: Valve has just officially classified PoE 2 as Steam Deck Verified.
Path of Exile 2 is a great jumping-on point if you’ve always been tempted by GGG’s alternative offering to the monolith that is Diablo 4. It’s a little more approachable out the gate than its predecessor, which has over a decade of content to dig through and can feel a bit overwhelming to a new player. PoE 2 has been through some ups and downs during its time in early access, but GGG has now developed its sequel from robust beginnings to an incredible offering, particularly with the vast endgame overhaul introduced in May with the Return of the Ancients update.
That makes it quite a good fit for playing on handheld devices like the Steam Deck. Whether you want to jump on and work through a campaign zone or two, or knock out a handful of maps across the endgame Atlas, it’s well-suited to short sessions, and pause functionality means you can put the game down at a moment’s notice if you need to. The controller support does the job well, but if you want to save more involved crafting for keyboard and mouse you can always stick things in your stash and grab them later when at your PC.
Gaining the Steam Deck Verified label is just the latest victory for Grinding Gear Games, which in late July celebrated finally overcoming some persistent performance problems after extensive testing that involved the team running extensive simulations and shipping an entire PC to Nvidia’s engineers. Hopefully, Valve’s seal of approval is an indicator that we can expect even smoother gameplay moving forward.
Grinding Gear Games also confirms that PoE 2 pre-registrations have reached one million, unlocking two of five possible milestone rewards that will be handed out to everyone that signs up by release day. All you need to take part is your email, whether or not you have an existing Path of Exile 2 account, so if you’re already planning to play when the full release date arrives then you can sign up to claim the extras, which include a special portal effect and a Scourgeborn boar pet.
If you can’t wait until Path of Exile 2’s 1.0 launch on Friday December 11, when it becomes free to play, you can pick up an early access key starting at $29.99 / £23.93. This comes with a bundle of in-game currency that you can use to unlock additional stash tabs, or buy some fancy cosmetics. As always, GGG notes that none of these will impact your gameplay – they just look pretty.