Path of Exile 2's massive Return of the Ancients expansion will be its last major update before it leaves early access later this year: 'I want to get this game finished, I really, really do'

Jonathan Rogers, game director of Path of Exile 2, is eager for all the questions about when the game will leave early access to finally stop. Its next update, Return of the Ancients, reworks the entire post-campaign grind into a guided experience with quests and boss fights, a huge overhaul that Rogers says will be the last before PoE 2 hits 1.0 later this year.

"We don't have a date for you," Rogers said during a recent press event, "but it will be a little bit after ExileCon, which is in November."

Rogers clarified to PC Gamer in a later interview that the game will continue to get balance updates and maybe a mini league or two before it hits 1.0, but that Return of the Ancients, or patch 0.5.0, will be the last proper expansion until then.

The 1.0 update will come with the last two acts of the campaign and every ascendancy (sub-class) for the existing character classes. Only a few of the other five previously announced classes, however, will make it in time, which also means all the new weapon types, like swords, ...