Path of Exile Ruthless Mode: Release Date, Changes, Alpha Sign Up and More

If you want to play a more challenging version of Path of Exile, you’ll get your thoughts realized now. GGG announced a new Ruthless Mode that will launch with the 3.20 expansion. So let’s get into some details about the POE Ruthless Mode, highlighting the release date, changes, alpha sign-up, and more. 

What is Ruthless Mode in Path of Exile?

Ruthless, previously named Hard Mode, is a special mode that allows players to create additional characters, which is similar to Hardcore or Solo Self-found, it is a more challenging mode than regular POE, you can choose to play either Ruthless Mode or regular mode, and the changes made in Ruthless will not affect that in the normal game. In Ruthless Mode, you can barely find any items and crafting currencies. 

Path of Exile Ruthless Release Date

According to the official announcement, the POE Ruthless Mode is expected to come out alongside the Path of Exile 3.20 Forbidden Sanctum expansion, which is confirmed on 9th December 2022. The first Ruthless league will be a Beta Test, all permutations of Hardcore/SSF/Ruthless are supported, and each combination targets different players. So you can play Hardcore Ruthless, SSF Ruthless, or others.

Major Changes in Path of Exile Ruthless Mode

It changes the items, crafting, gems and skills.

Firstly, the quantity of POE items drops massively decreased, magic, rare and unique items are massively decreased, items like divination cards can’t be obtained, rings, amulets, and belts are much rarer than that in the regular game and can’t be purchased from vendors in Ruthless. And most league reward systems have been changed to only grant item rewards that are specific to that league. 

Secondly, most of the crafting and probably crafting recipes are gone, master crafting is not available, the crafting bench can’t be accessed, the drop of crafting currency is massively decreased, and special Path of Exile currency like Orbs of Binding is can’t be obtained as well. In addition, the influenced items will lose their influence.  

Next, skill gem and support gem drop matter a lot. Gems can’t be purchased from vendors. Support gems can only be dropped randomly, so some builds may become harder. Then gems gain far less experience, which means leveling is more difficult as well. 

Last, there are lots of movement skills that are not available in Ruthless, including Dash, Frostblink, Flame Dash, Lightning Warp, Leap Slam, Shield Charge, Whirling Blades, Blink Arrow, Smoke Mine, Bodyswap, and Charged Dash. 

Path of Exile Ruthless Alpha Sign Up

There is an alpha testing that you can sign up for, click here to fill out the form, which includes some questions, and submit it. The developer team wants to get some gameplay feedback from players who love the Ruthless, they’ll select some players to be added over the next few weeks. And the alpha is based on Path of Exile 3.19, streaming or distribution of footage from the initial Alpha version is not allowed, but it will be available at some stage before release.