Path of Exile 2 1.0: release date, time in Spain, going free-to-play, what's new, ExileCon and the PC you need

Path of Exile 2 1.0 launches on Friday 11 December 2026 (date in Pacific Time, PST). On that day Grinding Gear Games' ARPG leaves early access and becomes free for everyone on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store and its own client), PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. The full release adds the Duelist, the first sword-wielding class, and the last two acts of the campaign. The exact time isn't official yet: it's likely to be revealed at ExileCon in Auckland, whose keynote streams on Friday 6 November at 22:00 in Andorra and mainland Spain.

Below you'll also find the official Steam requirements and which PC to go for at each tier to play it smoothly, endgame included.

• Date: Friday 11 December 2026 (PST). Time still unconfirmed.

• Price: free (free-to-play), with optional purchases.

• Platforms: PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S; Steam Deck Verified.

• Confirmed new content: the Duelist, swords and Acts 5 and 6.

• ExileCon 2026: 7 and 8 November in Auckland (New Zealand), streamed for free.

• Recommended requirements: Core i5-10500 or Ryzen 7 3700X, 16 GB of RAM, RTX 2060 or RX 5600 XT and 100 GB, ideally on an SSD.

Path of Exile 2 1.0 release date and time

Grinding Gear Games (GGG) announced the date on 25 August at gamescom Opening Night Live, with a trailer starring the Duelist. The official announcement on Steam sums it up in one sentence: Path of Exile 2 launches as a fully free-to-play ARPG on 11 December (PST). The Steam page already lists that day as the end of early access, which began on 6 December 2024.

What time does it launch in Spain and Andorra?

GGG hasn't published the time. There are precedents, though: early access opened on 6 December 2024 at 11:00 PST, update 0.5.0 arrived on 29 May 2026 at 12:00 Pacific Time and the Forbidden Rites event (0.5.5) started on 4 September at 13:00 PDT. In December, California and Europe are both on winter time, nine hours apart, so depending on the time GGG picks it would work out like this:

• 11:00 PST: 20:00 on Friday 11th in Andorra and mainland Spain (19:00 in the Canary Islands).

• 12:00 PST: 21:00 in Andorra and mainland Spain (20:00 in the Canary Islands).

• 13:00 PST: 22:00 in Andorra and mainland Spain (21:00 in the Canary Islands).

If GGG sticks to its usual pattern, in Europe the launch will land on Friday evening, not in the small hours. Treat this as an estimate until there's an official time. What is worth doing is having the client installed and updated beforehand, because the game needs 100 GB of space.

Path of Exile 2 goes free: what changes with free-to-play

Until now, playing in early access meant buying a Supporter Pack; the cheapest one on Steam costs €27.75. From 11 December, Path of Exile 2 will be free on all platforms, with nothing to buy. Like the first Path of Exile, it will be funded through optional purchases: according to GGG's press release as reported by RPG Site, cosmetics and additional stash tabs. GGG has also warned that the early access packs will leave the store in a few weeks and be replaced by five new packs, not yet detailed.

Pre-registration: free rewards for everyone

At pathofexile2.com/register you can sign up with your email to receive exclusive cosmetics that won't be sold in the store. They work through milestones: everyone who registers gets at least one and, if the community reaches all four milestones, five in total. As of 19 October, two had already been unlocked. The practical details, according to the official FAQ:

• You have to confirm your registration using the button in the email GGG sends; otherwise, it doesn't count.

• Having bought early access does not give you these rewards: you also need to sign up.

• The codes arrive by email after launch and are redeemed on a Path of Exile account (one code per account).

• They work on Steam, Epic, PlayStation and Xbox if your account is linked to that platform.

• The deadline is the launch: GGG has given both 10 and 11 December, so it's best not to leave it to the last minute.

What happens to the current leagues

According to the official Forbidden Rites FAQ, that event league and the Runes of Aldur league stay open until 1.0 and end with it. What GGG still hasn't explained is what will happen to early access characters or whether there will be a launch league: they're two of the big questions for ExileCon.

Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam Deck

• PC (Windows): Steam, Epic Games Store and the standalone client from the official website.

• PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

• Steam Deck: Verified by Valve since 24 September 2026.

The game has crossplay between PC and consoles, and characters and items are tied to your Path of Exile account. Cosmetic purchases aren't always shared: those made on PlayStation stay on PlayStation. On PC it has full controller support, although most people play with mouse and keyboard. The text is available in Spanish (Spain); the voices are English only.

What's new in Path of Exile 2 1.0

The Duelist: swords and melee combat

The big gameplay addition is the Duelist, a sword fighter (one-handed or with a shield) who brings swords in as a weapon type, the major absence from early access. Jonathan Rogers, the game's director, told PCGamesN at gamescom that they didn't want to reach 1.0 without swords, admitted that melee had fallen “a bit short” and explained that Cyclone absolutely had to be in. The Blood and Sand stances return, but work differently from the first game.

With him, 1.0 will have nine classes: Warrior, Ranger, Sorceress, Witch, Mercenary, Monk, Huntress, Druid and Duelist. The game's final design calls for twelve classes with three Ascendancies each; the three missing ones have no date, and the Duelist's Ascendancies haven't been revealed yet either.

Acts 5 and 6 complete the campaign

1.0 adds the two missing acts and completes the story. According to the Steam page, the final campaign has six acts, around 100 environments, 600 monsters and more than 100 bosses, because each area has its own. GGG hasn't given titles or lengths for the new acts, and also promises “a ton of content and changes” it hasn't detailed yet. In 2025 the studio explained that the three Interludes, which replaced the old Cruel difficulty, will disappear when Acts 5 and 6 arrive.

What has arrived during early access

• December 2024: early access kicks off with six classes and the first three acts.

• April 2025 (0.2, Dawn of the Hunt): the Huntress arrives.

• August 2025 (0.3, The Third Edict): Act 4 and the Interludes.

• 12 December 2025 (0.4, The Last of the Druids): the Druid, who shapeshifts in combat.

• 29 May 2026 (0.5, Return of the Ancients): the biggest update of early access, with the Runes of Aldur league.

• 4 September 2026 (0.5.5): the Forbidden Rites event, the last stop before 1.0.

What we still don't know

• The exact launch time.

• The Duelist's Ascendancies.

• Names, length and bosses of Acts 5 and 6.

• Whether there will be a launch league and what mechanic it will have.

• What will happen to early access characters.

• What the five new store packs will include.

ExileCon 2026: dates, times in Spain and what to expect

The third ExileCon, after those in 2019 and 2023, takes place on 7 and 8 November 2026 in Auckland (New Zealand), the city where GGG is based. Everything is streamed for free on Twitch and YouTube. Because of the time difference, in Europe it airs on the evenings of Friday 6 and Saturday 7 (Andorra and mainland Spain times; one hour earlier in the Canary Islands):

• Friday 6 November, 21:30: pre-show with content creators.

• Friday 6, 22:00: a keynote of around two hours with news on Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2.

• Saturday 7, from 21:00: day two, with developer talks, live gameplay, interviews and the race finals for both games.

In its two-week ExileCon reminder, GGG confirms that the keynote can be watched afterwards on its channels, that there will be Twitch Drops and that the pages and trailers for the new expansions will go live as soon as they're announced. It hasn't said what it will show, but it makes sense for it to be the big showcase for 1.0 and to answer many of the questions in the previous section, starting with the launch time. Treat this as expectation, not confirmation.

Path of Exile 2 PC requirements

These are the official requirements from the Steam page, in its English version, which is the most up to date: the Spanish page still shows a generic minimum processor with 4 cores at 2.8 GHz. They're the early access requirements; GGG hasn't announced any changes for 1.0.

Minimum requirements

• OS: Windows 10.

• Processor: Intel Core i7-7700 or AMD Ryzen 5 2500X.

• Memory: 8 GB of RAM.

• Graphics: GeForce GTX 960 (3 GB), Intel Arc A380 or Radeon RX 470; you need a graphics card with at least 3 GB of VRAM.

• DirectX: 12.

• Storage: 100 GB free.

• Network: broadband connection (the game is always online).

Recommended requirements

• OS: Windows 10.

• Processor: Intel Core i5-10500 or AMD Ryzen 3700X (Steam lists it as “Ryzen 5 3700X”, but that model is a Ryzen 7).

• Memory: 16 GB of RAM.

• Graphics: GeForce RTX 2060, Intel Arc A770 or Radeon RX 5600 XT.

• DirectX: 12.

• Storage: 100 GB free; SSD recommended.

How to read these requirements

They look modest, but there are caveats. Windows 10 stopped receiving free support in October 2025, so on a new machine Windows 11 is the sensible choice. An SSD is almost essential: with a hard drive, loading between areas takes much longer. And the load shifts depending on where you are: in the campaign the graphics card does the heavy lifting, but in endgame maps, with dozens of enemies, projectiles and effects at once, the processor works much harder. A system that only just meets the recommended specs falls short in those moments.

To give you an idea: in tests by PCGamesN, updated in August 2025, a system with a Core i7-11700F and a 12 GB RTX 4070 averaged 117 FPS at 1080p, 72 at 1440p and 59 at 4K with high settings and global illumination. The same analysis notes that the game supports DLSS, FSR (apparently its first version), XeSS and NIS, but not frame generation, and that global illumination is the setting that costs the most performance. We haven't found any later patch that adds frame generation.

Which PC to go for in Path of Exile 2 1.0, tier by tier

Three guideline builds, consistent with our 2026 components guide. They don't include prices because, with memory and graphics cards going up, they change almost every week. In this game the key is not to skimp on the processor and to have enough memory to keep your browser, Discord or the trade site open while you play.

Entry level: 1080p with smooth performance

• Processor: Ryzen 5 7600X or Core Ultra 5 250K Plus (six cores or more).

• Graphics card: GeForce RTX 5060, 8 GB Radeon RX 9060 XT or Intel Arc B580; all comfortably beat the recommended RTX 2060.

• RAM: 16 GB of DDR5 meets the recommended spec; 32 GB if you tend to have lots of things open.

• Storage: 1 TB NVMe SSD.

• What to expect: campaign and endgame at 1080p on medium-high settings, with DLSS, FSR or XeSS helping out in the busiest maps.

Mid-range: 1440p at high settings

• Processor: Ryzen 7 7700X3D, with 3D cache, or Core Ultra 7 270K Plus if you also use the machine for work.

• Graphics card: Radeon RX 9070 or GeForce RTX 5070; a 16 GB RX 9060 XT or RTX 5060 Ti if you're happy to use upscaling.

• RAM: 32 GB of DDR5-6000 in two modules.

• Storage: 2 TB NVMe SSD to have Path of Exile 2 and other big games installed at the same time.

• Power supply: 650–750 W with 80 PLUS Gold certification.

• What to expect: the sweet spot for most people, 1440p with global illumination and a 144 Hz monitor.

High end: 4K or 1440p at a high refresh rate

• Processor: Ryzen 7 9800X3D or 9850X3D, currently the fastest for gaming.

• Graphics card: RTX 5070 Ti or RX 9070 XT for 1440p at 144 Hz or more; RTX 5080 for 4K at high settings.

• RAM: 32 GB of DDR5-6000 CL30.

• Storage: 2 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.

• Power supply and cooling: 750–850 W Gold ATX 3.1 and a dual-tower air cooler or a 280–360 mm AIO liquid cooler.

• What to expect: dense endgame without drops, 4K, or playing while you stream live.

If you're torn between Nvidia and AMD, our RTX 50 vs Radeon RX 9000 comparison sets out the pros and cons of each. For this game specifically, DLSS gives a better image than the built-in FSR, a point in GeForce's favour; on the other hand, the RTX 50's multi frame generation adds nothing here, because the game doesn't offer it.

Settings that give you the most FPS

• DirectX 12 renderer: it's the one PCGamesN recommends; Vulkan and DirectX 11 are also available.

• Lighting: switching from “shadows and global illumination” to shadows only raised performance from 117 to 137 FPS at 1080p in their test.

• Engine Multithreading: turn it on; it helps spread the load across cores.

• Upscaling: with a GeForce, DLSS in Quality mode gives a better image than the NIS that's on by default.

Path of Exile 2 is all about clicks and hotkeys, so a mouse with side buttons and a high-refresh monitor make a difference from your very first session. You'll find ideas in our 2026 gaming peripherals guide.

Your PC for Path of Exile 2, built in Andorra

At MEGA SYSTEM we build every gaming PC by hand and put it through 24 hours of testing before delivery. You can choose part by part in the PC configurator or start from one of our pre-built gaming PCs. If you're not sure which tier suits you, a real person will reply by chat or form, not a bot.

We deliver within 24 hours to every parish in Andorra, or you can collect it free of charge from the shop at Av. Carlemany, 38, in Escaldes-Engordany. The systems we build come with a 3-year warranty, with repairs in our own workshop, and prices include IGI. If you're coming from abroad, our guide to buying a PC in Andorra explains IGI, customs and the warranty. With launch on 11 December, it's worth having your system ready well ahead of time.

Frequently asked questions

When does Path of Exile 2 1.0 come out?

On Friday 11 December 2026 (Pacific Time) on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The time isn't official yet; based on previous launches, in Andorra and mainland Spain the most likely slot is Friday evening, between 20:00 and 22:00.

Will Path of Exile 2 be free?

Yes. From 11 December it's free-to-play on all platforms, with no pack to buy. The optional purchases are cosmetics and stash tabs.

Will early access characters be kept?

The Runes of Aldur and Forbidden Rites leagues end with 1.0. GGG hasn't yet explained what will happen to early access characters; it's expected to do so at ExileCon.

Is Path of Exile 2 available in Spanish?

Yes: text and interface in Spanish (Spain). The voices are in English only.

Can you play it on Steam Deck or a laptop?

Yes. It has been Steam Deck Verified since September 2026. On a laptop, any gaming model above the recommended specs (RTX 2060 or equivalent, 16 GB of RAM and an SSD) runs it at 1080p; for the endgame it's best to have a bit more headroom.

Which graphics card do I need to play at 1440p?

For 1440p at high settings, a Radeon RX 9070 or a GeForce RTX 5070 is the sweet spot. A 16 GB RX 9060 XT or RTX 5060 Ti also plays it well if you turn on upscaling.