Path of Exile fans are counting down to the release of the next major expansion on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.

Titled Mirage, the new Path of Exile update has a March 6 release date and a 7pm GMT UK release time. That’s 11am PT / 2pm ET for US players, and 8pm CET for European fans.

The massive new expansion introduces the Challenge League, not to mention a variety of new Skill and Support Gems.

In the Mirage Challenge League, players will face off against the souls of Djinn that have been trapped by the Afarud.

Grinding Gear explains more: “To free these trapped souls, you must enter the Mirage they project, an imperfect copy of the area around the captured Djinn. Fight your way through the monsters, astral hazards, and Afarud mages to the tether holding the Djinn. Free them, and you will be rewarded.”

The Endgame will also undergo countless changes, as GGG makes changes to the Atlas and Mapping systems.

For example, map items no longer require a specific map item to access an associated map area.

“Instead, you will have a map item of a given tier that can be used to open any map on your Atlas with a tier equal to or lower than the map item tier,” Grinding Gear continues.

The structure of the Atlas will also change following the release of Mirage. Players will begin at the centre of the Atlas, with each corner housing one of the four Voidstones.

According to the development studio, content accessed from your map device now exists physically on the Atlas. This means players will need to explore the Atlas in order to discover where all the best entities reside.

“Many of these Atlas entities now offer Atlas Skill points, allowing you to get more than ever before,” GGG adds.

“Not all Unique Maps are required to obtain all of your Atlas Skill Points – now only requiring completing any 10 to get the maximum number.”

Needless to say, fans can expect a wealth of quality of life updates, as well as other gameplay features and additions.

You can read all about it by checking out a selection of Mirage patch notes below.

Path of Exile Mirage patch notes highlights

The Mirage Challenge League

• Take on a rogue sect of the Faridun as they sap the energies of captured Djinn for nefarious ends, and help a legendary Maraketh Sekhema put an end to an ancient war once and for all.

• The Afarud, the most depraved and twisted of the Faridun, have formed a pact with Saresh, a powerful necromancer who built an army of undead to seek revenge on the Maraketh.

• Deny their twisted efforts towards dominion by joining forces with Varashta and freeing the spirits of Djinn before the Afarud can accomplish their goals.

• You will encounter the physical form of trapped Djinn, imprisoned and tortured by Afarud Warlocks. After successfully defeating them, you will be asked by Varashta to enter The Astral Realm, a Mirage containing an imperfect copy of the world around you.

• Varashta can augment the magic of the Mirage she allows you to enter, giving you the option to choose one of three Wishes before you do so. These Wishes modify the Mirage in powerful and potent ways, transforming the copy within and causing monsters slain to drop powerful loot, currency for enhancing your equipment and gems, special caches, or even strange mysterious coins.

• Fight your way through the monsters, astral hazards, and Afarud mages to the tether holding the Djinn. Shatter this chain to free the Djinn, step by step weaking whatever dark plans the Afarud may have for Wraeclast.

• With 3.28.0, there are Standard, Hardcore and Solo Self-Found variations of the Mirage challenge league available. They have the same core mechanics and items. You can create private league versions of these leagues, with mods that make the game harder.

• The Hardcore variations of Mirage are parented to their Standard Mirage equivalent, meaning if you die in Hardcore Mirage you can continue on in Standard Mirage League.

• The new Mirage challenge league includes a set of 40 new challenges, and 8 new challenges in Ruthless Mirage. Earn pieces of the Orb Regalia Armour Set when you complete 12, 20, 28 and 36 challenges in Mirage, or 2, 4, 6 and 8 challenges in Ruthless Mirage. These challenge rewards are only obtainable in this league.

• From the 19th challenge onwards and for every third challenge after that, you will receive pieces of the Mirage Totem Pole decoration to display in your hideout. The Totem Pole permanently showcases how many of the Mirage challenges you completed during the league.

• Added the new Reliquarian Ascendancy Class for the Scion. Notable Passive Skills for the Reliquarian borrow from the powers of Unique items found throughout Wraeclast, and will change with each League. For this reason, these Notables will not be available as outcomes for the Forbidden Flame and Forbidden Flesh Unique Jewels.

• Introduced Exceptional Support Gems, a new and improved version of Awakened Support Gems, which are being phased out. There are over 40 Exceptional Support Gems, which can be found in the Endgame.

• Introduced the Coin of Knowledge, which Corrupts a level 20 Skill Gem, Imbuing it with a random valid Intelligence Support effect.

• Introduced the Coin of Power, which Corrupts a level 20 Skill Gem, Imbuing it with a random valid Strength Support effect.

• Introduced the Coin of Skill, which Corrupts a level 20 Skill Gem, Imbuing it with a random valid Dexterity Support effect.

• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem, Divine Blast: Project a beam of holy light from your shield to a targeted location, causing an implosion of holy energy. This energy then lingers for a short duration, before blasting outwards in a larger and more damaging explosion.

• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem, Holy Hammers: Slam the ground ahead of you, calling down a Holy Hammer from above. On hitting an enemy, another Hammer will cascade forward, repeating if further enemies are hit, up to a cap. A Power Charge can be expended to call down additional Hammers to either side of the initial slam. Requires a Mace or Staff.

• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem, Holy Strike: Infuse your weapon with holy energy and swing. Successfully hitting an enemy will summon forth a Holy Armament, which copies your main hand weapon stats to determine its own. These Holy Armaments are undamageable minions, and will attack the enemies you target with Holy Strike. Requires a Mace, Sceptre or Staff.

• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Skill Gem, Shield of Light: Retaliate against a blocked hit with a sweep of your Shield, unleashing a wave of light in a cone in front of you. Additional waves also emanate from allies in a radius around the first target struck, towards that target.

• Added a new Strength Transfigured Skill Gem, Shockwave Totem of Authority: Summons a totem that shakes the earth around you, damaging enemies.

• Added a new Intelligence Transfigured Skill Gem, Orb of Storms of Squalls: Creates an electrical orb that will strike enemies in its area of effect with beams of lightning when placed, as well as when you use a lightning skill while within its area. These beams of lightning can then split to hit more enemies. When striking enemies, this orb will teleport to a random enemy struck. Casting this skill again will replace the previous orb.

• Added a new Intelligence Transfigured Skill Gem, Shock Nova of Procession: Casts a ring of Lightning around you, followed by a larger Lightning nova. Each effect hits enemies caught in their area with Lightning Damage. This then repeats, with each repeat offset from the previous in the direction of your target.

• Added a new Intelligence/Strength Transfigured Skill Gem, Storm Burst of Repulsion: Unleash orbs of energy while you channel that repeatedly jump away from the targeted location until their duration expires, dealing damage in a small area after each jump. When you stop channelling, all remaining orbs explode, dealing higher damage in a larger area.

• Added a new Intelligence/Dexterity Transfigured Skill Gem, Siphoning Trap of Pain: Throws a trap that applies debuff beams to a number of nearby enemies for a duration. The beams chill enemies and deal cold damage over time.

• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Support Gem, Blessed Call Support: Supports Warcry skills, causing them to create Consecrated Ground. Supported Warcries have lowered Area of Effect and Cooldown Recovery Rate. Cannot support triggered Warcries.

• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Support Gem, Excommunicate: Supports melee attacks, causing them to gain a percentage of physical damage as extra fire and lightning damage, and excommunicate enemies on melee hit. Does not modify skills used by minions.

• Added a new Intelligence Support Gem, Exemplar Support: Supports Minion skills, causing your minions to have increased Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Multiplier for each of your own recent Critical Strikes.

• Added a new Strength/Intelligence Support Gem, Hallow: Supports melee attacks you use yourself, causing them to inflict Hallowing Flame on melee hit. Does not modify skills used by minions.

• Added 10 new Runegrafts that can be found by shipping to ports in Kingsmarch: Runegraft of the Agile, Runegraft of Connection, Runegraft of Consecration, Runegraft of Fury, Runegraft of the Imbued, Runegraft of Rallying, Runegraft of Resurgence, Runegraft of Rotblood, Runegraft of the Spellbound, and Runegraft of Suffering.

• Added 13 new Unique Items.

• Added 8 new Divination Cards.

• The “Exotic” sub-stash of the Currency Stash has been split into two new sub-stashes “Atlas” and “League”.

• Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.