Path of Exile 3.29 'Curse of the Allflame' Goes Live — A Deep-Sea League Plus Sweeping Socket, Abyss and Legion Reworks

Path of Exile's new expansion, Curse of the Allflame — version 3.29 — is live. The league opened on July 24, 2026 at 20:00 UTC, a Friday afternoon in North America, Friday night in Europe, and early Saturday across Asia and Oceania. It shipped simultaneously on PC (Steam and the Epic Games Store) and on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

• ▶Sources: Path of Exile Official Forum — 3.29.0 Patch Notes · Maxroll Patch Notes · PoE Vault League Guide

The Essentials at a Glance

A Descent Into the Deep

The league's theme is the ocean floor. Players collect map fragments called Charts, dive beneath the seas of Wraeclast, and stitch explored areas together into Voyages — routes you design yourself by arranging Charts to chase rewards and sunken wrecks in the deep.

The signature reward mechanic shares the league's name: Allflame crafting. Using Ducats or the heart of The Sovereign, you alter items with resources pulled up from the seafloor. The league mechanic itself is temporary, but the patch riding alongside it reaches deep into permanent, core systems.

Socket Colours Are Gone — The End of the Chromatic Grind

The single most consequential change in 3.29 is the removal of socket colours. The long-standing red/green/blue socket requirement — a foundation of build-crafting and a notorious source of frustration — has effectively been abolished. Sockets on gear now default to white, letting you slot any gem into any socket. The classic ritual of dumping hundreds of Chromatic Orbs to force colours is largely gone.

This is more than convenience. Removing colour costs widens build freedom and lowers the barrier for newcomers experimenting with skill combinations. It also detonates part of the economy: expect the Chromatic Orb market and related item prices to reshuffle sharply in the opening days.

Mercenaries Made Core, and New Pact Gems

The Mercenaries of Trarthus, introduced in a prior league, are now permanent core content. Dedicated passives arrive on the Atlas Tree, and the Trarthan Scarab of Renown guarantees that a mercenary spawn carries all unique items. Hired mercs now come with an information sheet listing their passive stats.

Gems get new toys too. Alongside a batch of reworked skill and support gems, 3.29 adds new Pact Gems. Paired with the death of socket colours, the space for gem experimentation is wider than it has been in years.

Abyss and Legion Get Full Reworks

3.29 is not just a league bolted on top of the game. Two long-running fan-favourite mechanics were rebuilt from the ground up.

Abyss changes how it plays. Abyssal cracks and the pits at their ends are now already open before you approach, subjugating nearby souls. Slaying enemies within their influence feeds their souls into the pit and draws the ire of the minions below — kill enough and the Abyssal legion spills out.

Legion was retuned on both start and rewards. Encounters now begin the moment you free the key monsters, chests, and most of the mob; Legion monsters drop fewer Splinters but in larger stacks; Unrelenting Timeless Emblems are removed, with many effects folded into regular Emblems. Legion Generals in maps can now drop a new currency, Enshrouding Crystals, used on unique armours.

PoE 1's Big League on the Doorstep of PoE 2

Timing matters here. With Path of Exile 2 marching toward its full release, Grinding Gear Games slotted 3.29 as one of the flagship's final major PoE 1 leagues. Foundational changes like scrapping socket colours read as an effort to sand down long-time pain points while tidying the direction of the franchise as a whole.

The update is also unusually approachable. The deep-sea exploration loop invites lighter players in, while the reduction in grind and the reworked endgame content give veterans reasons to return — two axes that rarely align this cleanly in a PoE launch.

Community and Market Reaction

Early reaction focused, predictably, on the socket-colour removal. Praise for expanded build freedom sits next to worry that the item economy built around Chromatic Orbs is being upended. The Abyss and Legion reworks land more warmly, largely because they make older content feel worth running again.

The usual league-launch turbulence — server congestion and early balance arguments — is likely to repeat. Which builds the new Pact Gems and core Mercenaries push to the top will only become clear once the first weekend's trade prices and top-build statistics settle.

The GamePeak Take

3.29 Curse of the Allflame is less a single league than a systems overhaul.

For lighter players, the death of the colour grind makes now a strong moment to return or start; for veterans, the Abyss and Legion reworks and new gems force a fresh look at the meta. As always, the real question is where the shaken economy finds its balance after week one.