Path of Exile 2's latest update, Return of the Ancients, is the Diablo 4 rival's biggest update yet both in scope and in popularity, fueling the highest surge in players since the game's early access launch back in in 2024. That said, players say it's also the buggiest update yet, with widespread reports of progression-blocking bugs and crashes plaguing what has otherwise been a well-received update.
Return of the Ancients completely overhauled Path of Exile 2's endgame when it launched late last week with six new endgame storylines as well as the new Ascendancy classes and Pinnacle bosses, but as you might expect with an update so huge – especially if you're a Diablo 4 player – a number of bugs managed to hitch a ride with the new features.
In a written update titled, "What we are working on Part 2," GGG outlines what's been fixed already and what's still to come in the game's immediate future.
Per the writeup, "the main issues" GGG was focusing on over the weekend were, naturally, the "progression blockers." The studio says running into these particularly nasty buggers "effectively ends your progress, so they are rated as incredibly critical."
Thankfully, GGG reports that "almost all the progression blockers we know about have now been fixed," even though "sometimes it's not incredibly clear in the hotfix notes, so if you did get stuck, we would encourage you to try again.
"In some cases the fixes might require you to rerun some content," GGG advises. In terms of bug fixes more broadly, GGG says it's making "pretty good headway" overall, but still has "more fixes to make."
Likewise, GGG seems to be keeping a close ear to the ground with regards to community feedback, as it details a number of fixes under various categories planned "over the next week." These are broken down into General Endgame, Ritual, Delirium, Breach, Runes of Aldur, Character Balance and Fixes, Other General Fixes, Campaign Improvements, and Controller Trade Improvements.
Some of these seem to be in direct response to some of the most common complaints from the PoE player base, like "turning off the knockback on the Tidal Waves runeshape mechanic" and "turning off the knockback on the Blood Waves ritual mechanic." There was also a lot of feedback suggesting it's a big hassle trying to navigate the trade system using a controller, and GGG says it's working on a number of fixes to address that, including a button "to copy one of your active trades so that you can easily sell more of those items".
It's unclear exactly when these fixes will be implemented – again, GGG just says "over the next week – but it's likely we'll start to see a number of hot fixes dribble in very shortly. The studio also assures these are just the "initial" fixes in the immediate aftermath of Return of the Ancients and that other changes are in the works but haven't been revealed. In the meantime, at least you should be able to progress through most of the new content without fear of losing everything to an ill-timed crash.
