The ways these new Cluster Jewels

So why is it worth putting yourself in all this extra danger? Story-wise, Wilson was unusually coy, saying that the narrative behind all of this is going to remain under wraps for a while longer. As is standard with Path of Exile's temporary Challenge leagues, completing Delirium events will eventually lead to a new story-focused finale to all this mirror-world malarkey POE currency trade .

The extrinsic reward, however, is the same as everything in Path of Exile: Loot. There’s the usual bundle of new unique items to collect, including a full set of gear that mirrors (har har) the look of Delirium’s villain, but the main reason to hunt nightmares is an all-new type of game-changing item, currently exclusive to this league.

In the name of loot

The ways these new Cluster Jewels change Path of Exile's metagame is tantalizing.

These new gems are called Cluster Jewels. They slot into the edges of Path of Exile’s notoriously intimidating passive skill grid. Normally, you can collect jewels that make small tweaks to nearby nodes on the passive grid, but Cluster Jewels add whole clusters of nodes, effectively expanding the passive tree in all new ways. Some even come with additional extension points―allowing you to chain multiple Cluster Jewels together to create almost entirely new custom character classes. By placing these jewels on the edges of the skill tree, you’ll create a new branch off the beaten class progression path, letting you invest in new stat tweaks and even a few character redefining perks.

One of the more interesting is Hollow Palm Technique,which forbids you from using weapons or gloves but enables powerful bare-handed martial arts attacks that scale in power with dexterity. Path of Exile now has a monk class, I guess.

The ways these new Cluster Jewels change Path of Exile's metagame is tantalizing, and I’m excited to see what new character builds come from this system. If well-received, I can see it becoming a standard part of Path of Exile’s complex tangle of interlocking systems buy POE currency .