Covens of Umbra Mechanic Guide (PoE Covens of Umbra 3.30)
Introduction
Covens of Umbra is a new mechanic in which you collect Fate cards throughout a zone – and then use them to empower that zone’s Boss. This grants the Boss dangerous new abilities… but massively boosts their rewards!
If you can handle the spike in difficulty you’re rewarded with both loot and parts to a Wickerman – allowing you to reach new heights of character power… especially if you can kill empowered Pinnacle Bosses!
This is a Pre-Launch Guide, as the Covens of Umbra Challenge League is not yet live. This guide is based on publicly available information about Covens of Umbra through reveals, teasers, Q&A, developer comments, etc, and will continue to be updated up through – and after – league launch. As such, information in this guide may be inaccurate, or simply changed by GGG prior to launch.
Encountering Cauldrons
Each zone in the Covens of Umbra League contains Cauldrons. Clicking these fate cards will spawn a group of monsters – upon killing them, you’ll be able to select a single fate card to add to your Deck of Fates – for use on that zone’s boss.
The number of Cauldrons in each zone scales up throughout the game – reaching up to 4 or 5 at endgame.
Invoking Fates
In zones that contain Cauldrons, the zone boss will be replaced with a Cauldron that can be used to modify and then spawn that boss.
This Cauldron allows you to Invoke Fates – allowing you to select up to 3 of Fate cards in your Deck to use to modify the Boss.
Each Fate card empowers the boss, granting it new abilities.
Fate Card Rewards
Each Fate Card used to Empower a Boss improves its rewards. The icons on the bottom of each card represent the type of reward that card grants.
Some Rewards are Set Rewards – these rewards are denoted by a number of boxes beneath their icon, indicating how many of that set you need to get that reward. If you get a matching set of that reward, then that reward will be added to the boss.
Set rewards can be incredibly powerful – far more so than regular rewards, and are likely worth pursuing!
Merging Cards
If you Invoke two copies of the same Fate card, those cards will merge – taking up only a single slot, and tripling the rewards of the first Fate Card played.
Merging duplicate cards allows you to easily achieve set bonuses, as well as boost boss rewards to absurd heights!
Viscera & The Wickerman
Killing Bosses affected by Fates has a chance to drop Viscera items. These items can be equipped to the Wickerman in town – granting you their stats while they’re equipped.
Each Boss in the game has a specific viscera that they can drop – each with 3 tiers, with the highest tier version only dropping from their endgame map versions.
Grim Fates
Killing a Boss affected by a Fate Card in a high-tier red map has a chance to grant you a Grim Fate card. These special Fate Cards persist across zones, and can be used to modify specific Pinnacle Bosses.
Modifying Pinnacle bosses this way not only increases their rewards, but allows you to collect their Viscera items – some of the most powerful Viscera in the game.
Pinnacle Boss
Killing the Atlas Pinnacle bosses while they’re affected by Grim Fates will allow you to gain access to the Covens of Umbra Pinnacle Boss. Not much else is currently known about this boss or how it is accessed.
Conclusion
Be sure to check out the other pages of this guide, covering even more topics related to Covens of Umbra! This guide will continue to be updated in the future – if you have any feedback, or find something cool you want to share, head on over to the PoE Vault Discord, and let me know!
Good luck, and have fun farming Covens of Umbra!
