Conquerors of Wraeclast Explained: Path of Exile 2’s 1.0 League Has You Raise an Army

At ExileCon 2026 Grinding Gear Games revealed the newest league coming to Path of Exile 2 with it’s Version 1.0 launch. Conquerors of Wraeclast allows players to recruit an army, build up a castle, and use those forces to siege your enemies in large battles. Earn new rewards, amplify your equipment with new crafting mechanics, and defeat powerful enemies in the latest league coming to Path of Exile 2!

If you haven’t seen the league’s trailer yet, you can find it here:

How Does Conquerors of Wraeclast Work?

Early in Act 1, players will encounter a group of captured mercenaries. After freeing them, the group’s leader Varek will offer to help the player rescue more of his allies by attacking the Count.

This is Conquerors of Wraeclast’s main mechanic. Players are able to place the troops under their command on the map before heading into battle with them. This placement matters as well, because certain troops are better against certain enemy types. GGG highlights how Knights are more effective against Undead, or how Shields are better when facing Archers.

After most of the opposing army has been defeated, players can head forwards to challenge the commander. Each battle in Conquerors of Wraeclast will contain a boss that needs to be taken out, and doing so will drop a key to their treasury.

This treasury will contain piles of gold and equipment, which is needed for expanding a players army. More troops can be recruited with Gold, and need Supplies to fight. Supplies can be found in small caches in each area of the campaign.

The treasury is also the only place players can find the new crafting materials added in Conquerors of Wraeclast.

How Does Reforging Work?

Using these new crafting materials, players will be able to change the modifiers on their equipment through reforging. GGG showcases this by placing some “Crimson Iron” on this Longsword, which allows them to select a mod to become Forgemarked.

When reforging a Forgemarked item, the selected modifiers will be replaced with random new ones, becoming Fractured in the process. Fractured mods are important, because it means that they can never be changed again.

GGG also presented another endgame crafting material, “Infused Blood.” These blood vials can also be used when reforging, but instead of randomizing the selected modifier, they allow players to add specific new ones.

Each type of blood as a set of mods, and GGG says that they are generally useful for specific builds. They showcased two for the Shadow. One which caused Chaos skills to apply Engulfed in Darkness on hit, and another that allows strikes from Stealth to apply Corrupted Blood.

Conquerors of Wraeclast Endgame Mechanics

After the events of the campaign, players can speak to Varek again. Doing so will highlight an area where player can build there own castles. There are three different castle factions:

• Karui Island Stronghold
• Ezomyte River Keep
• Maraketh Desert Rampart

From there, players will be able to construct new buildings in their castle for supplies in order to attract more troops. Different buildings will generate different units, with GGG stating that there are over 20 buildings and upgrades for each of the three factions.

During these endgame sieges, players can also come across independent commanders, with GGG encountering High Justiciar Athela. If given units for an army, as well as a Waystone, independent commanders will be able to run maps for you.

Independent commanders run the map in real time, with it varying based on the maps difficulty, and how far away it is. On completion, the player will receive every item the commander found, but none of the gold which they keep for themselves. At the height of endgame, GGG says that players will be able to control three independent commanders.

The final endgame mechanic for Conquerors of Wraeclast is battling for control of the castles. All over the Atlas map are over 100 castles to siege, whose position is shared between all players. The factions players joined at the start of endgame are competing with each other for ownership of these castles.

This is not PvP.

Castles can be claimed by firstly, capturing the area surrounding the castle, and then engaging in a huge siege on the castle grounds. This requires a very large army, but its worth it. As long as a player holds a castle, that same player will receive a significant bonus to item rarity. In addition, the other players in that faction will receive a smaller item rarity bonus as well.

Become a Conqueror

With 70 new points of interest and 23 battles during the campaign, a new crafting system, autonomous map running, and the ability to build your own castle, prepare to become a conqueror when Conquerors of Wraeclast arrives with 1.0!

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