Why Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.2.0g Was Rolled Back

Patch 0.2.0g was supposed to overhaul loot drops, but the launch did not go smoothly.

Path of Exile 2’s 0.2.0g patch was supposed to be a big win for players frustrated with weak drops. It brings big changes to how item rarity works, buffs chest and boss rewards, and improves access to endgame content. But just after deployment, GGG had to take the realm down due to a critical bug that deleted some players’ skill gems on login.

So, let’s go over what was supposed to go live – and what went wrong.

Big Changes to Loot Quality, Not Quantity

GGG confirmed that the way Item Rarity was affecting drops just was not cutting it. So 0.2.0g rebalances a ton of reward systems to make harder content feel more rewarding, without flooding players with ‘junk’.

Some of the biggest changes include:

• Rare and Magic chests now guarantee better items and scale more in Cruel/Endgame.
• Unique bosses will always drop at least one Rare (after Act 1).
• Azmerian Wisps, Strongboxes, Expedition, Delirium, and Trials all got reward buffs.
• Tiered magic and rare items drop more often and with better mods.
• Gold piles were halved, but drop sizes were doubled to maintain balance.

Wisps in particular should feel a lot more rewarding, and chest encounters (especially in Trials or Expedition) will drop gear that is more usable from the start.

GGG also made it clear that player Item Rarity modifiers were unintentionally benefiting from these changes, so those values have been adjusted to keep balance intact.

Pinnacle Access Made Easier

In addition to loot adjustments, 0.2.0g also improves access to boss content:

• Breach splinters drop +50% more
• Delirium splinters drop +80% more
• Ritual King spawns are now 50% more likely
• Corrupted Nexus skill point rewards doubled, with improved visibility

Then the Patch Got Rolled Back

However, shortly after launch, tons of players reported missing skill gems. GGG then shut the realm down and began a rollback process. What followed was a 5-hour downtime and an internal investigation into why the issue occurred.

Turns out a support gem’s type ID had been changed without proper protection, which broke skill setups for affected players. GGG admitted that their item destruction test (which normally catches this) had not been run for this smaller lettered patch.

Rollback attempts also failed due to database config issues. GGG eventually restored the realm using an older snapshot, which means the ladder is now about 3.5 hours out of date, but progress should catch back up naturally.

0.2.0g Will Redeploy May 1 (PDT)

The fixed version of 0.2.0g is now set to go live again later today, on Thursday, May 1st (PDT). The loot changes will be re-enabled then, together with the bug fix for the missing gems.

You can read the full patch post here.
And the full incident report here.