Path of Exile Mirage League 3.28 Patch Notes Breakdown

Path of Exile version 3.28.0 launched on March 6, 2026, and it brings one of the most structurally significant patches in recent memory. The Mirage Challenge League introduces a brand-new league mechanic built around freeing captured Djinn, while the Atlas endgame receives a complete rework that changes how you interact with maps at a fundamental level. On top of that, Grinding Gear Games has phased out Awakened Support Gems in favor of the new Exceptional Support Gems, added a fresh Scion Ascendancy called the Reliquarian, and made sweeping changes to skill gems, unique items, and currency systems. There is a lot to take in, so this guide breaks everything down section by section so you can hit the ground running.

Choose your Wish before entering

What Is the Mirage Challenge League?

The Mirage league centers on a conflict between the Afarud, a rogue sect of the Faridun, and a legendary Maraketh Sekhema named Varashta. The Afarud have partnered with a necromancer called Saresh to harness the power of imprisoned Djinn for their own ends.

How the Mirage Mechanic Works

When you encounter a physically trapped Djinn in the world, you defeat it and then enter The Astral Realm, a Mirage copy of the surrounding area. Before you enter, Varashta offers you a choice of three Wishes, each of which modifies the Mirage in powerful ways. Wishes can cause slain monsters to drop powerful loot, currency for upgrading equipment and gems, special caches, or mysterious coins.

Your goal inside the Mirage is to fight through monsters, astral hazards, and Afarud mages until you reach the tether holding the Djinn. Shattering that chain frees the Djinn and weakens the Afarud's plans.

Mirage League Challenges and Rewards

• 40 new challenges in standard Mirage, 8 new challenges in Ruthless Mirage.
• Complete 12, 20, 28, and 36 challenges to earn pieces of the Orb Regalia Armour Set.
• From challenge 19 onward, every third challenge rewards a piece of the Mirage Totem Pole hideout decoration.
• Standard, Hardcore, and Solo Self-Found variations are all available. Dying in Hardcore Mirage moves your character to Standard Mirage League.

New Skills, Gems, and the Reliquarian Ascendancy

What New Skills Were Added in 3.28?

Grinding Gear Games added several brand-new Strength/Intelligence skill gems with a holy theme, plus a range of new transfigured variants:

Additionally, new transfigured gems include Charged Dash of Projection, Flamethrower Trap of Stability, Kinetic Fusillade of Detonation, Orb of Storms of Squalls, Shock Nova of Procession, Storm Burst of Repulsion, Siphoning Trap of Pain, and Static Strike of Gathering Lightning.

Four new support gems also arrived: Blessed Call Support (Warcries create Consecrated Ground), Excommunicate Support (melee attacks add fire and lightning damage and excommunicate enemies), Exemplar Support (minion crit scaling from your own recent crits), and Hallow Support (melee hits inflict Hallowing Flame).

What Are Exceptional Support Gems?

Exceptional Support Gems replace Awakened Support Gems, which can no longer be obtained (with the exception of Awakened Empower, Enlighten, and Enhance). There are over 40 Exceptional Support Gems available in the endgame. Key points:

• Existing Awakened Support Gems outside the three exceptions are no longer obtainable.
• The Labyrinth gem craft that exchanged a support for its Awakened version has been removed.
• Greater versions of supports (Greater Multiple Projectiles, Greater Volley, Greater Spell Echo) now take priority over their non-Greater counterparts when both are socketed, and the two versions no longer stack.
• Three new currency items, the Coin of Knowledge, Coin of Power, and Coin of Skill, each corrupt a level 20 Skill Gem to imbue it with a random Intelligence, Strength, or Dexterity support effect respectively.

The Reliquarian: A New Scion Ascendancy

The Reliquarian is a new Ascendancy Class for the Scion. Its Notable Passive Skills borrow powers from Unique items found throughout Wraeclast, and these Notables will change with each League. Because of this rotating nature, Reliquarian Notables cannot be obtained via Forbidden Flame or Forbidden Flesh jewels.

Reliquarian borrows Unique item powers

Atlas Endgame Overhaul: How Does the New Map System Work?

The Atlas has been redesigned from the ground up. Here is what changed and why it matters for your mapping strategy.

Map Items Are No Longer Area-Specific

Previously, a Tier 10 Mesa Map could only open Mesa. Now, map items are generic by tier. You find a Tier 10 Map, select Mesa (or any other area you have unlocked) on the Atlas, insert the map item, and activate the Map Device. A map dropping from that run can then be used on any area of your choosing at the appropriate tier.

• The Favoured Map system has been removed as a result.
• Interacting with the Map Device now opens the Atlas screen directly.
• The Atlas structure now starts at the centre, with each corner housing one of four Voidstone slots.

Voidstones and Nightmare Maps

Voidstones now upgrade the minimum Map Tier of Maps within their specific Atlas Quadrant to 16, cause maps in that quadrant to drop one tier higher, and convert Tier 15 and lower maps found in that quadrant to Gold. Each Voidstone also comes with a special bonus affecting all Maps on the Atlas and enables Nightmare Maps (formerly Tier 17 Maps) to drop.

• The Decayed Voidstone is obtained by killing both the Shaper and the Elder (or still from Uber Elder).
• A Voidstone is now obtained from killing both the Searing Exarch and the Eater of Worlds together.
• A new Voidstone comes from killing the Incarnation of Dread.
• Completing each Nightmare Map awards 1 Atlas Skill Point (5 total from all Nightmare Maps).

Arcane Astrolabes and Memory Vaults

Eagon now pursues Zana using Arcane Astrolabes. Using an Astrolabe on a Map manifests a Shaped Region in that Atlas quadrant, affecting many maps within it. Completing the Astrolabe content removes the Shaped Region from that map, and every other map remaining in the region gains an additional modifier.

Once you clear the Shaped Region entirely, Eagon takes you to one of four Memory Vaults, each tied to a specific Atlas quadrant, offering powerful rewards. You can target specific vaults by working in the corresponding quadrant.

Atlas Passive Tree Changes

Several Atlas Keystones were removed or reworked:

• Shadow Shaping, Bold Undertakings, and Singular Focus have been removed.
• New Keystone The Paths Not Taken: Divination Cards found in your Maps come from two random other Maps instead of the one you are in.
• New Keystone Synthesised Stability: Completing a Map Objective within a Shaped Region collapses a different Map within the region instead.
• Overloaded Circuits now grants "Your Maps are opened with 5 additional random Unallocated Notable Atlas Passives."
• Sulphite Infusion now grants 400 Sulphite on White Tier completion (previously 200), 700 on Yellow (previously 350), and 1000 on Red (previously 500).

Four Voidstone slots anchor the Atlas

Keepers of the Flame Becomes Core, Harbinger Departs

Keepers of the Flame as a Core League

Ailith and the Order of the Keepers of the Flame are now a permanent part of Path of Exile. You first encounter Ailith at the Mud Flats entrance in Act 6, where Breach Hives and Unstable Breaches begin spawning. Key adjustments for the core version include:

• Breach Hives now have approximately 30% less radius.
• Walls within Breach Hives can be instantly destroyed by player damage while the encounter is not in progress.
• Breachstones are now non-functional and can be traded to a vendor for a Hivebrain Gland.
• Hivebrain Glands now directly open portals to a Hive Colony rather than adding an entrance within a map.
• The Genesis Tree is fully grown by default, though you still need to unlock points to use each branch fully.
• Two new Atlas Keystones: Dimensional Foothold (Breach encounters always become Hives) and Enemy at the Gates (Breach encounters always become Unstable Breaches).
• New currency: Flesh of Xesht, which transforms a Breach Unique to its alternate version.

Harbinger Removed as a Core League

The Harbingers have departed Wraeclast. Practically, this means:

• Engineer's Orbs, Harbinger's Orbs, and Orbs of Horizons can no longer be obtained. Existing items no longer function.
• Fracturing Orbs and Ancient Orbs now drop as part of the core drop pool.
• All Harbinger-related Atlas Passives have been removed.
• All four Harbinger Scarabs are converted to Veiled Scarabs upon logging in after 3.28.0 launches.
• Several Harbinger Unique items have been replaced by updated versions entering the core drop pool, including The Immortal Will, The Shattered Divinity, and The Surging Thoughts.

Skill Gem and Ascendancy Changes Worth Knowing

Which Skills Got Significant Updates?

• Storm Brand base damage scaling was dramatically increased: from 3-8 Lightning Damage at level 1 to 3-10, scaling to 150-449 at level 20 (previously 92-277). Effectiveness of Added Damage is now 45-55% at levels 1-20 (previously 30% flat).
• Penance Brand now deals 10% more Damage at all levels and has Effectiveness of Added Damage of 520-630% (previously 470-570%). It no longer has 30% less Damage with Ailments.
• Penance Brand of Conduction now activates every 0.1 seconds while attached (previously 0.15).
• Absolution base debuff duration is now 3 seconds (previously 1), and base Minion duration is 15 seconds (previously 10). Sentinels of Absolution now have 44% more Area of Effect with their Empowered Lightning Blast.
• Dominating Blow Debuff Duration is now 3 seconds (previously 1), Sentinel Duration is now 30 seconds (previously 20). The chance to summon a Normal Sentinel now also applies when hitting Rare Monsters.
• Consecrated Path Effectiveness of Added Damage is now 273-468% at levels 1-20 (previously 227-417%).
• Intelligence now inherently grants 1% increased Maximum Energy Shield per 10 Intelligence (previously per 5 Intelligence), a notable nerf for ES builds.
• Orb of Storms can now be supported by Spell Echo.

Notable Ascendancy Changes

Sentinel of Radiance is now permanent

Currency, Item, and Quality of Life Changes

How Has Currency Availability Changed?

Currency Items now account for a significantly larger portion of dropped items, making enemy kills more competitive with other currency sources. Non-Unique Equipment items are approximately 6% less common as a result. This does not affect Scrolls of Wisdom or Portal Scrolls, and Ruthless mode is unaffected.

Other notable currency changes:

• Exalted Orbs and Regal Orbs are now comparatively more common.
• Crafting Bench options that previously cost 1-3 Exalted Orbs now generally cost 4 Exalted Orbs.
• The vendor recipe for a full set of influenced items now returns 1 Exalted Orb instead of 2 Exalted Shards.
• All Essences now have a maximum stack size of 10 (previously 9).
• Fossils can no longer be obtained outside of Delve. Fossil frequency behind fractured walls and off main paths in Delve has been greatly increased.

What Quality of Life Improvements Were Made?

• Hovering an item while applying a Divine Orb or Blessed Orb now highlights the specific modifier values that will be rerolled.
• Ctrl + Clicking Divination Cards into the Divination Window now automatically turns them in.
• The Labyrinth Transfigured Gem craft now lets you select the specific Transfigured version you want when multiple options exist.
• Ritual completion now displays a notification reminding you to spend Tribute before leaving.
• The Currency Exchange now supports Favourite trades and has a toggle button between Stash and Inventory panels.
• Forbidden Tomes now display the area level of the Forbidden Sanctum on their inventory icon.

Currency Exchange gets Favourites

Key Takeaways for Returning Players

If you are coming back for Mirage league after a break, here are the most critical things to internalize quickly:

• Map items are now generic by tier, not area-specific. The Favoured Map system is gone.
• Awakened Support Gems (outside Empower, Enlighten, Enhance) are gone. Build around Exceptional Support Gems instead.
• Harbinger currency (Engineer's Orbs, Harbinger's Orbs, Orbs of Horizons) no longer functions. Do not hold onto them.
• Cartographer's Chisels can no longer be obtained and their quality bonus has been halved.
• Intelligence grants half the Energy Shield bonus it previously did per point. ES builds need to recalculate their defences.
• The Reliquarian Scion Ascendancy changes with each league, making it a flexible but potentially volatile choice.
• Fossils now only drop in Delve, but at much higher rates within the mine.

All patch notes referenced in this guide are sourced from the official Version 3.28.0 patch notes as documented on the Path of Exile Wiki (poewiki.net).