Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients Brings a Grenade Launcher and a Teleporting Shield
Sep-24-2026 PST
What Is Return of the Ancients in Path of Exile 2?
Grinding Gear Games is steadily teasing content for Path of Exile 2's upcoming 0.5.0 patch, and the newest reveal centers on two unusual unique items arriving with Return of the Ancients. Game director Mark Roberts stepped in personally to showcase both items, which VPEsports describes as unusual even by the standards the series has set over the years (VPEsports).
Return of the Ancients is scheduled for May 29, 2026, and VPEsports calls it the biggest Path of Exile 2 update since The Last of the Druids launched in December 2025. The patch adds a new league, two new Ascendancy classes, 15 new bosses, and more than 40 new unique items.
According to the same report, GGG has confirmed that Return of the Ancients is the final full-scale update before Path of Exile 2 officially exits Early Access and launches as version 1.0. At that point the game goes free-to-play and the missing campaign acts finally arrive.
How Does the Nightfall Shield Work?
The first teased unique is Nightfall, a Breach shield tied to Breachlord Tul. According to VPEsports, it plays less like a defensive tool and more like a gap-closing weapon, built for players who would rather charge into a pack of enemies than wait at the back.
The item's mechanics follow a distinct sequence. You throw the shield forward, and it flies out and hits enemies in its path. If you do nothing, it returns to you automatically. If you reactivate the skill while the shield is still airborne, your character teleports to it and delivers a devastating downward strike. Catching the shield or shattering ice crystals resets the cooldown entirely.
According to the developers, with good timing you can chain these actions back to back and, in their words, essentially become an unstoppable avalanche. That description frames Nightfall as an aggressive, momentum-driven playstyle rather than a traditional defensive shield (VPEsports).
What Makes Redemption a New Kind of Weapon?
The second unique is Redemption, described by VPEsports as a Terat weapon of absolute destruction. It is a crossbow at its base, but it refuses to behave like any crossbow currently in Path of Exile 2: standard ammunition skills simply do not work with it.
Instead, Redemption is built entirely around grenades. Once you have caused enough chaos on the battlefield, its true potential unlocks. Grenade skill cooldowns are bypassed entirely, fire rate increases dramatically, and mixing different grenade types pushes damage even further.
VPEsports characterizes the result as a grenade launcher — a weapon type rarely seen in ARPGs and almost never executed with this level of mechanical depth. Notably, GGG built a completely new base item type specifically for Redemption, one that did not exist in the game before this patch. Both Nightfall and Redemption will drop as high-level uniques, meaning players will need to earn them rather than receive them early (VPEsports).
Nightfall vs. Redemption: Which Playstyle Suits You?
Both items reward active, hands-on play, but they express it differently. Here is how the two teased uniques compare, based on the details VPEsports reported:
| Item | Type | Core Mechanic | Reward Loop | Playstyle Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nightfall | Breach shield (Breachlord Tul) | Throw, recall, or teleport-strike | Catch or shatter ice to reset cooldown | Melee-minded, momentum-driven |
| Redemption | Terat crossbow (new base type) | Grenades replace ammo skills | Chaos unlocks cooldown bypass and fire rate | Ranged, chaos-stacking |
Nightfall's loop is physical and rhythmic: throw, decide, and either recall or commit to the teleport strike. Redemption's loop is about building battlefield chaos until its grenade-focused potential unlocks. Neither item is confirmed to suit a particular class or build in the supplied coverage, so players will need to experiment once the patch goes live.
What Else Arrives in Patch 0.5.0?
The two teased uniques are, in VPEsports' phrasing, just a small slice of everything arriving on May 29, 2026. The reported contents of Return of the Ancients include:
- New league: Runes of Aldur
- New Ascendancy classes: Spirit Walker for the Huntress and Martial Artist for the Monk
- New bosses: 15 total, including 4 Pinnacle fights
- Endgame content: More than 50 hours
- New unique items: More than 40
With 15 bosses, four of them Pinnacle encounters, and an endgame measured in dozens of hours, the patch positions itself as a substantial content drop rather than a routine league refresh. The report does not detail how the new Ascendancies function, so their mechanics remain unannounced in the supplied coverage.
When Does Path of Exile 2 Version 1.0 Launch?
Return of the Ancients is the last major Early Access update before Path of Exile 2 transitions to version 1.0. According to VPEsports, GGG has confirmed the 1.0 launch will take the game free-to-play and deliver the missing campaign acts.
A later Wccftech report covering the ARPG release calendar gives the 1.0 launch a specific date: December 11. Wccftech notes the date while discussing Titan Quest II's January 19, 2027 launch, stating that Path of Exile II's 1.0 launch lands on December 11, barely five weeks before Titan Quest II arrives, and that the free-to-play launch will pull significant attention over the holidays (Wccftech).
In short, the supported timeline runs from patch 0.5.0 on May 29, 2026, to the version 1.0 launch on December 11, after which Path of Exile 2 exits Early Access entirely.
How Does the ARPG Release Calendar Look Around 1.0?
Path of Exile 2's 1.0 launch sits inside a crowded stretch of ARPG releases. Titan Quest II, from developer Grimlore Games and publisher THQ Nordic, exits early access on January 19, 2027 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S and X, priced at $49.99 on PC and $59.99 on consoles.
Wccftech frames that date as carefully chosen: it gives Titan Quest II a few clear weeks before the late-January-to-March 2027 release window gets crowded, while acknowledging that Path of Exile II's free-to-play 1.0 launch on December 11 — barely five weeks earlier — will absorb a lot of the ARPG audience's attention over the holidays.
The report also distinguishes the two games' appeals, describing Titan Quest II as more approachable, built around a classic dual-mastery system rather than an enormous passive tree, and aimed at lapsed fans of the 2006 original as much as genre veterans. For Path of Exile 2 players, the practical takeaway is simple: version 1.0's December 11 date is the milestone that ends the Early Access era.
FAQ
When does Path of Exile 2's Return of the Ancients patch release?
Return of the Ancients, patch 0.5.0, is scheduled for May 29, 2026, according to VPEsports' coverage of the announcement.
What are the two new unique items in patch 0.5.0?
They are Nightfall, a Breach shield tied to Breachlord Tul with a teleport-strike mechanic, and Redemption, a grenade-focused Terat crossbow built on an entirely new base item type. Standard ammunition skills do not work with Redemption.
How do you reset Nightfall's cooldown?
Catching the shield or shattering ice crystals resets the cooldown entirely, which the developers say enables chained back-to-back uses with good timing.
Is Return of the Ancients the last Early Access update?
Yes. GGG has confirmed it is the final full-scale update before Path of Exile 2 launches as version 1.0, at which point the game goes free-to-play and the missing campaign acts arrive. Wccftech reports the 1.0 date as December 11.
Which new Ascendancy classes arrive with the patch?
The patch adds Spirit Walker for the Huntress and Martial Artist for the Monk, alongside the Runes of Aldur league and 15 new bosses including 4 Pinnacle fights.