“Each of the different branches has their own specialty in terms of the types of items you can get, and each individual person in the syndicate has their own specialty in terms of the base item type POE currency trade ,” Wilson says. “There’s a guy who will always drop bows, for example.” The idea, then, is to manipulate the members who have items that you need into branches of the Syndicate that will modify those items in beneficial ways.

If that sounds complicated, well, it is. And that’s just the beginning too. Betrayal will also introduce Veiled Mods, which are a fun twist on identifying items. Now, even some individual modifiers will need to be identified, and when you do, you'll get to choose between three different mods to roll with. Along with four new masters replacing the old ones, the entire crafting system has been overhauled as well—which I won’t go into here because it could take another three articles to fully explain all the implications and complexities. Betrayal will also add new skills, an overhaul to player’s personal hideouts, and more. Like I said, it’s a big expansion.

Path of Exile: Betrayal will launch on December 7 and will be free. You can read more here.

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By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.Path of Exile's free Betrayal expansion lets you play detective today

Path of Exile: Betrayal, the ARPG’s latest expansion, is out today. It’s a massive free update that reworks old leagues into the main game, introduces a new roster of masters and new missions, unifies hideouts, adds new skills and fattens up your dungeon delves with new maps.

The big attraction is the Immortal Syndicate. This naughty group of scum and villains is doing necromancy crimes—oh no!—which they really shouldn’t be allowed to do. To stop them, you’ll need to POE currency  hunt down members from the organisation’s four divisions and ruin their plans. What you do after you defeat them is where the new system becomes really interesting.