Path of Exile‘s 3.30 expansion, Covens of Umbra, removes Scarabs from the endgame and replaces them with a new system called Threads of Creation, Grinding Gear Games revealed at its ExileCon 2026 keynote on Friday, November 6. The studio’s Covens of Umbra announcement on Steam also details the new league and a fully rebuilt Atlas passive tree, ahead of the November 13 launch.
The Details
The league. Covenites are performing rites to summon their Queen. Beat them and you choose a Fate for the boss of the area you are in, and each Fate adds a handful of effects that raise both the difficulty and the rewards. A Fate-empowered boss drops Viscera, which you place on your own Wickerman to claim a scrap of its power. Grim Fates do the same for the hardest bosses on the Atlas, in pursuit of Pinnacle Boss Viscera.
Scarabs are gone. Threads of Creation go directly into the Map Device. Each one applies a league mechanic of your choice to the map while raising monster rarity and difficulty, and every extra thread spent raises the chance of random powerful effects on that mechanic.
The Atlas tree is new. GGG calls it “completely refreshed,” with a new layout and dozens of new wheels, stats and effects, many of them taken from Scarabs and now guaranteed through the tree.
Older leagues change too. Mirages return, spawning randomly in Maps or as a rollable Map modifier. Killing a Beyond boss no longer stops Beyond portals from spawning, and sometimes a slain Beyond boss opens a portal to its own realm. The Sacred Grove no longer appears in Maps, replaced by tangled roots you can modify with currency. Gwennen now gambles on your own items, and Atziri moves into the Temple of Atzoatl, displacing the Vaal Omnitect.
GGG also promises a “massive loot rework,” fundamental changes to how loot drops, but the announcement gives no specifics yet.
What This Means for Players
Scarab-based farming strategies end at 3.30. Anything built around stacking Scarabs has to move to Threads and the new tree, so wait for the patch notes before committing currency. Our 3.30 league starter builds guide lists safe archetypes in the meantime.
Harvest farmers lose the Grove in Maps. The tangled roots replace it, and the announcement does not yet say what they yield.
Finish your Allflame goals now. Curse of the Allflame ends before launch, as our guide to when Curse of the Allflame ends explains, and our 3.30 release time guide converts the launch for every region. Every guide for both games is on our Path of Exile hub.
When and Where
Path of Exile: Covens of Umbra launches free on November 13 (PST) on every platform the game is on, PC and consoles alike. GGG has the expansion’s official page up now.
Source: Grinding Gear Games, “Path of Exile: Covens of Umbra Releases on November 13 PST!” on Steam and its ExileCon 2026 Announcements, November 6, 2026.