The next update to longtime free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile will feature farmsteads and city-building elements, giving the game that survival crafting element that’s all the rage these days in PC gaming.

Path of Exile’s 3.25 update is called Settlers of Kalguur, which lets you build a town in a new area called King’s March. While the initial area is just a tavern and a small farm, you can build mines, smithies, harbours, and more to make King’s March flourish.

You’ll also be able to hire people to do all the mining/commerce/busywork for you; all they need is gold, which the Season will drop tons of for the sake of hiring and construction. You’ll need to farm special resources in blighted areas and find mineral veins guarded by demons to expand, get more resources, or just expand. Workers you hire will gather resources under a timer, just like most free-to-play games do. You can even build new shops and buildings that give you access to classic features like weapon-fusing, or new ones like Black Market where you can use your gold to buy random weapons (think Diablo’s gambling system).

If you invest in the King’s March city-building aspects long enough, you’ll get invaded by three special bosses exclusive to the Season. You can either cut a deal with them so they don’t kidnap your workers, or just kick their asses. The fights will be tough, but they drop awesome loot exclusive to the Season.

How soon can you access this mode? Pretty quick once you start the new Season, according to the developers. Once you’ve gone past the tutorial (the Strand) and reached your first town hub, you should be able to access the city-building and capitalism mechanics. Grinding Gear Games wants this season to be accessible to new and old players. Yes, Path of Exile is still tougher than most action RPGs, but the city-building and town management aspects will at least be another goal players can reach and complete, and eventually get better gear from all the simulation busywork.

Frankly, I’m just as surprised as everyone that it took Grinding Gear Games this long to add in town-building and survival simulation aspects in its long-running action RPG. While they are shades of V Rising and Valheim (both action RPGs with city-building and simulation aspects), Settlers of Kalguur isn’t a direct inspiration from those survival titles.  Game director & leads Mark Roberts and Jonathan Rogers told Kakuchopurei they were talking about getting new ideas for PoE expansions and “city building” came to mind, even to the point where they were asking themselves “how have we not done this already?!” With every League, Mark and Jonathan’s team wanted to push the boundaries and bring in an “X Factor” to make them unique and stand out; city building is definitely the core appeal of the next expansion.

There’s More

Not only is Path of Exile getting city-building and management, but also a boatload of balance changes, updates, and quality-of-life upgrades born from community feedback and long-overdue requests. For one, the Gladiator Ascendency class is getting a massive overhaul. The Gladiator will get loads of attack speed and damage buffs, as well as good bonuses for dual-wielding.

The Raider Ascendancy class is replaced with the superior Warden, who uses Elemental attacks for special bonuses. This means Shock and Freeze will give Wardens attack bonuses, as well as buff them up to crazy heights. Ignite effects will also be upgraded to the more effective Scorch. Wardens can also specialize in using Tinctures, which are special flasks that buff up their Elemental bonuses moreso than any consumable, at the cost of burning through your mana. All classes can use these, but Wardens can use additional Tinctures at one time if they have enough points allocated to that part of the Ascendancy tree.

In addition, the expansion will update melee attacks so that they’re more effective this Season. Below you’ll find common melee gem skills that buffed up.

Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur will also add more to the endgame. This means more Scarabs for map modifiers, additional map device slots, new special encounters like the Nameless Seer, new updates to Leagues, and the return of fan-favourite Affliction League mechanics and stages like the Wildwood.

This is the biggest Path of Exile expansion in a long while, with Mark saying that they’ve learned a lot from past expansions, especially with Necropolis. Past Leagues did not feel that rewarding and even had economical exploits, so it sounds like this 3.25 update may fix all of that, or at least mitigate most of it so that the game feels fresh and accessible, but still tough overall. At the very least, you won’t be going through difficult hoops to get to the King’s March portions.

The Path of Exile: Settlers of Kalguur expansion will be out on 27 July 4am GMT+8 for PC and consoles.