Path of Exile 2: Soul Cores redistributed in 0.5.5 — 17 new ones with unpublished effects, 18 revised, and 8 capped at one copy

Since Friday, September 4, 2026 at 10 p.m., Paris time, Path of Exile 2 has been running on update 0.5.5 and its event league Forbidden Rites, a name Grinding Gear Games keeps in English even in its French-language communications.

Behind the league, a less spectacular undertaking takes up eighteen lines of the patch notes: the Soul Cores, those artifacts that are socketed into a weapon or piece of armor to graft an effect onto it. The studio revises 18 of them, caps 8 at a single copy, and the Steam announcement accompanying the notes adds 17 new ones for which it publishes no effect at all.

Vocabulary first, since it governs everything that follows. The French client names these items Noyaux d'âme, describes them as "artifacts from the ancient Vaal empire" and files them under the category Augmentation. Their distinctive trait: the same core does not grant the same effect depending on the socket it is placed in — Martial Weapon, Armor Piece, Helmets, Boots, Gloves, Focus, Bows. One core, two lines, two slots: that is the key to reading the tables.

Seventeen names, and not a single value

First surprise: the 17 new Soul Cores do not appear in the patch notes. They exist only in the "Item Filter Information" block of the Steam announcement from September 2, 2026, a list of names for loot filters, classified as "Item class: Augment".

Thirteen bear the name Jiquani: Automation, Malediction, Targeting, Rallying, Radiance, Severing, Rippling, Quaking, Munitions, Snares, Abundance, Squalls and Thundering. The last four inaugurate a family name absent from every existing Soul Core, Atziri: Devotion, Vitality, Alacrity and Inoculation.

No effect line, no required level, no drop source: the studio publishes nothing beyond these seventeen names. The only clue to their origin lies in a box on the official infographic, titled "New Endgame Soul Cores": endgame content, then, and not the campaign.

The limit of 1, the change that breaks the most builds

Eight Soul Cores receive the same note, word for word: "now has a Limit of 1". These are Jiquani, Opiloti, Puhuarte, Ticaba, Topotante, Tzamoto, Xopec and Zalatl, the eight base versions and not their named variants. The notes do not specify the scope of the cap; the only items in the family that already carried one, the four Theses, display "Limited to: 1 Ancient Augment", which the French client renders as "Maximum de : 1 Augmentation antique".

Who escapes it? Tacati and Citaqualotl, even though both are revalued, as well as Atmohua, Cholotl and Zantipi, whose prerequisite conversion doubles without the slightest trade-off.

The numerical revaluations

French labels recorded in the client's strings on Sunday, September 6, 2026; values on the right taken from the English patch notes.

The ten lines that change in nature

Here's the real trap in the patch notes: the studio slips replacements of effects into the same sentences as simple percentage adjustments. A hasty reader will see "40%" where their core has actually changed jobs.

Two readings stand out, and these are ours, not statements from the studio. Tacati and Opiloti shift from a chance to apply an ailment to amplifying it: the core no longer triggers anything on its own, you need to bring a source of chance from elsewhere. And Puhuarte changes target, since it no longer boosts Ignite Chance but Ignite itself.

What your French client isn't showing yet

Grinding Gear Games publishes its 0.5.5 patch notes only in English, and the public record of the client's strings is still stuck at the 0.5.4 state: checked on Sunday, September 6, 2026, it still shows 2%, 3%, and 20% where the patch announces 5%, 5%, and 50%. The French labels in this article are therefore the old ones, with the new numbers. The 17 new names, meanwhile, have no French label at all, and we won't be inventing any.

One correction is needed, however, against the English-language lists: Jiquani's Thesis Soul Core does have a French name, it's Thèse de Jiquani. Last tally: the French record counted 34 Soul Cores before 0.5.5, including 4 "Thesis of..." ones. The 17 additions bring the total to 51 — our count, not a figure from the studio.

In practice

First check for duplicates: if you're carrying two Jiquani, two Ticaba, or two Zalatl, one of the two no longer counts. Then reread the replaced lines rather than the percentages — an Opiloti socketed into a weapon for its Bleeding chance no longer does its job.

The best trade-offs of the bunch are elsewhere: Ticaba goes from 20 to 50% reduction to Critical Damage Bonus taken, Tzamoto doubles its Freeze Buildup, and the three prerequisite converters — Atmohua, Cholotl, Zantipi — go from 20 to 40% with no limit in return. As for the seventeen newcomers, you'll have to pick them up to find out what they're worth: the studio has only published their names, so that loot filters can be ready.