Path of Exile 3.29: crab nests disappear and loot climbs by 40% — what the rebalancing changes for your farming

If you found the league mechanic of Curse of the Allflame disappointing since its launch on July 24, you weren't alone, and Grinding Gear Games has acknowledged it. The studio has published a list of rebalances that gets to the heart of the problem: the lantern was too often pointing toward worthless items.

A methodological note before getting into the details, because it applies to this entire guide. The terms of the 3.29 league mechanic — Chart, Voyage, Allflame Lantern, Ducat and the others — have no confirmed French label to date. We're therefore keeping them in English rather than having you search in-game for names we would have invented. The base terms of Path of Exile, on the other hand, are indeed those of the French client.

The real problem: a lantern that pointed at anything

The league's principle relies on indicators that signal to you the items to pick up in Chart and Voyage zones. On paper, it's a loot guide. In practice, it pointed at anything and everything.

GGG is tackling the problem from both ends.

First, by removing the noise. Low-value items — soothing coral, crab nests — will no longer be flagged by lantern indicators. And crab nests themselves will become much rarer.

Second, by adding signal. Currency, scarab, Stacked Deck, and card chests are becoming much more frequent among scattered items — and the announcement specifies that the gain far exceeds simple compensation for the rarefaction of crab nests.

There's a design lesson in there: the problem wasn't the amount of loot, it was the signal-to-noise ratio. An indicator that points to coral teaches you to ignore indicators.

Between 20 and 40% more items, and modifiers revalued by the same amount

Two figures to remember, and they stack.

The number of collectible items that lanterns can point to increases by 20 to 40% in Charts and Voyages, depending on the Charts used.

The Quantity and Rarity values granted by Chart modifiers also increase by 20 to 40%.

These two effects don't add up, they multiply: more items to collect, each drawn from a more generous loot table. Over a full session, the gap with the current situation will be significantly greater than what the percentages suggest when taken separately.

A targeted change is added to this: Golden Lanterns will grant increased item Quantity on slain monsters. This is a change in nature — the lantern will no longer just indicate where to look, it will also improve what enemies drop.

Chests that no longer require preparation

Here's the change that saves the most time, and it concerns meta-progression.

Until now, making Diviner, Arcanist, or Operative type strongboxes appear in Charts and Voyages required collecting upgrade coins to hand over to Vesper. That's over: these chests will now appear by default above zone level 67.

In the same vein, Ducats crafting will unlock much earlier: three upgrades turned in to Vesper will be enough, instead of five.

The practical consequence is significant for anyone starting a character now. The whole phase where you had to farm upgrades before being able to enjoy the mechanic — the infamous "onboarding ramp" that caused a portion of players to drop off in the first two weeks — is noticeably shortened. If you had abandoned the league because you felt the mechanic took too long to become interesting, that is precisely the complaint being addressed here.

Easier Voyages to build

Another expected fix: Dead End and Straight Line type Charts will become less frequent than other types, in order to make building Voyages simpler.

It's a discreet adjustment, but one that changes the comfort of play. A stock saturated with dead ends and straight lines mechanically prevents you from assembling a coherent route, and turns planning into tedious sorting. Many players interpreted this frustration as personal bad luck: it was in fact a poorly calibrated distribution.

GGG is adding a convenience that goes in the same direction: it will become possible to open the Voyage board of the current Voyage, to see where you stand. This may seem trivial, but anyone who has tried to follow a five-step route from memory will understand.

What will arrive later, and why

A technical distinction deserves mention, because it determines when you'll see these changes.

Most of the adjustments above can be deployed live. However, GGG specifies that a new chest, Sunken Opulence, can only arrive with a patch requiring a server restart. The same applies to the addition of certain missing currencies to the league's crafting, notably ancient orbs and orbs of chance.

In other words, don't be too quick to conclude that the changes aren't applied if you don't see Sunken Opulence appear.

Should you start a character now?

Three situations, three answers.

You're playing the league actively. Don't change your farming strategy, but stop spending your upgrade coins to unlock vault spawns: this expense will become unnecessary above zone level 67. Save them for Ducats crafting, which will unlock at three upgrades.

You dropped the league after two weeks. This is the best time to come back. The two main complaints — the overly long onboarding ramp and disappointing mechanic loot — are the ones being fixed. Come back with an existing character rather than leveling a new one: the mechanic becomes profitable earlier, but it remains level 67-plus content.

You're torn between Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2. The schedule settles it fairly well. 3.29 is in active fix mode, with changes arriving continuously. Path of Exile 2, meanwhile, is waiting for its 0.5.5 on an unannounced date, with a reveal expected on August 25. If you want to play now rather than wait, PoE 1 is the one getting attention right now.

A final word on reading these announcements

This GGG post falls under the "what we're working on" category, not patch notes. The studio is announcing intentions here, some of which it itself states will require a restart.

Translation: the percentages quoted may shift before the actual rollout. They point in a direction — more loot, less noise, less preparation — and that direction is clear. Just check the final patch notes before building an entire farming strategy around one exact figure.