Path of Exile Covens of Umbra Launches Free on November 13
Grinding Gear Games' next Path of Exile 1 expansion adds a new challenge league and endgame changes, and Curse of the Allflame ends first on November 9.
Grinding Gear Games will release Path of Exile 1: Covens of Umbra on November 13, 2026 (Pacific time), and says the expansion is free to play on PC and consoles. The studio confirmed the date in a forum announcement on November 1, 2026, ahead of its ExileCon 2026 keynote on November 6.
In its ExileCon 2026 announcements post, published November 6, Grinding Gear Games describes Covens of Umbra as a November expansion in which players disrupt dark magic and end the Coven Queen's witchcraft. It lists a new challenge league, a set of fundamental endgame changes, improvements to existing endgame systems and new unique items. A trailer and an announcement page at pathofexile.com/covens accompany the post.
The expansion is free on all available platforms
Grinding Gear Games says players can play Covens of Umbra for free on November 13 (PST) across all available platforms. The studio has not published a launch hour in the posts we reviewed, so the exact moment servers open is not yet known. The Path of Exile 1 expansion is separate from Path of Exile 2, which has its own schedule.
Curse of the Allflame ends first on November 9
The current league, Curse of the Allflame, ends at 1 p.m. PST on Monday, November 9, 2026, according to the Path of Exile 1 3.30 expansion timeline that Grinding Gear Games posted on October 12. That is 9 p.m. UTC and 4 p.m. ET. When it was posted, the timeline said several weeks remained to finish challenges, and the studio recalled announcing during the Q&A after the 3.29 livestream that 3.30 would launch this year.
Path of Exile 2 follows on December 11
The same ExileCon post says Path of Exile 2 goes free to play on December 11 (PST) with Acts 5 and 6, the new Shadow and Duelist classes, a new endgame storyline and the Conquerors of Wraeclast challenge league. We covered the details in our report on the free-to-play date and version 1.0.
At the time of writing, Grinding Gear Games has not published patch notes for Covens of Umbra, and the posts reviewed here give no league mechanic details, item names or balance changes beyond the summary above.