Path of Exile Patch 3.20.1 has added new Relics for the Forbidden Sanctum

With Patch 3.20.1, Path of Exile has added two new treasures to the Forbidden Sanctum – Unique Relics sure to test even the most potent adventurers! These rules enable characters level 80 and up with exclusive rewards for conquering this challenging area, including rare items dropped by bosses along your journey.

Experienced Path of Exile players now have a thrilling new challenge to take on: using an all-powerful Unique Relic, they must defeat the Herald of Scourge at area level 80+ for tantalizing rewards! The Rare Ring may be yours if successful, and Aureus Coins can even convert into “lucky results” upon victory. Beware – failure means that you’ll have to wait until your next attempt before obtaining another relic. Will luck be in your favor?

With the newest update, players can now take advantage of 41 new currency items called “Lycia’s Invocation” which will allow them to power up their non-Corrupted Sanctified Relics with special Keystones. Additionally, combatants close to a target in Sanctum will be relieved from hefty Resolve damage – perfect for those who prefer an aggressive play style!

3.20.1 Patch Notes

This patch introduces new Sanctum content, improvements to the current Kirac’s Vault Pass and adds support for the 2023 Core Supporter Packs as detailed in our news post last week. It also contains a variety of improvements and bug fixes to both Sanctum and non-Sanctum content, and some buffs to the modifiers applied to Blighted Maps through anointing them with Oils.

Sanctum Updates and Improvements

• Introduced 7 new Unique Relics that drop from the final form of the Sanctum Boss. These Relics challenge you to complete an entire run of The Forbidden Sanctum at area level 80+ under special rules. If you’re able to complete such a run, you’ll be rewarded in new and special ways. However, the Unique Relic will be destroyed regardless of the outcome of your run, so if you fail to complete it, you’ll forfeit your potential rewards.
• Some of these Unique Relics cause the Herald of the Scourge to drop additional or specific items, while others causes Aureus Coins to be converted to certain outcomes upon defeating the Herald of the Scourge.
• We’ve also introduced a new Unique Ring that can be earned by defeating the Herald of the Scourge with one of the new Unique Relics active.
• Introduced 41 new “Lycia’s Invocation” currency items. These can be applied to non-Corrupted Sanctified Relics to add their respective Keystone to the Relic.
• Boons and Afflictions that provide increases and reductions to the effect of your Relics now specify that they do not affect Unique Relics.
• Characters that are up close to their target now take even less damage to their Resolve.
• Sanctum Quests are no longer hidden with the “Enable Quest Tracking” option disabled. We’ve also made improvements to these Quests to reduce the chance they are missed when first entering the relevant town area.
• Party Members are now able to view the Map of the area owner’s Sanctum, if they currently have a run active.
• Party members can now store a Sanctum room for later when the map owner runs their Sanctum room for the area.
• The Resolve bar now flashes when you heal or damage your Resolve.
• Added a display to show which Affliction was removed when you cleansed an Affliction.
• The Sanctified Relic Slot has been moved from the Sanctum Map and is now located in the Inventory panel.
• Sanctified Relics can now be compared with your equipped one by using the Compare Item Descriptions keybind (Ctrl, by default).
• The wave skill used by the final form of the Sanctum Boss now spawns far fewer lightning bolts with each wave, though the lightning bolts are slightly larger. The delay between each wave has also been slightly increased.
• You can no longer gain a new multi-stage Boon or Affliction, such as Lilting Melody, if you already have a later stage of that same Boon or Affliction.
• The Hungry Fangs Affliction and Wooden Effigy Boon now impact Resolve multiplicatively, instead of being additive with stats that impact resolve on Relics.
• Tweaked the position of the skulls that fire tracking beams in the third floor of the Sanctum.
• Updated the Prayer Beads Boon to clarify Resolve is able to be lost after the next room has been completed.

Other Improvements

• Added support for the new Core Supporter Packs.
• Added five more microtransactions to Kirac’s Vault Pass in the form of these additional mystery boxes from Path of Exile’s past: Warlord, Polaris, Twilight, Harmony and Sin/Innocence.
• Huck now brings along his Rogue Equipment when accompanying you in Maps.
• Significantly increased the experience gained from killing Metamorph Monsters.
• You can no longer animation-cancel Vaal Venom Gyre, Vaal Volcanic Fissure, Vaal Blade Flurry, Vaal Caustic Arrow and Vaal Molten Strike before the point in the animation that damage is dealt.
  The Balance of Terror Unique Jewel no longer has a level requirement.
• Completing the Mastermind’s Lair now awards credit towards the Suspicious Syndicate challenge.
  Updated one component of the Complete Harbinger Encounters challenge to “Use any Harbinger, Ancient or Fracturing Orb”, instead of just Fracturing Orb.
• Updated various descriptions of conditional modifiers, such as the increased Damage against Ignited Enemies modifier on Gang’s Momentum, to clarify the kinds of damage they can apply to.
• Updated the “Cycling Resistances” monster modifier text to “Cycling Damage Reduction” as it is more accurate.
• The Cartographer Divination Card has received new flavour text.

Blight Atlas Passive Changes

• The Blight Atlas Passives that provided your Maps with Blight Encounters a chance to contain an additional Blight Encounter have irreconcilable issues that result in areas with two Blight Encounters failing to generate reliably, so we have replaced these stats.
• The small Atlas Passives now provide “5% chance on Completing your Maps to gain a free use of the Blight Map Crafting Option.”
• The small Atlas Passive at the entry of this cluster that provided your maps a +4% chance to contain a Blight Encounter now provides “Lanes of Blight Encounters in your Maps have 5% chance for an additional Reward Chest” and “2% chance on Completing your Maps to gain a free use of the Blight Map Crafting Option.”
• The Mycelial Swarm Notable Atlas Passive now provides “Blight Map Crafting Option is always available” and “50% reduced cost of the Blight Map Crafting Option.”