Here’s where all that manipulation can pay off from taoaxue's blog

The Syndicate can take action against you, too, like showing up during boss fights to sabotage you when you’re most vulnerable. It’s here that the interpersonal relationships of the Syndicate also play a factor, as sometimes two members who are friends might show up to double-team you. But, again, things can get even more complicated. Wilson explains that it’s quite possible to have one Syndicate member try to ambush you only to, in turn, become a victim of an ambush from another rival Syndicate member. All of this is represented on the Syndicate corkboard, where players can keep track of individual relationships, rankings, and other modifiers that govern each of the dozen or so Syndicate members POE currency trade .

Like Path of Exile’s other leagues, the ultimate goal here is to manipulate these systems to score the best possible loot. As players manipulate and exploit, they’ll earn intel that eventually reveals the location of safehouses associated with each of the four branches of the Syndicate. These special zones are full of regular monsters and treasures, but also contain living quarters for each member of the Immortal Syndicate who belongs to that specific branch.

Here’s where all that manipulation can pay off: Each member of the Syndicate has a specific type of item you’ll find in their living quarters, but the branch they currently belong to will influence how that item is randomly generated. So, for example, one Syndicate member might specialize in amulets. If I manipulate them into a position of power in the Research division of the Syndicate, where item modifiers can be highly experimental—sometimes amazing and sometimes awful—I can guarantee I’ll get amulets with some zany abilities that might end up being obscenely powerful.

“Each of the different branches has their own specialty in terms of the types of items you can get, and each individual person in the syndicate has their own specialty in terms of the base item type,” Wilson says. “There’s a guy who will always drop bows, for example.” The idea, then, is to manipulate the members who have items that you need into branches of the Syndicate that will modify those items in beneficial ways.

If that sounds complicated, well, it is. And that’s just the beginning too. Betrayal will also introduce Veiled Mods, which are a fun twist on identifying items. Now, even some individual modifiers will need to be identified, and when you do, you'll get to choose between three different mods to roll with. Along with four new masters replacing the old ones, the entire crafting system has been overhauled as well—which I won’t go into here because it could take another three articles to fully explain all the implications and complexities. Betrayal will also add new skills, an overhaul to player’s personal hideouts, and more. Like I said, it’s a big expansion POE currency buy .