Grinding Gear Games’ upcoming Path of Exile 2: Return of the Ancients update, aka 0.5, is the ARPG biggest update yet. Introducing a major endgame overhaul, dozens of new Uniques, and more, there’s a tonne of content for players to play through coming later this month.

As the last major update before the game’s 1.0 release later this year, Grinding Gear Games has packed tonnes of content into the new update. Alongside the aforementioned endgame additions, GGG has introduced a new Build Planner feature, allowing fans to sidestep the game’s labyrinthine skill trees.

With the Build Planner, players will be able to download popular build guides from community websites. With the guides, the planner will then highlight skills those guides suggest, allowing players to quickly invest in meta builds. It’s a major streamlining feature, although not everyone needs to use it, and it’s a feature focused on community.

During a recent Q&A, we asked game director Jonathan Rogers if there will be any official GGG builds. Additionally, there are now plans for players to be able to find builds within the game itself, instead pushing fans to engage with community sites and keep discussion surrounding the game alive.

“I don’t think I’d ever do it in the game, personally,” Rogers explained. “And, for now, we’re actually leaving the actual discovery of builds to the various community websites. We wouldn’t want to come in and replace what they’re doing”.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t want to be the Arbiter of that. We’re there to put the tools [in], the community are there to create the builds.”

Path of Exile 2 lead Jonathan Rogers

Rogers explained that the purpose of the new Build Planner feature is to “make it easier for a player to follow” complex build guides. While Path of Exile 2 is a great game, the complexity of its skill trees has been a long-running joke in the ARPG community, and some players can’t get lost or accidentally select the wrong skills when trying to follow a build guide for the game.

As shown to us, players will be able to download a text document from build guide websites that tells the game what to highlight. However, GGG is working on an API that will allow players to more easily connect their accounts to community offerings to add specific builds to their accounts, and it should be ready for 0.5’s release.

“There will be a system, we didn’t talk about it in the livestream because it isn’t quite ready yet, but there will effectively be a way for a community website to make a button where, when you click it, you subscribe to a build going through our website,” Rogers told us. “That will mean that, on a community build website, you’ll be able to click a button and then the build will just appear in the game client for you to select from, essentially allowing whatever third-party websites that want to be able to make those kind of guides make a one-click solution for any of that.”

Rogers explained that this one-click solution is incredibly important for console players who can’t add text files to their games. “Console players obviously can’t download files so they need a way to do it through the website,” he said.

While GGG is allowing the community to create these build guides and connect directly to the game, the team doesn’t want to dictate what builds should be. With this in mind, GGG will not be releasing official build guides within the game, which would essentially give players a golden path to follow. Instead, it’s up to the community to dictate the path forward.

“It’s actually something that I’m not keen to do because I believe this is more of a community thing. It’s not on us to decide what’s good. And, honestly, I wouldn’t want to be the Arbiter of that. We’re there to put the tools [in], the community are there to create the builds,” he said. 

Rogers explained that there could, one day, be a “ladder on the website”, showing what builds are most used or most loved. However, adding in official developer-chosen builds into the game for players to follow is simply not something the team wants to do.

Path of Exile 2’s Build Planner launches alongside the game’s 0.5 update on May 29, 2026.