Path of Exile Beginner Guide (3.29): How to Start in Curse of the Allflame

This Path of Exile beginner guide is written for patch 3.29, Curse of the Allflame, and was checked in October 2026 against the live game version (3.29.3b). The league opened on July 24, 2026, so you are joining late, but several 3.29 changes make a first character smoother than older guides suggest. Here is what to do, in order, and what you can safely ignore.

New here? Start with this

Path of Exile is free and has two halves: a ten-act campaign that works as a long tutorial, and an endgame built on maps. Four decisions matter before you press play.

• League. On the character screen choose the Curse of the Allflame banner. GGG's FAQ recommends it because it has a fresh economy and the new content. Standard is the permanent league, and your character is moved there when the challenge league ends.
• Mode. Pick the normal trade league. Hardcore sends a dead character to the non-hardcore version of the league, and Solo Self-Found removes trading. Both are for a later character.
• Build. Follow a written guide from start to finish. Do not invent a passive tree on a first character.
• Class. Whatever the guide says. The Scion no longer needs unlocking in 3.29, but her new Luminary ascendancy depends on a hired mercenary and is a poor first choice.

Pick a build that works with no gear

Maxroll's League Starter Build Tier List (updated September 19, 2026) puts Winter Orb, Kinetic Fusillade Ballista, Smite of Divine Judgement, Poison Ranged Animate Weapons and Storm Burst of Repulsion Totem in its S tier. Three of them are good for a first run because their guides say outright that they need nothing special:

Totems and an auto-targeting orb share one advantage: you can keep moving while your damage happens. That forgives a lot of mistakes.

Zizaran's ten-minute overview of 3.29 is a quick way to see the league before you commit to a class.

The campaign: what matters and what does not

The walkthrough on Maxroll covers every zone, and most of it comes down to a few habits.

1. Run past monsters that are not in your way. The campaign rewards movement, not full clears.
2. Take the Quicksilver Flask from the Mercy Mission quest in Act 1. Movement speed is the most valuable stat while leveling.
3. Keep your elemental resistances up. Maxroll's Winter Orb guide points out that the crafting bench can add a resistance to rings and armour for a single Orb of Transmutation.
4. Check vendors when you level up. Their stock refreshes each time, and Nessa in Act 1 can sell a wand with +1 to gem levels very early.
5. Use the boots recipe if you find none with movement speed: sell normal (white) boots, a Quicksilver Flask and an Orb of Augmentation together to a vendor and you get the boots back with 10% movement speed.

Three 3.29 changes make the acts easier than older videos suggest:

• Sockets are white by default. Any gem fits any socket. A coloured socket only gives a matching gem +10% quality, so you never have to throw away a good item because of its colours.
• A crafting bench stands in every town from Act 2. You no longer wait for your hideout to fix a resistance.
• Mercenaries duel you from Act 3. You wager gold, and if you win, the mercenary fights beside you for up to three areas. The Sceptre of God, The Grand Arena, The Ridge and The Hidden Underbelly always contain one, and since 3.29.1 so do the Control Blocks in Act 10.

If you would rather skip the acts on a second character, that is the one place where paying for help makes sense.

Your first maps

After Kitava in Act 10 you meet Kirac and get a Map Device. Before you open a map, Maxroll's atlas guide lists the minimum: all three elemental resistances at the 75% cap, a flask that removes bleeding, and a way to remove freeze.

Maps come in tiers: white is 1 to 5, yellow is 6 to 10, red is 11 to 16. The rule that new players miss is the completion bonus, which is what gives you Atlas passive points:

• White maps must be magic (use an Orb of Transmutation) when you kill the boss.
• Yellow maps must be rare (use an Orb of Alchemy).
• Red maps must be rare and corrupted (Alchemy, then a Vaal Orb).

If a map's modifiers look dangerous, an Orb of Scouring wipes them so you can roll again.

The league mechanic in one paragraph

While you play you find Lost Charts guarded by monsters. Take them to Valerie on her ship, The Sovereign, and dive to the sea floor. You get seven Allflame Lanterns; each one creates a bubble you can fight and loot in, and green light from a lantern points at nearby loot. After the seventh lantern the bubbles shrink and you return to the diving bell. Nine completed Charts can be joined into one large Voyage. Treat it as bonus loot until you are comfortable in yellow maps.

Is it too late to start in October?

No. The economy is mature, which helps a new player: on October 12, 2026, poe.ninja listed a Divine Orb at roughly 347 Chaos Orbs, and basic crafting currency costs fractions of a Chaos. GGG's announcements forum showed no date for the next expansion when this was checked, and the official ExileCon video places the convention on November 7 and 8 (New Zealand time). Everything you earn moves to Standard when the league closes, so the hours are not lost, and the knowledge carries over to the next league start.

For veterans

If you are returning after a break, these are the campaign and early-map differences that catch people:

• Chromatic Orbs are scarce. Vendors no longer trade them for Jeweller's Orbs, and the old bench recipes for red, green and blue sockets are gone. The bench now guarantees at least two, three or four non-white sockets for 5, 20 and 75 Chromatics.
• Mercenaries no longer count as a party member. They do not raise monster life or item quantity, and outside the Luminary they leave after a set number of areas.
• Reflect is gone. Reflect map modifiers now give rare monsters Physical or Elemental Thorns: a fixed amount of damage per hit, mitigated by your normal defences.
• Faster Attacks and Faster Casting are sold to every class after The Caged Brute and Sharp and Cruel.
• Two new bench options are unlocked from the start: reroll three random modifiers on a rare for 3 Chaos, or one random modifier for 8 Chaos.
• Isla, Niko and Einhar identify items, and there is an optional keybind to return to your hideout.

Sources

• GGG – Content Update 3.29.0 patch notes
• GGG – Curse of the Allflame FAQ
• GGG – Curse of the Allflame Patch Notes 3.29.1 Preview
• GGG – Announcements forum
• Maxroll – Campaign walkthrough
• Maxroll – Atlas progression guide
• Maxroll – League Starter Build Tier List
• Maxroll – Winter Orb Elementalist League Starter
• Maxroll – Storm Burst of Repulsion Totem Hierophant
• Maxroll – 3.29 Curse of the Allflame reveal summary
• poe.ninja – Allflame currency prices
• Zizaran (YouTube) – Everything you need to know about POE 3.29 in less than 10 minutes
• Path of Exile (YouTube) – One Month until ExileCon 2026