Delve league

"Left untouched for over 250 years, the Azurite Mine has been consumed by a malevolent darkness that cast out the Eternal Empire. Niko, an inventor, has harnessed the power of Voltaxic Sulphite to create a machine called the Crawler that can pierce the darkness. Delve into the mine but don't leave the Crawler's light for long or you'll be crushed by the darkness."

- Description on the official Path of Exile website

The Delve league and Hardcore Delve league were challenge leagues. They launched on August 31, 2018 and ended December 3, 2018.

The league adds an infinitely scaling dungeon called the Azurite Mine. You can find deposits of Voltaxic Sulphite in a zone, which Niko the Mad will collect to power his Crawler, which is used to guide the player in the Delve through the deadly darkness. Each Delve can contain items or Azurite, which can be used to upgrade your equipment and items to help in future Delves. Delves can contain special biomes, boss encounters, and socketable currency items which influence the types of mods created on an item.

All characters and stashes were moved to the Standard league and Hardcore league respectively when the leagues end. Characters that die in the Hardcore Delve league are immediately moved to the permanent Standard league.

Modifiers
All areas have:

Minimap
These new icons are introduced to the minimap:

Items
These items are exclusive to the Delve leagues:

Unique items
These items are exclusive to area with Delve league flag active to drop as a world drop:

These items are exclusive to the 3 bosses of Delve league, which now part of the core game:

These items are exclusive to vendor recipe from above items:

These items are exclusive to 's boss:

Challenges and rewards
The Delve leagues include 40 optional challenges. Completing them awards the following microtransactions:

Version history

 * Introduced to the game.
 * }