The May 1, 2025, item changes in Path of Exile 2 bring significant updates that affect item rarity, boss drop protections, chest tweaks, and more. Here's a breakdown of the key changes:

Item Rarity Changes

Normal Items Drop Changes:

Normal Path of Exile 2 items will no longer drop from Unique Bosses, except for select early-game encounters.

Rare Gold Drops:

The amount of Rare Gold has been halved, and instead, players will see more Rare Equipment or Rare Currency from drops. Gold piles are now twice as large to maintain the same average gold rewards.

Gold, Magic Currency, Quality Currency, Flasks, Charms, and Runes:

The likelihood of these items dropping from high item rarity monsters has been reduced.

These changes lead to an approximately 20-30% increase in the drop rate of Rare Path of Exile 2 Currency (e.g., Exalt, Alch, Regal, etc.).

Tier 2 Rares:

Tier 2 Rares now drop 4x more often.

Tiers 3-5 will drop 30% more often, with their mods improving by removing lower-tier mods, making them more useful for crafting.

Tiered Magic Items:

Tier 2+ Magic items now drop 5x more often.

Tier 2 now culls 50% of the mod range, improving the quality of magic items for crafting or recombination. Tier 5 Magic items now typically roll only the highest mod for each item type.

Unique Boss Drop Protection

All Unique Bosses (except for a few early Act 1 ones) now always drop Rare items.

In campaign mode, players receive a guaranteed Rare item from a boss only the first time they kill it. In maps, this is guaranteed each time.

Azmerian Wisps now always drop a Rare item. A bug that caused the first Wisp in Grelwood to miss item rarity/quantity stats has been fixed.

Chest and Strongbox Changes

Magic Chests:

Magic Chests now guarantee a Magic item and have drastically increased Item Rarity and Quantity.

They are approximately as rewarding as Rare chests were previously.

Rare Chests:

Rare Chests now also guarantee a Rare item and have significantly increased Item Rarity and Quantity.

In Cruel Difficulty, these chests see a +50% boost in Item Quantity and Rarity, and this increases by +100% in the Endgame.

Strongboxes:

Strongboxes now guarantee a Rare item and have increased Item Quantity and Rarity.

Researcher's Strongboxes will now have a higher chance of dropping Rare currency instead of Magic currency.

Reduced variance in the number of items Strongboxes drop, ensuring a more consistent yield.

Trial of the Sekhemas & Trial of Chaos Updates

Trial of the Sekhemas:

Bronze chests now guarantee a Rare item, matching the balance of Rare chests in the Normal Difficulty campaign.

Silver and Gold chests offer significantly better Item Rarity and Quantity.

Arcanists' and Royal Chests now drop more frequently.

The chance of obtaining Silver and Gold keys has been increased, making these rewards more accessible.

Trial of Chaos:

As players progress in the Trial of Chaos, Corrupted Rares are phased out, and Rare Currency stacks become more frequent.

Items from Trial monsters no longer have a chance to be corrupted.

Expedition Tweaks

Expedition Chests:

Magic and Rare Expedition chests now have the same base balance as other endgame chests.

Normal Expedition chests have been improved, and a bug with Increased Chest Item Rarity from Expedition Remnants not multiplying correctly has been fixed.

Expedition Remnants:

Buffed rewards from most Expedition Remnant mods.

Doubled the drop rate of Expedition Artifacts and increased Exotic Coinage drops by 50%.

Delirium & Accessibility Changes

Delirium Changes:

The Item Rarity from Delirium encounters has been increased, scaling to 2.5x what it was before.

The max difficulty of Delirium has been reduced from 5x to 3x.

Increased Drop Rates:

Breach Splinter drop rates have been increased by 50%.

Delirium Splinter drop rates have been increased by 80%.

Audience with the King in Ritual now has a 50% increased chance of spawning.

Other Changes

Corrupted Nexus Changes:

The number of Corrupted Nexus required to complete the Atlas Passive Tree has been reduced.

Each Corrupted Nexus now grants 5 skill points for faster completion.

The visibility of Corrupted Nexus has been improved so that it can be seen from a greater distance.

Full Patch Notes

You can access the full patch notes and all details on the official Path of Exile 2 blog post on the team Community for deeper insights.

These updates significantly improve the reward system in the game, especially regarding Item Rarity, Boss Drops, and the chest system. They seem designed to make higher-tier content more rewarding and to help players progress faster through the campaign and endgame. What do you think of these changes? Do you feel these adjustments will impact your build or playstyle?