During the Ultimatum league (which will run for around three months), any newly rolled character will frequently bump into the Trialmaster, a new NPC and emissary of the god of Chaos. He'll challenge you to initially simple arena battles, telling you exactly what prize you're fighting for. At the end of each round, he'll give you the option to take the prize and tap out, or pick a new modifier (faster enemies, additional obstacles, stat restrictions) and fight an even tougher round for a chance at the previous reward, plus a new one.

These fights look like they can get extraordinarily difficult, as all chosen modifiers remain in play until you either clear the highest difficulty, tap out, or die like a greedy fool. Still, the rewards look worth the pain. It's clear that Grinding Gear intends for players to really push their luck, potentially walking away with absolutely nothing while in pursuit of a fat sack of rare items.

Players that manage to hold on for a whole ten rounds get a 'special surprise' in the final bout. While the presentation video didn't show exactly what that means, as a veteran PoE player I assume that means we'll be facing some new Ultimatum-specific boss fights. Given that the quality of the game's boss design has improved markedly over the years, it's something I'm looking forward to. Boss fights are much more akin to what you'd see in MMOs these days, with different phases and complex attack patterns that have to be avoided (or mitigated).

For endgame players hacking their way through the recently-expanded Atlas Of Worlds, they'll sometimes find special key items to access even higher-stakes battles at the Trialmaster's personal arena. These fights will ask the player to ante up and invest something valuable—usually a rare currency item—with a chance at doubling their investment in a single-round fight against overwhelming odds. Naturally, if you lose this fight, you'll lose your wager too.

As always, there'll be a little bit more to this league that Grinding Gear Games is willing to reveal in the trailers. During a short Q&A session earlier this week, studio head Chris Wilson confirmed that there'll be a tough new final boss hidden deeper within Ultimatum's arena battles, along with some unique new items only obtainable through beating the odds and (presumably) the Trialmaster himself.

As the stunningly stat-dense Ultimatum content breakdown video (embedded above) shows, there's more to this league than just gambling. Grinding Gear have once again gone back to fix what wasn't working in Path of Exile. This time round, they've given the loot tables across the entire game (including nearly eight years of older league content) a shakeup. Players will have a chance to find a bundle of previously league-only unique items as they play through the main story, and most sources of loot have seen some improvements. Some items have even had their stats boosted to make them more desirable. https://www.mmoexp.com/Path-of-exile/Currency.html .