Path of Exile 2 has its own game mode for those who like things to be difficult. The competition to be the first to reach the maximum level now took a major turn.
What kind of competition is this? In Path of Exile 2, in addition to the normal “Softcore” game mode, there is also the “Hardcore” game mode. If a character dies in Hardcore Mode, they are lost and cannot be revived in Hardcore League. There is also the “Solo Self-Found” modifier, which prohibits players from trading items. Instead, you can only use items you found yourself.
A competition is running among the professionals of Path of Exile 2 in exactly these two most difficult conditions, with the aim of being the first to reach level 100 with a character. While the top gamers are only one level away from the maximum, something happens that no one expected.
If you can’t trade, this NPC is particularly useful for identifying items:
This NPC in Path of Exile 2 identifies your items
More videos
Autoplay
More risk for 1st place
What happened to the favorite? The Blood Mage waitingforedbuff, which belongs to the Twitch streamer Oskarmln, was number 1 on the rankings for a long time (via PathofExile.com). So he had gained the most experience points without dying. But at level 99 out of 100, a message shakes the PoE2 chat: “waitingforedbuff (level 99) died at position 1 in the rankings”.
While the chat responds respectfully, some on Reddit are also wondering what happened. A look at his stream on Twitch provides some insight.
Oskarmln tried to be the first to reach level 100 with his character. But his competitors’ characters kept catching up because they had better builds and items. Because he wasn’t allowed to trade, he could hardly change his build. He therefore had to change the strategy.
What was his plan? In order to win the race, he tried to increase his experience points faster. To do this, he dares to face an opponent who brings many rewards but is also extremely strong, the Arbiter of Ash.
The boss is already infamous in the community because some of its mechanics will kill any character, no matter how strong you are. You can see the end of his run in a clip on Twitch.
The Blood Mage level 99 is hit by one of the boss’s abilities and Oskarmln is no longer able to save him. His reaction in the chat: “xdd”. So he seems to be taking the whole thing with humor. At the end he shows off his gear, because the character hasn’t been deleted, but is now in the softcore league. However, he can no longer take part in the competition.
Shortly after his Blood Mage’s demise, his biggest competitor, the Invoker HDB_oOps, took over the lead of the rankings. He is also at level 99 along with the Invoker sargetwo_LachlannLMAO and the Infernalist PADJILOY. However, the two are well ahead of the new leader and are still behind the fallen character in the rankings who previously topped the list.
The Arbiter of Ash is the enemy that will probably see the most changes in the new patch. For players who don’t play in hardcore mode, for example, there are six attempts to defeat the enemy instead of just one. All further information about the update can be found here: The first major update of Path of Exile 2 in 2025 changes the endgame more than expected – Official Patch Notes