The first day I did not push very hard. In fact, I took I somewhat slow and just enjoyed all the different leagues that were combined in one. While somewhere rushing I was enjoying some old favorites of mine as I slowly leveled. Not to mention currency drops and unique tend to drop more from a number of these league events so there always that chance of getting something to help as you level.

With each zone having four active league mechanics in it I did notice more times than not you were not just doing one at a time but they would spawn in groups of two or three. Perhaps this is something they need to address or maybe it is intended. It will certainly make this May Flashback Event far more challenging. Thankfully I was playing on softcore as I think it is a bit much for hardcore, unless, you just skip over everything. While most times you might not have trouble dealing with one thing at a time many times that was just not the case.

I thought it would be fun to see how many leagues I can recall or spot while out leveling and screenshot it. Many of these I was not around for the ordinal league and there are a couple I’ve played in past race events but that is it.

Ambush League

While I was not around for the origami league. I happen to know the name as there been used a few times to mean being ambushed when opening strongboxes. This one spawns in a couple extra chests to open in the zone.

Abyss League

These can be amazing they are almost like a progressive jackpot. You can either end up with nothing at all at the end of it like the screenshot shows, they can spawn a chest, or even open up another zone for you to try and defeat a boss for nice items. I’m not exactly sure what all can drop from these since “league specific unique” are not suppose to drop; then again, there is also a small chance in the normal game to run into these since they were added in. So, I can only hope the stuff I want still drop as they are in the normal game and just not the stuff we can’t get any more.

These you have to run up to trigger which makes it nice when you just want skip over them. Once you active one crack starts to form on the ground that you have to follow as you fight off mobs spawning from. It can keep progressing for a while as you get to different conjunction points that will either spawn your reward or keep going with a new line to follow.

I may or may not be have been a giant fanboy of this league.

Anarchy League

Rogue exiles spawn in the zone and depending on what skills or items they are using can cause quite a challenge. In fact, I’ve had to skip over a couple of these while leveling so far as they were far more powerful than I was at a time. They drop some decent items if you are able to kill them from time to time that they are wearing. Which always makings you wonder when you can’t kill one “what was it using?” You run into them just in a normal game as well like some of the leagues in this event. They can cause a few deaths if you are not careful.

Bestiary League

This is the current league going on. While not my least favorite I’m not a big fan of it either. You capture beats with nets that you have to loot. You can sacrifice them at a blood alter to try and get random items. Encounters of the blood alter can consume up 4 beasts so this one takes a bit of a buildup and having to go out and find the correct type to target something you are after. Overall, unless you luck out its one of those where you might as well try and sell the beasts to other players.

Beyond League

This may or may not be a screenshot of a creature from the beyond. More or fewer demons invade and if you kill enough close enough together it keeps spawning harder and harder demons till you get to a boss. I never really found them that rememberable. For me at least it always just felt like “oh I guess that was a beyond one” kind of deal.

Bloodlines League

This one causes magic monsters a chance to have a bunch of different mods on them that increase there difficulty that are called “bloodline mods.” They tend to give the monster a powerful attack like icestorm, or give monsters around them a bonus like changed damage.

More times than not you don’t even notice as they usually just get flattened rather fast but they at least drop better items than a normal magic monster. I know there some more mechanics to this one that I never got around to learning. I’m quite sure I was not in this one as it was not an original softcore league if I call.

Breach League

There is just so much I love about breaches. First, you have to walk up to them just to trigger the event. Next monsters only spawn inside of the purple ring. They are often known for some amazing XP and currency drops. They also drop shards that can be turned into a map. Along with rings that double in stat value while inside of a breach (I never use them.) These things are amazing if you have a good screen clearing area of attack.

Harbinger League

These guys don’t take direct damage you have to attack their adds they spawn to slowly kill them. The harbinger itself has some powerful spells it can cast that you try and avoid having any interaction with. A really cool thing here is when they die they drop fragments of currency. Some of the fragments can turn into normal currency like chaos orb or even an exalt. Then you have custom stuff form this league like Engineering's orbs that increase the quality of a strongbox (chest), or even an Orb of Horizons that lets you reforge a map to a higher tier. Some interesting game mechanics this adds in.

Invasion League

I’ll be honest I always get this one confused with beyond. In this one, you just have invading monsters that are hard to kill in the zone. I did not even take a screenshot as I often get this one confused with so many other things.

Nemesis League

In the game, there are what is called nemesis modifiers that rare creates can get. These can be difficult but not usually too hard to kill. Some more of the annoying mods these rares can get are cursing ones such as enfeeble and temporal chains.

Perandus League

One of my favorites and an easy one to guess since the chests are named after it! You kill mobs that spawn around the chests till it ends when you get open them for coins that drop. There is also a random chance a vendor named Cadiro Perandus will spawn in the zone where you get to buy one item if you choose and have enough coins.

Torment League

My least favorite it at least lives up to its name. Tormented spirits can empower monsters they run across or even inhabit a rare or higher making them very powerful. They are rather tormenting to the player because they run all over the place and even escape if not killed fast enough. Causing you to lead into packs of mobs, empowering things that can kill you and even not reward you if they get away!

Final Thoughts On Day One

I do have to say us Path of Exile players has been rather spoiled by Grinding Gear Games over the years. More times than not amazing leagues that always changed up the game that you could remember. That to me is what is important. A lot of games have content updates but can you really recall them? The way they have approached these league events that run a couple months at a time to the much shorter events like this May Flashback Event really makes them stand out as a developer to me.

With all these leagues going on and me taking my time I got a couple of nice currency drops and even sold some items as well. I also purchased this saber for 1 chaos orb. It kind of sucks stat wise and I did overpay getting it day one. With that said it will be a while before I get a better weapon unless I happen to pick up this same saber just with a higher increased physical damage mod on it. There were not many on the market when I got it and you could tell quite a number of players where all trying to just get one as they were always sold out when I tried to buy from someone. I luck out in the early morning when not so many were on.

Information

Screenshots taken and content written by @enjar. Screenshots are from a game called Path of Exile.

Path of Exile | May Flashback Event Day 1