One of the first things a new player encounter when starting PoE are leagues. In this article, we will outline what each type of league means and how they operate.

To simplify it, think of leagues as game worlds, in which your character exists in. You can only be part of one league at any given time, and you can only interact with players in the same league as you.

There are several types of leagues in Path of Exile and in brief detail, we will explain all of them to you starting with permanent leagues.

There are four permanent leagues and in order they are:

Standard, the base leagues with no modifiers.

Hardcore, standard with a sort-of permadeath element, where instead of deleting your character it will be moved to standard.

And finally, both of these have an option to be solo self-found (ssf) as well, meaning that you are full-on solo, unable to join parties or trade with other players.

Another thing worth noting is that the permanent leagues' have an evergrowing economy since the wealth accumulated in challenge leagues gets poured into their respective parent leagues after they end.

We should also mention void league here, where you cannot access the created character or their stash. After some specific leagues, your character will be sent to the void leagues instead of the other permanent leagues.

Temporary leagues differ from permanent leagues in a few notable aspects. As the name suggests, they last for a set amount of time, which can vastly vary from days to months. Each temp league is defined by a mechanic, element, or gimmick the permanent leagues lack. When a temporary league ends, the characters will be transferred to their respective permanent league.

Challenge leagues are similar to temporary leagues in a way, the difference being that they get released periodically in a thirteen-week cycle, where two new leagues are added, and the previous two challenge leagues get removed. These leagues generally come with the intent to try out new content that the devs plan to add to the permanent leagues. Also, it comes out with a brand-new fresh economy. Like with temp leagues when a challenge league ends, the characters get moved to their parent leagues.

There are race leagues there as well, which function exactly how you think they do. They are built around a race event accompanied by their own stashes. After they end, characters either get transported, you guessed it, to their parent leagues or the void league depending on the event.

Lastly, on a good-to-know basis, you should also know that there are private leagues as well. They function like private worlds in other MMO-s, with their own modifiers added by their owners. The duration of this league and additional player slots can be purchased with an option to allow players of the league to contribute to the purchase.