[SUGGESTION] Finite Atlases w/ progressive rewards [REVISED]
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This post was heavily updated on 8th Jan, 2026. Original post found in [Spoiler tag]
 The endless Atlas is perpetually indistinguishable. You could travel across the Atlas for WEEKS and still be greeted by the same tired layouts and one-tone objectives. It is messy, difficult to navigate, and its endless nature is a barrier to creating satisfying gameplay loops. Thankfully GGG have acknowledged this and are in the process of trying to fix it. Nevertheless, Mark mentioned that it’s never too late to share ideas. The focus of this idea is one of choice and progression.  A finite Atlas: Upon reaching the endgame, you are given a choice of Atlas destinations. These range from lush forested areas, to mountainous snowscapes, to tropical coastal regions. For the sake of this example, you choose an ancient forested area, as shoddily depicted below.  You arrive on the southern shore of an Atlas that encompasses several screens. It is a land that makes visual sense thanks to its large sprawling areas. It is no longer a mish-mash of tiny biomes, but a believable environment that represents a small corner of the world. Gone are the days of getting lost in a copy/paste-topia. This is a real location, easily navigated, with distinguishable topography and landmarks. The core objective: Clearing corruption functions as the core Atlas objective. After clearing the Atlas of x% of corruption, you gain access to an underground mini-Atlas area. The mini-Atlas is small and cave-like and teeming with corruption. It is there that you encounter a giant, formidable boss. Upon defeating the boss, you may speak to Doryani in order to move to a fresh Atlas. In story terms, you are tasked with cleaning up the mess left behind by Oriana and the Beast. Secondary objectives: Your Atlas is packed with optional objectives, some of which overlap, some of which don’t. You might feel inclined to pursue all of them, or just some of them. That choice is yours. Objectives might include: • Tracking down citadels and vanquishing the bosses within • Targeting Powerful Boss nodes in order to empower a fearsome Boss Arena • Defeating several Anomalies so that a Greater Anomaly might reveal itself • Seeking hidden entrances to smaller, secret Atlases • Unearthing keys that can be used to unlock gated Atlas areas • Treasure-hunting, using environmental clues • Giving chase to roaming threats that node-hop across your Atlas • Activating devices which transform areas of your Atlas in interesting ways Some objectives are familiar and by-the-numbers, whereas other objectives are free-flowing and variable. These amount to a variety of discernible goals for which to strive, in an Atlas that can react and evolve according to your actions. Notably, a finite Atlas greatly increases objective potential. Story threads, for example, become far more viable inside of a controllable, finite space. A finite Atlas could conceivably be "war-ravaged", with two or more enemy factions vying for control of the land. How might your actions sway that balance? There's a lot of potential. Empowering your Atlas: Your Atlas has an empowerment gauge. This gauge fills up as you progress through your Atlas.  Empowerment is gained by completing map nodes at increasingly higher tiers. Achieving 100% empowerment does not require you to complete the entire Atlas; the gauge will fill up long before your Atlas is void of content. Atlas Empowerment can serve a number of purposes, including:  1. Upon reaching 100% empowerment, roving threats begin to spawn across your Atlas. They wish to undo your good work within the region. Nodes affected by these threats become far more challenging and thusly more rewarding. Roving threats of increasing strength continue to spawn across your Atlas, culminating in a formidable boss encounter. This process repeats indefinitely, for as long as you wish to remain in the Atlas. 2. At 100% empowerment, you unlock a Cache Reward. This is made available to you upon deciding to move to a fresh Atlas. The value of this cache reward can be increased by continuing to raise your empowerment gauge past 100%. Progress continues towards 200%, doubling up, or maybe even 300%, tripling up.  Think of this like a Kingsmarch shipment in POE1, but instead of investing crops and dust, you are investing your time and effort. Typically, your cache will consist of dozens of items of various types. These can range from currency to fragments to unique jewels, etc. It can be very rewarding. In practical terms, you are rewarded for taking the time to engage with your Atlas. Every map node now becomes valuable, particularly if you wish to juice your cache beyond 100%. Adding a personal touch to your Atlases: Throughout your journey, you unearth "Charts". These Charts are used to influence the creation of future Atlases. When Doryani asks you to choose your next Atlas destination, you can select up to 5 such Charts. These directly influence how your next Atlas takes shape.  Charts can serve a number of purposes. Some might directly affect the terrain, whereas others might influence objectives. How does doubling the amount of Citadels sound? Or how about adding an intricate river system that boosts the spawn rate of Nameless Seers? Doryani missions: Similar to Kirac missions in POE1, you can collect mission credits. These credits can be used to access maps independently of the Atlas and via Doryani directly. This means that if you collect 30 such credits, you can effectively run your preferred maps back-to-back 30 times. Such missions impact Atlas progression by rewarding "Intel" that can be used to empower your Atlas. So, in addition to having a highly engaging Atlas to work through, you also have the option to farm your preferred maps outside of it. Both methods synergize in a meaningful way. What does this amount to? • Thoughtful choices for meaningful rewards • A sense of direction and completionism • Incentive to complete map nodes at higher tiers • Agency to pursue the gameplay loops that you enjoy • A believable, fleshed-out world that is befitting of Path of Exile It is an Atlas that underpins the endgame but doesn't necessarily define the endgame. This is more about facilitating player choice in a fun and engaging way, without stepping on the toes of core league mechanics or pinnacle content. There’d be no “right way” of doing things. Whatever your chosen path, and however much time you choose to spend in a single Atlas, you will be adequately rewarded for it. Whether you decide to stick around and boost your Cache, or you decide to eagerly Atlas-hop in pursuit of very specific content, you’re not going to feel penalized for your choices. In terms of striking the right balance, GGG would be able to reactively weight rewards according to early trends, ensuring that one particular strategy doesn’t become THE go-to strategy. That is what Early Access is for, after all. On a more personal note, I want a world that feels like a world; not some hodge-podge of poorly strung together biomes. I want to feel captivated by what different regions have to offer. I want to feel the history of Wraeclast as I travel across its breadth, and I want my efforts to feel like I'm making a difference in Wraeclast. As things stand, there is little joy in picking a random direction, knowing that it will produce the same results as any other direction. There is absolutely no bearing. Everything is the same. It's a hollow experience. I have faith in GGG, and I'm sure that whatever they're cooking up will far exceed this idea, but I wanted to polish it up and share it anyway. Original post content:
Spoiler
Don't get me wrong, the Atlas is beautiful. It's a true marvel of design.
However, it is simply too big. After two weeks of mapping, the Atlas becomes overwhelmingly messy. There's little joy in scrolling across a hodge-podge of biomes that hold virtually no distinction. All of its charm is lost when you have to sift through it like Velma half-blindly looking for her glasses. ------------------------------- This is how I would improve the Atlas experience: The Atlas should have a finite size, about 4 screens in diameter. It should contain no more than three citadels. Upon completing the citadels, Doryani would give the player the option to travel to a fresh Atlas and start anew. Besides being more streamlined, far less messy, and offering a much needed sense of completionism, there are other potential benefits to this. 1. The ability to populate the Atlas with the player's preferred zones.
Spoiler
Upon talking to Doryani and choosing to move to a fresh Atlas, the player could be given the choice of their preferred biome types; desert-type zones, ice-type zones, forest-type zones, etc.
That's not to say that the Atlas should be entirely bespoke, but some degree of individualization would be nice. It could simply be a weighted effect, providing a slightly greater chance of encountering your preferred biomes. 2. Completion rewards.
Spoiler
If an Atlas is finite and has a completion goal (i.e. track down and defeat the citadels), then there is an opportunity to reward the player for continuous completions.
Every time a player completes an Atlas, Doryani might reward them with some sort of valuable item; a means of enhancing Precursors, perhaps. Or, more directly, a means of enhancing future Atlases as a whole. 3. "Special" Atlases.
Spoiler
As a reward for completing a string of Atlases—or perhaps at random—Doryani might offer to transport the player to a "special" Atlas.
These special Atlases would be much smaller than their standard counterparts, but chock-a-block with highly desirable nodes. Imagine an underworld Atlas filled with cave-like zones. Or an Atlas consumed by lava and volcanic rock. How about a misty Atlas entirely overrun by the effects of Delirium? These special Atlases could lean heavily into unique nodes, and be home to certain chase items, making the Atlases very worthwhile and exciting. 4. Progression-based empowerment of Atlas nodes.
Spoiler
If an Atlas is finite, it opens the door to the progression-based empowerment of the Atlas as a whole.
For example, if a player clears 10% of nodes on an Atlas, the remaining uncleared nodes become empowered in some way. Empowerment could mean a higher item quantity/rarity, or a higher monster density, or some sort of defined buff like "uncleared nodes now have one extra Rogue Exile". This could ramp as the player hits further progression milestones; 20%, 30%, 40%, etc. The player would have an actual incentive to clear trivial nodes. Currently, players are incentivized to completely ignore them. 5. A more focused progression-based goal.
Spoiler
At the centre of every Atlas could be a special node.
That special node would be a one-time event, unlockable by clearing a certain percentage of Atlas nodes. 20%, perhaps. But for every percentage beyond that, the special node becomes more and more formidable. As its power grows, so too does its rewards. I'm thinking that it could operate as a wave-based boss arena. The higher the Atlas completion percentage, the more boss waves occur. When it hits its max limit (which could be around 80% Atlas completion), it spawns a pinnacle-type boss at the end. That would be one hell of an incentive to want to clear the Atlas. Entirely optional, of course, as some players might prefer to rush citadels and move on. But we like options. 6. No more Atlas loading issues.
Spoiler
I'm fortunate enough to play on a decent system, but I've seen the many reports of Atlas framerate issues, as well as lag.
I've also experienced the issue of the Atlas not loading properly when using bookmarks; the bookmarked area remains entirely grey, forcing the player to manually scroll around until the Atlas decides to start loading again. A finite Atlas would do away with all of these issues. 7. Search functionality becomes easier to implement.
Spoiler
A smaller, finite Atlas means that search functionality is very achievable.
The problem with the endless Atlas is that it doesn't load efficiently. The player has to manually scroll across it to jog its memory. This makes a search functionality highly problematic. A finite Atlas (being much smaller) would be ever-loaded, ever-present, and fully capable of seamless search functionality. ------------------------------- Perhaps ironically, the above suggestions would make the world of POE2 feel much larger. In its current endless form, it quickly becomes formless; a mess of random biomes strung together in a way that makes everything look the same. It cheapens the world aesthetic, creating something that feels more artificial than lived-in. Traveling between finite Atlases would give a sense of regional and geographical depth to the world. This becomes particularly true if each Atlas leans into a certain type/set of biome. I just don't think that an endless Atlas is good for the future of the game. It is very cool in concept, but it lacks direction and dilutes our view of the world. Last edited by WaywornExile#0835 on Jan 8, 2026, 11:01:20 AM Last bumped on Jan 11, 2026, 3:06:59 PM
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What I want, is an actual reason to want to clear every node.
This open-world style hodgepodge of ever branching nodes we have now, is functionally really just a linear line of nodes with no branches. The game of Atlas is just pathing directly to the next special node you see, and ignoring all others. So the others may as well not exist. The atlas could be a single line of nodes. I couldn't care less what biome a node is, that's arguably the least important part. It's simply either a node worth doing or it's not. I want them all to be worth doing. |
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I love this suggestion, OP. And I'd add that more distinct biomes would be great, like in delve mine.
Also, yes, I particularly want a reason to clear nodes, what OP is suggesting seems to check the box, I'd be rushing those citadels, move atlases, would be cool! Early to bed, early to rise, fishing all day, making up lies.
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" This leads me to an interesting thought. If an Atlas is finite, there is an opportunity to track competition progress as a percentage of nodes cleared. It could be that for every 10% of nodes cleared in an Atlas, the remaining uncleared nodes (particularly special nodes) become empowered in some way. This would add incentive for clearing trivial nodes. Additionally, Doryani could offer a reward for hitting certain milestones; 50%, 75% and 90%, for example. Furthermore, what if clearing a node had a low percentage chance of morphing it into a special node? You clear a Savannah node and then BAM, it just morphed into a Viridian Wildwood! It would be a very low percentage chance, but that percentage chance could become higher as you clear more and more of the Atlas. There's a lot that can be achieved if GGG do away with the endless Atlas. |
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I actually really like this idea. Pretty much all of it. The infinite atlas just seems pointless because there is simultaneously zero reason to methodically complete all of the nodes (save for corrupted zone, etc) and also no reason to go anywhere specific (aside from citadels, once you find one). It just feels like aimless wandering into the void for no real good reason. My only argument is that this "supposedly" isn't what endgame will be eventually, and I honestly don't want the atlas to be too good in fear that they then won't get rid of it lol.
I know they've said in the past that what we have now was/is a placeholder in the interim so they could launch EA with some form of endgame, and I'm really hoping that still rings true. I don't *hate* what we have, but I look forward to something different/better when the game hits 1.0. Whatever that may be. It would also be kinda neat IMO if we could chance orb waystones to make whichever node we slot it into a unique map instead. Or to focus on biomes for a minute, in the infinite atlas version we have, there could be some kind of completion bonus for completing every node in the biome. 60 min boost to a randomized selection of stats like XP, monster level, rarity, quantity, or whatever else. Last edited by Johnny_Hotbody#4829 on Oct 14, 2025, 8:00:38 PM
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Clearing an atlas and starting fresh is actually kinda interesting tbh.
They could tie in some form of reward or progress to it, loads of opportunity here. It also needs search functionality. |
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" F*ck me does it ever... the bookmarks helped a little, but once you've got 4-5 screens of atlas to comb over it becomes an absolute cluster to sift through.. |
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+1
I had a similar idea to this. Also, it would be good to have a system like favouring maps. So on reset you get a higher chance of more of the maps you like running. |
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Cool idea. I have not explored the atlas too far because there are so many nodes to do. Having to go randomly forward until I *randomly* find something useful (citadels only?) just feels bad.
Some of the choices while transitioning could be to give an option to buff a certain type of event (delirium/ritual/breach/etc) for the the whole next atlas, so that you can sort of decide on what you want to focus on too. And maybe add a choice to regenerate/move on to a new atlas regardless for a fee as well, in case you just don't want it anymore. A lot can be build up from that foundation, does sound more interesting than the infinite randomness! |
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