Quick answer: No, Path of Exile 2 does not delete your characters at 1.0 — but they do not carry into the 1.0 economy either. When full release lands, every Early Access character is moved into a permanent, cordoned-off league literally called Early Access. GGG's official FAQ is blunt about it: "none of your characters will be wiped, they will just go to a league called Early Access (so they will never be in Standard)." So nothing is lost — but nothing transfers forward either. Your levels, your gear, and every Divine you've hoarded stay behind in a frozen realm while 1.0 Standard starts fresh at zero for everyone. With 1.0 targeted for the end of 2026 (after ExileCon on November 7–8) and the current 0.5 "Return of the Ancients" run heading toward its close, the smart play is simple: stop hoarding and start spending. Here's exactly what resets, what's kept, and what to do with your currency right now.
PoE2 - Divine & Exalted Orbs
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Will PoE2 wipe your characters at 1.0?
Let's kill the panic first, because "wipe" is the wrong word. Your characters are never deleted. GGG confirmed the model back at Early Access launch and has repeated it since: when 1.0 arrives, your existing characters get parked in a permanent league named Early Access, where they live on with all their levels, gear, and stash intact.
The catch is the flip side of a wipe. Because they sit in that separate Early Access league, they can never interact with the 1.0 Standard economy or any future 1.0 league. You keep them; you just can't play with them in the new game. Think of it as your EA save being shelved in its own museum wing — visitable, but sealed off from the live game everyone else is playing.
That's a deliberate design choice. GGG does not want years of accumulated Early Access wealth — mirror-tier gear, thousands of Divines, day-one exploit stockpiles — flooding into the clean 1.0 launch economy. A fresh 1.0 with a level playing field is worth far more to the game's long-term health than letting EA veterans start rich. So the "wipe" you're afraid of is really a one-way partition: keep everything, take nothing forward.
Straight from GGG's Early Access FAQ: "We will do new leagues but none of your characters will be wiped, they will just go to a league called Early Access (so they will never be in Standard)." — Grinding Gear Games (pathofexile.com)
What happens to your characters when the event league ends?
There are two different "endings" people mix up, and getting them straight is the whole point of this guide.
Ending #1 — a temporary event league ends (the upcoming 0.5.5 events). GGG has confirmed at least two short economy-reset event leagues before 1.0 — the "0.5.5" events — each a roughly one-month opt-in league with its own separate, fresh currency pool and a new character (as of early August 2026 the first one has not launched yet; estimates point to around September 2026, and GGG hasn't given an official date). When one of those events concludes, your event characters and their stash tabs migrate down into the permanent parent Early Access realm — the same place your main Runes of Aldur characters already live. Nothing is deleted; the event's fresh-economy conditions simply end, and your event loot merges into your standing pile. This is the same league-cycling mechanic Path of Exile has always used (PoE Wiki — Leagues).
Ending #2 — Early Access itself ends at 1.0. This is the big one. When the full 1.0 release goes live, the entire Early Access realm — Runes of Aldur, every 0.5.x event character, all of it — becomes the frozen "Early Access" league described above. 1.0 Standard is a brand-new realm that starts empty. Everyone, EA veteran or 1.0 newcomer, rolls a fresh character into the same zero-currency economy on launch day.
So the practical translation for right now: as the current run winds down and 1.0 approaches, the currency and gear you're sitting on is on a timer. It won't be deleted, but it's about to be locked in a realm you'll rarely touch again once the fresh 1.0 grind begins.
Does your currency and gear carry over to 1.0?
No. Nothing you own transfers into the 1.0 economy — not currency, not gear, not maps, not gold. Here's the clean breakdown of what happens to each thing you care about:
| What you own | Deleted at 1.0? | Usable in 1.0 Standard? | Where it ends up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Characters (levels, skills) | No | No | Frozen in the permanent "Early Access" league |
| Currency (Divine, Exalted, Chaos) | No | No | Stays on your EA character/stash — parked |
| Gear & unique items | No | No | Locked in EA stash with the character |
| Stash tabs (the tabs you bought) | No | Yes | Premium/currency stash tabs you purchased carry to your account |
| Cosmetics / MTX | No | Yes | Account-wide — usable on 1.0 characters |
| Challenge rewards / titles | No | Yes (cosmetic) | Kept as account cosmetics |
The one nuance worth knowing: the things you paid real money for follow your account, not your character. Purchased stash tabs and every cosmetic microtransaction are account-bound and will be available on your fresh 1.0 characters. But the gameplay wealth — the Divines you farmed, the mirror-tier chest you crafted — is stuck behind the partition. GGG has been consistent that supporter purchases and cosmetics are safe; it's in-game currency and items that stay in Early Access.
What actually resets — and what's kept?
Because "reset" gets thrown around loosely, here's the honest two-column version:
Resets to zero at 1.0 (fresh for everyone):
- The economy — every currency pool starts empty on launch day
- Your active characters — you make new ones to play the live game
- The trade market — fresh listings, fresh prices, no legacy wealth flooding in
- Atlas / map progression — start the endgame grind again
Kept forever (just not in the live game):
- Every Early Access character, at full level with all gear and currency
- Purchased stash tabs (account-wide)
- All cosmetics and MTX (account-wide)
- Your achievements and any earned titles
This is why the veterans in the end-of-league threads aren't raging about a wipe — they know their characters are safe. What they're actually reacting to is the momentum cliff: once an economy is winding down toward 1.0, trade dries up, prices get weird, and a fat currency stash becomes a lot harder to spend for real value. Which brings us to the only part of this that needs action from you.
PoE2 - Items
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What should you do with your currency before the reset?
If your currency can't come to 1.0, the worst outcome is letting it sit frozen and unused. Currency you spend is worth infinitely more than currency you hoard into a dead economy. With 1 Divine trading around 425 Exalted Orbs (~7.5 Chaos) in early August 2026 on the Runes of Aldur softcore economy (it drifts daily — check poe.ninja before any big trade), a stockpile of dozens of Divines represents thousands of Exalts of buying power that evaporates in usefulness the moment 1.0 flips the board.
Here's the priority order for spending down before the reset:
- Buy the upgrades you've been putting off. That perfect weapon, the +2 minion focus, the chase unique you kept "saving for" — buy it now and actually play with it. There's no prize for dying with a full currency tab.
- Finish your build's aspirational goals. Six-linking, min-maxing, that mirror-tier craft — do it while trade is still liquid and sellers are still online. A late-league economy still has stock; a post-1.0 EA realm won't.
- Convert niche currency into liquid orbs. If you're holding stacks of narrow crafting currency (Fracturing Orbs, Perfect Jeweller's Orbs, Omens), sell or convert them into Divine/Exalted while there are still buyers. Liquidity vanishes fast at end-of-cycle.
- Knock out pinnacle content you've skipped. Use your currency to gear up and finally kill the pinnacle bosses or push deep Atlas objectives for the challenge rewards — those are account-kept.
- Don't panic-dump for cents. Spending well ≠ fire-selling. If a market's already crashing, get fair value on your best items rather than vendoring everything in a rush.
The mistake to avoid is the opposite of a wipe-panic: hoarding "just in case." There is no in-case. The currency does not follow you. Treat the back half of the cycle as your window to convert a spreadsheet number into actual fun and progress.
How to prepare for the PoE2 1.0 fresh start
The economy reset cuts both ways. Yes, your old wealth stays behind — but so does everyone's, which makes 1.0 launch the single most level playing field PoE2 will ever have. That's the moment to be ready, not the moment to be caught leveling from scratch while the meta forms around you.
Two things decide who wins a fresh economy: speed to maps and currency in the first 48 hours. Early currency is worth the most it will ever be worth on a fresh economy — a handful of Exalts on day one buys what dozens will buy a week later, because nothing has inflated yet. Players who reach maps first and have starting currency ready convert that head start into a snowball everyone else spends the league chasing.
If you want to skip the slow campaign grind and hit the endgame economy while it's still lucrative, that's exactly what a PoE2 leveling and boss-carry service is for — a pro player gets you to maps fast so you're farming Divines while the rest of the server is still in Act 2. And if you'd rather buy your starting currency outright than grind the opening days, PoE2 currency and Divine Orbs with instant delivery give you the day-one warchest that a fresh economy rewards most.
For the full timeline of the 0.5.5 events and how the economy-reset bridge to 1.0 works, see our PoE2 0.5.5 event league guide; for the best ways to build that end-of-cycle warchest, our PoE2 currency farming strategies and Divine Orb price guide cover the live rates and fastest methods.
Get ready for the 1.0 fresh start — instant delivery, best rates:
- PoE2 Currency (all orbs) — divine · chaos · exalted · your day-one warchest
- PoE2 Divine Orbs — instant delivery · trusted · best rate
- PoE2 Leveling & Boss Carries — skip the grind · hit maps first · pro players
FAQ
Does PoE2 wipe your characters at full release? No. Your Early Access characters are never deleted. At 1.0 they're moved into a permanent league called "Early Access" with all levels, gear, and currency intact. Per GGG's FAQ, "none of your characters will be wiped, they will just go to a league called Early Access (so they will never be in Standard)." You keep them — you just can't use them in the live 1.0 game.
Do my characters and currency carry over to 1.0 Standard? No. Nothing you own in Early Access — characters, currency, gear, maps, or gold — transfers into the 1.0 economy. 1.0 Standard starts fresh at zero for everyone. The only things that follow your account are purchased stash tabs and cosmetics/MTX, which are account-wide.
What happens to my stuff when a 0.5.5 event league ends? When one of the upcoming 0.5.5 events wraps, your event characters and their stash tabs migrate down into the permanent Early Access parent realm — nothing is deleted. Only the event's fresh-economy conditions end. This is the same league-cycling mechanic PoE has always used; the bigger reset is Early Access itself ending at 1.0.
When does PoE2 1.0 release? GGG hasn't given an exact date. The full 1.0 launch is targeted for the end of 2026, after ExileCon on November 7–8, 2026. The current 0.5 "Return of the Ancients" run (Runes of Aldur) and its short 0.5.5 economy-reset events are the final bridge before it — always check GGG's official announcements for confirmed timing.
Should I stop playing Early Access before 1.0? Not at all — but change how you play. Since your currency can't come to 1.0, stop hoarding and start spending: buy the upgrades you've delayed, finish your build goals, and knock out pinnacle content for account-kept rewards. Currency spent on fun and progress beats currency frozen in a dead economy.
Do I keep my purchased stash tabs and cosmetics at 1.0? Yes. Anything you paid real money for — premium/currency stash tabs and every cosmetic microtransaction — is bound to your account, not your character, and will be available on your fresh 1.0 characters. Only in-game gameplay wealth stays behind in the Early Access league.
