Path of Exile 2 developer Grinding Gear Games is about to release a huge new update containing a ton of new content for the early access game on PS5, Xbox and PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store). Titled Dawn of the Hunt, Path of Exile update 0.2.0 has an April 4 release date and an 8pm BST UK launch time. That's 12pm PDT for fans living in the US.

The timings were revealed by Grinding Gear Games in a post on Steam: "As announced by Dawn of the Hunt will launch at 12pm April 4th PDT on all supported platforms, including the standalone PC client, Steam and Epic Games Store clients as well as Xbox Series and PlayStation 5."

The release of update 0.2.0 is good for fans who are at the endgame and looking for more content to explore.

It adds the new Huntress character class, who is said to specialise in both melee and ranged combat thanks to her skills with a spear.

"The Huntress is a spear wielding Azmeri warrior," reads the official description. "Born into a society with strict traditions, she was exiled from her homeland after using the power of a skill gem to defend her village.

"As a dexterous spear user, she specialises in both melee and ranged combat, dashing in and out of battle."

The update also adds three new Ascendancy Classes for existing characters, including Smith of Kitava Ascendancy Class for the Warrior, the Tactician Ascendancy Class for the Mercenary, and Lich Ascendancy Class for the Witch.

Grinding Gear Games has added over 100 new Support Gems, as well as 100+ new Unique Items, and new enemy encounters.

Perhaps most exciting of all, however, are the seven new endgame maps, including The Fractured Lake, The Silent Cave, and the Ezomyte Megaliths.

You can check out the new content and some of the general gameplay improvements by taking a look at a selection of update 0.2.0 patch notes below. Additional patch notes are available on the Path of Exile 2 website.

Path of Exile 2 update 0.2.0 select patch notes...

New content and features

• Added a new playable character class, the Huntress.

• Added the new Amazon and Ritualist Ascendancy Classes for the Huntress.

• Added the new Smith of Kitava Ascendancy Class for the Warrior.

• Added the new Tactician Ascendancy Class for the Mercenary.

• Added the new Lich Ascendancy Class for the Witch.

• Added over 25 new Skills, primarily Spear Skills.

• Added over 100 new Supports.

• Added 2 new item classes, Spears and Bucklers.

• Added over 100 new Unique Items.

• Added 8 new Endgame Maps, each with new encounters and new rewards.

• Introduced 4 Unique Strongboxes - special chests with unique encounters.

• Introduced 12 Rogue Exiles - others like you who have been exiled and are openly hostile.

• Introduced Azmerian Wisps - spirits that can be found throughout both the campaign and the Endgame.

• Added 15 new Socketable items with new modifers that you can craft onto your items.

• Introduced the Twilight Reliquary Key. When consumed at The Reliquary Vault, a new area on the Endgame Map, it grants you access to a vault with a chest that drops a special foil version of a Unique item selected by our supporters!

• Essences can now have Vaal Orbs applied to them to corrupt the Essences with a range of unpredictable outcomes. Greater Essences are possible to be upgraded to four new Corrupted Essences.

• Continued to incrementally improve the sound, art, effects and environments.

General improvements

• In order to work around a common crash that was occuring on nVidia hardware with recent drivers the game can now recover from "Device Removed" events. When this occurs the game will display a loading screen (and pause) while it attempts to recover. This only applies for this specific type of client crash, not all client crashes.

• The Reforging Benches in towns have been repositioned to more optimal locations. The Stash and Guild Stashes have also been slightly spaced apart to reduce misclicking.

• Strongboxes can now appear in certain Act 1 areas.

• Added a Stash to the Treasure Room in the Trials of Chaos.

• Many Fire Skills now visually burn grass in areas.

• Improved the performance of summoning and reviving minions.

• Further improved safety checks preventing using movement skills to skip the elevators in the Trials of Chaos encounters and prevent the encounters from functioning correctly.

• The jumps performed when using Escape Shot and Toxic Growth now allow you to jump over enemies and small amounts of terrain. Vaulting Impact will also receive this change at a later date.

• The Decay debuff from Decaying Hex Support now uses a more appropriate visual effect and displays below the enemy's life bar.

• Grenade skills now have a small amount of random variation in travel distance when firing multiple grenades at once.

• Firebolt now uses the same animation as Freezing Shards instead of generic projectile spell animations.

• Updated the 3D art of the Stash and Guild Stash.