Path of Exile
Free-to-play with a reputation for ethical monetization that is mostly earned — though it does sell randomized boxes, which most write-ups leave out.
The cost, in short
Pressure
035
To ending
— — —
No scripted ending — live service
How this rating was reached
Monetization recorded as freemium rather than gacha, deliberately. Grinding Gear Games does sell randomized Mystery Boxes with published drop rates, which by a literal reading would qualify as gacha. The gacha label exists in this schema to flag randomized purchases that gate power and drive wallet pressure; here the randomization is cosmetic-only and outside the game loop, so freemium is the accurate label — but the boxes are stated explicitly in the page text, because describing this game as having no randomized purchases would be false. Score of 35/100 is above Fortnite (20) because randomized cosmetic boxes exist and stash-tab purchases are close to assumed for serious endgame and trading play, so the free and paid experiences differ in more than appearance; supporter packs reach $480. Below Candy Crush Saga (55) because nothing interrupts play to ask for money — no energy, no timers, and stash tabs are permanent one-time unlocks. No cost-to-progress figure: no purchase is required to progress at all, and the studio publishes none. The $0.10-per-point conversion is first-party; stash-tab point costs circulate via community wikis because the official item pages render client-side and returned no price. hasEnding is false: the ten-act campaign concludes but feeds into an unbounded seasonal endgame rather than ending the game. The hours field is therefore empty rather than holding a campaign figure. The widely quoted 'we don't sell power' framing is attributed to the studio through secondary reporting; the first-party facts used here are the published mystery-box odds and the points pricing.
What the monetization actually looks like
No player power is sold. Every item that affects how strong your character is comes from playing, and the full campaign and endgame are free. That is the load-bearing fact and it is why this game is not in the pay-to-win category despite being free and over a decade old.
What money buys is cosmetics and account utility: extra stash tabs, character slots and trading inventories. Points convert at ten cents each, published on the studio's own purchase page.
The part usually left out: there are loot boxes
Grinding Gear Games does sell randomized boxes. A Mystery Box costs 50 points, contains one random item drawn from a set of around thirty cosmetics, and the studio publishes the per-item drop rates along with duplicate protection and a stated floor — you are guaranteed an item worth at least what you paid.
We are naming this because the common description of this game as having no randomized purchases is simply wrong, and repeating it would make us wrong too. What is true is narrower and still meaningful: the randomization is cosmetic-only, the odds are published, and there is a value floor — which is close to the most defensible way to sell a loot box, but it is still a loot box.
Why 35 rather than lower
Two things push this above a cosmetics-only game. The randomized boxes are one. The other is that stash tabs are close to assumed for serious endgame and trading play, so the free experience and the paid one differ in something other than appearance. Supporter packs run up to $480.
What keeps the score well below the timer-driven games is that nothing interrupts play to ask for money. There is no energy meter, no wait-or-pay gate, and stash tabs are permanent one-time unlocks rather than a recurring nudge.
No ending, by design
The ten-act campaign does reach a scripted conclusion, but it feeds directly into an unbounded endgame with seasonal leagues rather than closing the game out. There is no terminal ending, which is why the hours field is empty rather than holding a campaign figure.
Sources
- 01Mystery Box — official page with published drop ratesGrinding Gear Games (official) ·
Full method behind these ratings: see our methodology.
Ratings are editorial judgments based on the sources cited above. They are not a guarantee of current pricing or mechanics, which can change after publication — check the source directly before making a purchase decision.