Unpopular Opinion: League Challenges Should Require Solo Completion

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1823777
"for players who want to have a more challenging experience"

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1823776
"Despite the addition of this mode, Path of Exile is still designed and intended to be multiplayer with partying and trading."


GGGs own words when they announced SSF support disproves your entire point about what you think SSF is or should be.

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KaosuRyoko#1633 wrote:

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1823777
"for players who want to have a more challenging experience"

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1823776
"Despite the addition of this mode, Path of Exile is still designed and intended to be multiplayer with partying and trading."


GGGs own words when they announced SSF support disproves your entire point about what you think SSF is or should be.

While I see your point about the old manifesto and links, I believe you've inadvertently reinforced my argument about why SSF exists. However, let’s get back on track here. As you can tell from the title, this discussion isn’t about what SSF is meant to be or how it should be restructured, those are separate topics that can be discussed somewhere else.

What’s happening here is that, every time the real discussion starts to gain ground, SSF is dragged into the conversation almost intentionally to derail it. The constant refrain of "just play SSF, bro" or "SSF exists, bro" is less about engaging with the actual topic and more about avoiding it. The issue at hand is how we can improve the challenge system in PoE, and SSF isn’t the core of that discussion.

Let’s not forget that, just like the trade manifesto was essentially debunked with the introduction of the Settlers league, it’s important to recognize that the game we play today is different from what it was in 2017 or earlier. We’re talking about PoE in 2025, not 2017. The game has evolved, and so should our approach to challenges. Bringing up older statements or the state of the game from years ago doesn’t help us assess what the game could need today.

The main point here is that reworking the challenge system would benefit the game as a whole, and yes, SSF would naturally benefit too, just like past game changes that were balanced around trade leagues, but ended up improving SSF unintentionally. SSF isn’t irrelevant to this discussion, but it shouldn’t be used as a distraction to derail the conversation about reworking challenges.

The idea isn’t to diminish SSF or ignore it, but to focus on making challenges genuinely challenging again, something beyond just currency checks. If the thought of that is difficult to grasp, then we’re clearly straying from the issue. The real question is: how can we improve challenges for all players, regardless of the mode they choose?

So, let’s steer this back to the topic. This conversation is about improving the challenge system for everyone. It’s not about SSF, and it’s certainly not about reducing this to a simplistic "just play SSF" argument. Let’s focus on what PoE needs today, not on how things used to be in 2017.

Lmao making them solo-only wouldn't """improve""" challenges for anyone, it would just make em 100x more cringe to run and force people to re-level new builds through the boring slog of a campaign. Instead of throwing currency at carries they'd throw currency at Meta Build #342656 that uses Mageblood and Nimis ofc.

Game's always been balanced around trade, it will always be a multiplayer game. You'd also be taking away co-op completions from people who just play together. How others choose to play this game doesn't affect you at all, so deal with it.

And by the way, I feel just as proud and just as high of a feeling of accomplishment when I pay someone 5 divines for a carry as when I do a challenge myself, because I don't care how I do them. I just do em lol, I still did the challenge, I still farmed the currency myself and paid someone to carry me and that takes skill.

Also some people play literally only for challenges and mtx then quit, do you have any clue how much player retention,supporter pack sales,mtx sales and possible revenue GGG would lose by making such a huge sweeping change? Not only would it make the game worse and more unfun but it would also make them make less money, so its never happening lmfao

Carries are a valid way to complete challenges and play this game. This is a fact. Of course you can go and play SSF/HC/Ruthless, by all means the modes are there for you to enjoy a higher sense of achievement.


Literally the answer to this thread is SSF, this is a non-issue. You already have the exact way you want to enjoy this game already in the game in the form of a purely solo mode. Go play it and have fun and leave all the other players alone, nobody wants SSF enforced on them, which is what you are suggesting.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

Lmao making them solo-only wouldn't """improve""" challenges for anyone, it would just make em 100x more cringe to run and force people to re-level new builds through the boring slog of a campaign. Instead of throwing currency at carries they'd throw currency at Meta Build #342656 that uses Mageblood and Nimis ofc.

Except… you really don’t need a meta build, a Mageblood, or a Nimis to clear all content. Treating those as the bare minimum isn’t just a weird flex, it’s a pretty clear sign of a knowledge gap.

That’s exactly why it would be healthier for the game to have challenges that are truly self-achieved, pushing players who want the rewards to actually learn how to build properly or heaven forbid play the game, instead of swiping the currency card or begging for carries.

The end result of the current system is this endless cycle of imaginary takes, insisting meta builds and chase items are “required,” declaring certain mechanics “bad” simply because they’re getting filtered and farmed by pixels, when the real issue is running poorly optimized builds or just playing badly.

Given PoE’s naturally unforgiving nature, it’s about time to punish bad decisions more, not less by closing off the cheese passageways that let players slip through league after league without gaining anything new in terms of knowledge or skill.

A simple improve or fall behind case, or in Mark’s words, “Deal with it.”

And no, making challenges self-achieved isn’t the only improvement needed, you seem to have completely missed that part. A big step forward would be dumping the heavily RNG-locked or trade-dependent challenges entirely, and replacing them with content that anyone can complete simply by engaging with it. That way it’s about skill and persistence, not “how much can I pay someone else to do my homework?”

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

Literally the answer to this thread is SSF, this is a non-issue. You already have the exact way you want to enjoy this game already in the game in the form of a purely solo mode. Go play it and have fun and leave all the other players alone, nobody wants SSF enforced on them, which is what you are suggesting.

Except, as has already been mentioned multiple times, this isn’t about enforcing SSF. Just a gentle reminder: no one here is suggesting you’d be forced into SSF mode.

You’d still be able to play trade league, buy your gear, and do your challenges—well, granted you can actually handle them yourself. Trade is already a huge built-in handicap option, so with a literal item editor at your fingertips, the rest really shouldn’t be that hard.

More challenging can go multiple ways, not just in the “play more hours” sense. Challenges can be designed to be meaningful and engaging even in a trade league environment, respecting players’ time, while SSF is about, quite literally, living in the game.

For those who truly want to turn the game into their personal second job, SSF is still right there for those to self-impose extra hours of grinding. But the fact that SSF exists doesn’t magically make this feedback invalid, it just means you personally might not like the idea of achieving things without leaning entirely on others.

So when you reply with “just play SSF,” it’s not only missing the point, it’s a convenient way to dodge the uncomfortable idea of having to complete challenges on your own. At least be honest about that instead of using SSF as a way to dismiss the topic entirely.

Nope you're just saying "force SSF on all players". And its never happening because it would make no sense lol, go play ssf and show off your 40/40 on your profile.

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VoidWhisperer42#5989 wrote:

Except… you really don’t need a meta build, a Mageblood, or a Nimis to clear all content. Treating those as the bare minimum isn’t just a weird flex, it’s a pretty clear sign of a knowledge gap.

That’s exactly why it would be healthier for the game to have challenges that are truly self-achieved, pushing players who want the rewards to actually learn how to build properly or heaven forbid play the game, instead of swiping the currency card or begging for carries.

Based, 10/10

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

Nope you're just saying "force SSF on all players". And its never happening because it would make no sense lol, go play ssf and show off your 40/40 on your profile.

I think you quite don’t get the difference between forced SSF and players still having the option to pick either. Nobody said delete trade league or make challenges SSF exclusive, those were never suggested. The goal is to improve challenges to better encourage player growth and make them more engaging, while still letting players participate in trade league however they want. Having to complete challenges yourself in trade league is nowhere near an SSF environment, you still get all the benefits of trade. Let’s not pretend this is ‘forced SSF,’ because it seems you don’t actually understand the difference.

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VoidWhisperer42#5989 wrote:

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

Nope you're just saying "force SSF on all players". And its never happening because it would make no sense lol, go play ssf and show off your 40/40 on your profile.

I think you quite don’t get the difference between forced SSF and players still having the option to pick either. Nobody said delete trade league or make challenges SSF exclusive, those were never suggested. The goal is to improve challenges to better encourage player growth and make them more engaging, while still letting players participate in trade league however they want. Having to complete challenges yourself in trade league is nowhere near an SSF environment, you still get all the benefits of trade. Let’s not pretend this is ‘forced SSF,’ because it seems you don’t actually understand the difference.

It quite literally is forced SSF, this is an objective fact. And its never happening. There is no difference between doing challenges on SSF and doing them yourself in trade. It would be just as annoying both times and the majority of players don't want that. This is also, an objective fact.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

It quite literally is forced SSF, this is an objective fact. And its never happening. There is no difference between doing challenges on SSF and doing them yourself in trade. It would be just as annoying both times and the majority of players don't want that. This is also, an objective fact.

It quite literally ISN'T.....do you know what SSF even means? It means "solo self-found" and refers to how one gets items. That's it.

SSF = no trade. Full stop. That is its ONLY meaning.



Making challenges a solo achievement is not "forced SSF", because it has zero effect on how you interact with drops, trade, and all the rest of the game. It has zero connection to SSF in any way, other than sharing the idea that you have to do something yourself. But even with that, you can get pretty much 99% "help" through trade if you want. You just can't bypass it altogether.

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Toforto#2372 wrote:

It quite literally is forced SSF, this is an objective fact. There is no difference between doing challenges on SSF and doing them yourself in trade.

This is objectively untrue. You can still trade for maps, scarabs and whatever else that allow you easy access to challenges whereas in SSF you would have to farm all of that by yourself.

That said I agree that forced solo completion would be a dumdum idea.