BuildKit Brief — Gaming & Tech — August 18, 2026

Fan Art Competition Highlights

Last week, we started a Fan Art competition themed around the latest expansions in Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2, and we’ve already received many great submissions. Check out the highlights in this news post!

The Last of the Druids Microtransactions Are Now Available in Store

Microtransactions from the Last of the Druids Mystery Box have finally been released in the store for Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2!

Path of Exile 2 ExileCon Qualifier #2 Is Going On Now!

The ExileCon Path of Exile 2 Qualifier #2 is happening now! Who will join Jiluo in the finale at ExileCon this November? Watch the action live at Co-streaming is welcome. Twitch Drops are now available for 24 hours, until 2 PM PDT on August 14.

Fan Art Competition Highlights

Last week, we started a Fan Art competition themed around the latest expansions in Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2, and we’ve already received many great submissions. Check out the highlights in this news post!

The Last of the Druids Microtransactions Are Now Available in Store

Microtransactions from the Last of the Druids Mystery Box have finally been released in the store for Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2!

Fan Art Competition

It’s been a while since we last hosted a fan art competition, and with the recent updates to Path of Exile 1 and Path of Exile 2, we’re sure our community artists have plenty of inspiration to draw from.

• Forum avatar based on the winning submission
• Your choice of Path of Exile poster signed by developers
• Your choice of two Path of Exile or Path of Exile 2 T-shirts
• 2 x random Path of Exile Pin
• Chaos Orb Socks
• Chaos Orb Deskpad

League check: Allflame is live

Current PoE1 challenge league: **Allflame**. Started Jul 24, 2026.

Counter-Strike 2 Update

Fachwerk Updated to the latest version from the Community Workshop (Update Notes) Shelter Updated to the latest version from the Community Workshop (Update Notes)

• Updated to the latest version from the Community Workshop (Update Notes)
• Updated to the latest version from the Community Workshop (Update Notes)

Minor Update - 08-12-2026

- Apollo: Riposte melee resist reduction increased from -22% to -25% - Apollo: Riposte T2 changed from "-30% Melee Resist" to "-25% Melee Resist and +0.4s Stun Duration" - Apollo: Riposte T3 increased from 60% Lifesteal for 7s to 75% Lifesteal for 13s - Apollo: Fixed Itani Lo Sahn being canceled…

Matchmaking Update

This update includes a revamp to how the matchmaking system works, as well as the introduction of a new matchmaking mode. You can now choose to play in Standard Mode (unranked), or the new Ranked Mode introduced in this update.

Minor Update - 07-28-2026

- Stamina bucket 3 heroes (slowest) have their ground dash time increased from 0.7s to 0.72s and air dash time from 0.49s to 0.51s- The Orb Spawners in base that give 10 souls on hit now split to nearby players on expire- Fixed the party member / team mate audio volume slider for voice…

Beta Patch Notes - v0.111.0

Time for another beta patch! Heads up that there won't be a patch on the 27th as our team is taking a break in the last week of August.

• Nerfed Tezcatara's Brightest Flame card: max HP loss increased from 1 → 2
• Nerfed Nonupeipe's Beautiful Bracelet relic: now Enchants 4 random cards instead of allowing you to select the cards to Enchant
• Buffed Axebot:
• Hammer Uppercut move damage increased from 12(14) → 14(18)
• Now gains +10 Max HP each time it respawns
• The One-Two damage from 9(10)x2 → 10(11)x2

The Neowsletter - August 2026

Hi Slayers, the August Neowsletter is here! The team has been hard at work on new content but it'll be at least a month until any of it hits the beta branch. We'll be out of office during late August for our annual team break, so there won't be an August 27 patch.

Beta Patch Notes - v0.110.0

Another beta patch just dropped! This one contains a host of balance changes and reworks. Notably, Mirage and Pillar of Creation have been reverted back to their pre-0.109.0 versions and have also been slightly buffed and nerfed, respectively.

• Buffed Neow's Abundance card:
• Now always creates Upgraded powers
• Upgrade changed to lower Energy cost by 1
• Reworked Tezcatara's Toasty Mittens relic: "At the start of your turn, Exhaust the top card of your Draw Pile and gain 1 Strength." -> "At the start of your…
• Buffed Tezcatara's Seal of Gold relic: Gold loss decreased from 5 -> 3
• Changed Nonupeipe's Beautiful Bracelet relic:

HOI IV Dev Corner | Romanian Crossroads

Greetings, generals! We are Alex, Norrman and Marijn211, modders of the game and now cooperating with Paradox, and today we’re showing you tidbits of a future DLC for… Romania!

HOI IV | Open Beta SE™ Update 2

Generals! Hello, I’m Pdxen, Tech Lead for Hearts of Iron and I want to welcome you to the second update of the Summer Open Beta. In this update we are changing the topic from balancing to updating the tech stack of the game. A lot has happened with computers since Hoi4 was released.

• Updated the threading libraries used in HoI4 to work better for some more modern hardware configurations
• Increased MP hardening to host operations such as kicking and banning players in MP
• Restored the balancing changes from the summer open beta.
• Front lines now split correctly again.
• Updated multiple parallel computations to better utilize the new threading library (performance gains).
• Fixed an OOS introduced when migrating to the new threading library.

HOI IV Dev Corner | Army Quality and Expertise

Hi everyone, Jamor here again. I want to thank you for good, informed feedback and suggestions in the previous airborne dev corner. I hope I can benefit from the community’s collective insight once more.

• What are the shortcomings of the current system of unit experience and casualty replenishment?
• How would you feel about a system where there were trade-offs between army size and quality?
• What would you like to see in a system intended to make the system more interesting and varied?