Path of Exile 2 players have uncovered just how far the action RPG can be pushed before it stops working. Streamer Empyriangaming and a collection of other players deliberately crashed the game by conjuring an massive force of 2,000 skeletal minions, rendering it virtually unplayable in the process. The stunt, which took place in the roguelike Trial of the Sekhemas mode, saw performance fall so sharply that basic actions like dodge rolling took roughly a minute to appear on the screen. The experiment revealed the game’s maximum capacity of 255 minions per player type, which the group circumvented by combining their resources across six accounts to create what may be the most expensive and impractical minion build ever attempted in Path of Exile 2.
The Minion Optimization Study
Empyriangaming’s ambitious project originated from a thought experiment: how many minions could Path of Exile 2 actually support before the game buckled under the strain? Rather than settling for a typical minion configuration—which usually includes around 10 to 15 skeletons—the streamer and his teammates set out to push past the game’s basic boundaries. They carefully constructed six complete sets of refined items, investing an astronomical amount of virtual currency to lower the resource expenditure of summoning each minion to single digits. This permitted them to accumulate considerably more minions than any standard build would allow.
The technical challenge was formidable. Path of Exile 2 enforces a strict limit of 255 minions per player for each minion type before the game automatically deletes them and clears the counter. By enlisting five extra players to bring their own forces, Empyriangaming’s group discovered a clever solution. When they ventured into the Trial of the Sekhemas roguelike mode, which grants powerful temporary bonuses including a buff that doubles minion capacity, the six players collectively summoned 2,000 skeletal minions. The result was catastrophic for performance: performance crashed, player inputs lagged by minutes, and the game became almost entirely unplayable.
- Streamer decreased minion resource costs to one-digit figures
- Game maintains 255 minion cap for each player type
- Trial of the Sekhemas buff doubled summoning capacity
- Dodge rolling took roughly one minute to complete
Pushing Past the Game’s Limitations
The Frame Rate Disaster
The moment Empyriangaming spawned his first batch of 255 Skeletal Priests, Path of Exile 2 transformed into a slideshow. The action RPG became sluggish, rendering gameplay almost unrecognisable as frame rates plummeted and the game began lagging like a stop-motion animation. Each action became a exercise in waiting; the server struggled desperately to match player inputs, creating a clear mismatch between what players were aiming and what actually appeared on screen. The skeletal minions would jitter and skip erratically as the server finally processed commands issued seconds earlier.
Despite the evident technical failure happening in front of them, the group moved ahead with grim determination. They proceeded into the Trial of the Sekhemas roguelike mode, where a strong temporary enhancement doubled each player’s minion summoning capacity. As all six players activated their abilities simultaneously, the collective 2,000 minions came into being and the frame rate graph resembled a chaotic heart rate monitor, spiking wildly up and down. Fundamental actions became excruciating undertakings; dodge rolling—usually an instantaneous defensive manoeuvre—now required approximately thirty seconds to a full minute before the character genuinely reacted on screen.
When the group sought to take their enormous force into an real environment to assess performance against a boss encounter, the lag became truly prohibitive. Moving forward just five feet required waiting several minutes as the server worked to process thousands of minion calculations in parallel. Locating and fighting a boss seemed nearly impossible under such conditions. Acknowledging the futility of continuing, Empyriangaming made the sensible decision to withdraw to his hideout for one final experiment that didn’t require actual gameplay mechanics to function.
- Frame rates fell to single digits during minion summoning
- Dodge rolling needed about one minute to complete
- Movement inputs lagged by multiple minutes throughout the map
The Ordeal of Chaos
Empyriangaming’s ambitious experiment began with meticulous preparation. The streamer and his gaming companions had carefully crafted six complete sets of minion-oriented equipment, each configured to reduce the resource cost of bringing skeletal warriors forth into minimal figures. By layering these efficiency gains across multiple characters, they theoretically could accumulate vast armies that would typically be impossible within Path of Exile 2’s standard constraints. The numerical computations were valid; the execution, however, would end up being quite different. What started as a calculated test of the game’s limits quickly spiralled into an demonstration of the engine buckle under unparalleled stress.
The group’s approach utilised every advantage available to them. By assembling a team of players and using the Trial of the Sekhemas roguelike mode—which delivered a buff doubling minion capacity—they worked around the game’s built-in 255-minion-per-type cap. Each player could call forth their maximum number, and with six players operating in tandem, the theoretical ceiling became 2,000 minions. Yet expectations and results parted ways significantly. The moment these thousands of skeletal entities rendered on screen, the engine’s constraints became starkly obvious, converting what should have been a spectacular showcase of strength into a stuttering, laggy nightmare that barely resembled functional gameplay.
| Challenge | Result |
|---|---|
| Summoning 255 Skeletal Priests alone | Frame rate dropped to crawl, game ran like stop-motion animation |
| All six players summoning with Trial buff active | 2,000 total minions caused frame rate to spike wildly, dodge rolling took 30-60 seconds |
| Attempting boss encounter with full army | Movement lagged by several minutes, making combat effectively impossible |
| Navigation across map with minion army | Walking forward five feet required several minutes of waiting time |
The Bone Trap
What started out as an ambitious experiment in minion-stacking soon showed itself to be a warning story about the dangers of breaking a game’s mechanics, even with the finest motives. Empyriangaming and his crew had managed in their primary objective—summoning considerably more skeletal warriors than Path of Exile 2 was ever intended to handle. However, their triumph came at a price that rendered the entire endeavour almost pointless: the game became essentially unplayable. The massive computational burden of processing, animating, and displaying thousands of minions at once strained the engine, reducing what should have been an impressive display of power into something resembling a slideshow presentation.
The irony was unmistakable. They had poured considerable in-game currency and time crafting the optimal gear, performed their computational work without error, and coordinated across numerous team members to work around the game’s designed restrictions. Yet all of this preparation resulted in an experience where simple mechanics—moving across the map, dodging incoming attacks, or engaging with enemies—became exercises requiring patience. The frame rate didn’t just dip; it failed completely, transforming the action RPG into something that barely qualified as playable. It was a stark reminder that some constraints are there for a reason.
An Unanticipated Horror Experience
Rather than providing the victorious occasion Empyriangaming had imagined, the 2,000-minion army created something considerably more disturbing. The lag was extremely pronounced that basic game mechanics became difficult to perform. A dodge roll—normally an immediate evasive action—took thirty to sixty seconds to appear on display. Walking forward five feet required several minutes of waiting. The disconnect between player input and visual feedback created a profoundly confusing experience, converting what should have been a demonstration into a warning example of how quickly ambition can outpace technical capability.