With Path of Exile 3.30: Covens of Umbra launching on November 13, 2026, players are getting their hands on one of the most interesting borrowed-power systems the game has seen in years: the Wickerman. This guide walks through everything known so far about the new Wickerman, the Viscera trophies you socket into it, the Fates that empower boss fights, and how to farm the whole loop from the campaign all the way to Pinnacle encounters.
PoE 3.30 Wickerman Guide
The Wickerman is a central progression and hideout feature introduced in Covens of Umbra. The twisted witchcraft of the Coven lets you put the remains of your fallen enemies to use by placing them on your own Wickerman. You defeat covenites, interrupt their rituals, choose Fates to empower area bosses, and then claim Viscera from those tougher bosses to gain scraps of their power for yourself.
Think of it as a totem-like doll that stands in town (or your hideout) with four equipment slots. Everything you equip on him becomes a permanent positive effect for your character. The whole system is built to run alongside the campaign and the new Atlas, so you get stronger as you push further into the endgame.
How Does the New Wickerman System Work in PoE 3.30
The Wickerman system runs on a simple loop that scales from the earliest campaign zones all the way to Uber Pinnacle bosses.
Step 1: Disturb Rituals and Earn Fates. When mapping or progressing through the campaign, you encounter cauldrons and covenites performing gruesome rites to summon their queen. After you successfully disturb a ritual, you can absorb some of its power in the form of a Fate card. You can do this up to three times per zone or per boss.
Step 2: Empower the Area Boss. Use the Fate cards to empower the boss of the area, making the fight more challenging but also more rewarding. From the demo, one example showed a boss fight gaining an additional projectile storm. Each Fate card also carries at least one reward icon, which guarantees that reward type from the empowered boss.
Step 3: Combo Your Rewards. Keep an eye out for cards with matching reward icons. By invoking multiple Fates with the same reward icon, you create combos that grant additional rewards. If you invoke the same type of Fate card twice at the same time, their rewards get tripled.
Step 4: Defeat the Fate-Empowered Boss for Viscera. Killing a Fate-empowered boss has a chance to drop a Viscera trophy, which you bring back to the Wickerman.
Step 5: Grim Fates and Pinnacle Bosses. In the late game, map bosses can grant Grim Fates. These are a special type of Fate saved at your Wickerman and used to empower Pinnacle bosses such as Maven, Shaper, Sirus, and Eater of Worlds. Defeating these empowered Pinnacle bosses eventually gives you a shot at the new Pinnacle encounter: the Coven Queen, summoned with the Cursed Poppet.
What is Wickerman Viscera?
Viscera are body-part trophies dropped by Fate-empowered bosses. Every boss in the campaign, as well as every boss on a map in the Atlas, has a unique Viscera to be obtained. Just be sure to collect your Fates before defeating them so you do not miss out on the drop.
The Wickerman has four slots, one for each body-part category:
Head
Torso / Body
Upper Limb (Arm)
Lower Limb (Leg)
Each trophy comes in one of three tiers:
Lesser (dropped in the earlier campaign)
Normal (no prefix, mid-game drops)
Greater (available only in the endgame)
Across all slots and tiers, there are over 120 Viscera variants to collect. Each one grants a permanent character buff while equipped into the Wickerman, so no need to worry if a Lesser version drops during the campaign; a better version of that same body part can show up later.
POE 3.30 Wickerman Viscera Buffs
Here is a running list of all known Viscera buffs so far, pulled from the trailer, the official site, and community reporting.
Head Pieces
Lesser Bandit Warrior's Head (from Oak): Regenerate 0.83% of Life per second
Bandit Warrior's Head: Regenerate 1.92% of Life per second
Voltaic Skull: 21% of Physical Damage converted to Lightning Damage
Greater Spectral Hood: +3% to maximum Chaos Resistance
Greater Elder's Head: Enemies Chilled by your Hits can be Shattered as though Frozen
Sirus' Head: Transfiguration of Mind, which reads "Increases and Reductions to Maximum Mana also apply to Damage at 30% of their value" (it can also reportedly roll Body or Soul variants for Life/Attack Damage or Energy Shield/Spell Damage)
Greater Sirus' Head: Enemies you kill have a 9% chance to explode, dealing a tenth of their maximum Life as Damage of a random element
Torso / Body Pieces
Lesser Scorpion Stinger: Poisons you inflict on non-poisoned enemies deal 59% increased Damage
Ursine Flesh: 30% reduced enemy threshold
Greater Golemic Stone: You cannot be Stunned if you have been Stunned or Blocked a Stunning Hit in the past 2 seconds
Maven's Torso / Maven's Orrery: Enemies within 3 metres are Scorched (Scorched lowers elemental resistances)
Greater Distended Stomach: Eat a soul when you consume the corpse of a Rare monster, granting Soul Eater (increased Attack Speed, Cast Speed and Character Size)
Upper Limb (Arm) Pieces
Lesser Warden's Arm (from Brutus): +35 to maximum Life (community reports a higher-rolled version with +46 to maximum Life)
Ancestor's Club: Strike Skills which target additional enemies can do so from 29% further away
Lower Limb (Leg) Pieces
Lesser Poacher's Leg: -25 Physical Damage taken from Hits by animals
Scholar's Leg: 9% increased bonuses gained from equipped Gloves
The buffs vary tremendously in power. Some are small, flavorful bonuses; others, particularly those from Pinnacle and Uber Pinnacle bosses, are build-defining. The "Greater Sirus' Head" explosion effect, for instance, is normally only found on the Flask of End, so getting that effect baked into a Wickerman slot is a very strong pull.
How To Use Wickerman Viscera
Using the Wickerman is straightforward once you have a few Viscera in hand.
Place the Wickerman in Your Hideout or Town - The Wickerman functions much like a totem you set up, and he acts as a persistent gear slot outside your character sheet.
Impale Viscera Onto the Four Slots - Equip one Head, one Torso, one Arm, and one Leg piece. All four slots give permanent effects to your character while equipped. You do not have to fill every slot right away; the Wickerman still works if you only have one or two pieces slotted.
Mix and Match for Your Build - Since each Viscera has a different buff, you can pick pieces that match your character's needs. A poison build might run the Lesser Scorpion Stinger torso with a life regen head, while a strike skill build will aim for the Ancestor's Club arm for extended cleave range. A phys-to-lightning build could lean on the Voltaic Skull for conversion.
Swap as You Progress - Lesser pieces picked up during the campaign can later be replaced by Normal and Greater versions once you reach the Atlas and Pinnacle content. Keep hunting the bosses that drop the Greater variant of the body part you want.
Pinnacle Boss Slots via Grim Fates - For the highest-tier Viscera (such as Sirus' Head or Maven's Orrery), you need to invoke Grim Fates on Pinnacle bosses through the "Invoke Grim Fate for this encounter" option below the Eldritch influences on the Map Device.
How To Get Wickerman Viscera
Farming Viscera comes down to engaging with the league mechanic consistently and selecting the right Fates for the bosses you want.
Campaign Drops
Real zone bosses have been added to every zone in the campaign for 3.30, just like PoE 2. By interrupting the witch rituals in each campaign act, collecting Fates, and then defeating those empowered zone bosses, you can score the first tiers (Lesser) of Viscera. For example, an empowered Brutus has a chance to drop a Warden's Arm, which increases your maximum Life.
Atlas Map Boss Drops
Once in maps, every map boss can be empowered by Fates and has a chance to drop its own unique Viscera. If a map boss shares its model with a campaign boss, they share the same reward pool, with the map version potentially rolling higher numbers. This is where Normal-tier Viscera start showing up along with better rolls of the Lesser ones.
Pinnacle Boss Drops (Greater Tier)
Greater-tier Viscera are endgame-only. To get them, you apply Grim Fates to Pinnacle bosses such as Maven, Sirus, the Shaper, Eater of Worlds, and the Elder. Grim Fates themselves drop from killing Fate-empowered map bosses in higher-tier Atlas maps. Each Pinnacle fight becomes harder when a Grim Fate is applied; for example:
The Collector (Maven): Maven has a 30% chance to gain a Power, Frenzy or Endurance Charge on Hit; monsters summoned during the Brain phase have a random Fate Empowerment; Cascade of Pain fires additional Crow projectiles; Circle Slam triggers a beam of viscera and blood.
The Awakened (Sirus): Sirus has a Conqueror Power at random.
The Emissary (Eater of Worlds): Eater of Worlds gains 30% of Maximum Life as extra Maximum Energy Shield.
Defeating these empowered Pinnacle bosses lets you collect Greater Viscera and eventually face the new Pinnacle fight.
The Coven Queen (New Pinnacle Boss)
By repeatedly defeating empowered Pinnacle bosses, you eventually earn the Cursed Poppet, the summon item used to fight the Coven Queen herself. She uses a random system and can drop a Viscera modeled on any boss in the pool, potentially with two or three mods rolled on it. Community discussion points to her being a "watcher's eye type" source of extraordinarily strong Viscera, which could become some of the most sought-after items in the entire league.
Farming Tips
Always disturb rituals and pick up Fates before engaging an area boss. If the boss dies before being empowered, no Viscera drops.
Match reward icons across your three Fate slots to trigger combos. Same-icon doubles get tripled rewards.
To chase a specific Viscera, just farm the boss that drops it. The system acts somewhat like an expanded Pantheon in that way, with each boss tied to a specific body part.
Other FAQs About Wickerman & Viscera
Are Wickerman Viscera tradable?
This is still being debated in the community. Some players believe they will be tradable, which would make Viscera an easy source of borrowed power to buy on the market. Others expect them to behave more like Pantheon or Genesis tree pieces, meaning quest-item-like and account-bound. The livestream and press material have not fully confirmed one way or the other, so wait on patch notes for the final word.
Do I need to collect every Viscera?
No. You only use four at a time (one per slot), so you can safely skip ones that do not fit your build. You can also skip the campaign versions entirely and just chase better ones later in maps and Pinnacle fights.
What happens if I kill the boss before applying a Fate?
No Viscera drops. The Viscera system only triggers on Fate-empowered bosses, so always disturb rituals first and apply at least one Fate before engaging.
Can Pinnacle Viscera roll different variants?
Yes. Some, like Sirus' Head, can roll into Mind, Body, or Soul variants (affecting Mana to Damage, Life to Attack Damage, or Energy Shield to Spell Damage respectively). That matches how his helmet unique already rolls, so expect similar variant pools on other Pinnacle Viscera.
Is there a cooldown on effects like the Soul Eater one?
Not confirmed yet. The Greater Distended Stomach grants Soul Eater when consuming a Rare monster corpse, but the duration and any cooldown behavior will be in the patch notes.
How does the Wickerman compare to Pantheons?
It is similar in concept, as a secondary buff system tied to specific bosses, but with far more variety (over 120 Viscera, four slots, three tiers) and much deeper build impact than Pantheons ever had. Many players had asked for expanded Pantheons for years, and the Wickerman is the answer.
Do I lose Viscera when I swap them out?
Based on current information, Viscera stay in your collection and you can freely swap which four you have active on the Wickerman, similar to Pantheon powers.
With Covens of Umbra releasing on November 13, 2026, the Wickerman is set to be one of the strongest borrowed-power additions in Path of Exile's history. Collect your Fates early, chase the bosses whose Viscera match your build, and work your way up to Grim Fates on Pinnacle bosses for the Greater pieces. See you in Wraeclast.
