Races

Races are events where players compete in a special league to win prizes. With durations ranging from twelve minutes to one month, they allow players to demonstrate mastery of the game. The goal is to accumulate the highest amount of experience possible within the time limit, starting with a new character and an empty stash. Many races have special modifications, such as preventing players from making parties or increasing monster damage.

Seasons

Races are divided into seasons, each lasting around six weeks. Every season has its own leaderboard and a special set of alternate art item prizes.

Season One ran from February 23rd to April 7th, 2013 with a total of 109 events.
Season Two ran from April 20th to June 6th, 2013 with a total of 260 events.
Season Three ran from June 29th to August 11th, 2013 with a total of 161 events.
Season Four ran from August 31st to October 13th, 2013 with a total of 162 events.
Season Five ran from November 16th to December 29th, 2013 with a total of 160 events.
Season Six ran from January 11th to February 23rd, 2014 with a total of 177 events.
Season Seven ran from March 29th to May 11th, 2014 with a total of 190 events.
Season Eight ran from June 7th to July 20th, 2014 with a total of 190 events.
Season Nine ran from October 25th to November 21st, 2014 with a total of 120 events.
Season Ten ran from December 23th to January 19th, 2015 with a total of 120 events.
Season Eleven ran from February 15th to March 14th, 2015 with a total of 120 events.
Emberwake race season (Season 12) ran from July 24th to August 20th, 2015 with a total of 120 events.
Bloodgrip race season (Season 13) ran from September 4th to October 1st, 2015 with a total of 120 events.
Soulthirst race season (Season 14) runs from November 6th to December 3rd, 2015 with a total of 155 events.

There are sometimes test races which are not part of a season and have less, or no, rewards. There was a series of 46 such races between seasons 1 and 2.

Rewards

Players are ranked on the season ladder by their accumulated reward points from races. Information about future races can be found on the main PoE site.

Reward points are awarded for the following:

Ending among the highest characters ranked by experience. Typically the top 20 characters of each class earn points, with higher ranks earning more. You must be alive at the end of the race.
Reaching one of the level goals. Depending on the duration, reaching level X might award Y points. You must be alive at the end of the race.
Being the first player to finish a certain quest.
Being the first player to kill all monsters in a certain area.

In some races, first-place characters of each class receive a prize, a custom or unique item. Some races also have a random drawing for items, with each reward point you earn counting as a ticket. Finally, earning certain amounts of reward points over an entire season gives items.

The results for each race are posted at poestatistics.com along with the season ladder.

Race modifiers

Race modifiers add special rules to a race, usually making the game harder in some way. Generally the name of a race event will include in it the length of the race, whether the race allows partying, and what modifiers it includes.

Name	Introduced	Effect
Ancestral	Race season 1	All areas except in towns have enemy totems spread across the zone that grant benefits to your enemies and attempt to kill you.
Blood Grip	Bloodgrip race season	Players have the Corrupting Blood mod.
Blood Magic	Race season 1	Characters act as if they have the Blood Magic passive allocated.
Boss Kill	Race season 9	Points are awarded for time taken to kill a specific boss. Bosses used include Brutus, Merveil, Oversoul, Piety and Dominus.
Brutal	Race season 10	Monsters attack and cast 20% faster and deal 20% more damage.
Burst	Race season 4	3 short races in a row and all within 1 hour.
Cut-throat	Race season 1	Equipped items are dropped on death. Players are allowed to enter others' instances at will. The death experience penalty is increased by 30% on all difficulty levels. Players are hostile to one another by default when not partied. Killing a player awards their death penalty experience to the killer. Player capacity in non-town instances is doubled. This does not increase the maximum party size.
Emberwake	Emberwake Race Season	Areas have the same layout for all players Minimap is revealed 30% increased movement speed Monsters deal 30% extra damage as fire
Eternal Torment	Emberwake Race Season	Each area is inhabited by 10 additional Tormented Spirits (except for Twilight Strand and towns). Spirit spawns ignore the usual area level restriction.
Exiles Everywhere	Race season 10	Each area is inhabited by 20 additional Rogue Exiles (except for Twilight Strand, where Rogue Exiles cannot spawn) Rogue Exile spawns ignore the usual area level restriction, e.g. it's possible to encounter Xandro Bloddrinker in Mud Flats
Famine	Race season 2	Flasks, life, mana, and energy shield are not refilled when entering a town instance.
Fixed Seed	Race season 2	All instances of a given area will have the same area layout, for all players. The minimap will automatically be fully revealed. Multiple Race Events regularly will have the same seed. That is, the instance area layouts will be same in all the races of a fixed seed set.
Fracturing	Race season 1	All non-unique monsters will split into a several copies when they are killed.
Headhunter	Soulthirst race season	When you kill a rare monster, you gain all its mods for 20 seconds. Every monster pack has a rare monster (even the Twilight Strand). This race type is voided.
Immolation	Race season 2	Players and monsters have their physical damage converted to fire damage. Monsters will create ground fire on death.
Inferno	Emberwake Race Season	All areas are affected by the the Infernal Tempest.
Lethal	Race season 1	Monsters deal 50% increased damage. An additional 50% of that damage is then added as cold damage, fire damage and lightning damage.
Multiple Projectile	Race season 1	Monsters have four additional projectiles when using projectile-based skills and attacks.
No Projectiles	Race season 2	Players deal no damage with projectile-based skills and attacks.
Rogue	Race season 1	All areas except towns have a rogue exile, which spawns at a random location within the area.
Solo	Race season 1	Players cannot join parties or trade.
Soulthirst	Soulthirst race season	You gain Soul Eater for 10 seconds upon killing a Rare monster.
Turbo	Race season 1	Monsters run, attack and cast 60% faster.
Unwavering	Race season 11	Monsters have increased life and cannot be stunned.

Combined Modifiers

Races can have multiple modifiers applying their effects to the race. Some common combinations are given their own acronym:

BLAMT: Blood Magic, Lethal, Ancestral, Multiple Projectile and Turbo.
ELBLAMT: An Endless Ledge race with BLAMT.
FBLAMT: Fracturing, Blood Magic, Lethal, Ancestral, Multiple Projecile and Turbo.

Special Races

There are 3 special types of race that do not occur in the regular areas of Wraeclast. These do not have the usual towns, quests or stashes, but instead have their own custom areas and special chests to provide basic equipment and skill gems. Special races parent to void league, effectively deleting characters on the conclusion of the race, so special races can have different drop rates of item such as rare currency without affecting the main leagues.