Path of Exile 2 has changed the Trial of Ascendancy compared to the first game. In Path of Exile 1, you found Ascendancy trials scattered throughout the campaign, which eventually led to the Labyrinth. In Path of Exile 2, the Labyrinth no longer exists.
Instead, PoE 2 has 3 Trials of Ascendancy. Trial of the Sekhemas, Trial of Chaos, and a third trial that is not currently in the Early Access version of the game. These new trials are based on some of PoE 1’s old mechanics, such as Sanctum and Ultimatum.
This Path of Exile 2 Ascendancy Guide will help you master Trials of Ascendancy with tips on unlocking ascendancies, earning passive points, and navigating challenges for rewards. Keep reading!
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How to Ascend
In Path of Exile 2, you unlock your Ascendancy by completing one of three challenging areas called Trials of Ascendancy. The first one you'll encounter is the Trial of the Sekhemas in Act 2, which requires a key obtained through questing. Once inside, you'll face obstacles and a final boss. Beating any of these Trials for the first time unlocks your Ascendancy and gives you two points to spend in its special skill tree.
So far in Early Access, these Trials are available:
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Act 2: Trial of the Sekhemas
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Act 3: Trial of Chaos
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Act 4: Trial not available yet.
How to unlock all Ascendancy Passives
Here's a simplified explanation of how to earn your Ascendancy passive points in Path of Exile 2:
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Points 1 & 2: Complete the Trial of the Sekhemas in Act 2, given by a quest with Balbala's Barya.
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Points 3 & 4: Trial of Chaos in Act 3. Given by a quest with Chimeral Inscribed Ultimatum.
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Points 5 & 6: Complete either:
A level 60+ Djinn Barya version of the Trial of the Sekhemas (3 floors).
A level 75+ Inscribed Ultimatum version of the Trial of Chaos (10 rounds).
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Points 7 & 8: Complete either:
A level 75+ version of the Trial of the Sekhemas, which has four floors, and defeat the final boss.
A level 75+ Inscribed Ultimatum version of the Trial of Chaos (10 rounds) and defeat its final boss after collecting all three fragments: Cowardly Fate, Deadly Fate, and Victorious Fate.
Where to find the Higher Level Trial items
Higher-level Trial items can be found as follows: Level 60+ Djinn Barya begin dropping randomly at the end of Act 6 (Cruel difficulty) and in any Tier 1 or higher endgame map. Level 75 or higher Djinn Barya and Inscribed Ultimatum drop randomly in Tier 8 and higher endgame maps. Trading with other players is also an option for obtaining these items.
Trial of the Sekhemas
The Trial of the Sekhemas in Act 2 is almost like a roguelike dungeon with a series of challenge rooms and bosses. Each room presents a unique challenge, such as navigating traps, fighting off enemy waves, or completing timed trials. You'll also find helpful boons, healing opportunities, and keys that unlock a treasure room at the end. Your goal is to defeat the last boss and get your Ascendancy Class or skill points.
Honour
In the Trial of the Sekhemas, you have something called Honour which will be displayed on a bar. This Honour bar is based on how much Life and Energy Shield you have combined, but it's separate. When you take damage to your Life or Energy Shield, your Honour also takes damage. If your Honour goes to zero, you automatically end the Trial. You can fail by dying normally, or by losing all your Honour, which kicks you out of the Trial.
Honour is special because you can't heal it with normal options like health potions or regeneration. The only way to restore Honour is through special Artifacts, Boons, or rewards from Shrines in the rooms. Honour makes this Trial more like a roguelike game; you really want to avoid taking damage because it's hard to get Honour back. If your Honour is low, play it safe. You might even want to skip good treasures to stay alive.
Luckily, the Trial of the Sekhemas is made so that the monsters attack slowly and give you clear warnings. The traps are also designed so you can avoid getting hit. Play carefully, keep an eye on your Honour, and think about how much damage you can afford to take when choosing which room to go to next. This will help you keep your Honour and survive.
Where to find Trial of the Sekhemas
In the quest "The Trial of Corruption," you'll climb the Traitor's Passage. This area is a network of connected caves, and within it, you'll find a sealed door covered in magical symbols. Behind this door is a character you can free. If you do, they'll give you access to the Trial of the Sekhemas, but first you must defeat a boss to do so.
If you're having trouble finding the sealed door, look for a stone pillar nearby. It has lore written on it about the imprisoned character, and it might show up on your minimap.
Balbala, The Traitor
Balbala is trapped inside the Ancient Seal. To fully free them and get their help finding the Trial of the Sekhemas, you must first defeat them in battle. This fight can be tough, as Balbala is a fast, tricky boss with many special abilities.
Here are some tips for defeating Balbala:
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Balbala deals a lot of poison damage. Boosting your Chaos resistance early in the game can be hard, but it will make some attacks much easier to handle if you can.
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Balbala resists Fire damage and is weak to Cold damage. Use Cold attacks to your advantage.
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Balbala sometimes disappears and fills the room with poisonous gas. To stop this, you need to find Balbala, who is still visible but disguised.
After defeating Balbala the Traitor, you'll get the quest item Balbala's Barya. This coin unlocks the Trial of the Sekhemas.
Once you have the coin, you can use the Desert Map in town to travel to the Trial of the Sekhemas.
► Relics
Before you enter the Trial for the first time, Balbala will give you a Relic. These are special items that only work inside the Trial of the Sekhemas. Relics give you helpful bonuses, like extra health (which also boosts your Honour), ways to recover Honour, or a better chance to find Sacred Water.
You can improve Relics just like regular equipment. For example, you can use an Orb of Augmentation to add another bonus to a basic Magic Relic. Once you're happy with your Relic, you place it in the Relic Altar. It will stay there and give you its bonuses every time you enter the Trial. You can always take Relics out of the Altar, swap them, or change their order before starting a new Trial attempt.
When choosing bonuses for your Relics, focus on these priorities:
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Honour Resistance: Aim for a total of 75% (the maximum). This means you'll only take 25 damage from a hit that would normally do 100!
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Maximum Honour Resistance: Once you have more than 75% Honour Resistance, start trying to increase your maximum Honour Resistance, especially if you're aiming to complete the fourth floor.
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Increased Maximum Honour: Get as much of this as you can alongside Honour Resistance.
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Increased Life and Defenses: More Life and Energy Shield increase your base Honour, which makes bonuses to Maximum Honour even better. Defenses improve your Armor, Evasion, and Energy Shield. Armor and Evasion also further protect your Honour.
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Other Bonuses: After you reach the 75% Honour Resistance cap, you can start looking at other helpful effects, such as reduced damage from bosses, increased movement speed, or a better chance of finding keys.
In the first Trial you ever do, Relics may not be that important, however in the higher-level Trials, Relics make quite a massive difference, so make sure you use them.
Trial Map
After each room, you'll use a map to navigate the Trial of the Sekhemas. To complete the Trial, you must travel from the leftmost room to the rightmost room and defeat a final boss. Higher difficulty Trials have extra floors with more rooms and bosses.
This map lets you choose your next room and shows important details like the type of challenge, the rewards, and any Afflictions (special debuffs that only apply within the Trial). You can see the next set of rooms and the connections between them, allowing you to plan your path from left to right. The map displays:
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Room Type: The kind of challenge you'll face, like traps or hordes of enemies.
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Reward Type: The rewards you'll receive, such as boons and treasure keys.
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Afflictions: Some rooms have a purple highlight indicating an Affliction or debuff when you enter.
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Next Rooms: You can see the next column of rooms to plan your route.
Keep in mind that various Afflictions, Boons, and Relic effects can change how the map works. For example, some Afflictions might hide the next column of rooms or the room types, making planning harder. On the other hand, Boons or Relics that reveal extra rooms can greatly improve your chances of success and increase your potential loot.
Trial of the Sekhemas Bosses
Each floor of the Trial ends with a boss fight. These tough battles are often the biggest challenge, so plan carefully. Try to enter these fights with high Honour and helpful Boons, while avoiding Afflictions that could hinder you.
FLOOR 1 - Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker
Rattlecage is the first-floor boss—a huge magma elemental with slow, powerful slams and lots of Fire damage and area-of-effect attacks. Here are some tips for defeating Rattlecage:
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Fire Resistance: Rattlecage mainly deals Fire damage, so consider increasing your Fire Resistance with gear or a Fire Charm, which provides temporary Fire Resistance boosts when you take Fire damage.
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Elemental Damage: Rattlecage resists Fire and Lightning damage but is weak to Cold damage.
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Physical Damage: Rattlecage has high Armor, making Physical damage less effective. Use Armor Break skills to help with this.
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Crowd Control: Rattlecage is slow and has noticeable wind-ups before using its abilities. Crowd control effects like Stun, Freeze, Electrocute, and Chill are very effective. Its weakness to Cold makes Freeze easier to apply.
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Large Target: Because Rattlecage is large, it's easier to hit with multiple overlapping area-of-effect skills. This makes skills like Grenades with the Multiple Projectiles support gem more effective.
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Fire Rain: When Rattlecage's health is low, it can use a slam attack to start a rain of fire droplets that fall randomly around the arena. This effect lasts for about a minute. This final phase of the fight is the most dangerous. You can either play it safe and dodge until the rain stops or try to finish the fight quickly before the fire rain and other area attacks become overwhelming.
Sacred Water
After completing the Trial of Sekhemas, you can use any remaining Sacred Water in the final reward room. You can either buy new Relics from Balbala or convert the water into Treasure Keys at the Keth Forge. Talk to Balbala first to buy any Relics you want, as using the Forge will convert all your remaining Sacred Water into keys.
Trial of Chaos
In Act 3's Vaal Jungle, you can find the Temple of Chaos. To enter, you need a key from the Trialmaster. Inside the Trial of Chaos, you'll face several challenges in a row, followed by a random boss. Completing the Trial unlocks an Ascendancy class, grants you Ascendancy Passive Skill Points, and gives other rewards.
What is the Trial of Chaos?
The Trial of Chaos is a combat challenge where you face tough choices in each encounter. In every Chamber, you must pick one of three Tribulations—negative modifiers that last for the rest of your Trial run. These can add dangers to the fights, weaken you, or strengthen your enemies. Each time you clear a room, another Tribulation is added. You need to carefully choose the Tribulations you think you can handle and watch out for combinations that could lead to your defeat.
Where to find Trial of Chaos?
The Trial of Chaos entrance is in Act 3's Chimeral Wetlands. Search the outer edges of the zone for a narrow passage with stone stairs.
To get the Chimeral Inscribed Ultimatum (needed to enter the Trial for the first time), you must defeat the unique boss Xyclucian, the Chimera.
Once you have the Ultimatum, you can attempt the Trial of Chaos as many times as you need until you succeed.
Conclusion
Getting Your Ascendancy: You can earn your Ascendancy by completing either the Trial of the Sekhemas in Act 2 or the Trial of Chaos in Act 3. Completing it in Act 2 lets you get it sooner.
If You're Struggling: If you're having trouble, try leveling up and improving your gear before attempting the Trial again.
Gaining More Ascendancy Passives: To earn more than the initial two Ascendancy Passive Skill Points, you'll need to complete higher difficulty versions of any Trial. These higher difficulties require keys that drop randomly as you level. If you haven't found one yet, you might need to level up further for the next difficulty key to drop.
Each Trial Has Unique Rewards: Besides Ascendancies and regular loot, each Trial offers unique rewards. The Trial of Sekhemas grants Time-Lost Jewels, while the Trial of Chaos offers Vaal Orbs and Soul Cores (for socketing into gear). These exclusive rewards are powerful and can be useful for any character build.
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