The Trial of the Sekhemas is your gateway to ascension in Path of Exile 2.
The trial exams your power in opposition to seven challenges and a boss that have to be accomplished back-to-back. As you’re progressing, rooms will develop into more and more troublesome as you’re with curses and working low on honour. Nevertheless, the trial have to be accomplished to extend your power to the following degree, so allow us to assist with some ideas.
Right here’s methods to unlock the Trial of the Sekhemas in Path of Exile 2, what you possibly can anticipate inside, and its rewards.
Replace (April 7): The steps to unlock the Ascent to Energy quest has modified with April 2025’s “Daybreak of the Hunt” replace, so we’ve up to date the information to replicate the modifications.
How you can unlock Trial of the Sekhemas in POE2
To unlock the Trial of the Sekhemas, you should open The Halani Gates and defeat Balbala, the Traitor within the Traitor’s Passage in Act 2. As soon as defeated, they’ll drop Balbala’s Barya coin, which can be used as the important thing to enter the trial.
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Return to the Ardura Caravan and use the Desert Map to journey to the Trial of the Sekhemas on the prime of the map. Head inside to seek out Balbala ready so that you can begin the trial.
All Trial of the Sekhemas challenges
The Trial of the Sekhemas is a gauntlet the place you should full seven challenges in a row solely to face off in opposition to Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker within the eighth and closing room. The Trial of Sekhemas is at degree 22, so the monsters you’ll face off in opposition to would be the identical degree. Nevertheless, you possibly can tackle this problem at any level, so that you might be extraordinarily overleveled and overgeared should you’d wish to have a better time.
Previous to beginning the trial, there are some things you must know:
- Relics — After you converse with Balbala, she’ll provide you with a relic, an merchandise making your time within the trial a bit simpler by offering you with a buff. Place the relic into the Relic Altar after you’ve inserted Balbala’s Barya coin. These relics can give you a mess of buffs like rising your complete honour, most life, or the whole quantity of sacred water you acquire from fountains.
- Honour — Honour acts as a singular life complete that’s used for the whole lot of the trial. Any time you get hit or take harm, you’ll lose honour relying on how a lot harm was taken. In case your honour reaches zero, you’ll fail and have to begin over. To forestall your honour from reaching zero, you’ll want to decide on a room that rewards you with honour.
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- Trial map — After you full the primary room and every subsequent room, you’ll encounter the trial map. The trial map means that you can choose what problem, reward, and modifier will await you within the subsequent room. In case you’re making an attempt to have the simplest time, keep away from the rooms that afflict you with curses. In case you’re making an attempt to obtain probably the most rewards, attempt to enter the rooms that award you with keys.
- Dying — In case you die or run out of honour, your trial will finish, however you possibly can nonetheless strive once more without charge. Work together with Balbala and ask to strive once more. Nevertheless, it will solely apply to Balbala’s Barya coin. In case you use a Djinn Barya coin, the trial can be over when you fail, and also you’ll not be allowed re-entry.
To start out the Trial of Sekhemas, you’ll want to put Balbala’s Barya coin within the altar together with any relics of your selecting. Full the problem within the first room to seek out the trial map, which is able to assist you to select between considered one of 5 trials:
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- Chalice Trial — Defeat all uncommon monsters to replenish the chalice and progress to the following room.
- Escape Trial — Disable each Dying Crystal within the room. After you disable on crystal, a line will shoot out within the path of the following crystal, so observe the road to simply progress to the following room.
- Gauntlet Trial — Discover and work together with levers hidden across the room whereas avoiding traps and enemies lurking about. After you work together with one lever, gates will open and shut forcing you to discover a new path to the exit, so hold your eyes peeled for any open gates!
- Hourglass Trial —Activate the hourglass and survive till the time runs out to succeed. In case you kill a uncommon monster the time will go down, however your most important focus right here is to outlive.
- Ritual Trial — Shut down each portal by defeating the lich summoners on the perimeters of the portal. There are a couple of variants of this room the place the portals might be huddled collectively close to the middle of the room or scattered across the edges. Give attention to the casters as enemies that seem from the portals will immediately perish as soon as the portals shut.
In case you’re having a tough time with the Trial of the Sekhemas, one of the best tip I can provide you for these trials is to stay to the trial’s goal. Go for the target and keep away from doing something pointless that might decrease your honour.
How you can beat Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker
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Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker is a big rock golem that emerges from a rock cluster within the heart of the room if you get shut. Listed here are the strikes to look out for:
- Rattlecage slams the bottom creating a big shockwave round their fists. This assault has a considerably gradual wind up animation and there can be an audio cue from Balbala telling you to be careful, so ensure you can hear her!
- Rattlecage hits the bottom, creating mini volcanoes and fissures within the floor. Keep away from standing across the volcanoes as they’ll spew out rocks that can chip away at your honour.
- Pockets of wind will seem on the ground indicating {that a} stalactite will drop within the space, so be sure to maneuver away!
Ranged customers can use the rock cluster that Rattlecage emerged from to keep away from their assaults for a majority of the struggle. Melee customers must hold a eager eye on Rattlecage’s animations and pull Rattlecage away from the volcanoes and touchdown zones to maintain your honour degree excessive.
Trial of the Sekhemas rewards
When you’ve defeated Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker, you’ll enter a brand new room filled with chests and altars.
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In case you’ve racked up a hefty quantity of keys, you possibly can open chests of the corresponding key. Bronze keys can solely open bronze chests, silver keys and silver chests, and gold keys and gold chests. There are 4 bronze and silver chests and two gold chests, with every chest having a distinct reward. The chests can be random each time you full a trial, however they will focus on something from class objects, relics, gold, and armor items. When you have leftover sacred waters, you possibly can both buy objects from Balbala or change them on the Keth Forge for extra keys.
The largest reward for finishing the trial must be from the Altar of Ascendancy. Work together with the altar to decide on your Ascendancy class, which will provide you with a further talent tree filled with energy skills.
Subsequent, take a look at methods to get extra spirit to summon extra minions and use extra buffs, and discover ways to use Path of Exile 2’s official buying and selling board.
