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The Trial of the Sekhemas inPath of Exile 2is an offshoot of the Sanctum activity from the first game. It’s a decent source of loot in the endgame, but early on, it can be challenging to complete, especially for players who aren’t strong enough.
Completing the Trial of the Sekhemas may not necessarily be part ofthe main quests and acts ofPoE 2, but it plays an important part in early character progression, and its a decent loot source as well if you manage to get strong enough. Here’s a quick guide covering some of the most important things you need to know about it.
How to Unlock the Trial of the Sekhemas in Path of Exile 2
To unlock this activity, you’ll need to beat Balbala the Traitor, a boss hidden inTraitor’s Passage in Act 2. She can be an annoying enemy to fight early on due to her fast, hard-hitting attacks, but once you take her down, she’ll dropBalbala’s Barya, an essential item that you’ll need for your first Trial of the Sekhemas run.
Afterbeating Balbala inPoE 2, travel to the Trial of the Sekhemas location from the Ardura’s travel map (or teleport there via Waypoint), and you’ll arrive at a ruined temple of sorts. Balbala will be waiting for you there not as an enemy, but as an advisor. Place Balbala’s Barya in the Relic Altar to start your run.
Balbala’s Barya is consumed after your first successful run. If you want to try again, you need to find Djinn Baryas, which drop randomly.
How to Complete Trial of the Sekhemas
The Trial of the Sekhemas puts players ina gauntlet comprised of seven rooms, withthe final one being a boss fight. Each of the first six rooms has different objectives as well as either rewards or penalties. you may pick which room to enter next after you finish your current one, and you’ll often get the choice to pick between two different rooms. Complete all encounters to enter a rewards room, where treasure chests await.
The encounters here are all simple, and the objectives are written on your quest log.Either survive the encounters, kill monsters, or reach the end of the current room to proceed. Repeat until you reach the final boss. There are no time limits here, but you might want to find ways to increase your damage output ormovement speed inPoE 2if you want to finish as quickly as possible.
Tips
Honour Level
Upon entering a trial, you’ll notice a white bar in the middle of your screen. This represents your current Honour level — Honour is basically a second health bar that’s only active during the Trial of the Sekhemas. You lose Honour when you get hit by an enemy, and how much of it you lose depends on how strong the received attack was.If you lose all your Honour, you fail the Trial(you also fail if you lose all your Life).
Honour can beregained only in rooms that contain a fountain specifically meant for Honour restoration. These are fairly rare, and you usually need to spend Sacred Water in order to heal up. With that said, you must avoid getting hit at all costs.
Rewards
During the trial, you may find Keys of varying rarities as random drops or rewards from encounters. These keys are used to open chests in the rewards room after the final boss fight. This room also contains a statue that gives you yourfirst Ascendancy points inPoE 2.
Future runs of the Trial of the Sekhemas won’t reward you with any additional Ascendancy points, but you’ll still be able to farm the activity for loot. The trial gets significantly harder (and rewarding) once you reach the endgame.
