PoE 2 Trials Guide 0.5

Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5, dubbed Return of the Ancients, launched May 29, 2026: and it did not come quietly. The endgame was gutted and rebuilt. The Atlas now has 300+ nodes. Fifteen new bosses. Two new Ascendancies. And the Trials? They got touched too.

The most relevant change: your maximum Runic Ward is now added to your starting Honour when entering the Trial of the Sekhemas. Stack Ward, start with a larger buffer, die slightly less. That's the whole patch note. GGG's way of acknowledging the mechanic exists without fixing it.

Key 0.5 change: Runic Ward now directly feeds starting Honour in Sekhemas. If you're running Kalguuran skills or a Ward-heavy build, this is meaningful. For everyone else, it's a rounding error.

A third trial: the Trial of Madness: arrived as part of the Delirium overhaul. It is not a standard ascendancy trial. It is a punishment for people who enjoyed the game too much.

Trial of the Sekhemas

The Trial of the Sekhemas is a roguelike gauntlet lifted directly from PoE1's Sanctum, filed under a different name so veterans couldn't be angry about it immediately. You navigate up to four floors, collecting Boons, accumulating Afflictions, and managing the Honour bar: a secondary health pool that does not regenerate between rooms and ends your run at PoE 2 leveling help.

How to Enter

• Campaign (Act 2): Defeat Balbala the Traitor in Traitor's Passage. She drops Balbala's Barya: a one-use quest key. Place it at the Relic Altar to start.
• Repeat runs: You need Djinn Barya coins, which drop randomly from monsters. The coin's monster level determines the Trial's area level and number of floors.
• Endgame: Use a level 75+ Djinn Barya for the final two Ascendancy points.

Honour: The Only Mechanic That Matters

Every hit you take drains both Life and Honour. Honour does not regenerate between rooms. Reach zero: regardless of your remaining Life: and the run ends. You start over. With a fresh coin.

Do not take Afflictions that increase Honour damage. At difficulty 1 and 2, they are run-enders. Skip them. Ignore the shiny Boon attached to them. Walk away.

Floor Structure

Each floor has multiple rooms with objectives: traps, combat challenges, timed encounters: followed by a boss room. You choose your path through a branching map. Rooms offer either Boons (buffs that persist through the run) or Afflictions (debuffs you accept in exchange for rewards). Choose Afflictions only when you can afford them. You almost never can.

Djinn Boons: Useful Ones

• Sekhema's Cloak: Revive once upon reaching 0 Life. Essential.
• Boons that reduce Honour loss per hit: prioritize always.
• Boons that increase Honour restoration from shrines.

Ascendancy Points from Sekhemas

Trial of Chaos

Where Sekhemas tests patience, the Trial of Chaos tests whether you read modifiers. You negotiate with the Trialmaster, accept tribulations: stacking debuffs: and survive wave-based encounters. Each room adds a modifier. They compound. By the final boss, you are fighting through a screen of chaos rings with four debuffs you half-understood.

How to Enter

• Campaign (Act 3): Defeat Xyclucian the Chimera in the Chimeral Wetlands. Pick up the Chimeral Inscribed Ultimatum.
• Endgame: Use a Level 65+ Inscribed Ultimatum with "Number of Trials: 10" for the final Ascendancy points.

Soul Core Mechanic

One room type asks you to collect Soul Cores and carry them to an altar while enemies attack. You take damage the entire time you're holding a core. Either clear the area first or sprint. There is no dignified middle ground.

Tributions: What You're Accepting

Before each room, you choose a tribulation from a list. These are permanent for the run. The Trialmaster will offer trade-offs: a good reward for a bad modifier. Read. Every. Word. "Monsters deal increased Chaos damage" when you have no Chaos resistance is not a tribulation. It's a death sentence on a PoE 2 builds.

Defeating the Trialmaster at the end with a Level 75+ Ultimatum grants the final two Ascendancy points. The run to reach him carries every tribulation you accepted. Plan accordingly or accept suffering.

Trial of Madness New in 0.5

The Trial of Madness is not an Ascendancy trial. It is what happens when you complete enough Delirium encounters on the Atlas and GGG decides you deserve additional consequences.

Completing Delirium Mirrors now occasionally spawns a Grand Mirror on a nearby Atlas map. Killing both the original and duplicate map boss unlocks the Trial of Madness mechanic. Delirium fog then spreads across nearby maps: starting at 10% Deliriousness and escalating to 100% as you kill Rares and map bosses. At 100%, a locked Simulacrum becomes available.

This is not for new players. The Trial of Madness is an endgame Delirium loop. It rewards currency and loot, not Ascendancy points. If you're still on Acts, ignore this PoE 2 bundles.

The complete Ascendancy points PoE 2 map, because apparently people lose count.

Runic Ward & the Sekhemas

Runic Ward is a new defensive layer introduced in 0.5: a third health bar sitting above Life and Energy Shield, tied to Kalguuran skills and the Runes of Aldur league mechanic. It refills out of combat and absorbs incoming damage first.

Its interaction with Trials: your maximum Ward value is now added to your starting Honour in Sekhemas. This is not a passive bonus to Honour regeneration. It is a one-time addition at run start. Stack Ward, start higher. Take fewer hits early. Still fail at floor 3.

Patch 0.5 also added an Ascendancy passive planner: a full in-game tree preview showing all nodes and their interactions before you commit. Use it before entering the trial. Choosing an Ascendancy because the name sounded cool is no longer an excuse of PoE 2 boss carry.