The Trial of the Sekhemas is one of the Ascension Trials in Path of Exile 2 (PoE 2). Learn how to find the Trial of the Sekhemas, a list of boons, how to defeat all bosses, and see a list of tips and tricks for completing the Trial of the Sekhemas!

All Trial of the Sekhemas Challenges

There are five different Trials you can encounter in the Trials of Sekhemas:

Trials	Difficulty
Escape Trial	★☆☆
Ritual Trial	★☆☆
Hourglass Trial	★★☆
Chalice Trial	★★★
Gauntlet Trial	★★★

Escape Trial

Escape Trial Objectives
・Disable all Death Crystals. ・Rush to each crystal to disable them. ・Disabling one adds more time to the countdown. ・Each crystal points you toward the next one. ・Any Crystals still active once the timer expires will damage you.

Avoid all enemies and dodge roll to move past them. Movement skills will be incredibly useful for this Trial as these can help you move around quicker. You can explore freely after disabling all crystals.

Ritual Trial

Ritual Trial Objectives
・Defeat all Ritual Casters next to each Portal to disable them. ・Disable all Portals to advance to the next trial.

Focus on the casters and defeat them ASAP to get rid of the summoned enemies. Going fast and focusing firepower on them makes this trial a cakewalk.

Hourglass Trial

Hourglass Trial Objectives
・Activate the giant hourglass. ・Enemies will begin to spawn nonstop. ・Survive until time runs out.

Play defensively. Backpedal and dodge so avoid unnecessary damage. Defeat mobs as they spawn so you don't get overwhelmed.

Note that killing rare monsters will reduce the timer, so attempt this only if you can successfully fight them without losing too much Honour.

Chalice Trial

Chalice Trial Objectives
・When interacting with the giant chalice, take note of the direction it points you toward. ・Go in those directions to find the rare monsters you need to kill. ・Defeat all rare monsters. ・Head back to the Chalice when they're all defeated.

Play defensively and evasively to keep your Honour intact. Kill the mobs first to make dealing with the Rare monsters much easier.

Gauntlet Trial

Gauntlet Trial Objectives
・Levers open locked doors. ・Find and use all levers in the level. ・Once unlocked, find the door that leads to the exit.

The most important thing to remember is: Don't rush and take your time. Take note of locked doors and remember their locations for when you unlock them with the levers.

When confronted with traps, observe their timing before attempting them. You can dodge roll through traps to avoid damage.

All Trial of the Sekhemas Bosses

These are all of the bosses you will encounter during the Trial of the Sekhemas, and how to beat them:

1. Floor 1 - Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker
2. Floor 2 - Terracota Sentinels
3. Floor 3 - Ashar, the Sand Mother
4. Floor 4 - Zarokh, the Temporal

Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker

Boss	Overview
Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker	Rewards: Floor 1 completion of the Trial of the Sekhemas Damage Types: Physical, Fire Resistances: Physical, Fire, Lightning Weakness: Cold

Rattlecage has a fairly simple and fair moveset that you can react to easily. However, on the last 10% of it's health, the amount of falling stalactites and the magma geysers ramp up. Visually focus on avoiding these hazards while listening carefully to Balbala's warnings to dodge Rattlecage's attacks.

Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker Boss Guide

Terracota Sentinels

Boss	Overview
Terracota Sentinels	Rewards: Floor 2 completion of the Trial of the Sekhemas; 2nd set of Ascendancy Points Damage Types: Physical, Cold, Fire Resistances: Physical, Fire (Hadi), Cold (Rafiq) Weakness: Cold (Hadi), Fire (Rafiq)

Defeating one of the Terracotta Sentinels triggers arena hazards based on the defeated sentinel's element. It’s recommended to defeat Hadi first because defeating Rafiq causes chilling projectiles to fire from the arena's edges and leaves Chilling Ground at the center. The Chilled effect significantly slows you down, making you much more vulnerable to Hadi's follow-up attacks.

Terracota Sentinels Boss Guide

Ashar, the Sand Mother

Boss	Overview
Ashar, the Sand Mother	Rewards: Floor 3 completion of the Trial of the Sekhemas; 3rd set of Ascendancy Points Damage Types: Physical, Chaos Resistances: Physical, Fire, Lightning Weakness: Cold

The pressure plates scattered across the middle of Ashar's boss arena trigger traps that summon swarms of Adorned Beetles or fire poison dart volleys across the arena. These traps deal significant Life and Honour damage, adding unnecessary complications to the fight. Be mindful of your positioning and avoid stepping on the plates whenever possible.

Ashar, the Sand Mother Boss Guide

Zarokh, the Temporal

Boss	Overview
Zarokh, the Temporal	Rewards: Trial of Sekhemas completion;4th set of Ascendancy Points Damage Types: Physical Resistances: Fire, Cold, Lightning Weakness: None

At below 60% Life, Zarokh will start the time stop phase and summon a set of hourglass in the arena. You'll contstantly have your action speed reduced while having to collect all hourglasses before the time runs out. Failing this phase will result to your character dying and failing the run.

Zarokh, the Temporal Boss Guide

All Trial of the Sekhemas Boons and Afflictions

List of All Boons and Afflictions

Search
	Minor BoonMajor BoonMinor AfflictionMajor Affliction

These are the list of Boons and Afflictions in the Trial of Sekhemas. Boons can be bought from the merchant using Sacred Water, while Afflictions are obtained as an added challenge by entering a certain room.

Boons can also be obtained by pledging to Kochai, an optional reward if chosen from the Trial Map. Pledges will afflict you with a random debuff in exchange for the boon of your selection.

Trial of the Sekhemas Walkthrough

Jump to a Section!
Ascent to Power	Endgame

Ascent to Power Guide

	Ascent to Power Guide
1	Start the Trial Begin by placing Balbala's Barya on the Relic Altar, activating the Trial of the Sekhemas. This marks your entry into a series of challenges.
2	Overcome Each Challenge There are five different challenge types you can face throughout the Trial: ・Escape Trial ・Ritual Trial ・Chalice Trial ・Gauntlet Trial ・Hourglass Trial Be mindful of your Honour—each hit reduces it, and running out means you’ll need a new coin to restart. Stay agile to conquer the obstacles. All Trial of Sekhemas Challenges ▲
3	Navigate the Trial After completing each room, interact with the Trial Map and you’ll be shown a map of the remaining floor. You can choose which Trial to proceed to next. Some rooms may require you to adapt to new conditions, while others could impose persistent debuffs that make the entire trial more difficult. Plan your route carefully to balance risk and reward.
4	Seek Out Rewards and Boons Successfully clearing a room grants you rewards like keys to unlock treasure chests and other valuable items to aid your journey. As you progress, you’ll also earn powerful boons, such as Sekhema’s Cloak, which revives you upon death, giving you a second chance to continue the trial. You may also discover sacred water, an invaluable resource to the Djinn. Trading it with Babala can grant you various benefits, including recovering Honour, receiving extra boons, and cleansing harmful afflictions.
5	Defeat Rattlecage At the end, you will face Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker. Learn its attacks so you can dodge them easily. Follow our full boss guide below for more tips! Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker Boss Guide
6	Claim Your Ascendancy After defeating Rattlecage, you’ll reach the final stage—Ascendancy. Similar to the Ascendancy system of the previous game, this stage allows you to choose an Ascendancy Class, unlocking powerful new abilities and enhancing your character in unique ways. Each class offers different benefits, so choose wisely to complement your playstyle and strategies.

Ascent to Power Quest Walkthrough

Endgame Guide

	The Trial of Sekhemas Endgame
1	Add Relics to Modify Trials Adding Relics in the Relic Altar alongside the coins to access the trial modifies the rooms, making the rooms easier and increases rewards. Furthermore, it is highly recommended to increase your Honour resistance and your max life and energy shield, which results in increases to Honour points. Doing so will make you receive less Honour damage, making the trials much easier. List of Relics
2	Access Next Floor Past the Locked Chests Players can access the entrance to the next floor past the locked chests at the end of a floor. Doing so will take you to the next floor with a new set of Trials and a new boss at the end.
3	Defeat the Bosses of Each Floor At the end of every floor, you will face a boss. Here are all the bosses you will find in the Trial of the Sekhemas: ・Floor 1 - Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker ・Floor 2 - Terracota Sentinels ・Floor 3 - Ashar, the Sand Mother ・Floor 4 - Zarokh, the Temporal ▲ All Trial of Sekhemas Bosses ▲
4	Defeat the Pinnacle Boss The trial consists of four floors in total, where the Pinnacle Boss is encountered at the end of the last floor. Defeat the Pinnacle Boss to complete the trial and get a unique relic to be used in the next run. These unique relics adds difficulty to your next run, but rewards you with unique and powerful items if you finish it.

The Trial of the Sekhemas Tips and Tricks

These are a list of tips and tricks for getting good at the Trial of the Sekhemas:

• Avoid Bad Afflictions
• Choose Rooms Suitable for Your Build
• Go for Easier Trials
• Boost Your Resistances
• Use Sacred Water to Buy Boons
• Use Relics that Boost Honour
• There are Rooms that Replenish Honour
• Grind and Overlevel
• Glowing Orb + Lifetap Combo

Avoid Bad Afflictions

During the trial, you'll be able to see two rooms ahead of you including the Afflictions, which are basically debuffs that each room places upon your character. Plan ahead and avoid the rooms with nasty afflictions that could heavily impact your character or your current build.

Some bad afflictions are ones that prevent you from seeing into the next rooms, or afflictions that decrease movement speed and increase enemy attacks.

Choose Rooms Suitable for Your Build

Try to go for rooms where you have the advantage in depending on your build:

• If your build is bulky and can tank quite a bit, go for the Hourglass Trial.
• If you have a lot of movement in your build, you can easily clear the Escape Trial.
• The Chalice Trial can be good for builds that deal single-target damage.

List of All Builds

Go for Easier Trials

The Escape Trial is one of the easiest trials out of all the challenges since you'll mainly be running and avoiding enemies. The Ritual Trial is also an easy one, as you only need to kill the casters, which aren't too difficult.

▲ Jump to List of Trials ▲

Boost Your Resistances

Resistance is one of the most important things for survivability. Having high Resistance to various damage types will make the trials much easier.

We recommend boosting Physical resistance for all rooms, Fire resistance for the Rattlecage boss fight, Fire and Ice resistance for the Terracota Sentinels, and Chaos resistance for Ashar.

Use Sacred Water to Buy Boons

Boons are helpful buffs you can purchase from Merchants inside the Trial using a currency called Sacred Water. You can obtain more Sacred Water by defeating Rare Enemies or from Sacred Water fountains that sometimes appear after a Trial.
How to Get and Use Sacred Water

Use Relics that Boost Honour

In order to complete the Trial of the Sekhemas successfully, you need to take care of your Honour. You can do this by using Relics with Resistance to Honour. You can also use effects like Increase Maximum Honour or Increase Maximum Life or even Energy Shield to boost your maximum Honour pool.

You can obtain such Relics from the Trade Channel, or by running lower difficulty versions of the Trial of Sekhemas from mob drops or Relic chests.

Unlock More Relic Space by Finishing Floor 2

You can obtain more Relic slots by finishing a 2-floor run using higher level Djinn Baryas. This will greatly help runs into the third floor, as you have more space for Relics.
List of Relics

There are Rooms that Replenish Honour

Honour is crucial to get through the trial so if the room doesn't have a nasty debuff, it wouldn't hurt to replenish your Honour, especially if you're very low.

Grind and Overlevel

A simple but more time-consuming way to get good at the Trial of Sekhemas would be to grind and overlevel yourself so you can survive long enough to finish the Trials.
Leveling Guide: How to Get XP Fast

Glowing Orb + Lifetap Combo

This combo of using the Lifetap support gem together with the Glowing Orb boon restores 50% of your Honour, helping you survive longer during the trials. Equip the Lifetap support gem to a skill gem without a cooldown, then spam the skill to lower your health down to about 30%. This will trigger the Glowing Orb boon, fully restoring your Life and Energy Shield, as well as 50% of your Honour.

Trial of the Sekhemas Location

These are the steps you need to follow in order to reach the Trial of the Sekhemas:

1. Reach The Trail of Corruption Quest
2. Defeat Balbala
3. Use Desert Map to Reach Trial of the Sekhemas

Reach The Trail of Corruption Quest

While progressing through the main quest of Act 2, you will come across the area called Traitor's Passage during The Trail of Corruption quest. While in this area, look for the Ancient Seal. Open the door, interact with the three Runic Seals inside, then prepare for a boss fight.

Defeat Balbala

After removing the Runic Seals, you’ll need to face off against Balbala the Traitor, a fiery Djinn with a temper to match. Defeat Balbala to receive the item, Balbala's Barya.

Doing so will activate the quest Ascent to Power, which requires you to return to the Caravan and talk to Zarka.

Balbala, The Traitor Boss Guide

Use Desert Map to Reach Trial of the Sekhemas

After talking to Zarka, you can now reach the Trial of the Sekhemas by interacting with the Desert Map and traveling directly to the Trial.

Retrieve Balbala's Barya if You Perish

If you die in the Trial of the Sekhemas during the Ascent to Power quest, you can speak to Balbala to receive another Balbala's Barya, which will allow you to redo the trial until you succeed.

How to Get More Djinn's Barya

You can use Djinn's Barya to access the Trial of the Sekhemas again to obtain more Ascendancy Skill Points. You can obtain a Djinn's Barya by defeating the Watchful Twins. You can also farm more Djinn's Barya by defeating monsters in Campaign areas or through trading.

How to Get Ascendancy Skill Points

Trial of the Sekhemas Rewards

1. Ascendancy Points
2. Equipment
3. Unique Relics

Ascendancy Points

The main benefit of completing the Trial of the Sekhemas is to obtain Ascendancy Skill Points for character Ascension. These Ascendancy points are used to further improve your character, giving them powerful specialization skills.
List of Classes and Ascendancies

Equipment

You can obtain various new equipment from the trials. If you have keys, you can open chests at the end that contain various powerful weapons and armor. You can also obtain Jewels, which can be inserted in Jewel Sockets in your passive skill tree that adds modifiers.

Unique Relics

Unique relics are dropped by the final boss of the trial, which can modify your next run in the trial that increases the risk as well as the rewards.

List of Relics

Path of Exile 2 Related Guides

All Ascension Trials

All Ascension Trials

All Ascension Trials
Trial of the Sekhemas	The Trial of Chaos