Trial of the Sekhemas

An example of a Trial Map.

The Trial of the Sekhemas is one of three Ascension Trials, first accessible in Act 2. It is a randomized gauntlet of rooms filled with monsters and traps that must be traversed before the player runs out of Honour. It is based on the Forbidden Sanctum from Path of Exile 1.

Overview

To gain access, the player must first defeat Balbala, the Traitor and obtain File:Balbala's Barya inventory icon.pngBalbala's BaryaBalbala's BaryaArea Level: 22
Number of Trials: 1"Why are you standing there gawking at me?
We must go to the Trial of the Sekhemas!"Take this item to the Trial of the Sekhemas. Right-click to listen to Balbala.File:Balbala's Barya inventory icon.png. This coin can be placed within the Relic Altar to begin the trial. Doing so will grant access to the entire first floor of the Trial. Higher level File:Djinn Barya inventory icon.pngDjinn BaryasDjinn BaryaArea Level: #
Number of Trials: #"Take me to the Trial of the Sekhemas.
I will serve."Take this item to the Relic Altar at the Tiral of the Sekhemas.File:Djinn Barya inventory icon.png obtained later in the game provide access to additional floors and improved rewards, and are also tradeable. Each floor contains 8 rooms, with the 8th room being a boss. There are 4 floors in total.

The player can preview the layout and room connections of the current floor, as well as a limited number of columns of rooms ahead, including their layout, objectives, rewards, and afflictions.

Damage taken during the Trial of the Sekhemas will also damage your Honour, which cannot be recovered by normal means. Running out of Honour will fail the trial.

The exile may be supported or impeded by Boons and Afflictions, special buffs and debuffs that persist throughout the trial. Sacred Water may be traded with Balbala for boons and relics.

All of your progress, including Honour, Sacred Water, Boons, Afflictions, etc. are carried over between floors. A full Trial contains 4 floors, each containing 8 rooms. The 8th room of each floor always contains a Boss. Crashing during a Trial room will reset the room's progress, as long as the player did not fail the room due to honour loss. However, any changes to your honour during the room's progress will be retained. Sacred Water and rewards are locked in upon successful completion of a room. It is possible to return back into a completed room from the reward room to kill any remaining enemies or open chests.

Each Trial run is independent between characters on the same account.

Relic Altar

• The Relic Altar is unlocked automatically when Balbala's Barya is brought into the starting area.
• Each character has its own Relic Altar and uses separate Relics. However, the Relic Locker is shared between all of your characters in the same league.
• Relics placed in the Relic Altar are locked in for the entire Trial run as soon as they are confirmed and cannot be added or removed in the middle of a run. The current run must be completed, failed, or forfeited to add or remove Relics.
• The Relic Altar contains 18 inventory spaces, but 12 are initially locked and can be obtained by defeating specific floor bosses or opening specific types of key caches.
• Unlocking the Ritual Altar for the first time will reward the player with a magic rarity File:Urn Relic inventory icon.pngUrn RelicUrn RelicPlace this item on the Relic Altar at the start of the Trial of the SekhemasFile:Urn Relic inventory icon.png.

• 

  Empty Relic Altar before putting in a coin

• 

  The Relic Altar in its initial state

• Fully unlocked Relic Altar

  Fully unlocked Relic Altar

Mechanics

Honour

• Honour is an additional stat player characters have while participating in the Trial.
• The default maximum Honour is based on the sum of the player's default maximum life and energy shield upon starting the trial. Honour is maintained between rooms, and the player is ejected from the Trial if it hits 0, resetting all floors and rooms. Being ejected does not count as a death, nor does it remove experience.
  • If a player levels up within the Trial, causing the player to gain additional life, an equivalent amount of Honour and maximum Honour will also be increased.
• Honour is lost from hits from monsters or traps in the Trial. Closer proximity to monsters reduces the Honour lost on hit.
• Minions and non-party allies do not cause Honour to be lost if hit.
• A fixed amount of Honour can be restored in Fountain rooms.
• Gaining additional Maximum Honour will also cause the character to gain current Honour of the same amount. Losing Maximum Honour will not further affect the current Honour.

Sacred Water

• Sacred Water is a type of non-tradeable currency can be found in the Trial from chests or killed enemies. Sacred Water is collected automatically when the player is near it.
• Sacred Water can be traded to the merchant for a small amount of Honour recovery, various Boons, or relics.
• Sacred Water is maintained between rooms and floors, and is reset when the Trial run ends.

Leftover Sacred Water can be converted into Keys at the Keth Forge in the cache reward room after the boss.

Keys

Completing a room may reward the player with a File:Bronze Key inventory icon.pngBronze KeyBronze KeyUsed to open Bronze Caches within the TrialsFile:Bronze Key inventory icon.png, File:Silver Key inventory icon.pngSilver KeySilver KeyUsed to open Silver Caches within the TrialsFile:Silver Key inventory icon.png, or File:Golden Key inventory icon.pngGolden KeyGolden KeyUsed to open Golden Caches within the TrialsFile:Golden Key inventory icon.png.

Keys can also be obtained by converting Sacred Water in the Keth Forge in the cache reward room after a boss.

These can be used to open their respective caches at the end of the trial for various items and rewards.

Boon

• Major boons are grouped in a symbol with a very thick and bright yellow-bordered boon symbol, while all minor boons are grouped in a plain yellow-bordered boon symbol. Boons are shown when hovering the according symbol.
• Boons grant various benefits to your Trial run and can help recover or mitigate damage to your Honour, increase your Sacred Water and rewards, debuff monsters, or provide other helpful buffs.

Boon Type	Image	Boon Name	Description	Merchant cost
Major Boon		Sekhema's Cloak	Upon reaching 0 Life, revive once with Full Honour
Minor Boon		Adrenaline Vial	Restore 30% of your Honour on entering a Boss Room
Minor Boon		Honoured Challenger	50% increased Honour restored
Minor Boon		Viscous Ichor	Monsters have 20% reduced Action Speed	320
Minor Boon		Orbala Statuette	You have 25% more Maximum Life
Minor Boon		Flooding Rivers	50% more Sacred Water found	420
Minor Boon		Hare Foot	60% increased Movement Speed

Affliction

• Major afflictions are grouped in a symbol with a very thick and bright purple-bordered boon symbol, while all minor afflictions are grouped in a plain purple-bordered affliction symbol. Afflictions are shown when hovering according symbol.
• Afflictions grant various downsides to your Trial run and can reduce or prevent Honour recovery, spawn additional traps, buff monsters, affect your Sacred Water generation, or hide rooms or rewards on the Trial Map.

Affliction Type	Icon	Affliction Name	Description
Minor Affliction		Blunt Sword	You and your Minions deal 40% less Damage
Minor Affliction		Dishonoured Tattoo	100% increased Damage Taken while on Low Life
Minor Affliction		Hungry Fangs	Monsters remove 3% of your Life, Mana, and Energy Shield on Hit
Minor Affliction		Sharpened Arrowhead	You have no Armour
Minor Affliction		Spiked Shell	Monsters have 50% increased Maximum Life

Pledges

Players may sometimes be able to take on a Pledge to Kochai the Inscrutable at a Shrine, allowing the player to pick one of three Pledges which provide significant upsides and downsides.

Accursed Pact outcomes

Icon	Upside	Downside
	Gain a specific Minor Boon	Lose 25% Maximum Honour
	Gain a random Major Boon	Lose 50% Maximum Honour
	Gain 2 random Minor Boons	Lose 50% Maximum Honour
	Gain a specific Minor Boon	Gain a specific Minor Affliction
File:Lose b+a.png	Lose a specific Minor Boon	Lose a specific Minor Affliction
	Gain a specific Minor Boon	Gain a random Minor Affliction
	Lose a specific Minor Affliction	Gain a random Minor Affliction
	Gain a random Minor Boon	Gain a random Minor Affliction
	Lose a random Minor Affliction	Lose a random Minor Boon
	Gain 3 random Minor Boons	Gain a specific Major Affliction
	Lose 3 random Minor Afflictions	Gain a random Major Affliction
	Gain a random Major Boon	Lose 3 random Minor Boons

Trial objectives

Each room contains one of the following trial objectives:

• Chalice Trial - Defeat the Rare Monsters: The player must defeat all of the rare monsters in the room to fill the blood chalice. Clearing 50% of the rare monsters will cause an indicator to appear, pointing towards remaining rare monsters.
• 'Escape Trial - Disable the Crystals: The player must disable all of the Death Crystals in the room. Any Crystals still active when the timer expires will deal damage. Clicking a Crystal adds time to the timer and indicates the direction of the next Crystal.
• Ritual Trial - Defeat the Ritual Casters: Defeat the Ritual Casters to close the portals.
• Gauntlet Trial - Find the Exit: Find the exit, avoiding traps and monsters.
• Hourglass Trial - Survive: Survive until the timer expires.

Room Reward Types

Note: All room types other than boss rooms can become Afflicted. Afflicted rooms are indicated by a purple border and cause the character to gain an Affliction on entry.

Sacred Water Fountain

Contains a fountain containing Sacred Water; comes in 2 types: Regular or Large.

Shrine

Balbala Statue: Players can spend 5 Sacred Water to recover 20% of Honour and gain a random Boon.

Pledge

Pledge to Kochai: Players can spend 5 Sacred Water to select one of three random Pledges.

Merchant

Merchant rooms contain the NPC Balbala, the Released who sells you Boons or relics in exchange for Sacred Water. Boons cost have individual prices, while relics will always cost 300 Sacred Water by default.

Enemies

Each room in the Sanctum contains a number of normal and rare enemies. All rare enemies must be killed before being able to complete the room.

Floor Bosses

Sanctum Bosses

Boss Name	Boss Room	Description
Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker	Collapsing Cavern
Hadi of the Flaming River Rafiq of the Frozen Spring
???
Zarokh, the Eternal

Rewards

Ascendancy

Main page: Ascendancy class

Completing a floor in the Trial at certain level thresholds will allow players to unlock their Ascendancy class and ascendancy passive skill points.

Key caches

After defeating each floor boss, players can enter a vault with several reward caches. These vary from Bronze, Silver, and Gold, and can be opened by spending one of the respective keys. These are the following types of caches:

• Weapon Cache: Contains weapons
• Armour Cache: Contains armour
• Jewellery Cache: Contains jewellery
• Royal Cache: Contains jewels
• Arcanist's Cache: Contains currency
• Hoarder's Cache: Contains random items
• Mysterious Cache:

Bronze Caches typically drop one item, Silver Caches drop multiple items, and Gold Caches drop even more items.

Time-Lost Jewels

Time-Lost Jewels are jewel base types that can be found in randomly throughout the trial from monsters or chests. These jewels roll modifiers that affect passive nodes within its radius.

Relics

Main page: Relic

Relics are a type of item that is exclusive to the Trial of the Sekhemas. They can be placed in the Relic Altar to provide buffs various beneficial stats that can make the run easier or more rewarding.

• Relics can be found within the Trial of the Sekhemas from monsters or purchased for Sacred Water.
• They can be stored in a special separate stash called the Relic Locker, which can also be placed as a hideout decoration.
• To equip a relic, they must be placed in the Relic Altar on a 5x4 grid with two of the corner slots blocked off. Additional grid slots can be unlocked as you progress, up to a total of 18 slots.
• Relics are craftable. Magic relics can have up to two modifiers. They cannot become rare.
• The pool of modifiers relics can roll depends on the total number of inventory slots it takes up, ranging from 2/3/4 or small/medium/large respectively.

Party mechanics

• The Trial of the Sekhema's choices are made by the area's instance owner.
• All party members share Honour.

Version history

Version	Changes
0.1.0	Introduced to the game.