PoE 2 0.5.5 Forbidden Rites Event Summary

The Path of Exile 2 0.5.5 Forbidden Rites Event is set for release on 04 September 2026 at 1pm PDT

The Forbidden Rites event features a new version of Ritual encounters in the campaign, a Trial of Chaos Rework, new Wildwood Encounters and other updates to the Endgame. The Event also includes a set of new Challenges, which players can complete to unlock exclusive microtransactions.

Forbidden Rites Event

In PoE 2 0.5.5, players will find Ritual encounters in every zone of the campaign. One major change is that during the campaign, Rituals won't only grant Unique items and Omens like they usually do and will instead grant Currency and items.

What makes the Forbidden Rites Event exciting is that Rituals will spawn in boss arenas, and Rituals will chain from area to area, adding additional bosses to each subsequent Ritual encounter.

This means that during the campaign, you'll have the opportunity to fight multiple bosses simultaneously in a single Ritual encounter. After completing a chain, you will be able to select a guaranteed Unique item

Ritual Endgame

What about Ritual in Endgame? Along with the changes to the campaign, the Forbidden Rites features some changes to Ritual in the endgame, including Sacred Blooms

The Viridian Wildwood

Sacred Blooms allow players to access the Viridian Wildwood in Maps. This mechanic is very similar to the mechanic seen in Path of Exile's Affliction mechanic.

Within the Viridian Wildwood, players will be thrust into a dark forest and will need to collect as many Wisps as possible before they are forced to leave. Once the Wildwood encounter is completed, the Wisps will be released to the monsters of the Map, empowering them and granting them additional rewards

• Primal Wisps: Upgrade Normal monsters to Magic monsters
• Vivid Wisps: Add additional modifiers to Rare monsters
• Wild Wisps: Add increased Rarity of items found to all monsters
• Sacred Wisps: Unknown

All three types of Wisps can be collected and combined to increase difficulty and reward in Maps, and Ritual Tablets can be rolled to add additional Wisps found in Wildwood areas

Trial of Chaos Rework

Another major change coming to PoE 2 0.5.5 is a rework to the Trial of Chaos

• You can leave the Trial of Chaos between rooms and return at a later time without losing progress
• Many more rooms will feature encounters that require you to defeat all monsters in the area, rather than escort quests, timed events, and implanting Soul Cores
• Elevator sizes have been increased and move more quickly, and doors between rooms open faster and sooner
• Additional scaling has been added to make the Trial of Chaos competitive with the Endgame
• All of the downsides when selecting encounters have been reworked, making them much more forgiving early on, and equally as hard in higher level encounters
• Wager modifiers have been added, allowing for players to multiply their rewards at the expense of increasing the tier of selected room modifiers. There are about a dozen of these meta modifiers to choose from

• Boss arenas have been redesigned
• Chests can be found between rooms to grant additional rewards
• Rewards available no longer include random Corrupted items and instead only offer Currency and Soul Cores
• Soul Cores have been reworked and improved, and new ones have been added
• Endgame Trial of Chaos now continues up to 30 Rooms instead of 10, with the difficulty and rewards scaling with each additional room
• All three Trial Master Fragments can be acquired in a single run if players are able to complete enough rooms

Endgame Changes

Endgame Fortress

The Endgame Fortress can now be completed more quickly. After completing the main Arbiter of Divinity quest line, players can now seek out another Matriarch and Patriarch Halls to acquire a new set of keys to the harder version of the Arbiter. After completing this, the entire Fortress will be completed and all Atlas Passive Points will be granted.

Abyssal Ravines

Abyssal Ravines can now appear on the Atlas, adding additional Abyss encounters to Maps that spawn alongside them.

Additional difficulty and reward will be added to each subsequent Map completed in the chain along the Abyssal Ravine, and the final Map will contain a guaranteed Abyssal Boss encounter

Expedition and Runes of Aldur

Expeditions can be found in game from Act 4 onward, and Expedition Tablets will now be available. Players will now be able to have multiple Remnant and Expedition encounters within the same zone.

Challenges

The 0.5.5 Forbidden Rites event comes with several Challenges, which players can complete to acquire exclusive microtransaction rewards

Balance Changes

Unfortunately, no balance changes will be coming along with PoE 2 0.5.5. The good news is that all of our Runes of Aldur League Starter Build Guides are still viable for this patch.

If you're looking for a league starter build for the PoE 2 Forbidden Rites Event, check out some of our guides below:

• PoE 2 0.5.5 League Starter Build List