How to Complete Trial of the Sekhemas

The Trial of the Sekhemas in Path of Exile 2 is a high-stakes roguelike gauntlet that tests strategic decision-making just as much as character power. At its core, it's a perilous journey through floors of randomized rooms where you must manage a unique life force called Honour and spend a temporary currency, Sacred Water, to gain an edge. Success isn't about brute force; it’s about making smart pathing choices, leveraging powerful Boons, avoiding crippling Afflictions, and preparing with the right set of Relics. This guide will break down every system, turning what seems like a chaotic challenge into a predictable and highly profitable farming strategy.

Below you’ll find everything you need to master the Trial at a high level: a complete explanation of the Honour and Sacred Water mechanics; a deep dive into building a powerful Relic loadout; strategies for room selection; and a full breakdown of all Boons and Afflictions. We will then walk you through detailed strategies for every boss, from the floor guardians to the final pinnacle encounter with Zarokh, the Temporal, ensuring you can conquer the trial and claim its most exclusive rewards.

How Trial of the Sekhemas Works

You will first encounter the Trial of the Sekhemas in Act 2 of the campaign. After defeating the boss Balbala, the Traitor in the Traitor's Passage area, she will drop a quest coin called Balbala's Barya. Once you pick up this coin, which grants you access to the Trial, use the Desert Map to travel to the Trial of the Sekhemas. There, you will find a Relic Altar; simply interact with it and insert the Barya to begin the challenge. The quest Barya isn’t consumed on failure, so you can retry the trial until you succeed.

The Trial of the Sekhemas is a challenging gauntlet where you navigate through a series of rooms spread across multiple floors, culminating in a boss battle at the end of each floor. While the introductory version in Act 2 is short, you can later use higher-tier Baryas to access longer and more difficult trials with greater rewards.

Success in the Trial hinges on managing two unique resources:

• Honour - Your Trial Health: Upon entering, you gain a special health bar called Honour, which is the sum of your Life and Energy Shield. Whenever you take damage from enemies or traps, that damage is subtracted from your Honour. If your Honour reaches zero, the trial ends immediately, though this is not a true character death and you won't lose experience. Preserving Honour is critical; your standard defensive stats such as armour and resistances all help by reducing damage taken. You can further protect it by stacking Honour Resistance, a special stat from trial-specific Relics that can significantly increase your survivability.
• Sacred Water - Trial Currency: As you defeat monsters and open chests, you will collect Sacred Water. This currency exists only for the duration of your current run and is lost when you exit. You must spend it during the trial to purchase powerful Boons, activate shrines, or forge extra keys for the final reward chests. Because it's a "use-it-or-lose-it" resource, effective spending is key to maximizing both your power and your loot.

Beyond managing the Trial’s unique resources, your success hinges on both strategic preparation and tactical decision-making during the run. The Relics you equip beforehand are foundational; they allow you to customize the trial to fit your build's strengths and weaknesses. Equally important are the choices you make inside, as navigating the rooms to acquire powerful Boons while avoiding crippling Afflictions is a constant test of judgment. Mastering these interconnected systems is the key to victory, and we will now explore them in greater detail.

Relics for the Trial

Before you begin a run, make full use of the Relic Altar in the Trial lobby. Relics are special items you can equip into the altar’s grid to grant passive bonuses during the trial. Early on, only a few slots are available, but defeating Trial bosses will unlock up to 18 total relic slots over time. Relics can provide all kinds of advantages: increased maximum Honour, Honour Resistance, Bosses take increased Damage, increased Movement Speed, etc. You can and should stack multiple Relics to customize your strengths - e.g. equip several that boost Honour or reduce trap damage if you’re struggling to survive, or ones that increase loot drops if you’re farming.

Regular relics drop during trials and can be traded between players. There are also Unique Relics that only drop from the final boss Zarokh and enable special challenge runs. For example, the Unique Relic The Last Flame sets your maximum Honour to just 1, dramatically raising the stakes, but if you complete a run with it, you earn a famous and very expensive body armour Temporalis (Each Unique Relic corresponds to an exclusive Unique item prize for beating the trial under its handicap.) These are for the most experienced players - as a beginner, focus on collecting good non-Unique Relics first.

To use relics, simply place them in the altar along with your coin before starting the trial. Once a trial is underway, you cannot swap Relics until you finish or forfeit the run. It's important to understand that non-unique Relics are permanent items; you can use them in every run without losing them, regardless of the outcome. In contrast, Unique Relics are powerful consumables that are permanently used up the instant you activate the trial. Standard relics are of Magic rarity with random mods - you can even modify these with orbs to try to roll better affixes.

Prioritize relic mods like Honour Resistance, Maximum Honour, and increased quantity of Relics dropped by Monsters. Movement speed on relics is also fantastic to help dodge traps and bosses. Over time you’ll accumulate a library of relics in your Relic Locker (a stash shared by all characters for this league’s trials). Tailor your Relic loadout before each run based on what you need - survivability for learning attempts, or more quantity/loot bonuses once you’re confident.

Room Types & Map Routing

Each floor of the Trial of the Sekhemas is a network of 8 rooms connected in a maze-like layout. You’ll progress one room at a time, choosing your path from those revealed ahead. You can normally see the next two rooms in each connected path on the Trial Map UI, including their type, reward, and any Affliction they carry. (Some Boons or Afflictions can alter how many rooms ahead are visible - e.g. All-Seeing Eye boon reveals the entire map, whereas Black Smoke affliction hides one room ahead.) Use this info to plan a safe route: identify rooms that benefit you and avoid those with afflictions or objectives that might ruin your run.

Every room presents an objective that must be completed to unlock the exit. These can vary: some are straight combat, others involve a minor challenge. For example, a Chalice room spawns a pack of rare Monsters you must defeat; an Escape room requires disabling a series of crystals (essentially a trap gauntlet race against a timer); a Ritual room has portals summoning enemies until you kill the ritual casters; a Gauntlet room is a pure trap maze where you navigate hazards and pull levers to reach the exit; an Hourglass room spawns endless enemies for a set time, testing your survival until the timer ends. The final room on each floor is always a Boss encounter. Pay attention to room names and icons on the map so you’re not caught by surprise. If your build hates traps, for instance, you might avoid “Gauntlet” rooms. Pick the path that plays to your strengths.

In addition to objectives, rooms have reward indicators. Many rooms simply yield some Sacred Water or item chest drops upon completion, but some have special rewards:

• Merchant Room: Marked by a scales or a coin icon, these contain Balbala, the Advisor (the Trial merchant) mid-floor. If you find a Merchant room, you can trade with Balbala to restore Honour or buy Boons/Relics in the middle of your run, using your accumulated Sacred Water. Visiting a merchant mid-run can save a failing attempt by refilling Honour or granting a clutch boon, so consider diverting to one if your resources are low.
• Fountain: This room contains a Sacred Water Fountain, which grants you a significant amount of the trial's currency at no cost. As Sacred Water is used to purchase vital Boons and other upgrades, this room is a pure, risk-free reward that boosts your purchasing power for the challenges ahead. It's always a valuable and welcome discovery.
• Maraketh Shrine: A shrine lets you spend 5 Sacred Water to venerate one of the Maraketh totems and gain some Honour back. There are several types of shrines: some restore a fixed percentage of Honour, some also grant a random Boon or even cleanse an affliction. (For example, Honour Balbala shrine restores 10% Honour and gives a random Boon, while Honour Ahkeli restores more Honour but gives a minor affliction as a trade-off.) Shrines are a great way to recover between fights, but be mindful of those that might curse you with an affliction.
• Pledge: A Pledge room lets you spend 5 Sacred Water to choose one of three Pledges. Pledges are special encounters or offers (for instance, they might allow you to target a specific Boon or face a challenge for reward). These can yield powerful boons if you’re lucky. If you’re confident and have spare water, a Pledge can swing a run in your favor.
• Cache: A cache icon means a bonus chest is present, usually containing loot of a specific type (e.g. currency, weapons, jewels, etc.). Caches require keys to open. You earn keys by completing some rooms or by converting leftover water at the Keth Shrine after boss fights. If you see a valuable cache room on the map (like a currency cache), you might plan to ensure you have a key when you reach it.

After you finish all rooms on a floor, you’ll face the Floor Boss. Defeating the boss opens the way to a reward area. In this safe zone, you’ll get a number of chests and Balbala will always be present here too. Use this opportunity to spend any water you have left - buy Boons/Relics from Balbala for the next floor, or use the Keth Shrine to convert all remaining water into extra keys.

Room Navigation Tip: Always consider the connections on the map, even for rooms you can’t see yet. Picking a room that branches out into multiple options can keep your future choices flexible, whereas going down a narrow path might force you into a bad affliction if no alternative route is available. In short, rooms with more exits give you more control over the trial’s outcome. If you see an affliction you absolutely want to avoid in the next column, check if there’s a path around it via a different route. Good room routing is often the difference between a smooth run and an impossible one.

Boons & Afflictions: Full List

Boons are your tempo and safety valves; Afflictions are the bill you pay for routing mistakes. In practice, prioritize map control and survivability first, economy second. Vision effects that reveal the layout, room types, and rewards make every choice better and are worth more than raw damage. Defensive and recovery boons that reduce Honour loss or restore it after rooms smooth out entire floors and let you play faster without bleeding out on chip damage. Economy boons that multiply Sacred Water or discount the Merchant are best taken early so they compound into more stabilizers and keys by the boss room.

Treat Afflictions as a triage problem. Hard skips include any that shut down your build or core systems (no Boons, no Relic effects, no Sacred Water) or that massively spike trap damage when your route still shows Gauntlets/Escapes. “Smoke” information penalties are manageable if you already have vision, but they become run-ending when stacked; avoid taking two at once. When you’re forced to accept a debuff, aim for ones that only slow you down (monster life/damage increases) rather than those that remove your defences or Honour recovery. If you find a conversion or protection effect later, you can neutralize future Afflictions and regain momentum.

Plan routes with these priorities in mind: secure vision and a defensive stabilizer before committing to profit lines, then lean into economy to snowball. Spend Sacred Water aggressively if it prevents losing Honour - surviving keeps your multipliers working - and convert leftovers to keys at the boss room. The end result should feel consistent: fewer resets to trap spikes, cleaner boss entries with high Honour, and enough keys to target the reward caches you actually want.

Trial of the Sekhemas Rewards

Upon defeating a floor boss, you will gain access to the Boss Reward Room, a safe sanctuary that serves as the culmination of your efforts on that floor. This area is more than just a loot chamber; it contains several key features. You will find your stash for inventory management, Balbala acting as a Merchant for any last-minute trades, an Ascension Shrine for powerful character upgrades, and the vital Keth Shrine. Its primary function is to convert any Sacred Water you have remaining into keys, which you will need for the trove of treasure caches that represent the floor's real payout.

Before you begin opening chests, it's crucial to understand how they are categorized. The quality of a cache can be regular, superior, or prime, with each successive tier significantly increasing the rarity and value of the items found within. Separately, caches are also described as "Small" or "Medium," but this modifier refers only to the quantity of items inside, not their power level. Therefore, a "Small Prime Cache" will contain fewer items than a "Medium Regular Cache," but its contents are likely to be far more valuable.

To maximize your rewards, your first action in this room should always be to visit the Keth Shrine and convert all remaining Sacred Water into keys, as the currency has no use outside the trial. From there, your choice of which caches to open becomes a strategic decision. Targeting Currency or Waystone caches provides immediate and reliable profit for your character's progression. Conversely, investing your keys in relic caches is a long-term strategy, as more powerful relics will make all of your future runs significantly safer and more efficient.

Bosses in the Trial of the Sekhemas

Rattlecage, the Earthbreaker

Rattlecage is a space-control check more than a DPS race. Treat the arena as a rotating minefield: you win by keeping the center of the room clear, reading telegraphs, and only committing damage during safe windows. Start the fight at long range, stabilize your camera on the boss, and value movement over greed - especially once it drops below ~10% Life, when hazards spike and sloppy pushes get punished.

• Explosive Burst: Rattlecage always begins with three expanding blasts after a red glow and crouch. Back off immediately, kite diagonally to maintain space, and only re-engage once the third explosion finishes.
• Ground Fissures: A slam sends cracks across the floor; vents spawn at the tips and lob fire projectiles, slicing the room into wedges. Move perpendicular to fissures as they appear, fight from a “clean” wedge, and rotate around the boss rather than kiting straight backward so a new vent doesn’t cut off your escape.
• Stalactite Barrage: Random falling rocks pepper the arena, accelerating near the end. Keep light, constant movement; watch for small shadow/dust cues and sidestep instead of burning your dash. If multiple drops overlap, make a short lateral hop and pause to avoid running into the next fall.
• Charged Stomp: Rattlecage rears on hind legs, then slams a tight circle around itself. Step to the side/behind (one dodge at most), let the stomp whiff, then counter while it turns. Melee builds can bait this for safe uptime.
• End-Phase Frenzy: Vent volleys and stalactites ramp up sharply. Drag the boss toward the center, wait for a brief lull between hazards, then finish with your safest burst. If visibility gets messy, reset position first - living through the spike wins the fight.

Terracotta Sentinels

This duo is a coordination check: if one Sentinel dies while the other lives, the survivor snaps back to full life. Keep their health bars close, swap targets often, and plan your finisher. If you can’t execute a near-simultaneous kill, take Hadi first - Rafiq’s death spawns brutal chill hazards that make dodging Hadi far riskier. Fight near the arena center to avoid getting pinned by edge mechanics, and use wide cleave/DoT to tick both bosses together.

• Shared Resolve: The Sentinels fully heal if their partner remains alive. Keep them within ~5–10% HP of each other; alternate hits, use cleave/DoTs/pets to tag both, and pause DPS on the lower one until the higher catches up.
• Death Hazards & Kill Order: Finishing Rafiq triggers chilling projectiles from the arena edges and a central patch of chilled ground; the slow is deadly with Hadi still active. Finishing Hadi spawns fire hazards that are easier to manage. If you must stagger, kill Hadi first and then immediately move off the arena rim to avoid edge volleys.

Hadi of the Flaming River Abilities

• Molten Fist: Short lunge with a heavy arm. Stay at mid-range or sidestep into his back; melee builds should drift to his hip to maintain uptime without face-tanking.
• Ground Wave: Arms lift, then a straight fire wave travels forward. Strafe sideways (not back) across the line; re-engage as the wave passes.
• Triple Ground Wave: A stomp sends three spaced fire waves. Step into the gaps between crests or dash through the second wave’s lull; don’t retreat in a straight line or you’ll eat the third.

Rafiq of the Frozen Spring Abilities

• Polearm Swipe: Forward cleave with moderate reach. Play just outside the arc or slip behind during the wind-up to punish recovery.
• Cold Shock: Weapon raised overhead, then a circular impact dealing cold damage. Step out of the radius or roll through/behind him on the lift; re-position before committing.
• Ice Barrage: Marks appear on the floor, erupting into ice spikes after a short delay. Thread the spaces between markers; don’t burn your movement skill early - save it to escape a bad cluster.

Ashar, the Sand Mother

Ashar punishes greedy melee and careless footwork. Treat the arena center as a no-go zone - pressure plates there can flood the fight with beetles, gas, and dart volleys that shred Life and Honour. Fight around the outer ring, watch for her clear tail telegraphs, and always plan your next few steps so you never step into quicksand after a burrow.

• Arena Traps & Pressure Plates: Plates in the middle trigger beetle swarms, poison clouds, or poison dart volleys. Stay off the center, kite along the outer ring, and if you accidentally trigger a plate, dash sideways to the nearest clear strip before re-engaging. Kill beetles only if they body-block; otherwise keep moving and let AoE clean up.
• Quicksand Tunnels: After a leap, Ashar burrows and resurfaces, leaving quicksand patches at entry/exit that stack a strong action-speed slow. Anticipate the pop-up, shift two steps to fresh ground, and never roll across a sand patch - walk around it and reset your angle before attacking.
• Poison Tail Slam: A tiny recoil “pull-back” precedes a heavy slam that can’t be avoided with a roll through it. Step hard left/right or slip behind her on the tell, then counter during her recovery.
• Tail Swipe: She shakes the tail and sweeps a mid-range arc; the hitbox misses point-blank. If you’re in mid-range, roll forward into her body/hip to dodge through the arc and keep uptime.
• Tail Flip and Poison Shots: Both claws rise, she lunges, then stands on her tail and machine-guns poison shots that leave caustic ground. Sidestep the lunge first, then strafe in a smooth circle during the barrage; don’t stop on green pools. Consider this a DPS downtime - survive, then punish the landing recovery.
• Claw Jab: A quick, linear poke with a short tell. A single sidestep or micro-dash to her back avoids it and gives a free hit window.

Zarokh, the Temporal

This is a long, pattern-driven fight where survival hinges on route planning and cooldown discipline. Keep at least one corner clean for emergencies, don’t blow your dash on chip hazards, and save burst for windows after the big mechanics end. Around ~60% Life, the fight adds a hard check (Time Stop) that demands speed and precision - build and flask for movement, and expect action-speed slows to compound if you hesitate.

Zarokh Abilities

• Time Stop: When the arena tint shifts and the line “The sands of time wait for no one…” plays, drop all DPS and sprint. Grab every hourglass before the slow stacks freeze you entirely - failure is instant death. Plot a tight loop along the outer ring first, then cut through the middle for the stragglers. Use one movement skill per gap (Blink, Leap Slam, Shield Charge), not all at once; a single panic dash late is worth more than two early ones.
• Lightning Carousel: Zarokh plants stationary “time mines,” ports to center, then sweeps a lightning beam counter-clockwise (“Watch your step / Your fate binds you”). Anchor yourself in a corner pocket; as the beam nears, micro-step or dodge once across its line while avoiding mine hitboxes. Don’t kite the wall continuously - you’ll drift into traps; instead, hold your ground and cross the beam with a single timed move.
• Backtrack Explosion: A large clock sigil arms; at “Return into nothing / Eternity awaits you” you’re yanked to center and the zone detonates. Dash out of the first blast radius immediately, then be ready for a delayed follow-up that can apply Armour Break. If you’re debuffed, play evasive for a few seconds - any greedy trade here gets you deleted.
• Freeze Traps: Small traps appear (especially during the beam phase and sub-50% Life) that deal minor damage but lock you in time. Treat them like proximity mines: skirt their edges and never path through two in a row. If you get frozen, buffer a dodge input toward your safest corner as soon as the lock ends.
• Temporal Ball: A slow-rolling sphere projects heavy slow and pops after a long delay (“You are not in control… / Wither into nothing!”). Step laterally to break line, then rotate around Zarokh so it trails behind you. If boxed in, roll through the orb and immediately disengage to avoid the explosion.
• Pillar Projectiles: Waves of shots circle the arena until phases change. Create “lanes” for yourself: stand still for half a beat to read the rotation, then slip through the widest gap. Strong DPS shortens this section - don’t overextend if your corner is already safe.
• Bubble Projectiles: Slow bubbles that can be dodge-rolled through; when they hit the portal walls they reappear on the opposite side (“There can be no escape! / This only ends one way!”). Keep mental track of two fronts - the one you see and the mirrored return path - so you’re not boxed in by your own retreat.
• Boomerang Projectiles: Short-range volleys that snap back to Zarokh. Step off-axis rather than retreating straight; if other hazards overlap, prioritize a single side-dash and re-center your camera.
• General Orb Pressure: Throughout the fight, stray orbs wander and chip you down. Default to small diagonal steps and only spend a dash when two threats overlap. If you must cross an orb, roll through it rather than outrunning it.
• Final Stretch: As phases chain together, hazards stack. Reset to your “safe” corner, wait for a beat between rotations, then commit burst. If visibility collapses, reposition first - living the overlap wins the encounter.

Zarokh Rewards

The boss's loot table is not fixed; it is dynamically influenced by the Relics you bring into the trial. You can strategically manipulate the rewards by combining specific modifiers. For instance, stacking the "increased quantity of Relics dropped by Monsters" affix with the powerful Enchanted Urn boon can dramatically multiply the number of Unique Relics you receive. Furthermore, remember that this boss follows the same loot principles as other Pinnacle encounters: always scrutinize the non-unique items he drops, as they are often valuable, high-tier crafting bases that you can either use for your own projects or sell for a significant profit.