Grab your gear, exiles - Grinding Gear Games has confirmed that Forbidden Rites, a brand new event league for Path of Exile 2, launches on September 4th PDT alongside the 0.5.5 patch. The studio dropped a full FAQ this week to answer the community's biggest questions, and we've broken down everything you need to know below.
Forbidden Rites was announced last week, and it arrives as a fresh event league bringing a new economy and a set of exclusive challenges. Here's the rundown.
What Is the Forbidden Rites League?
Yes, this is a proper new league. As with all new leagues in Path of Exile 2, Forbidden Rites comes with a fresh economy plus a whole set of new challenges with exclusive rewards, so everyone starts on a level playing field when it goes live.
This features the Ritual mechanic prominently.
Runes of Aldur goes to Core - no longer will every map have the mechanic guaranteed.
8 new challenges and exclusive rewards.
Faster completion of the world map's fortress!
After you finish the main quest line, you can find another arbiter of divinity key which is a harder fight but opens the whole fortress.
Abyssal Ravines can now spawn on the atlas.
Each map you complete a part of the series in the ravine give you more and more rewards.
The last map in a ravine is a guaranteed pit boss.
Expedition Tablet Type is being added.
Trial of Chaos is getting reworked!
You can leave whenever you want and resume the trial later.
More rooms are just about slaying enemies instead of doing tasks.
Elevators and room doors are more responsive.
Less running between rooms.
All the modifiers have become less dangerous at lower tiers, but same max tier difficulty.
All modifiers now give more item rarity.
Wager modifiers are meta mods that increase the reward and danger of trials.
Uxmal's boss fight area has been completely redesigned and has less flying involved.
Soul Cores are now more powerful.
There are new rare effigies in clusters during the campaign with Boss Rituals. Killing the bosses makes each additional ritual in that area have the previously slain bosses show back up. Completing these encounters let you spend tribute on unique items.
Each party member earns their own tribute and sees their own rewards now for Ritual instead of only the map owner. However, party members can not reroll the favours nor do they get as many options to choose from.
Endgame rituals now have "Sacred Blooms" which can apply a Wildwood entrance to any place on the atlas.
Wildwood is a times map where you can find Primal, Vivid, Wild, and Sacred wisps. These will upgrade monsters in the proper map you entered as they scatter about, making maps more difficult.
Wisps make monsters "considerably" more difficult to complete.
It should be noted this league is running beside the current Runes of Aldur league and both will end when 1.0 drops in December. Since the Runes of Aldur league will still be active, all quality of life changes happening in the Forbidden Rites league will also be applied to Runes of Aldur.
There are no balance changes happening for 0.5.5. Instead they are coming later this year in 1.0.
When Does Forbidden Rites Start?
Forbidden Rites begins at 1PM PDT on September 4th. Before things kick off, the realm will go down while the team deploys the patch, and Grinding Gear Games says it will post the exact maintenance time later this week. Once the realm is back up, you'll be able to jump into Forbidden Rites.
How Do You Join?
Getting in is refreshingly simple:
Select Forbidden Rites on the character selection screen.
Create a new character there.
That's it - your new character will be part of the event league right away.
Is the Duelist Coming in 0.5.5?
Not yet, unfortunately. The Duelist won't be part of this update - instead, the class will be released on December 11th when Path of Exile 2 1.0 fully launches. If you missed it, we covered that 1.0 release date and the Swords reveal in detail, and you can also check out our roundup of every new game announced at Gamescom 2026.
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