While the Trial of Chaos in Path of Exile 2 has always been a method of farming that some players choose, for the most part, players never really liked it.
Honestly, when you needed to get your Ascendancy points, it was a place you’d go to get it over with as quickly as possible. Get in, get out, a quick 20-minute adventure, right? Or, if you were super lazy, players might just pay someone a Divine or 2 to leech their Ascendancy points instead!
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There were a lot of pain points in the Trial, with it being too slow, the rooms repetitive and boring, the lack of scaling, you name it! Thankfully, GGG has taken it upon themselves to smooth the Trial of Chaos out and make it more appealing for players like me, who hate doing the Trials. Let’s take a look at some of the best changes!
10
Quit and Restart
Time for a Quick Nap!
Thank goodness GGG got to this one before the full 1.0 release! One of the most irritating things about the Trial of Chaos was your inability to log out during a run.
There have been so many times when I’ve needed to do something away from the computer, make an important trade or maybe just get an early night, and been unable to leave. Or even worse, when the game crashes just as you’re about to take the elevator up to the Trial Master’s arena, making you lose your Fate pieces.
Thankfully, now you can save your progress in the trial and leave whenever you need. You can return later and pick up where you left off! It should have always been like that, but better late than never, I suppose.
Ohhhh, Shiny!
You’ll notice that as you’re running through the trials, after each room, as you’re running down the corridors, you’ll now be given gold chests!
While the loot from these chests might not be particularly spectacular, they can sometimes drop some decent pieces of gear or currency items. Never know, you might get a cheeky Divine if you’re lucky.
The good thing about this is that it makes the corridors slightly less boring, and it also gives you a little reward even if you fail the trial, meaning at least you don’t come away with nothing if you die.
8
Better Boss Arena
I Am the Captain Now!
One of the most frustrating things about the Trial was the Chimaera boss, Uxmal. Now, this isn’t a particularly difficult fight, as his attacks are pretty well telegraphed, and there’s little chance of you getting 1-shot.
However, he used to do this annoying thing, where he’d fly away onto one of the nearby cliffs if you didn’t kill him fast enough, causing you to run around the room wondering where he’d gone.
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Now the entire boss room is different, and completely flat. The boss will still fly around, but he’s way easier and quicker to find, so you won’t be wasting as much time here.
7
Sekhemas-Style Survival Room
Time is Money, Friend!
In the Trial of Sekhemas, you have these survival rooms where you flip a huge hourglass and have to survive for a set period of time against constantly spawning enemies. You can run around killing everything or just stay in the corner if you want to play it safe.
However, if you killed the rare mobs that spawned, it would knock off a chunk of time from the countdown, ending the room quicker. For some odd reason, the exact same style of room in the Trial of Chaos didn’t do this, making it a huge drag.
This was honestly one of my biggest pet peeves when doing the previous Trial of Chaos, but now, thankfully, these rooms match their Act 2 variants. So now, instead of just waiting in the corner, watching the timer tick down, it’s worth running around and getting stuck in!
6
Less Annoying Turrets
Lightning Bolts, Fireballs, Watch Out!
Another really nice update is the changes to the turret modifiers. Previously, I would tend to avoid picking too many of these when going through the Trials. If you chose too many turret options, like flame, lightning and petrification turrets, the arena would just be full of visual clutter, making it a pain to see anything and forcing you to dodge constantly.
Now, when you pick one of these modifiers, you’ll start off with a couple of turrets, only increasing when you pick the harder version of the modifier later down the road. In addition, across the board, these turrets are more spread out, giving you more space to move, which is a great change.
5
Larger Focus on Combat
Less Loitering, More Mayhem
I noticed this on my last few runs through the Trial, and it’s made a huge difference. It’s pretty common that in your first few rooms, you’ll get pure combat arenas. You know the ones, where you just run around hunting the mobs down!
Honestly, this is a pretty nice change, as the other rooms, where you have to escort the statue or find the Soul Cores, aren’t really as interesting, and they tend to take a decent amount of time longer. While these rooms do still exist, they aren’t as common, and generally you won’t find them more than once in a 10-room trial.
4
Rebalanced Modifiers
Higher Difficulty? Don’t Mind if I Do!
The Trials have always felt a little bit odd, as though they’re removed from the rest of the game. The thing is, once you’ve had a decent amount of time in the endgame and filled in your Atlas, you get used to running really tough maps and balancing that difficulty with increased rewards.
However, the Trials aren’t affected by the Atlas, and they don’t have the difficulty increase that comes with Rare Tiered maps.
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So now, when you select a modifier, you’ll see that there’s now a rarity modifier included that changes based on the level of the modifier. Tier 2 and 3 mods will give you more rarity, meaning it’s often a good choice to make your Trial more difficult, instead of avoiding tricky mods.
Additionally, there are new mods that increase difficulty even more, doubling your rewards.
3
Time-saving Updates
Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That!
This was probably my biggest annoyance, and one that’s been repeated by the general community. During the Trial, there are so many things that just randomly slow you down for no reason.
For example, the Trialmaster pausing time, waiting for elevators and waiting for the stone doors to open, etc. While this might not have seemed like a massive point, when you’re going through the Trials for hours on end, farming rewards or Fate Pieces, these things really start to grate on you.
Thankfully, everything I’ve mentioned has been smoothed out. The Trialmaster will only stop time once, elevators are quicker and are far larger, making them easier to stand on, and the stone doors open earlier, meaning you won’t have to stop in front of them. Good changes all around.
2
Run Extensions
Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop!
This was one I didn’t see coming at all, and honestly, it was a pleasant surprise. Now, after finishing a 10-room Trial, you’ll be given the opportunity to start a new 10-room run without using another Inscribed Ultimatum.
This means that if you complete the full 30 rooms, you’ll get a guaranteed copy of each Fate Fragment, removing the luck component of farming. What’s more, all your modifiers will carry over, so you can keep the rarity buffs that you’ve accumulated and keep farming for even better rewards.
Completing a full 30-run is going to give you some pretty ludicrous rewards!
1
Currency-Oriented Rewards
Money Can’t Buy Happiness… Right?
And of course, speaking of rewards, this is probably the biggest change to the whole Trial. Remember when you used to complete the Trial and then come to the reward chest, only to open it and find a bunch of utterly useless corrupted gear?
Well, that is now a thing of the past, thank goodness! Now the reward chest will only give you Currency and Soul Cores. And the great thing is that certain Soul Cores can get very expensive as the League goes on, so this is going to be a pretty valuable farming method, whether you’re just getting into the endgame or you’ve been playing for a while.
While it’s not perfect just yet, I think these changes have gone a long way to making the Trial of Chaos a more fun and less mind-numbing experience. Happy farming, Exiles!
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Released
December 11, 2026
ESRB
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Nudity, Intense Violence, Sexual Themes, Language, Users Interact, In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items)
Developer(s)
Grinding Gear Games
Publisher(s)
Grinding Gear Games