All 8 PoE2 Ascendancy Points: The Exact Level to Run Each Trial (and When to Skip One)

Run a Djinn Barya or Inscribed Ultimatum at the wrong area level and you walk away with loot but not a single extra ascendancy point — the reward screen doesn’t warn you first. Two of the four floor/round bands in each trial exist purely for farming and pay out zero points, and most guides list every band in one flat table without flagging which ones are a trap. This breaks down the exact level and trial for each of the 8 points, which bands to skip entirely, and which trial actually suits your build — the answer isn’t “squishy vs tanky” the way most threads frame it.

Quick Start: The 4 Completions in Order

• Act 2 quest: run Trial of the Sekhemas with Balbala’s Barya (unlimited attempts, no level gate) for points 1-2.
• Act 3 quest: run Trial of Chaos with the Chimeral Inscribed Ultimatum (unlimited attempts, no level gate) for points 3-4 [1][4][6].
• Endgame tier 3: use a Djinn Barya area level 60+ for 3 Sekhemas floors, or an Inscribed Ultimatum area level 75+ for 10 Chaos rounds, for points 5-6.
• Endgame tier 4: use a Djinn Barya area level 75+ for 4 floors plus Zarohk, The Temporal, or the same alvl 75+ Ultimatum for 10 rounds plus The Trialmaster (needs 3 fate fragments), for points 7-8 [2][3][6].
• Skip any Djinn Barya below area level 60 and any Inscribed Ultimatum below area level 75 once you’ve cleared your Act 2/3 quest completions — they don’t grant more points, only loot.
• Cap Honour Resistance at 75% on your Relic before attempting Sekhemas at any endgame tier [2].
• Overlevel your character above the item’s area-level minimum before attempting tier 4 — the key sets monster difficulty, not your character level, so going in exactly at the gate is the hard way to do it.

How the 8 Points Actually Break Down

Path of Exile 2 hands out ascendancy points in four pairs, and only the first two pairs are locked to a specific trial — the campaign gives you no choice. Act 2’s quest always routes through Trial of the Sekhemas, and Act 3’s quest always routes through Trial of Chaos [1][4][6]. From there, the last two pairs open up: either trial can grant them, gated by the area level of the Barya or Ultimatum you’re holding, not by which ascendancy class you picked. A Chaos-only Warrior and a Sekhemas-only Sorceress both reach all 8 points; the trial choice is about survivability, not eligibility.

The area-level requirement belongs to the item, not your character. Maxroll’s own floor-access breakdown for Sekhemas runs four full bands — area level 24-44 (1 floor), 45-59 (2 floors), 60-74 (3 floors), 75+ (4 floors) — and Chaos runs three: 39-59 (4 rounds), 60-74 (7 rounds), 75+ (10 rounds) [2][3]. Only two of those seven bands line up with an actual ascendancy-point payout once your Act 2/3 quest completions are behind you: Sekhemas’ 60-74 and 75+ bands, and Chaos’ 75+ band alone [2][3][6]. Sekhemas’ 45-59 band and Chaos’ 39-59 and 60-74 bands are pure farming runs for currency and Time-Lost Jewels — running one hoping for extra points wastes a key that could’ve gone toward loot instead. This isn’t a guess: a lower-level Barya or Ultimatum straightforwardly won’t unlock a higher tier’s reward, since the item’s own area level is what the game checks, not your character sheet [5].

The tier 7-8 boss fights aren’t optional add-ons — they’re the actual gate, but the two trials get there differently. Zarohk, The Temporal caps the alvl 75+ Sekhemas floor directly: clear floor 4 and he’s there [6]. Chaos is a multi-run gate: each level 75+, 10-round Ultimatum ends with one of three randomly assigned bosses — Uxmal, The Beastlord, Bahlak, The Sky Seer, or Chetza, The Feathered Plague — and whichever one shows up drops one matching Fate fragment (Cowardly, Deadly, or Victorious) [8][9]. You need all three fragment types banked before The Trialmaster’s door opens, which in practice means multiple separate 10-round clears rather than one, since a single run only ever drops the fragment tied to whichever boss it randomly assigned [8][9]. Trading covers the gap if you keep pulling duplicates. Sekhemas has no equivalent multi-run requirement — clear floor 4 once and Zarohk is there.

Notice that Sekhemas reaches its final payout tier at character-accessible area level 60, while Chaos doesn’t pay out again until area level 75 — a full farming tier later. If your only goal is the last 4 points as fast as possible, Sekhemas gets there first purely on the area-level math, independent of which trial you’d rather fight. For the class-specific passive trees those points feed into, see our ascendancy class guide.

Sekhemas vs Chaos: The Real Deciding Factor

Most threads frame this as squishy builds vs tanky builds. That’s the wrong axis. Sekhemas runs on Honour — a pool built from your combined Life and Energy Shield that drains separately from your actual health bar every time you get hit, and hits zero Honour ends the run regardless of how much life you had left [2]. Armour reduces how much Honour a hit costs you, and Evasion gives a flat chance to lose none at all [2]. That means the trait that matters is hit frequency, not raw squishiness: a tanky melee build that facetanks constantly still bleeds Honour on every pack, while a glass-cannon ranged build that rarely gets touched can clear Sekhemas without its low life pool ever becoming the problem.

Chaos has no separate resource bar — it’s a straight combat check where you pick one of three escalating negative modifiers before each round and they stack for the rest of the run [3]. A build with strong sustain and enough DPS to end fights fast tolerates Chaos fine even while eating hits, because there’s no Honour pool punishing the contact itself. Many players report melee and other frequently-hit builds finding Chaos noticeably more forgivable than Sekhemas for exactly this reason — it’s the mechanism above playing out in practice, not a coincidence.

• Ranged, evasion-heavy, or hit-avoidance builds: Sekhemas is usually the cheaper route (alvl 60 unlocks tier 5-6, a full tier before Chaos does).
• Melee or any build that eats hits regularly, even if life pool is large: lean Chaos — no Honour bar means contact isn’t automatically a resource drain.
• Slow-clearing builds: be selective with Chaos negative modifiers past round 7; a build that can’t burst through a bad-modifier round loses more than it gains by pushing to 10.
• Uncertain which category you’re in: try the alvl 60 Sekhemas run first since it’s the earlier-accessible tier either way, and fall back to Chaos if Honour keeps hitting zero.

If Sekhemas keeps draining your Honour to zero no matter how much Resistance you stack, that’s the signal to stop forcing it — switch to Chaos for the remaining tiers rather than re-gearing a build around a mechanic it’s structurally bad at. Our Sanctum resolve guide covers the Honour-management fundamentals in more depth if you’re set on running Sekhemas anyway.

Ascendancy Priorities by Player Type

FAQ

Can I mix trials — some points from Sekhemas, some from Chaos?

Yes. The two trials are fully interchangeable for points 5-8 since neither is tied to your ascendancy class [1][6]. Plenty of players take points 1-4 from the campaign as scripted, then finish 5-6 in whichever trial their build handles better and switch for 7-8 if the first one turns out to be a bad fit.

Does a low-level Barya or Ultimatum still work if I just want the loot, not the points?

Yes — the mid-tier bands (Sekhemas 45-59, Chaos 39-59 and 60-74) still drop currency, uniques, and Time-Lost Jewels [2][3]. They just won’t advance your ascendancy tree past what your campaign completions already gave you, so don’t run them expecting extra points.

Should I attempt the alvl 75+ tier the moment I hit character level 75?

Most players don’t. The Barya or Ultimatum sets monster difficulty off its own area level regardless of your character level, so going in right at the threshold with no buffer is the hard way to do it. As a general guideline, a few extra character levels and gear upgrades above the 75 gate make the difference between a clean clear and a honour-zero or round-wipe.

Is Trial of Chaos really harder than Sekhemas, or is that just reputation?

It depends entirely on your build’s hit frequency, not a universal difficulty ranking. Builds that rarely get hit find Sekhemas’ Honour system barely relevant and get to the final points a full area-level tier earlier. Builds that take hits constantly, especially melee, tend to find Chaos’ straight combat check more forgiving since there’s no separate resource bar punishing contact.

Sources

• [1] Trials of Ascendancy Guide — Maxroll.gg
• [2] Trial of The Sekhemas — Maxroll.gg
• [3] Trial of Chaos — Maxroll.gg
• [4] PoE 2 Ascendancy Points & Trials Tracker — Timesaver.gg
• [5] PoE2 Ascendancy Points: How to Beat the Trial of the Sekhemas & Get All 8 — Timesaver.gg
• [6] PoE 2 How to Get All 8 Ascendancy Points — ConquestCapped.com
• [7] PoE2 Trial of Chaos Guide — Timesaver.gg
• [8] PoE 2 Trial of Chaos — Room Modifiers & Trialmaster — ConquestCapped.com
• [9] The Trialmaster Boss Guide — Maxroll.gg
• Community consensus (Reddit and Steam Community discussion threads on Path of Exile 2’s Trial of Sekhemas vs Trial of Chaos) — aggregated pattern, no single citable page.

Verified on Patch 0.5.x (Return of the Ancients). Area-level requirements and Honour mechanics may change with future balance passes — confirm specifics in-game before farming a specific tier.

Michael R.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.