Path of Exile 2’s Forbidden Rites event went live Friday, September 4, 2026, at 20:00 UTC (1pm PDT), the headline feature of patch 0.5.5. The big structural change: every area of the campaign now hides a Ritual encounter, and it hands out crafting currency and gear as you level rather than the Endgame-only Unique drops Ritual is normally known for. Twice per Act — and once in each Interlude — you’ll also run into a cluster of boss Rituals: beat one and the boss doesn’t just disappear, it gets carried into the next area’s Ritual as part of an escalating chain of boss waves, with the tribute you bank along the way spendable on Unique items once the whole series is dead. Finish enough challenges and you unlock the Locust Footprints (2), the Locust Swarm finisher effect (4), the Wildwood Guardian pet (6), and the Wildwood Affliction level-up effect (8). GGG is positioning this as the last major event league before Path of Exile 2 leaves Early Access.
When Forbidden Rites Started, and What Stays the Same
Forbidden Rites is a fresh-economy event league — new characters, no carried-over stash — running in Standard, Hardcore, and Solo Self-Found variants, per the official 0.5.5 patch notes. If you’d rather keep playing your current build, nothing forces your hand: the existing Runes of Aldur league and all of your Early Access characters are untouched and keep running in parallel. Skill gems and Ascendancies got no balance changes in this patch either, so a build guide you already trust for those classes is still accurate — it’s the campaign and Ritual systems that changed, not the combat math.
New to the game entirely? Our Path of Exile 2 beginner’s guide covers the fundamentals Forbidden Rites doesn’t touch — classes, the passive tree, and your first Ascendancy pick.
Every Campaign Area Hides a Ritual — But the Payout Isn’t Endgame Loot
Here’s the mechanism that makes this different from the Ritual most players already know. In maps, Ritual altars pay out almost exclusively in Unique items — that’s the entire appeal of the Endgame version. Dropping that same reward structure into the campaign, while you’re leveling through areas for the first time, would flood the early-game economy with Uniques far earlier than the game is balanced for. GGG’s fix, per the patch notes: campaign Rituals exist in every area, but they’re retuned to hand out crafting currency and general gear instead — useful for gearing up as you level, not a shortcut to end-game power. According to Maxroll’s reporting on the patch, a handful of specifically designated Rituals per Act keep the old Unique-only payout, so the reward that made Ritual famous hasn’t disappeared — it’s just been rationed to the moments GGG thinks a new character can actually use it.
Our full Ritual guide breaks down the Endgame version of the mechanic in detail if you want the full tribute-and-favour math once you’re out of the campaign.
Boss Rituals Escalate Twice Per Act — Defeated Bosses Don’t Stay Dead
The bigger twist is the boss-Ritual clusters, marked on the World Map as groups of Ritual Effigies. You’ll find one cluster twice within each Act and once within each Interlude. Kill the boss inside the first Ritual and it carries forward into the next area’s Ritual in that same cluster, per the official patch notes — so instead of one boss fight, you’re looking at a short gauntlet where each win adds a returning boss to an increasingly dangerous next encounter. Clear the whole chain and you get to spend the tribute you’ve accumulated across the series on Unique items, which is where campaign Ritual’s real reward sits: not in any single fight, but in finishing the escalation.
That’s a risk/reward lever GGG hasn’t used quite this way in the campaign before — skip a boss Ritual and you lose nothing you already had, but you also never see what the chain would have paid out at the end.
The 8-Challenge Cosmetic Track
Forbidden Rites’ challenges pay out in four tiers, each locked to a specific cosmetic reward rather than a currency or Unique item:
| Challenges completed | Reward |
|---|---|
| 2 | Locust Footprints |
| 4 | Locust Swarm Rare Finisher Effect |
| 6 | Wildwood Guardian Pet |
| 8 | Wildwood Affliction level-up effect |
The Wildwood Guardian pet at 6 challenges is the one worth planning your season around if you only chase one milestone — it’s the rarest-tier reward on the track, two challenges short of the full Wildwood Affliction set.
Should You Reroll, and What Happens When It Ends?
It’s early enough in the league that starting fresh still means a genuinely new economy — you’re not walking into a market that’s had weeks to settle. Per GGG’s official Forbidden Rites FAQ, the league runs until Path of Exile 2’s 1.0 full release and ends alongside Runes of Aldur at that point — GGG hasn’t published what happens to Forbidden Rites characters or gear when that migration happens, so treat any specific carry-over promise you see elsewhere as unconfirmed until GGG says otherwise. According to Maxroll’s coverage of the patch, that end point is currently pegged to Path of Exile 2’s December 11, 2026 1.0 launch.
If you’re mid-build in Runes of Aldur and happy there, nothing about Forbidden Rites requires you to switch. If you want to see the new campaign Ritual structure and the escalating boss clusters while the economy is still new, this week is the best window you’ll get — and our 0.5 patch guide covers what changed under the hood for anyone catching up on the last few updates before jumping in.
Sources
- Grinding Gear Games. Path of Exile 2: 0.5.5 Patch Notes — Forbidden Rites Event League. Path of Exile Official Forum.
- Grinding Gear Games. Path of Exile 2: Forbidden Rites FAQ. Path of Exile Official Forum.
- Maxroll.gg. 0.5.5 Forbidden Rites Event Launch Date and Endgame Changes.
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