Path of Exile 2 Forbidden Rites Event: Rituals, Wildwood and 0.5.5

Forbidden Rites Starts September 4

Path of Exile 2's Forbidden Rites event launches with update 0.5.5 on September 4, 2026 at 1 PM PDT. It is a fresh-economy event built around Ritual, with encounters throughout the campaign and endgame, eight new challenges and exclusive rewards.

Ritual Encounters Appear Through the Campaign

Each campaign area contains a Ritual encounter. Kill the monsters around the effigy, activate it, then fight the revived enemies while the encounter adds its own hazards. Defeated monsters generate Tribute that can be spent after the fight.

Campaign Ritual shops are not limited to Unique items. They can offer crafting currency and equipment aimed at characters still moving through the acts.

Special boss Ritual chains work differently. A defeated boss is carried into the next encounter in the chain, so later Rituals can contain several bosses at once. Completing the final encounter unlocks Unique-item rewards in the Tribute shop.

Party Members Get Their Own Tribute

Every party member now earns personal Tribute and gets a separate reward selection. The trade-off is that party members cannot reroll the Ritual shop and have fewer reward choices than the area owner.

Sacred Bloom Opens the Wildwood in Endgame

Endgame Rituals can offer a Sacred Bloom. Using one on an Atlas map adds an entrance to the Wildwood, where players have limited time to collect wisps before returning to the map.

• Primal Wisps: can turn normal monsters into Magic monsters.
• Vivid Wisps: can add modifiers to Rare monsters.
• Wild Wisps: increase item rarity from affected monsters.

Collected wisps spread through the map and strengthen monsters as well as their drops. Ritual Tablets can increase the amount of wisps found inside the Wildwood.

Trial of Chaos Gets a Large 0.5.5 Rework

• Runs can be paused: leave between rooms and resume later.
• More combat-focused rooms: several objective types have been replaced or adjusted.
• Modifier pass: lower tiers are less punishing, and modifiers now add Item Rarity.
• Wager Modifiers: optional meta modifiers can increase both danger and rewards.
• Up to 30 rooms: longer runs can continue beyond the old 10-room stopping point.
• Trialmaster fragments: later rooms can provide all three fragments in one run.

Other 0.5.5 Changes

Abyssal Ravines are being added to the Atlas. Each map along a ravine contains Abyss encounters, with a guaranteed Abyss boss at the end of the chain.

Expedition remains core content and can appear from Act Four onward, with Expedition Tablets available in the Atlas. GGG also said the larger balance pass originally planned for 0.5.5 has been moved to the 1.0 update.

Eight Event Challenges

Forbidden Rites has eight challenges covering activities such as campaign Rituals, named Rare monsters and reaching level 90. Completing them unlocks four exclusive cosmetic rewards plus a hideout statue.