PoE 2 Ritual Guide: How it Works, Farming Strategies, and More

Ritual is an exciting and rewarding mechanic in Path of Exile 2, offering players a chance to obtain rare items, exclusive rewards, and significant amounts of currency. This guide will break down everything you need to know about the Ritual mechanic, from how it works to advanced farming strategies for maximizing your rewards.

What is Ritual in PoE 2?

Ritual is a core endgame mechanic in Path of Exile 2 that can appear on any map. When utilized properly, it can serve as an incredibly profitable farming method. Whether you’re running it as a primary strategy or passively alongside other mechanics, Ritual offers plenty of opportunities for loot and progression.

How Ritual Works

Ritual Circles and Fights

Each map featuring Ritual will contain three or four runed circles with totems. Here’s how the process works:

1. Spawn Monsters: Entering a circle triggers packs of monsters to spawn. Killing these monsters fills the Ritual totems with their blood.
2. Activate the Ritual: Once the totem is fully charged, it becomes clickable, reviving the slain monsters in an enclosed area for a second fight.
3. Survive the Challenge: During the Ritual fight, the circle itself will attack you using special mechanics, depending on the type of Ritual (see below).
4. Claim Your Rewards: If you’re successful, you’ll earn Tribute, which can be used in the Favours window to purchase items, defer rewards, or reroll the available loot.

Tribute and Favours

Tribute is the currency you earn for completing Rituals. The amount of Tribute depends on the quantity and difficulty of monsters you defeat. Once you complete your first Ritual, you’ll unlock the Favours window, where you can spend Tribute in three ways:

1. Purchase Rewards: Buy items directly using Tribute. These items can include gear, currency, Omens, and the highly desirable Audience with the King invitation.
2. Defer Items: Can’t afford an item? Use the Defer option to partially pay for it, ensuring it appears in a future Ritual encounter at a reduced cost.
3. Reroll Rewards: Refresh the rewards in the Favours window for 1000 Tribute. This cost can be reduced by using Ritual Precursor Tablets or allocating Ritual-related Atlas passives.

Ritual Types

Each Ritual circle has unique mechanics that attack you during the encounter. Here are the main types:

• Infested: Spawns insect tornadoes that chase you—one of the deadliest mechanics.
• Sapping: Creates a slowing purple fog.
• Smothered: Fires purple chaos orbs that explode.
• Contaminated: Sends out waves of blood with knockback effects.
• Tainted: Triggers chaos balls that grow and explode when stepped on.

Farming Ritual

Locating Ritual Encounters

To find Ritual encounters, look for maps with the Ritual marker on your Atlas. You can influence the occurrence of Ritual by running Lost Tower encounters and socketing Ritual Precursor Tablets into completed towers. These tablets can add 5–10 Ritual encounters to nodes within the tower’s radius, boosting your farming efficiency.

The number of monsters in a map directly impacts the amount of Tribute you can earn. To maximize your rewards:

• Use map modifiers that increase pack size or add magic and rare monsters.
• Consider applying Delirium orbs to maps, but note that monsters spawned by Delirium mirrors do not count toward Tribute.

Ritual Atlas Tree

As you progress through the Ritual Atlas Tree, you’ll unlock passive nodes that improve the efficiency and profitability of Ritual encounters. Some key nodes include:

• Tempting Offers: Grants an additional Favours window, increasing your total rewards.
• Ominous Portents: Increases the drop rate of Omens, which are among the most valuable Ritual rewards.
• He Approaches: Improves the chance of finding Audience with the King invitations, essential for accessing the King in the Mists boss fight.
• Spreading Darkness: Guarantees four Ritual circles per map, maximizing Tribute and reroll opportunities.

Advanced Strategies

Deferral Tactics

If you find a high-value item early in a Ritual encounter, consider deferring it instead of purchasing it outright. This allows you to maximize Tribute usage by revealing loot from later Rituals or rerolling the rewards window.

Combining Mechanics

Ritual pairs well with mechanics like Breach, Legion, and Delirium, as they add large numbers of monsters to maps, increasing Tribute. However, avoid mechanics like Blight, where spawned monsters do not contribute to Ritual progress.

King in the Mists

The King in the Mists is the pinnacle boss of the Ritual mechanic. Defeating him not only rewards exclusive loot but also grants Ritual Atlas Passive Points, further enhancing your ability to farm Ritual encounters. The boss fight difficulty scales from level 0 to level 4, with higher levels offering better rewards.

With this guide, you’re ready to take on Rituals in Path of Exile 2, optimize your Tribute usage, and farm some of the game’s most lucrative rewards. Good luck, Exile!