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Path of Exile 2 Beginner Guide: How to Start in Forbidden Rites (0.5.5)

What to do in your first hours of Path of Exile 2 patch 0.5.5: which league to pick, what the Forbidden Rites campaign Rituals give you, and the gear and quest rewards that matter while levelling.

By Novaxcarry PoE 2 Desk · · Updated Oct 15, 2026 · 6 min read

Official Path of Exile 2 artwork of a dark, twisted Wraeclast forest
On this page

On this page

  1. New here? Start with this
  2. What Forbidden Rites adds to the campaign
  3. Gear that matters while levelling
  4. Permanent rewards and ascending
  5. Trading without getting lost
  6. For veterans
  7. Sources

This Path of Exile 2 beginner guide is written for patch 0.5.5 and the Forbidden Rites event league, which went live on September 4, 2026, and was checked in October 2026. The game is still in early access. Grinding Gear Games has dated the 1.0 release for December 11, 2026, and its FAQ says Forbidden Rites runs until that day, so a character started now has roughly two months of live economy ahead of it.

New here? Start with this

Three decisions matter before you kill anything.

Access. Early access is still paid: GGG describes the Early Access Supporter Pack as including full game access. The game becomes free-to-play with 1.0 on December 11, so if you only want to try it, waiting is a fair choice.

League. On the character screen pick the Forbidden Rites banner. It is a fresh economy, which means everyone's items are recent and prices are sane for a newcomer. The older Runes of Aldur league and Standard also exist, but the new players and the cheap starter gear are in Forbidden Rites.

Path of Exile 2 league selection screen with the Runes of Aldur and Forbidden Rites banners
Picking the Forbidden Rites league · Image: Grinding Gear Games

Class. Eight classes are playable. Maxroll's class overview sums them up by weapon: Warrior (maces and shields), Ranger (bows), Huntress (spears), Sorceress (elemental spells), Witch (minions and chaos spells), Mercenary (crossbows and grenades), Monk (quarterstaves) and Druid (spells plus animal forms). Each has two or three ascendancies, 22 in total on Maxroll's current tier list. The Duelist is not in 0.5.5; GGG's FAQ says it arrives with 1.0.

Then follow one build guide from level 1. Since patch 0.5.0 the client has a Build Planner, and GGG later added website subscriptions, so a subscribed guide shows the passive nodes and gems to take inside the game. Lolcohol's hour-long beginner video from late August is a good companion if you prefer to watch the basics (flasks, uncut gems, support sockets, vendors) explained on screen.

Watch on YouTube ↗ (opens in a new tab)
Six steps for a new Path of Exile 2 character in the Forbidden Rites league
A safe order of operations for your first character in patch 0.5.5

What Forbidden Rites adds to the campaign

The league mechanic is Ritual, and it is generous to levelling characters. According to the 0.5.5 patch notes, every campaign area has a Ritual encounter, and unlike endgame Rituals these pay out things you need right now: crafting currency and equipment. Do them. They are the main reason a fresh character gears faster in this league than in a normal one.

Twice per Act and once per Interlude, the world map shows a cluster of Ritual effigies. In those areas the Ritual sits on top of the area boss. Beat it, and that boss is added to the next Ritual in the cluster, so the last fight of a chain is a wave of several bosses. Finishing the chain lets you spend Tribute on Unique items.

Ritual Favours window with items offered as Tribute to the King in the Mists
Ritual rewards · Image: Grinding Gear Games

The campaign itself is four Acts followed by three Interludes. Maxroll places the unlock of the map device, where the endgame begins, at around level 65.

Path of Exile 2 world map with tabs for each Act and the endgame
The world map · Image: Grinding Gear Games

Gear that matters while levelling

New players usually chase damage. Experienced players fix three things first, and Maxroll's league start levelling guide gives the level at which each upgrade appears:

  • Movement speed boots. 10% can roll from level 1, 15% from level 16, 20% from level 33 and 25% from level 46. Check every pair that drops and every vendor.
  • Flasks. A new tier arrives at levels 4, 10, 16, 23, 30, 40, 50 and 60. An out-of-date life flask is the most common reason a boss feels impossible.
  • Resistance rings. Sapphire Rings (cold) appear from level 12 and Topaz Rings (lightning) from level 16. The guide recommends 30 to 40% Cold Resistance for the final boss of Act 1.

Maxroll's defence guide adds a simple target: keep elemental resistances above roughly 30% during the story and reach the 75% cap before you start maps.

Permanent rewards and ascending

Some optional bosses and quests give bonuses that last for the life of the character. Maxroll counts 24 passive skill points, 100 Spirit and 10% to all elemental resistances across the campaign, among others. The table lists the ones in the first three Acts.

Table of permanent campaign rewards in Acts 1 to 3 of Path of Exile 2
Optional bosses and quests worth the detour, per Maxroll's permanent stats guide

Your ascendancy comes from trials. The Trial of the Sekhemas in Act 2 unlocks the class and the first two ascendancy points. The Trial of Chaos in Act 3 gives points three and four. The last four come from higher-level versions of the same trials near or after the end of the story. In the Sekhemas trial you fail when a separate bar called Honour runs out, so avoiding hits matters more than killing fast.

Trading without getting lost

You do not need to trade to finish the campaign, but two tools save a lot of guessing:

  • Shift-Alt-click an item to open a trade search already filled with its modifiers (added in 0.5.0). Toggle modifiers off to see which one carries the price.
  • The Currency Exchange swaps stackable items such as orbs, runes and essences for a small Gold fee. Gold itself cannot be traded, so spend it on vendor gear and respecs.

For veterans

If you last played before Return of the Ancients, the campaign is shorter than you remember. Patch 0.5.0 added navigation markers to several areas, removed The Dreadnaught Vanguard (the Act 2 boss now waits in The Dreadnaught), reordered parts of Act 3, turned the Waterways levers into pressure pads and cut monster density in the second half, especially the Interludes.

Points specific to this league and patch:

  • Kalguuran content comes later. Outside the Runes of Aldur league there is no Remnant in every area. Expeditions appear from Act 4 onwards, and the Verisium Anvil unlocks through The Runeseeker quest in Act 4. Any starter that leans on a Kalguuran skill gem or early Runeforging comes online later than it did in June.
  • Skill-granting uniques are twink gear now. Since 0.5.4 a unique that grants a skill scales that skill with your character instead of demanding the full requirement up front. GGG's example is Lifesprig, which can now be equipped at level 1 and grants level 1 Mana Drain.
  • No balance patch. Maxroll's reveal summary reports that 0.5.5 ships without balance changes and that the next pass is planned for 1.0. A starter that worked in Runes of Aldur still works.
  • Hardcore is parented. A death in Hardcore Forbidden Rites moves the character to the softcore Forbidden Rites league, not to permanent Standard.
  • Boss Ritual chains scale quickly. The carried-over bosses stack, so clear the chains in order while your gear is current instead of returning ten levels late for the uniques.

Sources

#path-of-exile-2#beginner-guide#forbidden-rites#patch-0-5-5#leveling#campaign#early-access

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