In Trial of the Ancestors, you get to enter the afterlife to compete in a tournament Arc, this is a game mode that's very unique within Path of Exile, you can think of it as being similar to or inspired by team fight tactics or DOTA under lords because it takes a lot of Auto battler elements, how do you actually win the tournament, and we wanted to go over that in a short guide today, this is aimed primarily at beginners or people looking to learn more about a mechanic.

PoE 3.22 Beginner's Guide to Trial of the Ancestors

Learn about the Trial of the Ancestors of PoE, how to destroy totems, choose rewards, recruit and gear warriors, place field items, and win the tournament.

How to Destroy Totems

Totems are the main objective of each match. They are located at the back of each team's base and have different levels of fortification. To destroy a totem, you need to channel on it with a left click for a certain amount of time. However, if you or any other unit is hit while channeling, you will be stunned for five seconds and lose progress. Therefore, you need to be careful and avoid enemy attacks or crowd control effects. You can also use your own abilities or field items to damage or disable enemy totems. For example, you can use a trawler to pull an enemy unit off a totem or use a consuming kuni, kune to consume corpses and slow down enemy respawn. Destroying enemy totems will give you an advantage in numbers and allow you to push forward and win the match.

How to Choose Rewards

After each match, you will get some points to spend at different vendors. You will always get 250 points to spend at Navali, which sells field items and equipment for your warriors. You will also get some points depending on which tribe you faced and how powerful they were. You can use these points to buy new warriors or upgrade existing ones from the corresponding tribe vendor.

Each tribe has its own theme and strengths. For example, Unicorn warriors have tattoos that give them special bonuses, Hinekora warriors have horns that buff or debuff units around them, Tukohama warriors have shields that protect them from damage, etc. You can mix and match warriors from different tribes to create a balanced and diverse team.

You should spend your points wisely and consider the cost and benefit of each purchase. For example, buying a high-cost unit might be more effective than buying several low-cost units, but it will also limit your options for future matches. Buying field items might help you win a close match, but they are one-time use only and will not carry over to the next match.

How to Recruit and Gear Warriors

You can recruit up to six warriors for your team at any time. You can do this before each match by clicking on the blue arrow at the bottom right of the screen. You can also swap or remove warriors from your team by dragging them in or out of the slots.

Each warrior has their own role, stats, abilities, and equipment slots. You can hover over them to see more details. You can also equip them with items that you buy from Navali or find as rewards after each match. Items can improve their attributes, damage, defense, speed, etc.

You should choose warriors that suit your playstyle and strategy. For example, if you want to focus on destroying enemy totems, you might want to recruit flankers that can bypass enemy defenses and reach their backline quickly. If you want to defend your own totems, you might want to recruit defenders that can deal with enemy attackers or crowd control them.

How to Place Field Items

Field items are consumable items that you can place on the battlefield before each match. They can have passive or active effects that can help you or hinder your enemies. For example, you can place a fire trap that explodes when an enemy steps on it, or a healing fountain that restores health to nearby allies.

You can place field items by clicking on the blue arrow at the right of the screen and then clicking on one of the available slots on the map. You can only place one field item per slot, and you cannot place them on enemy territory. You can also activate field items by clicking on them or pressing V while standing near them.

Field items are not essential for winning matches, but they can give you an edge in certain situations. For example, you can use a fire trap to deal extra damage to an enemy champion or a healing fountain to sustain your team during a long fight. However, field items are also expensive and limited in number, so you should use them wisely and sparingly.

How to Win the Tournament

-Use a silver coin or teleport using your Waypoint to access the tournament in the Halls.

-Different opponents in the tournament have varying strengths, weaknesses, and themes. Choose your fights based on your team's strength and your position in the tournament.

-There are three ways to approach opponent selection: focusing on short-term rewards, acquiring points to upgrade your team, or targeting specific tribes or teams for personal reasons.

-To win the tournament, you need to win six matches in a row without losing twice. Losing once is not a big deal and can even allow you to reroll your rewards or opponents. However, losing twice means you are out of the tournament and have to start over. Losing intentionally once can be strategic.

-Place your units strategically in the four roles: attackers, defenders, escorts, and flankers.

-Utilize field items for passive effects or one-time active effects to gain an advantage in battles.

-Destroy enemy totems while defending your own. The enemy champion can pose a significant threat.

-If you die, you will respawn at your totem. Hardcore mode is available, but caution is advised.

-Winning matches earn you points to spend on upgrades, equipment, field items, or new warriors.

-Winning the tournament unlocks benefits such as inspired units fighting by your side and an increase in your rating for better rewards.

-As you progress and win more matches, enemies become tougher, but rewards improve. Stack your wins to snowball your success.

Tips & Tricks

First up, any crowd control that you can get is great being able to prevent enemies from acting means you have more time to potentially hit their totems, and if you want a really free win, get something like proximity Shield, any proximity Shield effect will prevent ranged units from attacking you thus interrupting your channel, and most of the time they're pretty okay with trying to do it despite your proc Shield, we think this is one of those little AI loopholes that you can absolutely abuse,

Furthermore, we found that being careful tends to be rewarded more than being aggressive, especially when you're outnumbered and especially early on in a round, we'd rather hang back and make sure the totems aren't destroyed, and let our flankers do the job then Rush ahead and potentially lose some important totems including units that are key to our strategy, maybe your tanky melee, and you have to rush ahead, you'd want to assign stronger units back home to defend while you take care of Smashing the enemy Champion, there's a lot of different approaches and many ways to optimize based on your build,  you can own more units from that if you just want them to say turn in for points later also take some time to read the equipment for different units, sometimes it's better to equip a good unit, maybe doubling their health server a lot tankier and more effective than it is to buy a new one who's just going to die, this kind of comes down to a personal choice and a little bit of strategy, but we found equipment to be very effective when used correctly some units will also come with equipment right out of a box they're more expensive, but this is absolutely worth it.