How To Unlock Trial Of Chaos In Path Of Exile 2 Early Access? - By Defeating Xyclucian

Mar 06, 2025 Author: POECurrency.com

As you explore Path of Exile 2 Early Access, you’ll have the opportunity to gain access to some Ascendancy Classes with more powerful abilities to help you take on more difficult battles or missions, but please note that you’ll need to complete some Trials before you can get them.

The first one you’ll encounter is Trial of Sekhemas in Act 2, where you’ll first unlock some Ascendancy Classes, and to unlock all of them, you’ll need to complete Trial of Chaos in Act 3. But this Trial isn’t that easy to unlock, you’ll need to complete a boss encounter with Xyclucian, The Chimera.

This is the boss you’ll encounter while searching for Jiquani’s Machinarium in Chimeral Wetlands. Since this three-headed enemy uses a variety of elemental attacks that are difficult to dodge, you’ll need the specific methods and strategies for finding and defeating Xyclucian in this guide to ensure that your subsequent Trials exploration is not affected.

Xyclucian, The Chimera Location

You’ll find this boss in Deadly Nest on Chimeral Wetlands map in Act 3 of POE 2. In addition, since Xyclucian is the last challenge of Legacy of the Vaal main story quest, you won’t miss this encounter once you claim it.

POE 2 Chimeral Wetlands map

How To Defeat Xyclucian?

Like most boss encounters in POE 2, only by knowing all of Xyclucian’s attacks in advance can you avoid them as effectively as possible and find opportunities to deal some lethal damage during the fight. Here are all of Xyclucian’s moves in this fight, as well as tips and strategies you can use.

Slam

This move is used in many boss encounters, but here Xyclucian doesn’t use his hands to do this, but instead slams his front legs, and the powerful shockwave is generated from this position.

Since Xyclucian will roar before slamming, you can use this time to move away from his front legs to avoid taking too much damage. The best place to cast damaging skills may be his back, because at this time, all his attention is on the front and he has no time to pay attention to the back area.

Ice Breath

As mentioned earlier, Xyclucian, The Chimera is a monster with three heads, and in Ice Breath you will see some ice spraying out of his right head, and it will cover some areas of the arena around where he is standing with this ice, which will cause continuous damage to you.

This attack has a large range of influence and the damage is also very deadly, so when you see his right head start to swing and prepare to spray some frost, please move away from where you are standing.

POE 2 Ice Breath

Not only that, but since this attack is homing, your character will need to be constantly on the move to avoid taking damage. You can try investing in some POE 2 Divine Orbs in gear that gives you a high buff to your movement speed or rolling dodge to increase their rarity and power.

Jump Slam

Here, the boss will jump into the air, then come down hard and deal massive damage where it lands. But be aware that it will not land in the same spot it took off from, so watch its path as you move to avoid damage.

Flamethrower

The right head of Xyclucian you just introduced will let you spit out some ice, while the middle head will spit out a wave of flames. Also note that the boss will swing his head back and forth during this attack, making the cone in front of him very dangerous.

When countering this move, in addition to ensuring your mobility, make sure your build is strong in fire resistance, as this elemental damage will be more powerful than the physical damage you have previously taken. While dodging, don’t forget to get behind the boss and do as much damage as possible.

Stone Pillar

When Xyclucian, The Chimera starts to go up, it means that it will fly to the top of a Stone Pillar in the arena and shoot some fireballs at you. In this case, the first thing you should do is definitely not to cause more damage to the boss itself, but to destroy the stone pillar it is standing on, because after the stone pillar collapses, Xyclucian will fall with it and will be very vulnerable for a few seconds, which is the best time to attack it.

Also Read: Lost Towers Sparked A Lot Of Controversy - Is Path Of Exile 2 0.2.0 Update Necessary?

Flying Flamethrower

In addition to Stone Pillar, Xyclucian will also perform Flying Flamethrower attack on you when it flies into the air: it will directly spray fire in a straight line towards the center of the arena, of course, this attack will also follow you.

So you can use the previous strategy and try to stay behind the boss, so that you can ensure that you are as little exposed to the fire with huge damage as possible.

Poison Lob

Xyclucian’s head can not only deal some damage to you but also his tail! You will see poison balls being fired from the boss’ tail in a cone-shaped pattern, causing poison damage in a small area when they land.

Due to the large number of poison balls fired and their high frequency, you will inevitably be hit by some of them, but make sure you don’t get hit by them continuously, because once the poison damage is stacked, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Lightning Breath

For Xyclucian’s left head, you can’t underestimate it either, because it will fire some lightning balls at you, which will explode after a while. The best way to avoid these lightning balls is to let them explode in the air as much as possible instead of on you, so pay attention to the trajectory of these small balls and avoid them strategically.

Flying Slam

Compared to the previous Slam and Jump Slam, the landing damage caused by Flying Slam here will be higher and because the boss will disappear in the air for a second, it is difficult to judge where it will appear, though where it disappears.

Note that Xyclucian is invincible whenever he jumps, flies, or leaps, so avoid attacking him during these times, and try to minimize weapons or gear that deal damage over time during this encounter, as the invincibility will interrupt those effects.

Best Strategy

Since Xyclucian can deal cold, fire, and lightning damage to you, be sure to balance your resistances when building a build to challenge him, and focus on the one you are least vulnerable to.

In most cases, the boss’s back area is the safest place to be during this fight, as attacks like Flamethrower, Poison Lob, and Lightning Breath cannot hit him from behind, so you may need to stay in this safe area for a long time.

Once you have passed the above tests, you will have completed your encounter with Xyclucian, The Chimera, and will receive a notification to unlock Chimeral Inscribed Ultimatum of Trial of Chaos and complete Legacy of the Vaal main quest.

The above are some specific methods and strategies for finding and fighting against Xyclucian in the current POE 2 Early Access. I hope that with the help of this guide, you can complete this encounter as soon as possible and unlock the more challenging Trial of Chaos to get more loot from it. I wish you a happy game!

Next: Path of Exile 3.28 Update Teaser Announced! But This Isn't Necessarily Good News

Previous: Path Of Exile 2: Dawn Of The Hunt & Patch 0.2.0 Launch Date

Official Update Plan

In June 2025, Path of Exile's lead representative, Jonathan Rogers, clarified the future update plan in an interview, stating that Path of Exile 1 and 2 would both have a four-month update cycle, with the two games alternating in updates. This means that on average, players will see new content for one of the games every two months.

On January 12, 2026, the official forums announced that the Path of Exile 3.28 expansion would be released on schedule in early March, continuing the tradition of a four-month development cycle. This timeline is approximately three months after the release of Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4 in December.

For developers, a fixed update schedule alleviates development pressure. Rogers has admitted that delivering content every two months is quite difficult, but a fixed-date, variable-content model is more conducive to development management.

Update Schedule

Although the official timeline seems balanced, the official update dates are not entirely fixed; they may be released at the beginning of the month or at the end. Based on the principle of alternating updates between the two games and important schedules, this cycle may harbor some risks of imbalance.

Let's look at the update timelines for the two games:

December 12, 2025: Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 The Last of the Druids released normally.
Early March 2026: PoE 3.28 released, approximately three months after PoE 2 Patch 0.4.0.
April 2026: A possible PoE 2 Patch 0.5 update is expected in about a month.

The official statement indicates they will strive to conclude early testing of PoE 2 by 2026. Therefore, they may adjust the update schedule for Path of Exile 1 to maintain a consistent update pace for PoE 2. Even if they cannot release Patch 1.0 by the end of the year, they will still release a major update to attract more players.

This raises a problem: for an early-stage game like Path of Exile 2, content consumption is faster. While version 0.4 adds the Druid class and Vaal Temple mechanics, the overall content volume still cannot compare to the mature PoE 1.

Potential Issues

Many core players worry that this cycle of one month for Path of Exile 1 and three months for Path of Exile 2 will create a double problem.

Because the mature Path of Exile 1 has more endgame content and three years of accumulated League mechanics, giving players ample choices to farm PoE currency, this is enough to support months of deep gameplay. However, players only have about a month to experience each new league before being drawn to the PoE 2 League.

Path of Exile 2 is currently still in early access. According to the game director, the originally planned six-month Early Access has been extended to approximately one year. Player concerns currently focus on whether its existing content is sufficient to support nearly three months of gameplay.

Furthermore, recent League updates have revealed a high player churn rate for PoE 2. Even with the addition of the new Druid class in patch 0.4.0, significant player attrition has occurred.

This is because the new endgame mechanic, Vaal Temple, initially didn't yield good returns. Subsequent adjustments by the developers, coupled with player discoveries of loopholes, allowed the mechanic to generate a large amount of currency. Several subsequent poor adjustments resulted in Path of Exile 2 patch 0.4.0 experiencing inflation, leading to increased unfairness in trading for ordinary players.

This is actually due to the current lack of endgame content in PoE 2, making players more likely to focus on game issues.

Possible Solutions

Faced with a potentially entrenched imbalance in the update schedule, some constructive alternatives have been discussed within the community. These proposals aim to break the potential vicious cycle and seek a more sustainable update model for both players and developers.

Perhaps a multi-stage update could replace a single full Path of Exile 2 League update. This would give the development team extra buffer time to adjust the timeline while maintaining player activity.

Another direction is to adjust the length of each update cycle. However, this would conflict with the crucial year-end revenue window, and considering that holiday season releases can generate three times the revenue of other months, this solution is less likely to be implemented.

Director Rogers stated that he will maintain communication with the community and promised to experience the game from the player's perspective and understand the reasons behind their feedback. This indicates that the official team may flexibly adjust the plan based on player acceptance of the actual update schedule.

With the release of Path of Exile 3.28 and Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0, you can observe whether this cycle will continue. If this cycle is broken, it may not be through drastic adjustments to update dates, but rather because the official team has found a way to populate Path of Exile 2 with enough new content within a three-month cycle.

How to Craft a Boss-Slaying Monk Build for Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0? | DPS & Survivability Focus

Battles with bosses are a constant throughout almost every Path of Exile 2 league, including killing bosses in various acts during leveling and defeating increasingly difficult map bosses in endgame. They are both obstacles and sources of enjoyment.

Therefore, many PoE 2 builds are designed to defeat bosses in the most efficient way possible, and to achieve this, high DPS and survivability are indispensable.

Based on this, this article will introduce how to craft a Monk-based build effective against most bosses during Patch 0.4.0, and its practical performance.

This build overview

This Monk build is based on Ascendancy class Invoker, combining related skills and passives to utilize various control effects to weaken the boss, thereby achieving the effect of killing the boss at the end of the battle.

The advantage of this build lies in its simplicity - most of the time you simply need to keep casting skills and wait for enemies to be killed, and it provides excellent survivability and enemy clearing capabilities.

However, it's important to note that if you plan to use this build in every stage of the game, you'll need to adjust the build's setup based on the actual needs of the current stage, the amount of PoE 2 currency you have, and the rarity of your gear.

Leveling stage

In this stage, your goal is to level up as much as possible while utilizing the league system to earn as much currency as possible to exchange for better gear or enhance the affixes of existing gear.

If you want your Monk build to be even stronger in the endgame, you need to acquire Headhunter Heavy Belt gear as early as possible when completing various acts.

This belt increases your stun threshold by 20-30% and grants you a 20-second attribute bonus from the ability of a rare monster after you kill it. It also provides the following buffs:

+40-60 to maximum Life
+20-40 to strength
+20-40 to dexterity

Since this gear requires defeating a boss to obtain, you can choose other items as substitutes if you find it difficult, but its effect is indeed the best.

Skill selection after entering endgame

To deal sufficient damage to the boss, you need not only to ensure higher DPS but also to break the enemy's armor faster - if the current boss has relevant mechanics.

Based on this, you should first unlock the lineage gem Uul-Netol's Embrac, which helps Herald of Ice become more effective, not only breaking armor but also creating explosions to deal more damage to the boss.

In the endgame phase, killing more bosses requires completing a sufficient number of maps, as you'll always encounter hordes of monsters before the boss appears. Therefore, it's recommended to unlock Whirling Assault as your primary skill.

This is because this skill allows you to accumulate energy orbs faster, and triggering Profane Ritual or Mantra of Destruction continuously builds energy orbs.

These orbs can be used more consistently after adding Flicker Strike and Falling Thunder, resulting in significant damage.

Furthermore, equip Herald of Thunder and Herald of Ash for even stronger AoE damage and faster monster clearing speed. Additionally, equipping Wind Dancer will enhance your defense and survivability.

More skill gems and their corresponding support gem options are as follows:

Whirling Assault:

Practiced Combo
Rage III
Pinpoint Critical
Magnified Area II
Oisin's Oath

Falling Thunder:

Elemental Armament II
Nova Projectiles I
Ricochet II
Pinpoint Critical
Ice Bite II

Flicker Strike:

Blindside
Concentrated Area
Close Combat II
Perpetual Charge
Hit and Run

Charged Staff:

Prolonged Duration II
Innervate
Culling Strike II
Blind II
Embitter

Mantra of Destruction:

Chaos Mastery
Prolonged Duration II
Charge Profusion II
Ailith's Chimes
Delayed Gratification

Cast on Critical:

Profane Ritual
Charge Profusion II
Overabundance I
Boundless Energy II
Energy Retention

Wind Dancer:

Magnified Area II
Close Combat II
Blind II
Maim
Elemental Focus

More gear options

Besides the recommended Headhunter Heavy Belt, other gear choices are also important. For weapons, quarterstaff remains the most suitable for Monk - Sinister Quarterstaff is the best due to its highest base critical strike chance.

Building on this, you need to stack frost damage in combat, increasing the damage output of your Herald of Ice and Armour Explosion while ensuring all melee or attack skills have critical strike chance and higher ratings.

It's worth mentioning that you can also roll affixes for your quarterstaff that convert a percentage of physical attack damage into mana, which synergizes well with Oisin's Oath support gem.

As for armor, you should focus on whether your options have energy shields or high enough evasion rating to unlock Ascendancy ability, Lead me through Grace, for more spirit.

The best other gear slot options are as follows:

Helm - Ancestral Tiara
Body - Armor Sleek Jacket
Gloves - Vaal Wraps
Boots - Quickslip Shoes
Amulet - Gold Amulet
Ring - Unset Ring
Life Flask - Ultimate Life Flask
Mana Flask - Ultimate Mana Flask

In fact, acquiring gear is only the first step. To maximize their effectiveness and make your entire Monk build more powerful, the key is to consume currency to improve their rarity and affixes.

Fortunately, while crafting this boss-focused build, you will also encounter bosses, resulting in decent currency drops and making your build crafting experience smoother over time.

If you're not focused on challenging higher difficulty maps or bosses, you can also use this recommended build to farm currency in easier maps. While it might seem a bit tedious due to damage overflow, it will help you accumulate wealth quickly!

That concludes this introduction. We hope it has been helpful in ensuring you can continue playing Monk classes during patch 0.4.0! Thank you for reading!

Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 Recovery Tech Bug Fixed | Combining Other Mechanisms and Gear Makes Restoring Life Easier

Every time Path of Exile 2 releases a new patch, the lengthy and detailed patch notes can be overwhelming, so you're likely to only focus on the more appealing parts or simply search for summaries.

In fact, even if you consume time reading all the update details, you'll still discover some new changes after entering the game. Perhaps because they were difficult to categorize or added later, they weren't included in the patch notes.

This situation occurred again after the release of The Last of the Druids, specifically with a recovery tech bug fix and its chain reaction, which has a significant impact on your PoE 2 combat experience.

Below, we will detail this change and its specific application and further implications in the game.

What is recovery tech?

In PoE 2, recovery tech primarily refers to the special effect provided by the unique item Sacrosanctum Corvus Mantle, which allows you to convert or apply your character's life regeneration to energy shield.

More specifically, when this gear is equipped, it stores life regeneration, and then applies the total life regeneration to your energy shield. Furthermore, recovery tech requires stacking passive skill tree nodes to fully function.

This significantly increases your recovery capabilities, as life regeneration nodes are easy to obtain, and you can stack them with special nodes to more efficiently maintain your energy shield, improving your defense and survivability during combat.

It's important to note that the game's existing life regeneration speed modifiers do not affect energy shield regeneration.

What was the bug with recovery tech before?

This bug was actually related to the game's block and damage mitigation mechanics. Theoretically, successfully blocking an attack in combat should completely prevent the incoming damage.

However, before the fix in patch 0.4.0, there was a bug where blocked damage was not counted towards any damage mitigation mechanics.

For example, assuming you have unlocked Made to Last passive tree node, you would also need to have a modifier that allows a portion of the blocked damage to affect yourself for the blocked damage to be counted towards damage mitigation.

After the bug fix, when you block enemy attacks using the default blocking mechanism, all blocked damage will be counted towards damage mitigation. This means that every time an attack is blocked, life recovery from other sources will increase.

Impact of the bug fix on Svalinn Crucible Tower Shield

This item is a unique shield in the game that, when equipped, grants you Raise Shield and Cast on Block skills, and increases your armor value by 150-200%, reducing damage taken when blocking attacks by 15-20% - although the block chance depends on luck.

Now that the recovery tech bug has been fixed, this gear has been enhanced, allowing for even greater damage reduction from blocked attacks. This means you have a chance to simultaneously gain lucky blocks, thus increasing your effective block chance.

On average, you will take less damage throughout the fight and can utilize the recovery tech to gain more recovery from blocked damage. You can also choose to buy PoE 2 currency to roll lucky modifiers on this gear, bringing the final effective block rate to 75%.

This is because this modifier performs two block chance checks, and if you invest more resources in the passive skill tree, you can increase the block rate even further, as there are many maximum block chance bonus nodes in the passive skill tree.

More damage reduction methods

In addition to unlocking Made to Last node, you can also obtain the ancient Soul Core Guatelitzi's Thesis, added in patch 0.4.0. If you socket this item into your chest armor, it converts 10% of physical damage to life.

When stacked with Made to Last, the final conversion rate can be increased to 15%, resulting in an amazing amount of life recovery, which can be further enhanced through corruption.

Alternatively, you can combine the recovery tech with another chest armor, Wandering Reliquary, which provides an additional 50% conversion of physical damage to life.

However, it's important to note that you usually won't have enough life to withstand fatal blows that penetrate your block, and if you use Wandering Reliquary, you cannot simultaneously use Sacrosanctum Corvus Mantle.

Therefore, the final choice of which gear to use to activate the recovery tech and stack other bonuses depends mainly on your specific situation and needs. The bug has been fixed, so you can enjoy the combat without worry.

It's worth noting that the new patch also introduced the new keystone passive mechanism, Scarred Faith. If you choose to stack energy shields, you can also benefit from this. Therefore, the fix for the recovery tech bug is likely based on the addition of this mechanism.

Although this passive prevents you from recharging or recovering energy shields, as compensation, you will convert 5% of the physical damage taken into energy shields, based on the energy value of the monster attacking you.

Therefore, you can actually combine Scarred Faith with Made to Last node and Sacrosanctum Corvus Mantle to enhance your life recovery against weaker monsters.

While the new gameplay brings excitement and more build crafting possibilities, seemingly insignificant changes like the recovery tech bug fix, which affect the overall combat experience, have a more profound significance for the stable operation of Path of Exile 2.

Although the controversy surrounding Temple of Atziri league mechanism has not yet subsided, overall, Path of Exile 2 is always committed to providing you with a better gaming experience, so let's be a little more understanding.

Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 Meta Defensive Explained | Talent Tree And Key Defensive Builds

Path of Exile 2 Patch 0.4.0 has been out for almost a month, and the gameplay of various builds has become relatively stable. The addition of Druid has expanded the talent tree and weapon types, bringing many changes to the league.

Here, we don't focus on damage changes in mainstream builds, but rather on their various defensive configurations, and the impact of combining the new Druid class and its shapeshifting abilities.

Talent Tree

Patch 0.4 made significant adjustments to the left side of the talent tree, introducing many new options. At the same time, the new Druid class and brand-new shapeshifting abilities also appeared. Blocks remain an important defensive measure on this side of the talent tree.

However, the use of shields has noticeably decreased in builds using this talent tree, including warrior melee builds using two-handed hammers with shields, and spellcaster or summoner builds using staves and shields. This may be due to the new weapon Talisman, which cannot be used simultaneously with a shield.

However, not all of these builds require a heavy investment in passive block chance on the talent tree, as some primarily utilize active Block. This is especially useful for summoner builds, as the character can benefit from active defense while summons deal damage.

Shield Wall Builds

The shield remains popular, partly because Shield Wall builds were the most popular progression choice for Warrior players in patch 0.4.0, with nearly half of Warrior players choosing Shield Wall after Ascendancies.

This change is even more pronounced when comparing data from the 0.3 and 0.4 patch Hardcore SSF League. Among level 90+ characters, the percentage using Shield Wall builds has surged from only 4% in 0.3 to 17% in 0.4.

This makes Titan the second most popular Ascension Class in Hardcore, second only to the newly added Discrete of Varashta. Without this new Ascension, Shield Wall Titan might very well have dominated Hardcore League.

Disciple of Varashta Builds

Disciple of Varashta is a powerful and interesting Ascendancy class, dominating HCSSF league, ranking second in Hardcore Trade league, and performing quite well in Softcore league, as well. This is partly due to its excellent defensive capabilities.

A key talent of Disciple of Varashta, The Fourth Teaching, increases Energy Shield recharge rate by 40% when your Energy Shield is at or below 35% of its maximum value. Therefore, the higher your Energy Shield cap, the more you benefit from this talent.

In Hardcore league, all Disciple of Varashta builds above level 90 utilize this talent, and the situation is similar in Softcore league, with only a very small number of players not using it.

Using this talent, combined with skills such as Nascent Hope Thawing Charm or Convalescence, makes Energy Shield regeneration much more reliable. When you take significant damage enough to drastically reduce your health, you can force a charge, enjoying the accelerated regeneration and ensuring you return to a safe state.

Rasha's Apostle also has another related talent, Sacred Rituals, which also significantly boosts defense. It adds an extra 60% of your current energy shield to your armor, granting additional physical resistance.

These two significant talents, combined with Chaos Inoculation passive, make Disciple of Varashta builds incredibly tanky in patch 0.4.0.

Energy Shield Builds

Disciple of Varashta was also one of the major factors driving the surge in Chaos Inoculation builds in patch 0.4. Another factor is that the energy shield system itself remains very strong compared to simply stacking maximum health.

Despite nerfs to many aspects in patch 0.4.0, energy shields remained largely unscathed in version 0.4. Disciple of Varashta has a perfect talent pool to utilize this system, especially in hardcore environments.

Talisman Builds

Talismans and shields occupy the same weapon slot, so they cannot be used simultaneously. Shields are the defensive guarantee for Warrior builds, so how does Druid build survive in Patch 0.4?

Many Druid builds employ a hybrid defense of life and energy shields, due to the significant number of energy shield and armor hybrid talent circles in the new talent tree area.

Furthermore, many Talisman builds utilize the new Lord of the Wilds passive, allowing them to equip a Talisman while simultaneously using a non-unique Sceptre.

This grants them a Purity resistance aura, which not only alleviates the pressure of equipping resistance affixes but also allows these builds to use a large number of Reservation Support Gems for free.

Pathfinder Builds

Pathfinder underwent one of the biggest changes in Patch 0.4, making it extremely popular. Thanks to its Ascendancy passive Path Seeker, it can reach areas further down the talent tree than any other class.

However, one of the most useful aspects of Pathfinder Ascendancy is its focus on mobility. It prevents you from being slowed, reduces movement penalties for skill usage, and, in version 0.4, adds protection against severe stuns while sprinting.

This effect is also extremely powerful defensively. Maps with Chilled Ground or Temporal Chains affixes are very dangerous, and the ability to freely navigate these maps is a huge advantage of Pathfinder.

Self-Chill Builds

One of the strongest defenses in Path of Exile 2 is speed. It allows attacks or spells to be so fast that nothing can hit or catch you. This is precisely what Self-Chill builds aim for.

Combining Asphyxia's Wrath Broadhead Quiver with Sierran Inheritance Marabout Garb grants you significant damage reduction. Therefore, not only will you be incredibly fast, making you difficult for enemies to hit, but even if you are hit, the damage will be minimal.

If you feel that your build frequently crashes unexpectedly, you may be overlooking the best defenses available, so methods above may offer some insights.