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Path of Exile 3.28 Return of the Ancestors event blends Trial of the Ancestors (TotA) mechanic with Legacy of Phrecia League.

Since Legacy of Phrecia League was held only recently, from January to February 2026, most players are still familiar with it. Trial of the Ancestors, however, debuted 2 years ago and features a rather intricate system, so many players have only a vague recollection of how it works.

In essence, TotA resembles an auto-battler, but your character is no passive observer - you personally step onto the field and fight alongside your troops. Your ultimate objective is to win match after match and ultimately claim victory in the entire tournament. Although the surface concept seems simple, there is considerable tactical depth beneath it.

Trial of the Ancestors Mechanic Rewards

Before each battle, you choose your opponent. Each opponent offers different amounts of Favor and various currency rewards.

Favor serves as a temporary currency that remains valid only throughout the current tournament. Once the tournament ends, all accumulated Favor resets to zero. You use Favor to recruit new troops, upgrade them, and acquire items, with these options spread across different Ancestors.

The total Favor you gather directly influences your chances of winning the tournament - to secure the final victory, you will need a substantial stockpile.

You need to weigh Favors against regular currency rewards. However, each Ancestor's reward is relatively small; you can buy PoE currency in IGGM. Choosing opponents based on the amount of Favors you accumulate will help you win more matches.

Acquiring and Managing Favor

When selecting Favor rewards, do not simply look at the numbers. Different troops require different amounts of Favor to unlock, and certain troops are only obtainable from specific NPCs. Therefore, you need to ensure that Favor you earn comes from Ancestors with whom you have already built a relationship, so that you can gradually unlock more powerful units.

Favor Trading Mechanism

There is one way to convert Favor between different NPCs: you acquire an item from one NPC and then trade it to another. Be aware, however, that you will only recoup half Favor you used to obtain that item. This 50% loss rate means you must plan your Favor allocation carefully.

Win/Loss Reward Rules

If you win a match, you receive Favor and rewards from the chosen row. Regardless of the outcome - win or lose - you always gain 250 Favor from Navali, which is enough to trade for one troop from her.

Troops traded directly from Ancestors themselves possess special abilities, whereas Navali's troops have no unique skills and serve merely as cannon fodder.

Combat Rules

Each battle consists of two teams, with up to sixteen members per side plus a leader. On the tactical deployment screen, you can precisely position your forces.

Each side's field is divided into four categories:

• Front line: Attack category
• Middle line: Escort category
• Back line: Defenders category
• Flanks: two flank positions on each side of the formation

Totem Mechanics

When you assign a unit to one of these positions, you are actually placing a totem. That totem serves as both the unit's starting point and its respawn location after defeat. The leader of each squad cannot have their starting point manually set - that is automatically assigned.

Victory Conditions

The core objective in every battle is to reach the enemy's side and destroy their totems. You do not destroy totems by dealing damage; instead, you channel them. Click on an enemy totem and hold the button - its life bar will deplete quickly. When it reaches zero, the totem collapses, and any enemy unit bound to that totem is eliminated as well.

If you are hit by any enemy attack or spell while channeling a totem, you will be stunned for five seconds. Conventional anti-stun mechanics cannot shorten this duration. Damage over time does not trigger the interruption.

This five-second stun is extremely dangerous because you are completely defenseless during that time and can easily be focused down by the enemy team.

Note that dying in TotA does not count as a true death for your character - so the usual death penalty does not apply.

If an enemy channels your totem, you may find yourself suppressed for a long stretch, and by the time you finally respawn, your own totem positions might already be thoroughly destroyed. This happens because your character and the enemy leader are each the strongest unit on their respective teams.

When you attack a channeling enemy, or when an enemy attacks you while you are channeling, that also triggers a stun. However, NPCs suffer a much shorter stun duration than players, and only a hit - not damage over time - can interrupt a channeling attempt.

Elimination

A player or NPC is eliminated after losing two matches. Your first loss allows you to continue, but a second loss knocks you out. On the reward screen, a special symbol appears next to the name of any NPC who has already lost once.

It is wise to prioritise opponents without that elimination marker and leave the near-eliminated ones for others to handle. You can also learn which Ancestors pose the greatest challenge to your build and actively avoid them. With some luck, other NPCs may eliminate them for you.

How to Use Favor?

Favor can be used on troops, items for troops, and field supplies. In the early stages, you should invest all your Favor into recruiting troops and acquire nothing else. Only after you have reached the later stages of the tournament and secured quality troops in every position should you start obtaining items.

Items fit into slots next to your troops; when a troop takes the field, it gains not only its own inherent bonuses but also the effects granted by its equipped item.

Field supplies occupy totem slots and prevent you from adding extra troops. They also expire after use, so they are not recommended. Concentrate your Favor on a few Ancestors rather than spreading it thinly across many. The more Favor you invest in a single Ancestor, the more powerful the troops you can unlock from them.

How to Win in Trial of the Ancestors?

The key to these battles is not how much damage you deal or how much you can absorb - it is crowd control.

When a match begins, all enemy fighters rush toward your totem pillars and start channeling to destroy them. Since enemy units respawn after a short cooldown, killing them is not a lasting solution. The community has developed a strategy centered on Void Sphere.

The idea is to cast Void Sphere in the center of the arena, creating a gravity well that pulls all enemy fighters inward and traps them, rendering them unable to act. During that time, you and your troops can safely destroy the enemy's totem pillars one by one.

Creating a crowd-control build in PoE Return of the Ancestors requires investing in new skills and gear. Join IGGM PoE Facebook Group and participate in the currency giveaway; if you're lucky enough to win, you'll receive free currency to trade for whatever you need.

DPS is not decisive in Trial of the Ancestors. No matter how high your rank, you do not need to stack elemental resistances or life; instead, focus all your efforts on strengthening your crowd-control capabilities.

Trial of the Ancestors is the central mechanic of PoE Return of the Ancestors event, and some highly valuable tattoos and omens are obtainable exclusively through this system. If you master the matches and win consistently, the rewards will certainly not disappoint.

Path of Exile 3.29 remains roughly a month away, yet the official team has already hinted at a special event to bridge the gap before the next League. That event has now been revealed as Return of the Ancestors.

Even if you are solely focused on Path of Exile 2 and have no intention of playing the original game, this news still warrants your close attention. Not only does it introduce an entirely new gameplay mechanic, but it also carries far-reaching implications for the future direction of the entire series, along with substantial in-game rewards.

Return of the Ancestors Date

Return of the Ancestors event has not started yet, and it will run for a full three weeks. Players can join on both console and PC platforms, though you will need to create a fresh character to participate. The approximate schedule is as follows:

• Start: June 25, 2026, 3:00 PM PDT / 5:00 PM CDT
• End: July 16, 2026, 3:00 PM PDT / 5:00 PM CDT

After Return of the Ancestors concludes, your character, gear, and PoE currency will not vanish; instead, they will be transferred into Mirage League. However, certain exclusive rewards from Trial of the Ancestors League will not carry over.

What Is Return of the Ancestors?

This activity first debuted back in PoE 3.22 Trial of the Ancestors League in 2023. You take the field as your own side's unit in a head-to-head battle. Alongside you, you command a number of allied units, and you must face an opposing team.

Those units spawn from structures you have arranged beforehand, and the gameplay bears some resemblance to Teamfight Tactics or Dota Auto Chess. Before each match, you can position your units and assign tactical roles. For instance, you might set Center units to charge directly into the fray and sow chaos, while Flank units attempt to break through quickly and destroy enemy buildings to halt their unit production. Defense units, on the other hand, are tasked with protecting your own structures.

In addition, two of the largest units on the board are you, the player, and the enemy chieftain. To be honest, some enemy chieftains are quite overpowered, and they can even eliminate you in a single blow.

One uniquely distinctive design of the trial is that you never truly die within this mechanic. Even if you are defeated during the trial, you will resurrect inside the system. This means that, theoretically, a dedicated player could remain within the trial indefinitely by continuously acquiring entry tokens from other players, and they could grind all the way to maximum level, even reaching level 100 in Hardcore mode, because there is no permanent death here. Lore-wise, you are not present in your physical body but rather as a spectral projection, so losing a fight does not cost you your character.

Tournament

The overall framework of Trial revolves around a tournament. In the first round, you choose one opponent from several available options. You can inspect what types of units they possess and what rewards you will obtain for defeating them.

This actually introduces a great deal of strategic depth. You have to weigh the rewards and capabilities offered by each opponent, and you can even deliberately allow certain powerful foes to advance to later rounds so that you can claim their exclusive rare rewards in the later stages. It will take several attempts to fully grasp the nuances.

Rating System

As a player, you have your own Rating. This is not a ranking relative to other players; rather, it is a performance score within the tournament itself. The higher your Rating, the better the rewards you receive, but simultaneously the difficulty of the trial escalates significantly.

At high ratings, the numerical scaling becomes extreme, and many top-tier players opt to abandon direct combat in favor of focusing on destroying enemy structures as quickly as possible. Destroying a building requires a channeling action, and you must avoid being interrupted during that process.

If you hope to get a high rating, you'll need at least a good build, which also requires lots of PoE currency. You can join IGGM PoE Facebook Group, where there are frequent currency giveaways; you might be one of the lucky ones.

Tattoos System

Return of the Ancestors introduces a major system that has a profound impact on endgame character optimization: Tattoos. While casual players may rarely engage with them, hardcore min-maxers absolutely adore these modifications.

Tattoos allow you to alter the small passive nodes on Passive Skill Tree that typically provide only basic attributes. Red tattoos can convert Strength nodes into Fire Resistance or Life Regeneration, while blue tattoos can transform Intelligence nodes into Lightning Resistance or Energy Shield Recovery Rate, among other options.

The variety of tattoos is extensive, and some are extremely rare and powerful. Certain tattoos, for instance, can grant you an additional projectile, which is an incredibly potent effect.

In Return of the Ancestors event of Mirage League, many brand-new tattoos will also be introduced that replaces an original Ascendancy Notable (not Phrecian Ascendancies Notable). Additionally, during the event, tattoos will not be obtainable through Kingsmarch shipping system.

Phrecian Ascendancy Classes

During the event, the original 19 Ascendancy classes in Path of Exile 1 will each have an Alternate Ascendancy version. Among them, Reliquarian Ascendancy does not have a corresponding Phrecian Ascendancy, so it will be temporarily disabled in Return of the Ancestors.

Scavenger Ascendancy has received minor adjustments in relation to the tattoo system: its Tabula Rasa Notable node allows you to apply one additional tattoo, though the node itself does not provide any inherent bonus.

Return of the Ancestors Rewards

During the event, players will automatically receive a Return of the Ancients Mystery Box upon completing the final boss of Act 10, Kitava, meaning they have finished the entire campaign. This reward is guaranteed, but each account can claim it only once during this event. Completing the campaign with multiple characters will not award additional Mystery Boxes.

PoE Mirage Return of the Ancestors also incorporates elements from Legacy of Phrecia activity, so the experience will be quite distinctive. Moreover, the official team has a tendency to port well-received mechanics from PoE 1 over to PoE 2, so we might well see a similar system appear in Patch 1.0 for the sequel.