On this page
- Direct answers
- Before you enter
- Honour at a glance
- Relic loadout priorities
- How Relic slots unlock
- Room objective types
- Choosing your route
- Sacred Water and the Merchant
- Affliction risk by build type
- Boss-entry readiness check
- Push deeper or cash out?
- Co-op and platform notes
- What players report
- Video walkthrough
- Common problems
- Sources and verification
- Changelog
QUICK ANSWER
Direct answers
What is Zarokh, the Temporal?
Zarokh, the Temporal is the final boss of the Temple of Chaos, the repeatable endgame version of the Trial of Chaos. You reach him only after clearing the randomised Chaos rooms on a chosen floor.
Defeating him on floor 3 grants 2 Ascendancy points; progressing to floor 4 and killing him again grants the next 2 points, mirroring the Sekhemas ladder.
How is the Temple of Chaos different from the campaign trial?
The Act 3 Trial of Chaos is a one-time quest gate. The Temple of Chaos is the endgame instance you enter with a Barya, where floors and rooms scale and rewards accumulate across attempts.
What is Honour and why does it matter?
Honour is a separate health pool used only inside the Chaos trial. If Honour reaches zero, the run fails immediately regardless of your life total, so protecting it is the core skill of the encounter.
Why did I kill the boss but get no Ascendancy points?
After Zarokh dies you must click the Ascendancy altar that appears. Leaving the instance without clicking it forfeits the points for that clear.
PREPARATION
Before you enter
The Temple of Chaos expects a character that already clears T15+ maps. Raw campaign gear will not survive floor 3 Honour pressure.
Make sure your build has consistent damage mitigation and some form of recovery. Honour does not regenerate the same way life does, so sustain comes from Honour Resistance, Maximum Honour and Sacred Water pickups rather than life regeneration.
Bring a Barya that matches the floor you intend to attempt. The first quest Barya is consumed by the tutorial; later runs use standard or higher-tier Baryas that you obtain from the campaign or trade.
- Confirm your resistances and defensive layers are mapped-ready
- Decide your target floor (3 for the first 2 points, 4 for the next 2)
- Plan whether you will cash out rewards or push deeper before entering
PROGRESS OVERVIEW
Honour at a glance
CARD GRID
Relic loadout priorities
Relics are slotted at the Altar between rooms. Prioritise attributes that keep Honour healthy before damage or greed attributes.
Honour Resistance relics
The highest-priority slot. Every point reduces Honour damage taken and directly lowers the chance a single Affliction brick ends your run.
Take these before any offensive relic unless your damage is genuinely too low to clear rooms.
Maximum Honour relics
Adds a buffer on top of resistance. Best when you already have decent resistance but still occasionally get one-shot by layered Afflictions.
Sacred Water relics
Increase the amount of Honour restored by Sacred Water. Strong when your route includes many Merchant or water nodes.
Offence / utility relics
Damage, movement or special-effect relics are a luxury. Only slot them once defence and sustain are comfortably covered for your target floor.
OVERVIEW
How Relic slots unlock
The Relic Altar starts with a limited number of sockets. Clearing rooms and reaching certain nodes expands the Altar, letting you carry more relics deeper into the floor.
Each additional socket is a meaningful power spike because it lets you stack a second defensive relic or add sustain without dropping your core resistance relic.
Plan your altar around the floor you intend to finish on. If you only want floor 3 points, a smaller loadout is fine; pushing to floor 4 rewards a fuller, more defensive board.
- Unlock sockets steadily rather than gambling on a single huge relic
- Keep at least one resistance relic slotted at all times
- Re-evaluate your board after every Merchant visit
REFERENCE TABLE
Room objective types
What each Chaos room actually asks you to do and the Honour risk it carries.
| Room type | Real objective | Must clear? | Honour risk | Recommended approach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Survival | Stay alive for the timer | No | Medium | Kite and outlast; avoid over-committing |
| Defeat All | Kill every monster | Yes | High | Only if your damage is safe; otherwise skip |
| Escort | Protect the NPC to the exit | Partial | Medium | Body-block threats; do not rush ahead |
| Soul Core | Capture the core | No | Medium | Grab the core, ignore trash if pressed |
| Boss antechamber | Reach and survive the mini-boss | Yes | High | Save Sacred Water for after |
OVERVIEW
Choosing your route
The map between rooms shows known nodes, Merchant nodes, reward nodes and unknown nodes. Known safe nodes are almost always better than gambling on an unknown when your Honour is already low.
Favour routes that chain a Merchant or Sacred Water node before any high-risk combat room. Entering a Defeat All room at low Honour is how most runs end.
If your goal is simply the Ascendancy points, the shortest path to the boss with the fewest dangerous rooms is often the correct one; the extra reward rooms are optional.
- Take Merchant / water before combat
- Avoid unknown nodes when Honour is low
- Shortest safe path beats greedy long routes for points
OVERVIEW
Sacred Water and the Merchant
Sacred Water is the primary in-run Honour recovery. Picking it up during rooms and buying more at the Merchant keeps your effective health pool high for the boss.
The Merchant also sells relics and sometimes rerolls. Spend cautiously: a defensive relic that completes your resistance breakpoint is usually worth more than a small offence upgrade.
Do not skip the Merchant when your Honour is mid-to-low. The cost of a slightly longer route is far lower than the cost of a bricked run.
REFERENCE TABLE
Affliction risk by build type
Relative danger of common Afflictions. Use qualitative tiers, not exact percentages.
| Affliction | Effect | Melee | Ranged | Minion | Can brick build? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reduced Honour Recovery | Less healing from water | High | High | Medium | Yes if sustain-dependent |
| No Leech | Removes life leech | High | Low | Low | Yes for leech builds |
| Monster Speed | Faster enemies | Medium | Medium | Low | Rarely |
| Extra Projectiles | More ranged pressure | Medium | High | Low | Sometimes |
| Chaos Reflect | Reflects chaos | Low | Medium | Low | Rarely |
CHECKLIST
Boss-entry readiness check
Honour buffer
Enter with enough Honour that a single layered hit will not end the run. Top up at the last Merchant if needed.
Resistance relic slotted
Confirm your primary Honour Resistance relic is still equipped after any rerolls.
Sacred Water stocked
Buy or pick up water right before the boss room so your Honour is near maximum.
Damage check
Make sure your damage can actually clear Zarokh's phases; a stalled fight draws out Honour pressure.
Altar plan
Remember you must click the Ascendancy altar after the kill, or the points are lost.
RISK / REWARD
Push deeper or cash out?
Decide before the boss, not in the moment.
| 选择 | 危险等级 | 风险 | 收益 | 何时选 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash out at floor 3 | green | Low; you keep the 2 points and rewards | Guaranteed first pair of Ascendancy points | First clear or low confidence in your board |
| Push to floor 4 for the next 2 points | yellow | Higher room pressure and a second boss | Full 4 points from this trial | Your defence and sustain are comfortably covered |
| Push past floor 4 for extra rewards | red | Severe Honour attrition; easy to brick | Bonus currency and relics only | Only with a stacked, verified defensive loadout |
| Reset and farm Relics first | green | No points this run | Stronger board for a cleaner future clear | Your current relics cannot survive the target floor |
REFERENCE TABS
Co-op and platform notes
Honour and revival behave differently depending on group size and platform.
Standard solo or group play. Honour is shared per player; a downed ally costs their Honour contribution for the rest of the room.
- Full control over relic management and routing
- Group play splits pressure but shares Honour risk
CARD GRID
What players report
Common community experiences. Treat as strategy, not guaranteed mechanics.
Resistance breakpoint feels like a wall
Many players report the run becomes stable only after a certain Honour Resistance threshold; below it, Afflictions feel random.
Water timing matters more than DPS
Several clears credited reaching the boss at near-full Honour over having higher damage.
Don't skip the altar
A frequent mistake is leaving the instance after the kill without clicking the Ascendancy altar, forfeiting the points.
SCREENSHOTS & VIDEO
Video walkthrough
TheBugWarrior
Zarokh, the Temporal - Temple of Chaos final boss
Full Temple of Chaos run showing Relic management, room routing and the Zarokh fight.
Open source ↗COMMON MISTAKES
Common problems
If Honour keeps hitting zero in early rooms, your resistance relic is too weak or your route is too greedy. Drop an offence relic for defence and take safer known nodes.
If you cleared the boss but got no points, you left without clicking the Ascendancy altar. Re-enter only if the trial allows; otherwise the points are granted on a future successful clear.
If co-op feels harder, remember Honour is shared per player; a downed ally removes their contribution and raises everyone's effective risk.
- Low Honour death = stack resistance, not damage
- No points = missed altar click
- Co-op = shared Honour risk
SOURCES & CHANGELOG
Sources and verification
CHANGELOG
Changelog
- Initial published guide covering Honour, Relics, room routing and Zarokh boss entry for 0.5.4.
Related content
BossesZarokh, the Temporal Boss Guide: Trial Access, Honour and Time MechanicsComplete Trial of the Sekhemas floor 4 boss guide covering Barya entry, Honour management, the Clock hourglass phase, Relic priority, and the time-stop phase.lightningphysicalsekhemas
Patch NotesPath of Exile 2 0.5.4 — Runes of Aldur, Bosses, Items and Build ImpactA player-impact breakdown of 0.5.4: Expedition Atlas, Liquid Verisium, Orb of Sacrifice, level-scaling Unique skills, Pinnacle Boss changes, and the 0.5.4b/0.5.4e follow-ups.atlasbossesbuildsInformation is compiled from public web sources and in-game observations; some visuals are original editorial diagrams. External information and images remain the property of their authors or platforms; contact us for removal requests.