Path Of Exile 2: Honor System Explained

During the middle of Act 2 in Path of Exile 2, you’ll come across a side quest to complete the Trial of Sekhemas. While optional, completion of the trial grants you access to your class’ Ascendancy, which totally revamps and customizes your build. Naturally, all players should try to complete the Trial of Sekhmas to unlock the full potential of their character.

It sounds simple, but the Trial of Sekhemas is an extremely difficult endeavor that many players won’t pass their first time around. Part of what makes the trial so challenging is the Honor system, which is exclusive to the trial and acts as a secondary HP bar.

Below, you can see exactly how Honor works in Path of Exile 2 and what to do about it ruining your runs in the Trial of Sekhemas.

How Honor works in Path of Exile 2

When you first begin the Trial of Sekhemas, you’ll see a new HP bar has been put at the bottom of your screen. This is the Honor bar and it tells you exactly how much Honor you currently have, your max Honor, and what keys you have for the trial.

You’ll start the Trial of Sekhemas with max Honor. Your character’s max Honor is determined by the total of your Life and Energy Shield stats. So, for example, if you have 250 Life and Energy Shield each, you’ll have a max of 500 Honor. Whenever you take damage from an enemy, your Honor will be reduced little by little. The Honor bar works parallel to your normal HP bar, so just because you lose Honor doesn’t mean you also don’t lose HP.

If you hit zero Honor, your run in the Trial of Sekhemas ends, point blank. The Trial of Sekhemas is a one-life dungeon, so the two ways you can end your run is by dying normally by running out of HP or losing all of your Honor. A majority of the time, losing all of your Honor is how the trial will end as it’s extremely difficult to get any Honor back once you’ve lost it.

Honor doesn’t regenerate often throughout the Trial of Sekhemas, so taking damage is severely detrimental every time it happens. This is decent news for ranged classes and disastrous for melee characters. Ranged characters can stay at a distance to deal damage while melee characters have to ensure they’re dodging perfectly to avoid getting hit too often.

The amount of Honor damage you take is dependent on what kind of damage the enemy is throwing at you and how much resistance you have to it. For example, if you have a low chaos resistance and the enemy throws poison at you, you’ll take more Honor damage. On the flip side, if you have a high resistance to the elements and you’re hit by lightning or fire, you won’t lose as much Honor. The exact calculations for how much Honor damage you take per hit are extremely complicated, so we won’t go too deep into the weeds on that.

It’s also important to note that you take less Honor damage the closer you are to an enemy. So you want to try and stay close to enemies, even if you are a ranged character. Of course, you don’t want to stay too close so that you’re getting hit more often, as that would negate the benefits of less close range damage.

Can you restore Honor in Path of Exile 2?

Fortunately, there are some ways to restore Honor, either by a percentage or in its entirety.

The first way you can restore Honor is by using specific Djinn Boons. These are bonuses that can be applied to your character specifically during the Trial of Sekhemas. You can apply boons to your character by visiting Balbala in between trial rooms, who sells boons in exchange for Sacred Water.

Boons are classified as Minor or Major, depending on their effects. Minor Boons are sold for less Sacred Water but have weaker effects compared to Major Boons. One of the best Major Boons to purchase is Earned Honor, which costs 600 Sacred Water and restores a percentage of Honor for every trial room you complete.

In addition to applying boons, Honor can also be restored at fountains after a room’s completion. If you approach the fountain and interact with it, you’ll restore a percentage of Honor. However, a fountain isn’t guaranteed to spawn after every room and doesn’t restore a ton of Honor, so you don’t want to rely on it too much.

The final way to gain back some Honor is by leveling up during the Trial of Sekhemas. If you level up your character, your Life and Energy Shield stats are increased. Since your max Honor is the sum of those two stats, you gain extra Honor depending on how much the stats went up as a result of your new level.

How to reduce Honor damage in Path of Exile 2

The final question you might have about Honor is if you can increase your resistance to it so you don’t lose as much if you get hit.

Luckily, there are Relics you can equip that boost Honor resistance. Relics can be added to your character before you enter a Trial of Sekhemas room and some of them have terrific Honor effects. Relics can boost your Honor resistance as well as raise your max Honor.

When you first start the Trial of Sekhemas, you’ll only have one Relic to equip. However, as you progress through more rooms, more Relics can be added. Balbala also sells Relics you can purchase, which offer Honor boosts and bonuses.

Ultimately, though, you’ll be battling with your Honor bar for the entirety of the Trial of Sekhemas. No matter how many Relics you have or what your max Honor is, if you take a string of hits in a trial room, you’re likely going to have to start over from scratch eventually.