If you've been looking for a reason to jump back into Wraeclast before Patch 3.29 drops, Grinding Gear Games just gave us a pretty massive one. The Return of the Ancestors event is officially here, and it's bringing back one of the most unique league mechanics in PoE history—the Trial of the Ancestors (TotA) tournament—but with a massive twist: Phrecian Ascendancies.

Whether you missed out on the original auto-battler tournament or you're a seasoned chieftain looking to stack some tattoos again, here is everything you need to know to get started.

Event Dates & Setup

First things first: when can you play, and what are the rules?

Start Date: June 25, 2026, at 3:00 PM PDT.

End Date: July 16, 2026, at 3:00 PM PDT.

Platforms: PC and Consoles.

Game Modes: Standard, Hardcore, Solo Self-Found (SSF), Hardcore SSF, and Ruthless.

You'll need to create a fresh character to participate, so get your league-starter builds ready. The best news? This event is NOT voided. Any characters you level up, along with all the currency, items, and loot you hoard during these three weeks, will safely transfer over to the standard parent leagues when the event wraps up.

Core Mechanics & Gameplay

If you didn't play the original TotA league, the gameplay loop is entirely different from standard mapping. It plays out like a tactical, mythological auto-battler.

Step 1: Collect Silver Coins

As you smash your way through monsters in Wraeclast, you'll find Silver Coins dropping as standard loot. Turning these in grants you passage to the Karui Afterlife, where the real fun begins.

Step 2: Enter the Tournament

Once inside, you'll field a team of specialized Karui warriors. The goal is simple but chaotic: protect your own team's totems while strategically rushing down and destroying the enemy chieftains' totems.

Step 3: Manage Your Favor

As you win matches, you'll earn Favor with individual ancestor NPCs. This is a temporary, tournament-specific currency used to buy better troops, tactical field gear, and equipment upgrades to make your army unstoppable.

Step 4: Phrecian Ascendancies

On top of the tournament loop, the event features Phrecian Ascendancies. This allows you to experiment with alternative character power paths alongside your standard progression, opening up some wild build possibilities.

Event Rewards & Tattoos

Why subject yourself to the trial? The rewards are incredibly lucrative, especially if you love min-maxing your passive tree.

Double Match Rewards

Every time you win a match in the tournament, you get two rewards simultaneously: a stack of NPC Favor to upgrade your army, and "real" world drops like raw currency, maps, or unique items.

Classic Tattoos Are Back

You can earn powerful returning statutory buffs to replace your standard attribute nodes on the passive tree. Highly sought-after classics are back in the loot pool, including:

Honoured Tattoo of the Makanga

Loyalty Tattoo of Kaom

Journey Tattoo of Makanui

New "Forbidden" Tattoos

This is the real wild card of the event. Grinding Gear Games is introducing incredibly rare Ascendancy Tattoos, such as the Forbidden Tattoo of the Ranger and Forbidden Tattoo of the Witch. These allow any character class to allocate notable passives from other standard Ascendancy trees. Want a Witch passive on a Marauder? This is your chance.

Note: Because these Forbidden Tattoos are incredibly powerful, they are strictly exclusive to the event league. Once the event ends and your character migrates to standard, these specific tattoos will stop functioning. Enjoy the absolute broken power while it lasts!

Are you planning to run a dedicated crowd-control build to cheese the totems, or are you going full DPS to blast through the chieftains yourself? Let me know what build you're starting with!

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