Path of Exile 2: How to Ascend and get your Ascendancy class

In Path of Exile 2, it's incredibly important to get your Ascendancy Class. These major character upgrades open up a whole new selection of powerful passives that will take your character to a whole other level. As such, how to ascend in Path of Exile 2 is incredibly valuable knowledge for all players.

This short guide will take you through just that, taking you through how exactly to ascend in Path of Exile 2 as well as how to progress through your ascendancy tree.

How to ascend in Path of Exile 2

You can first ascend in Path of Exile 2 during Act 2. This kicks off once you enter the Traitor's Passage zone. In this big cave, you'll go up some stairs to the 2nd floor (there's a big statue in the middle of these stairs). Once up there, you can go in two directions. In one direction is the way forward to the top of the gates, in the other is a sealed door. You want to go to the sealed door.

Behind this seal door, which you can open by just clicking in - no shenanigans required - there's an optional boss. Kill this boss, and they'll drop a coin alongside other miscellaneous loot. This coin kicks off a quest back on the caravan.

Once on the caravan, speak to the NPCs marked and you'll be able to travel to a location called the Trail of the Sehkemas. Here, you can deposit your coin for an introductory attempt at the trail. The trail is a rogue-like esque challenge in which you traverse various rooms before taking on a boss. If you're struggling with this, you can always come back later when you have better gear. The great thing about the quest coin you got is it doesn't vanish when you die in the trail like normal coins, so you can repeat it as many times as you need.

Once you beat the boss you'll enter the reward room, where you can spend keys you've picked up along the way on loot chests. However, in this room is also an Alter of Ascendancy. Click on this altar before you leave, and you'll be able to unlock your ascendancy class - as well as a few ascendancy passive points to pump into it.

It's worth noting there's an entirely separate trail in Act 3 - the Trail of Chaos - which you unlock by killing an optional boss in the Chimeral Wetlands. Completing this trail for the first time works a lot like the Trail of the Sehkemas, and will allow you to ascend there if you've somehow done that first.

How to level up your ascendancy class in Path of Exile 2

Okay so you've unlocked your ascendancy class, but how do you get more passive points for it? Well, the easiest way to get more points is to complete both trials - the one in Act 2 and Act 3 - on the base difficulty.

Ah - the base difficulty? Yes, there are additional difficulty levels for the trails which you unlock through playing the game. Beating either the Trail of the Sehkemas or the Trail of Chaos on higher difficulty allows you to earn more Ascendancy points.

There is a hard cap of eight ascendancy points that you can earn on one character at the moment, and it's worth noting that there's not currently a way of changing which ascendancy class you pick (each class gets two options), so be sure you pick the one you want!