The Sentinel League for Path of Exile is drawing closer, and most of us are planning to start unlocking those juicy Challenge rewards. Developer Grinding Gear Games has promised us a much more difficult Challenge journey this time around. We can help you hit the ground running by taking care of the easiest first six Challenges to complete and earning you that first cosmetic reward.
1/6 – Learning the Ropes: Complete each of the following tasks.
- Purchase a Gem from Vendor
Easily done in Act I. Just visit Nessa at Lioneye’s Watch or Lilly Roth in your Hideout to buy your first skill gem.
- Socket a Jewel into your Passive Skill tree
While naturally leveling up your character, you will have the option of unlocking jewel slots within your skill tree. Simply slot in any jewel you might have picked up along the way or earned from a quest to complete this step.
- Equip an Item with 4 or more Linked Sockets
Items with four linked sockets have a small chance of showing up late in Act I, and more frequently after that. As you play through the campaign, you will soon come upon one, but if you want to speed up the process, expect to use around 30 Jewelers Orbs on average to link a 4-socket item.
2/6 – The Basics of Sentinels: Complete each of the following encounters.
- Deploy a Sentinel
Early in the League, you will encounter the unique league mechanic that shares its name – Sentinels. Add your new Sentinel to its unlocked slot to deploy it.
- Defeat a Rare Monster which is empowered by a Sentinel
Sentinels empower monsters you’re fighting when you deploy and activate them. Find a rare (yellow) monster and activate your Sentinel, then defeat it.
- Defeat a Rogue Exile which is empowered by a Sentinel
Like the last goal, once you encounter a Rogue Exile in the world (or worse, a group of them), activate your Sentinel to empower them and defeat them.
- Defeat an Act Boss which is empowered by a Sentinel
Each Act is capped off by a final boss fight. Depending on your power level, the easiest boss fights to activate your Sentinel on are Vaal Oversoul (Act II), Kitava (Act V), The Brine King (Act VI), Arakaali (Act VII), or The Depraved Trinity (Act IX).
3/6 – Complete Vendor Recipes: Complete vendor recipes to receive each of the following items.
A vendor recipe is when you trade a specific combination of items to a vendor, not when you buy items from their purchase screen.
- Magic Boots with at least 10% increased Movement Speed
Trade the following items to a vendor: boots of Normal quality, a Quicksilver Flask of any rarity, and an Orb of Augmentation.
- Orb of Chance
Trade the following items to a vendor: two identified items with the same name or a full set of rare items with the lowest item level between 1 and 59.
- Unique Item
There are different recipes for different Unique items in the game, but the easiest way to complete this goal is one of two ways: trade a Divination card that rewards a Unique item, or trade three Uniques of the same name that you have picked up to gain a rerolled non-corrupted version of it.
- Skill Gem
Later down the line, you could complete this by rolling a 20% quality Skill Gem by trading a level 20 gem with a Gemcutter’s Prism. However, an easier way to complete this is to find either Mirror Arrow or Blink Arrow Skill gem, and trade it with an Orb of Alteration.
4/6 – Defeat these Act Bosses I: Defeat each of the following Unique Act Bosses.
- Act 1: Merveil, the Twisted
- Act 2: Vaal Oversoul
- Act 3: Dominus, Ascendant
- Act 4: Malachai, The Nightmare
- Act 5: Kitava, the Insatiable
You will naturally complete this Challenge by playing through the campaign’s first half and completing each Act. Pay attention to the boss mechanics (especially with Merveil, Dominus, and Malachai), and if you feel stuck, remember that you can go back to grind on one of the earlier waypoints by Shift-clicking on it to reload it with fresh enemies.
5/6 – Complete Encounters I: Complete each of the following encounters.
- Complete a Vaal Side Area
Vaal Side Areas are short corrupted mini-instances that you can enter while exploring. They look like a red-tinted side passage. Monsters inside are generally stronger and tougher, and you complete one by defeating the mini-boss and looting the Vaal Vessel.
- Choose an Ascendancy
Starting in Act I and onward, you will find and complete puzzle-like Trials of Ascendancy. The first six such trials are spread through the first three acts. By completing them all, you gain the right to attempt the normal Labyrinth, accessed from The Sarn Encampment in Act III. The layout of the labyrinth changes daily and has to be completed in one try without dying. At the end of the Labyrinth, you will get to pick your Class’ Ascendancy and earn the first two points to allocate.
- Complete encounter at Bestiary Blood Altar
After encountering Einar in Act II and completing his first hunt, he will give you the option to visit his camp. Meet him there and complete one Blood Altar recipe with the beasts you’ve collected during his introduction.
- Defeat an Incursion Architect
Starting in Act VII, you will meet Alva. She opens up Incursions that lead to the Temple of Atzoatl. Each incursion contains two architects, and you get to pick which one to kill to change the temple layout.
6/6 – Defeat these Act Bosses II: Defeat each of the following Unique Act Bosses.
- Act 6: Tsoagoth, The Brine King
- Act 7: Arakaali, Spinner of Shadows
- Act 8: Lunaris, Eternal Moon and Solaris, Eternal Sun
- Act 9: The Depraved Trinity
- Act 10: Kitava, the Insatiable
You will naturally complete this Challenge by playing through the second half of the campaign and completing each Act. Your build should feel much stronger in the latter half, but once again, pay attention to the boss mechanics and re-grind some areas if you need to power up before facing the boss.
Rewards
And with these six easiest challenges done, you are set to face the endgame of Path of Exile with your first League Challenge cosmetic reward unlocked. Currently, the details on what reward will unlock first are not known at the time of writing. We feel that it would be Gloves for your new cosmetic armor, but that’s our assumption, and we’ll update this section when the detail is officially revealed.
And if you feel ready to take on more, we have listed all 40 challenges for Path of Exile Sentinel League.
