PoE 2 Campaign Route: Four Acts, Three Interludes, Then Maps

Maps in Path of Exile 2 do not open when you finish the last act. They open after you clear the third Interlude, which sits between Act 4 and the endgame proper. That single detail trips up more new and returning players than anything else in the leveling process, so this guide lays out the full route — four acts, three Interludes, then maps — with the level checkpoints, the ascendancy point logic, and what “done with the campaign” actually looks like on a first clear.

The short answer: completing the third and final Interlude does. Path of Exile 2’s campaign, under the 0.5.0 Return of the Ancients update, runs Acts 1 through 4 followed by three Interludes, and only after the third one do you get access to the map device that starts the Atlas endgame. You enter the Vaal Ziggurat and speak to Doryani to unlock access to the map device, and this occurs around level 65 after you complete all three interludes. People who stop reading after “Act 4” assume they’ve hit the end and get confused when the endgame doesn’t appear — the Interludes are not bonus content, they’re the last stretch of the road.

Acts 1 through 3 play out as the familiar linear story leading through the early continent. Act 4 adds the Third Edict story, taking you to the islands of Ngamakanui, where you learn more about the Karui and their ancestral gods as you search for a weapon known as the Third Edict. Unlike the earlier acts, Act 4 is completely non-linear, allowing players to visit its eight islands in any order they choose. Once the Third Edict story wraps, the three Interludes replace what used to be a full Cruel-difficulty replay of the early acts. With the Interludes, you return to Ogham and the Vastiri deserts before running an errand for Doryani, all while confronting the Beast’s corruption. Interlude I sends you back to Holten to deal with corruption alongside Renly; Interlude II drops you into the Vastiri desert to help Asala with the Gifting of Water ritual and track down the missing Sel Khari; Interlude III has you working with Doryani on a plan involving a Vaal mountain vault. Each Interlude also hands out a permanent character bonus on completion, which is a large part of why skipping them isn’t a real option even if you’re eager to reach maps.

If you want a sense of what the currency and drops look like once you’re through this route, the PoE 2 currency guide for farming Divine Orbs in Return of the Ancients picks up right where the map device unlocks.

Ascendancy points don’t drip in one at a time as you level — they arrive in four uneven pairs, and the last two pairs are gated by endgame-tier trials rather than story quests. The campaign secures your first four Ascendancy points – two from the Trial of the Sekhemas and two from the Trial of Chaos – cementing your build’s identity. By the end of Act 3 most characters are sitting on four points total, and the remaining four don’t come until well after the campaign is technically finished.

That last pair is where builds diverge in how they finish ascending. Passives 7 and 8 unlock in a Level 75+ Trial of Sekhemas OR in a Level 65+ Trial of Chaos with all three Cowardly Fate, Deadly Fate, and Victorious Fate. The three Fate fragments only drop from the Trial of Chaos’s own end-of-run boss, so getting all three usually means running it more than once or trading for the missing pieces.

Neither trial is objectively faster; pick whichever matches what your character is actually good at surviving. Once you’ve settled on an ascendancy, the choice of which class variant to lock in is covered in more depth in the guide to PoE2 ascendancy picks and what’s reversible later, since not every decision at this stage is permanent.

A first-time clear of the four acts and three Interludes typically leaves characters somewhere in the 60 to 65 range, depending on how many side quests and optional areas you bothered with. That’s the intended landing zone, not a sign you’re behind. The Atlas caps out at level 100, and the vast majority of that climb happens in maps, where monster density and scaling are built for it — grinding extra campaign zones for experience before the endgame is a low-yield trade compared to just reaching maps and leveling there instead.

“Maps open right after Act 4”

This is the single most common mix-up. Act 4 ends the numbered story acts, but the map device stays locked until all three Interludes are done. If you finish the Third Edict questline and nothing changes on your endgame options, you still have Interludes left, not a bug.

“You have to alternate between Sekhemas and Chaos”

You don’t. Either trial can grant every pair of ascendancy points on its own; they’re interchangeable paths to the same eight points, not a checklist you need to split between both.

“Rushing to level 70+ inside the campaign helps”

It mostly wastes time. The campaign’s zones aren’t built to reward over-leveling, and the level range you land in naturally (60 – 65) is exactly what the early Atlas expects. Pushing higher before maps just means grinding low-value content instead of moving on.