Path of Exile 2's Forbidden Rites event league will begin at 1pm PDT on September 4, launching alongside the game's 0.5.5 patch. The developers set out the schedule and answered the most common questions about the event in a Steam announcement.
Forbidden Rites is a full league rather than a side mode. It starts with a fresh economy and its own set of challenges with exclusive rewards, and players join it by selecting Forbidden Rites on the character selection screen and creating a new character there. Private Leagues are supported, and can be created from August 31 PDT, although they cannot be played until the event itself goes live on September 4.
It runs to 1.0, not for a month
The event is not time-boxed to a single month. It will run until the full 1.0 release and will end at the same time as the current Runes of Aldur league. Runes of Aldur is not being retired in the meantime, so players with unfinished challenges there can keep playing it, and once the patch is out that content is being added to the core game and will be accessible in Standard.
The 1.0 release is dated December 11, and it is also when the Duelist arrives. The class is not part of 0.5.5, the developers confirmed, despite launching in the same window as the event league.
What changes for everyone
Not all of the 0.5.5 work is confined to the event. The developers said the changes to the Trial of Chaos and the rest of the patch's improvements apply to the whole game regardless of league, so they can be tried on an existing character in Runes of Aldur or Standard.
Two pieces of information are still outstanding. Full patch notes are due later in the week, with a separate announcement to flag them, and item filter details were promised within a couple of days. The realm will be taken down before the patch is deployed on September 4; the exact maintenance window has yet to be posted.