Introduction

Temporal Incursions

Inside an Incursion

• You are on a timer seen at the top of the screen. If it expires, you get kicked out. Defeating enemies increases the time limit based on their rarity.
• No loot drops inside. Instead, it accumulates from defeating enemies and drops at the end of the encounter.
• A progress bar at the bottom indicates how many monsters have already been defeated (and how much loot will drop at the end).
• Two Architects are present in different parts of the Incursion, each marked with an icon on the minimap. You can choose to defeat one, making the other despawn and allowing the survivor to alter the room in the Temple's future.
• If there is at least one unopened (red) door left, you will find one guaranteed Stone of Passage by defeating all enemies in the area, allowing you to alter the Temple by opening one of the doors.
• If there are two or more unopened doors left, there is a small chance to obtain a second Stone of Passage.
• If all doors are already open (green), no Stone of Passage will drop. The stone is lost upon leaving the incursion, so it can't be carried and used in the next Incursion.

Building a Temple

• You upgrade rooms by 1 Tier at a time when defeating the competing Architect during an Incursion. Changing a room to another makes the new room Tier 1. Both cases can be assisted through Atlas Passives (see below).
• Rooms that aren't connected to the rest of the Temple after the final Incursion can't be accessed unless a barricade is broken with an Explosive Charge acquired from an Explosives Room.
• The Apex, Entrance and any room already upgraded to Tier 3 cannot be chosen for an Incursion.
• When the Temple is finished (0 Incursions remain), Alva can open the Temple for you. This is a separate instance shaped in the layout of your making, accessed through six portals at your map device. If you wish to save it for later or sell the Temple, you can instead take her Chronicle of Atzoatl with no downside.
• The zone level of the Temple is determined by the Incursions used to build it with the following rules: (average zone level of all incursions + 10), capped by the highest Incursion run. This makes running at least one high-level Incursion worth it to produce a high-level Temple, but otherwise lets you build it in lower Tier Maps if you choose to.

Types of Rooms

• There are different Tiers of rooms, ranging from 0 to 3.
• Tier 0 rooms offer no value at all. They are just filled with random monsters.
• Certain rooms only become valuable at Tier 3 by gaining a special ability or drop.
• Loot-based rooms always offer a little bit of value on all Tiers.
• Each room augments the entire Temple with extra zone mods and in some cases also the final boss.

The Vaal Omnitect

Tips & Tricks

Temple-Building

• When you find a room you want to upgrade as much as possible, you can skip remaining Incursions in the area afterwards. The same room can't be chosen twice in the same set of 3 Incursions, so skipping the other two increases your chances to get it again the next time you encounter Alva. This results in fewer Temples to run but leads to a higher-quality Temple layout.
• If you are trying to build your Temple for one or a few specific rooms only (e.g. Locus of Corruption for double-corrupting items or Doryani's Institute for double-corrupting gems), you can upgrade any room that can't be changed to either one of those or the Shrine of Empowerment (which upgrades adjacent rooms). Max level rooms can't be chosen in Incursions, which increases the chances of getting one you seek.
• Shrine of Empowerment and its first upgrade Sanctum of Unity boost adjacent connected rooms only. By opening the right doors and leaving others closed you can increase the chances for it to hit the right one if a desirable room is next to it. The final upgrade of that room, Temple Nexus, upgrades all nearby rooms regardless of connections.
• Double-corrupting items has the following outcomes: 2 corrupted implicits, all white sockets, brick into influenced rare item, delete item ("poof"). Double-corrupting gems has the following outcomes: +/- one level, +/- quality (up to 23), Vaal version if available, nothing. It's possible to obtain level 21/23 quality gems or level 21 Vaal gems this way. Check out our dedicated post about these mechanics by Chewingnom to learn more about how corruption works.

Survival Tips

• In Incursions and the Temple itself, there can be large packs of Ancient Construct monster types. These shoot darts at you from a great distance and generally come in big packs. Make sure to move in zig-zag patterns when you encounter large packs of them. If your build runs with any minions, prepare to instantly dodge a barrage of incoming projectiles upon entering.
• Most Architects have very powerful, telegraphed AoE attacks you generally want to avoid. Be especially careful when they are possessed by Tormented Spirits (from Torment Cells room).
• If you're trying to build a Locus of Corruption (for double-corrupting items) but are running out of Incursions, change that room to another to remove the penalty to maximum Player Resistances in the Temple. This room is mentioned specifically because its penalty is very dangerous for most builds and without reaching Tier 3 it has no value at all.

Incursion Mods

• They are typically very powerful (comparable to Tier 1 rolls), outperforming similar mods on regular items if a build can capture their full potential. The big downside is that most of the time, lots of further crafting is needed to produce a truly great result, which may invalidate the item because the Temple mod could be lost in the process.
• The prefix/suffix names are based on the type of architect that builds these rooms (e.g. "Citaqualotl's ..." or "... of Puhuarte") so they can be easily identified when viewing an item and holding down "Alt" for advanced mod descriptions.
• Many of them have a hybrid effect, e.g. they give % and flat damage or life at the same time or similar.

Some notable Temple Mods:

• +(70-79) to maximum Life / 2% increased maximum Life (Rings, Amulets)
• +(44-47) to maximum Energy Shield / 3% increased Maximum Energy Shield (Rings, Amulets)
• +(46-48) Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistance / 3-5% of Physical Damage from Hits taken as Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage (Helmets)
• +(46-48) Fire/Cold/Lightning Resistance / 0.4% of Fire/Cold/Lightning Damage Leeched as Life (Amulets)

Incursion Uniques

Atlas Passive Tree

Small Passives

• Incursion Item Quantity
  • 5% increased Quantity of Items dropped in Incursions in your Maps
• Incursion Rare Chance
  • Incursion Architects in your Maps have 20% chance to drop an additional Rare Incursion Item
• Incursion Mission Chance
  • Your Maps have 1% chance to grand an additional Alva Mission on Completion
• Incursion Pack Size
  • Incursions in your Maps have 5% increased Pack Size
• Incursion Upgrade Chance
  • Killing non/resident Architects in zour Maps has 10% chance to add an additional Upgrade Tier to the surviving Architect's Room

Notables

• Time Dilation
  • Incursions in Areas have 33% chance for all Monsters to be at least Magic
  • Time gained from kills is Doubled for Incursions in Areas
• Resource Reallocation
  • Killing non-resident Architects in Areas has 40% chance to add an additional Upgrade Tier to the surviving Architect's Room (+1 small node before it = 50%)
  • Non-Resident Architect = the one that can be killed to upgrade the room
• Contested Development
  • Killing resident Architects in Areas adds their Upgrade Tier to the surviving Architect's Room
  • Resident Architect = the one that can be killed to change the room
• Vaal Oligarchs
  • Incursions in Areas contain a Vaal Flesh Merchant (drops currency stacks and Fateful Meeting)
• Artefacts of the Vaal
  • Areas have 3% chance to grant an additional Alva Mission on Completion
  • Incursion Architects in Areas have 60% chance to drop an additional Rare Incursion Item
• The Perpetual Search
  • Areas have 4% chance to grant an additional Alva Mission on Completion

Incursion Farming Strategies

Summary

• The Temple of Atzoatl is a great tool for double-corrupting items or skill gems and provides lots of other great loot if built correctly.
• Before entering Incursions, always check for the right Architect to defeat to either upgrade the room or change it to another.
• Always open doors with a general preference to the top (northern) side, to make sure you connect as many rooms as possible.
• Incursions are a great source of extra loot for your general mapping returns, even when you don't care about the Temple.
• Selling the itemized Temple can be valuable if it includes a few sought-after Tier 3 rooms such as the Locus of Corruption or Doryani's Institute.
• Finding useful rare items or crafting bases with some of the powerful Incursion mods is rare but sometimes you can get really lucky, so always check them out!

Credits