Tattoos & Warriors, the Best Value in Trial of the Ancestors

Here are the most valuable Karui Tribes to eliminate, the Tattoos they reward, Warriors they provide, and unique item offerings.

There's a lot of nuance to Trial of the Ancestors, and the Path of Exile economy. Prices shift over time, and your performance in Trial of the Ancestors depends on your build and rating, this resource is intended to be a guideline. Always do your own research using the official Path of Exile Trade site, or looking at aggregate data on PoENinja.

The Ngamahu Tribe has a great Rare Tattoo reward in Tattoo of the Ngamahu Makanga and offers players 2 powerful units. Unfortunately, the common and Unique rewards for Ngamahu are mediocre at best. As a result, it's worth keeping Kaom around until later rounds but he isn't your top priority.

The Firebreather explodes for a large burst of damage, killing the unit. Because of this, he's quite unreliable. On the other hand, Ngamahu's other 2 units - Caldera Ravager and Blackbark Demolisher - are both excellent.

The Hinekora Tribe has a great Rare Tattoo reward in Tattoo of the Hinekora Makanga and offers players well rounded units. The common and Unique rewards for Hinekora are poor. Tawhanuku is dangerous, so eliminating this tribe early is a good idea.

The Hinekora Tribe offers powerful and well-rounded units which excel in defense. You're able accelerate Warrior respawns, and better protect your totems.

The Arohongui Tribe lacks Tattoo rewards, and Ikiaho is a significant threat to players. Seek to eliminate this tribe early on, but consider gaining Favour to purchase their valuable units.

Warriors of the Arohongui Tribe have solid stats but are often held back by higher cost. Look for Tidecallers wherever possible, and place them on defense.

The Rongokurai Tribe has one of the most dangerous Champions and lackluster rewards. For most players this tribe should be your number one priority in terms of elimination.

The Fieldmaster is an excellent unit, he places walls which prevent enemies from interacting with you or your units. It's advised you place your first Fieldmaster in the Flanker role, but you can run him as an Attacker, Escort, or Defender as well. The Goliath if Night is a solid dps but he has limited utility. Similarly, the Titanic Shell is very expensive. If you have one, use it! But otherwise, don't go out of your way to buy one.

The Kitava Tribe offers a strong Unique item, but poor Tattoos. This tribe isn't particularly dangerous or problematic, so you'll want to eliminate them at some point but it shouldn't be a priority.

The Consuming Kunekune is a squishy unit that eats enemy corpses to extend their respawn times, making it either a decent free unit or a temporary pickup to spend Favour. The Bloodbound Warrior on the other hand teleports back to defend his totem and has good base stats, though for 2000 Favour he isn't very cost efficient.

This is one of the best tribes to keep alive until the very end as it offers valuable Tattoos, and a powerful Unique item. While Tawhoa Warriors aren't the strongest, they aren't the worst either and tend to be cost efficient, making this a very well rounded tribe to gain Favour with.

None of Tawhoa's warriors are the best choice for any role, but all of them do a decent job. In particular it can be worthwhile to grab a Camouflaged Tuatara which is able to sneak past enemy defenses to take out their back line of totems.

The Ramako Tribe is by far the most rewarding, your goal should be to defeat Ahuana in the final round to maximize your chances of being offered a Tattoo of the Ramako Makanga. In addition, Ramako offers a lot of very good units at low prices.

The Spear Dancer is a great disruptor, and an overall well rounded unit that you should invest in frequently. Similarly, the Sunset sage is tanky enough to be a great ranged defender. She also has great base stats and excels at pushing into the enemy base. Lastly, the Autumnal Archer is powerful, adding a Mirage Archer to one of your totems, but this unit is expensive.

The Tsalio tribe has some powerful units which excel at Flanking, but you should keep them alive until later rounds for a shot at their rarer tattoos or the Rakiata's Dance unique.

Tsalio's Spearfisher is the best disruptor and best choices for defense, buy a couple whenever you have the option to. The other units - Riptide and Trawler - function similarly but have an increased cost making them a bit less efficient.

The Tukohama Tribe is moderately rewarding, they offer a few decent tattoos but it's fine to eliminate this tribe towards the early or middle rounds. On the other hand, you should use your Favour to purchase Tukohama units as Jade Hulk and Jade Shaman are both great choices.

The Jade Hulk and Jade Shaman are excellent well-rounded units, they can tank, disrupt or push into the enemy base. Warcaller and Jadecrafter are a bit weaker, mostly due to their high cost and Warcaller's habit of using its buff at inopportune times.

Watch out for flankers when fighting against the Valako Tribe, and seek to eliminate them before the later rounds as their tattoos aren't especially valuable. The Valako Tribe offers you the Thunderbird, an amazing flanker and the incredibly versatile Storm Guard, so getting Valako Favour is always a great option.

Valako's Warriors are incredible! The Thunderbird is the best flanker in the game, with extremely high mobility via teleporting, buy them whenever you have the option. If your Flankers are already filled out, grab some Storm Guards and use their Proximity Shield to destroy your opponents.

Winning the tournament rewards you with one of two rewards from Hinekora herself. This normally takes the form of an Honoured Tattoo, or an Omen.

The exceptionally rare Hinekora's Lock is the most valuable reward you can obtain from Trial of the Ancestors.

Hinekora also offers a few exclusive Uniques, and we'd like to highlight two of them today. Both the Warrior's Tale, Crimson Jewel and Defiance of Destiny, Paua Amulet are quite powerful.

If you're wondering how to integrate some of these Tattoos into a build, check out our Tattoo guide, or the Meta Report for some ideas!

Then head over to our Discord and select the Path of Exile role in #roles to stay up to date with our content development. Stay sane, Exile!