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After helping Una to revive the Hooded One inPath of Exile 2, you’ll be able to progress forward in Act One and head to the village, where a formidable boss awaits. This is part of the quest The Trail Of Corruption, which ultimately tasks you with freeing Leitis.
In this guide, we are going to take a look at how to complete The Trail Of Corruption. This will cover where you need to go, as well as how to defeat the Executioner and save Leitis. Overall, the hardest part of this quest is defeating the boss, so let’s dive right in.
Travel To Ogham Village
The first step in this quest is toreach Ogham Village.The path here is relatively straightforward, but there are a few things to keep in mind. Once you reach the Farmlands, yourone area away from the village.
Before heading on,we suggest searching the area for Una’s Lute.This is an optional quest that you may complete bysearching huts and finding a Lutethat belongs to Una.
After you proceed into Ogham Village, there is another quest that you can quickly complete here. If youtalked to Renly before departing,then you may have the questFinding the Forge(if not, go talk to Renly!). This is a simple fetch quest thattasks you with finding his tools.
This is a fairly simple task; just run around the village until youfind his workshop and smithing tools which should be highlighted in green.Grab the tools and bring them back to Renley in order tounlock access to the salvaging bench that is next to him.
The Trail Of Corruption quest description will change once you are in the village, tasking you tosearch for the Seed of Corruption.To do so, you’ll need to seek out the Executioner. This boss is found in the Courtyard of Death, which is avery large area where he executes people.
When you are nearby, you’ll see acheckpoint outside the entrance.We suggest standing here for a second before heading in just in case you need toinvest unspent passive skill points or check that you are wearing your best gear.
Once you are prepared, it’s time to head into the courtyard.
How To Defeat The Executioner
Instead of immediately attacking,you’ll watch a short cutscene where the Executioner cuts a person’s head off.After doing so, he’ll jump down and the battle will begin.
At this moment,we used our skillEmber Fusilladeseveral times.This creates several orbs that stay near you for a second or two before targeting an enemy. When the Executioner was still jumping down (immune to damage), we used the skill, and thenwhen the official start of the battle began, the fiery orbs targeted him and dealt damage immediately.
It’s important to note that this fight ismore difficult than many others that you’ve faced.Here at TheGamer,we died several times before being able to take him down;his attacks are incredibly heavy-hitting,which one-shotted us several times.
Below, you can find two sections covering the Executioner’s moveset and some tips to defeat him.
The Executioner Moveset
The Executioner has a simple moveset, but he iscapable of summoning quite a lot of enemies that can quickly overwhelm you.Below, you can check out the main attacks that he uses.
Notes
Melee Axe Swing
The Executioner will swing his axe in the area around him.
These can be avoided if you keep your distance.
Summon Melee Mercenaries
The Executioner will summon mercenaries that follow you and deal melee damage.
These adds can be extremely annoying to deal with, as there is a lot of them. Try defeating them as quickly as possible or they can become overwhelming.
You can use ranged attacks to target them; here at TheGamer, we used Spark andFlame Wall(as a Sorceress) in order to deal with them.
Summon Ranged Mercenaries
The Executioner will summon stationary mercenaries that fire ranged attacks at you.
This will also cause circular AoEs on the ground in quick succession.
The combination of the melee and ranged mercenaries can lead to your death. Thankfully, the ranged mercs are stationary, so you can pop down a stationary AoE to take them out.
These adds will be at the edges of the boss arena, but they can shoot anywhere.
Melee Axe Slam Attack
The Executioner will slam his weapon on the ground, dealing damage in a large circle that causes flames.
This attack does an incredible amount of damage. We were caught in this the first time we took him on and instantly died.
Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to avoid; when the Executioner pulls his axe above his head, run away and wait until he does the attack. In this moment, you can also use ranged attacks to deal damage.
Guillotine Drop
The Executioner will drop a guillotine in the arena.
This is a pretty cool attack to witness, and it can be easily avoided if you dodge the area that starts to get dusty. This is where the guillotine drops, so steer clear of this.
The Executioner will call out this move beforehand and mention the guillotine; when he does this, just move around to avoid being caught in its AoE.
Tips To Defeat The Executioner
As you may see, this is not the most amount of moves,but all of them can be fatal.The most important thing to watch out for in this fight is themercenaries that he summons.Try totake out the melee mercs as soon as possible.
When near the ranged mercs, try to take them out as well.The ranged mercs caused most of the damage to us;several can quickly kill you when you’re also dealing with melee mercs and attacks from the Executioner.
The ranged mercs will fireflaming circles into the area that last for a few seconds.With a lot of summoned ranged mercs, you’ll need todo a lot of dodging to avoid these.This isanother reason to take them out quickly,or the ground can become quite dangerous when combined with the Executor’s slam attack.
If you aren’t too confident in your skills, thenthere is no shame in kiting the Executioner around.If this is the case, thenAoE attacks will come in handy.Although the Executioner moves around,you can get him to walk through the area and take damage.
How To Complete The Trail Of Corruption
After taking the Executioner down,grab his loot that drops and make your way to the execution platform.Here, you’ll find Leitis, who needs to be freed as part of the step to’Free the Prisoner'.Once talking to Leitis, you canhead back to the Clearfell Encampment, where Leitis will be waiting.
When The Trail Of Corruption is completed,Leitis will become a permanent fixture in the encampment.From here, you cancomplete the next quest called The Mad Wolf of Ogham,which sends youback through the village and into the Manor to find Count Geonor.
