The Acolyte is one of two survivors added with the Hallowed Concepts expansion, and unlike the Enforcer she is not handed to you the moment you buy the content. She sits behind a chain of expansion mechanics that ends with a boss rush and a specific item requirement, so the run needs a little planning before you commit to it.
Quick answer: Grab an N’Tormat and at least one page, trigger a Shrine of Descent, clear its teleporter event, then beat the Anima Harvester inside the Soulbound Threshold and give the Exhausted Acolyte a permanent healing or food item to revive her.
What you need before the run
The Acolyte belongs to the Hallowed Concepts expansion, so you must own it and enable it from the main screen before starting a run. Without the expansion active, none of the mechanics below appear.
You also need to be ready for a hard fight at the end. Play your strongest character, build a strong inventory, and carry at least one qualifying healing item through to the final encounter. The item is consumed when you revive her, so do not spend your only copy beforehand.
Running the Artifact of Command makes the item requirement trivial, since you can pick exactly the healing item you need instead of hoping one drops.
Get an N’Tormat and a page
The whole route is gated behind owning an N’Tormat plus at least one page. There are three ways to pick one up during a run:
- Ring a gong, enter the portal it opens, and clear the Trial inside.
- Interact with an Ancient Sepulcher to start a Wake event, which hands over a free N’Tormat and a random page.
- Complete a Shrine of Compulsion challenge for another free N’Tormat and page.
Gongs, Sepulchers, and Compulsion shrines all spawn at random, which makes finding one a matter of luck. If you would rather guarantee it, there is a fixed gong in the Bazaar Between Time. Activate a Newt Altar with a Lunar Coin, take the blue portal that opens after the next teleporter event, and once you reach the bazaar, look over the edge and drop onto the small platform in the chasm below where the gong sits.
Clearing a Trial
Strike the gong to open a portal into a Trial. Its goal appears on the right side of your screen, typically as a target number of enemies to defeat. Your carried items are unavailable inside, but you can collect gear found around the map. These pickups disappear when the Trial is over, although you can bring one with you when you leave. Complete the goal, collect the N’Tormat from the reward statue, then exit through the portal nearby.
Wake events
Activating an Ancient Sepulcher gives you the N’Tormat and page immediately, then starts a Wake event. Protecting every Lynx Shaman that spawns around the sepulcher through the event earns a free Hallowed Item, but that bonus is optional and not needed to unlock the Acolyte.
Open the path to the Soulbound Threshold
Once you hold the N’Tormat and a page, a Shrine of Descent starts appearing on later stages, and it tends to show up consistently from that point on. It looks almost identical to a Shrine of the Mountain, except an evil eyeball icon floats above it.
Activate the Shrine of Descent and then charge the stage’s teleporter as normal. The shrine adds a soul-binding trial to the event, so expect a tougher fight with an extra boss spawning once the teleporter is fully charged. When you clear it, a portal to the Soulbound Threshold opens. Do not trigger the shrine until your build is strong enough to handle several bosses back to back.
Clear the boss rush and revive the Acolyte
Inside the Soulbound Threshold you arrive in a large arena with an altar set beside a fiery chasm. This is where the A Broken Ritual challenge plays out.
Beating the boss alone does not finish the challenge. Do not leave the arena after the fight. The item hand-off is the actual completion trigger, so stay and interact with her.
Which items revive her
You need one permanent item carrying the Healing or Food-related tag, and rarity does not matter. The item must come from your permanent stacks. Temporary or Ethereal copies, equipment, and items that cannot be removed from your inventory will not work. Easy, cheap options include:
- Medkit
- Bison Steak
- Leeching Seed
- Topaz Brooch
- Cautious Slug
- Monster Tooth
- Harvester’s Scythe, Infusion, or Power Elixir
Defensive items such as Tougher Times and Dio’s Best Friend do not count, even though they help you survive. Hold a common healing item from early in the run rather than gambling on a drop after the boss fight.
How to confirm the unlock
When the item is accepted, A Broken Ritual completes, the Acolyte is permanently added to your roster, and the challenge also awards three Lunar Coins. From then on she appears on the survivor selection screen for every future run.
In co-op, completing A Broken Ritual grants the Acolyte to every player in the lobby who has Hallowed Concepts; just one player needs to make the final hand-off. Players who lack the expansion won’t unlock her. After you unlock her, she fights with glaives at close quarters, spends her own life force to empower soul-based abilities, and builds Convictions toward her Litany transformation.
