To unlock the Acolyte in Risk of Rain 2: Hallowed Concepts, you complete the challenge “A Broken Ritual”: get the N’tormat plus at least one Page, pray at a Shrine of Descent, survive the boosted Teleporter event, clear the Soulbound Threshold boss rush, and then give the Fallen Acolyte one healing item. The same arena hides a locked door that leads to the expansion’s secret boss, the Echo of Providence, and only the Reincarnation Page opens it.
Hallowed Concepts launched on October 8, 2026 for $14.99. Gearbox’s release notes list two new survivors: Enforcer, unlocked by default, and Acolyte, who you have to unlock. Below are the full unlock route, the item rules that trip people up, how to reach the secret boss, and what each Acolyte skill does.
Table of Contents
Quick answer
- Challenge: A Broken Ritual. “Revive the survivor within Soulbound Threshold.”
- You need: the Hallowed Concepts DLC enabled, the N’tormat with at least one Page (solo), and one permanent healing or food item.
- Route: Shrine of Descent, then the Soul-binding Teleporter event, then the Ritual Portal, then four challenges and the two-phase Anima Harvester in the Soulbound Threshold.
- Finish: interact with the Fallen Acolyte where the Harvester died and give her the item. One copy of it is used up.
- Secret boss: after the ritual, cast the Reincarnation Page near the center pedestal to open the door to the Veil of Memory and the Echo of Providence.
Acolyte is the unlockable survivor in Hallowed Concepts; Enforcer is available from the start. Image: Gearbox Publishing / Hopoo Games
How to unlock the Acolyte in Risk of Rain 2
The route has five steps. The middle three take place in a single run, so plan your build around steps 3 and 4.
| Step | What to do | What usually goes wrong |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Get the N’tormat and a Page from a Trial, a Wake event or a Shrine of Compulsion | No gong or Sepulcher spawns on your stages |
| 2 | Pray at a Shrine of Descent near the Teleporter | Not enough Pages for your party size |
| 3 | Survive the Soul-binding Teleporter event and take the Ritual Portal | The extra Stygian elite boss overwhelms a weak build |
| 4 | Clear four challenges and the Anima Harvester in the Soulbound Threshold | The doom timer runs out, which kills the whole team |
| 5 | Revive the Fallen Acolyte with a healing item | The only healing item you hold is temporary |
Step 1: Get the N’tormat and at least one Page
The N’tormat is the expansion’s new “curio”: a key item whose Pages work as active abilities. According to Destructoid and Game Rant, there are three ways to get it:
- Ring a Ritual Gong and clear the Trial behind its portal. During a Trial your items are locked away, but you can use the temporary items you find there and keep one when you leave. The N’tormat sits on the reward statue.
- Activate an Ancient Sepulcher to start a Wake event, which gives the N’tormat and a random Page.
- Complete a Shrine of Compulsion challenge for another N’tormat and Page.
Gongs and Sepulchers spawn at random. For a guaranteed gong, both guides point to the Bazaar Between Time: open a Newt Altar with a Lunar Coin, take the blue portal after the Teleporter event, and drop into the pit, where a gong sits on a small platform.
Step 2: Activate a Shrine of Descent
The Shrine of Descent looks like a Shrine of the Mountain with an eye icon over it. According to the Risk of Rain 2 Wiki, it only appears once the team owns enough Pages, and the requirement grows with party size. It is free, single-use and works once per run.
| Players | Total Pages the team needs |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 4 |
| 3 | 9 |
| 4 | 16 |
Pages count even after you spend them on the current stage. The joke “Shredded Page” doesn’t count. You have to pray before starting the Teleporter, because the shrine applies to that stage’s Teleporter.
Step 3: Survive the Soul-binding Teleporter event
The wiki says an armed Teleporter overcharges to 667% and summons an extra boss that is always a Stygian elite (the expansion’s new elite type). That boss drops one Hallowed item per player. Once it dies, a Ritual Portal opens near the Teleporter. Game Rant recommends running your strongest survivor and the Artifact of Command, so you choose your items instead of hoping for a healing drop.
Step 4: Clear the Soulbound Threshold
Inside, climb to the Altar of N’kuhana and interact with it. That starts a 210-second doom timer. The wiki’s Soulbound Threshold page gives the rules:
- You clear four challenges in domed arenas. Each one adds 65 seconds, up to a 470-second cap.
- Fog outside the active dome deals heavy damage that grows over time and slows you by 80%.
- If the timer hits zero, every player dies. Dio’s Best Friend does not save you.
- The Anima Harvester follows in two phases. Between them, each player gets three random Hexes (from Blindness, Famine, Acceleration, Leaping and Pain).
Gearbox’s October 14 hotfix fixed enemies spawning out of bounds on Soulbound Threshold, a bug that could block the ritual. The fix shipped on PC first, and Gearbox said the console patch “will follow as soon as is practical”.
Step 5: Revive the Fallen Acolyte with a healing item
After phase two, the Fallen Acolyte appears where the Harvester died. “Revive her” opens a menu of your items. According to the wiki’s A Broken Ritual page, only permanent items tagged as healing or food count. Temporary Trial items, Ethereal copies and equipment don’t, and neither do items currently disabled by Hex of Loss. One copy of the item you give is consumed.
| Rarity | Easy picks that qualify |
|---|---|
| Common | Medkit, Bison Steak, Bustling Fungus, Cautious Slug, Mocha, Monster Tooth, Power Elixir, Topaz Brooch |
| Uncommon | Leeching Seed, Harvester’s Scythe, Infusion, Squid Polyp, Lepton Daisy |
| Legendary | Rejuvenation Rack, Aegis, 57 Leaf Clover, Frost Relic, Wake of Vultures |
| Boss | Titanic Knurl, Queen’s Gland, Shatterspleen, Mycelium Cap (new in this DLC) |
| Void and Lunar | Weeping Fungus, Needletick, Corpsebloom, Transcendence |
| Hallowed and Hex | Earthbound Vessel, Sanguine Chalice, Hex of Famine |
A cheap trick is to give her Hex of Famine, which costs you nothing worth keeping. In multiplayer, the wiki says the revival unlocks Acolyte for everyone in the lobby who owns Hallowed Concepts.
Hallowed Concepts adds three standard stages plus hidden realms such as the Soulbound Threshold. Image: Gearbox Publishing / Hopoo Games
Risk of Rain 2 secret boss: how to reach the Echo of Providence
The Soulbound Threshold also has a locked door. Once the ritual is complete, stand in the sacrifice zone near the center pedestal and cast the Reincarnation Page. The orb opens the door to the Veil of Memory, which leads to Terminal Lucidity, the arena of the Echo of Providence. Reincarnation is the only Page documented to open it, so keep one if you plan to go beyond the veil.
| Phase | Name | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fading Memory | The Echo fights alone |
| 2 | Faithful to the Grave | Two Corroded Wurms replace him |
| 3 | Fallen Bulwark | He returns with a shorter arena-wide attack cooldown and shadow clones |
| 4 | Dying Wish | Fog covers the arena and slows anything outside the safe zone by 60% |
The wiki lists these rewards: an Echoing Essence for each player (five items, one Legendary, two Hallowed and two Uncommon, with two picks), a Primordial Teleporter, and a skin for each of six survivors who beat him: Bandit, Engineer, Artificer, REX, Captain and Acolyte (Vessel). The page marks some phase details as unconfirmed, so expect small changes as players test them.
Risk of Rain 2 Acolyte skills explained
Acolyte trades normal healing for a reserve she has to fight to reclaim. Gearbox’s Dev Diary #4 describes her as a close-range glaive fighter who “bargains” with her own life force. The numbers below are from the wiki’s ability descriptions.
| Slot | Skill | What it does | How to unlock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passive | N’kuhana’s Grace | Can’t heal; all healing and 40% of damage taken go into recoverable health | Default |
| Passive (alt) | N’kuhana’s Favor | Can’t heal; all healing becomes attack speed | Not documented yet |
| Primary | Blade Slice | Three-hit glaive combo at 150% per hit; Sprint lunges, Jump launches the target | Default |
| Secondary | Bola Throw | Pulls up to 5 enemies for 200% and extracts their souls | Default |
| Secondary (alt) | Soul Jar | 150% hit, then a haunt that deals damage over time | “Bloodbath”: kill 15 enemies in one Anima Harvester transformation |
| Utility | Blade Sling | Damage over time; opens up a follow-up Blade Dash | Default |
| Utility (alt) | Javelin | Piercing glaive throw for 400% | “Not Even Close”: keep an Elder Lemurian airborne for 11 seconds |
| Special | Sacrifice | 1000% damage and 2 Convictions; at 7 Convictions it becomes her Litany | Default |
The trade-off is clear from the kit. Grace turns healing into a reserve she reclaims in combat (Gearbox: “cash in that stored health while you dance”), which rewards staying in melee range. Favor gives up that buffer for raw attack speed, so on paper it suits builds that lean on barrier or armor instead of healing. The Litany can turn her into the Anima Harvester herself, with a new skill set. That is where the “Bloodbath” kill count comes from.
One of the three new standard stages in Hallowed Concepts. Image: Gearbox Publishing / Hopoo Games
What else Hallowed Concepts adds
Gearbox’s release notes list the DLC contents:
| Content | Count |
|---|---|
| Survivors | 2 (Enforcer, Acolyte) |
| New standard stages | 3, plus several Trial stages |
| New enemies / bosses | 3 / 3 |
| New elite type | 1 (Stygian) |
| Hexes / Hallowed Items | 14 / 11 |
| New standard items | 3 |
| New interactables | 6 |
The free update released alongside it gives six original survivors a new skill each (Commando’s Sabotage, Huntress’s Laser Cyclone, Acrid’s Cloying Breath, Artificer’s Tectonic Blast, Engineer’s Laser Cutter and REX’s Proliferation). It also adds an optional Karma system that makes the Moon finale harder. Beating the Anima Harvester and the Echo both raise Karma when it is on.
Price, co-op ownership and current deals
On Steam, Hallowed Concepts costs $14.99 and holds a Mostly Positive rating (971 of 1,228 reviews positive, checked October 18, 2026 UTC). Only one player in a lobby needs to own it for the new monsters, stages and items to appear for everyone. Players without it can’t pick the new survivors or permanently unlock its items and logbook entries, according to the store page. The base game is 67% off at $8.24 until October 22 at 17:00 UTC, and the bundle with all four expansions costs $38.35 until then.
For other PC releases this week, see our new games for October 19-23. Live-service fans can follow Deadlock’s last two City Never Sleeps heroes. If you hunt achievements, Valve’s Steam Achievement Sets beta changes how unlocks like these show up on your profile. For another co-op game that rewards route knowledge, try our Over the Hill beginner guide.
FAQ
Is Enforcer unlocked by default in Hallowed Concepts?
Yes. Gearbox’s release notes list Enforcer as unlocked by default and Acolyte as the unlockable survivor.
Do I have to beat the Anima Harvester to unlock Acolyte?
Yes. The Fallen Acolyte only appears after both phases of the Anima Harvester are dead. You don’t have to fight the Echo of Providence. That fight is only for the secret-boss skins.
How many N’tormat Pages do I need in multiplayer?
The number of players squared: 1 solo, 4 for two players, 9 for three and 16 for four, counted across the team.
Why didn’t the Acolyte take my item?
The item is probably temporary (from a Trial), Ethereal, equipment, or disabled by Hex of Loss. Only permanent healing or food items count.
Sources: Gearbox release notes (Steam), Hallowed Concepts hotfix (Steam), Dev Diary #4 (Steam), Steam store page, Risk of Rain 2 Wiki, Destructoid, Game Rant.
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