SS5 | Zenithlon, Wartorn Ruins, Statues & Gear Updates, and More!
Release time: 2025-11-25
Images in this preview post are for reference only; please refer to the official update for accurate content.
Here's your TL;DR: SS5 Awakening brings the new Zenithlon tower challenge, the Wartorn Ruins Valkyrie fight, a gear rank rework with Ancient/Prime, updated statue effects, new Eidolons, and the Profile system that tracks your lifetime achievements.
Just a friendly reminder about the SS5 Awakening season on Nov. 27, before we get into the nitty-gritty.
Zenithlon: A Race to the Summit!
🧗🏽 What is Zenithlon?
Zenithlon is a tower challenge where you clear timed boss fights to climb higher and earn rewards. A gauntlet must be cleared before the next one becomes accessible.
Access the Zenithlon via the portal.
🧗🏽 Reach the Stars
Each gauntlet has 3 optional challenge conditions. For each condition you complete during a successful run, you will earn one star. You don't have to get all 3 stars for a guantlet at one take; one star alone is enough to unlock the next guantlet. Plus, you can always redo the gauntlet to earn stars you failed to get from your previous attempts.
A special gauntlet that, once completed, awards you stars from previous stages
1 in every 4 gauntlets is designated as a special gauntlet. If you manage to earn all the stars from a special gauntlet, you will be instantly awarded all the stars from other specific gauntlets.
🧗🏽 Amass Accolades
After accumulating a sufficient number of stars, you can claim the rewards to exchange for Sacred Souls to complete your build crafting.
One of the milestone rewards: Sacred Soul Giftpacks and Sacred Afterlights
Reward progress is recorded separately for seasonal and permanent tracks; the two are independent of each other. When the season ends, all star records and reward progress will be completely reset.
🧗🏽 Ranking
The Zenithlon has its own independent leaderboards, which are divided into seasonal and permanent rankings. Players are ranked primarily by the total number of stars accumulated. In the case of a tie, players will then be ranked by the highest gauntlet cleared and the time taken to clear it.
All leaderboard records will be cleared when the season concludes.
Wartorn Ruins: Valkyrie's Challenge
🏜️ What are Wartorn Ruins?
Wartorn Ruins is an instance of Engimine. Within the Wartorn Ruins, you will challenge the Valkyrie herself for a chance to earn Sacred Souls, new Legendary equipment, and other rare treasures.
🏜️ Difficulty & Rewards
The Wartorn Ruins is divided into multiple difficulties, each with its own unlock requirements. Once the requirements are met, the corresponding difficulty can be selected. Defeating Skögul offers a chance to obtain Sacred Soul rewards whose quality scales with difficulty.
Higher difficulties further offer unique Legendary equipment.
🏜️ Ticket: Goldplumes
You get free challenge attempts each day, and they are only used up if you successfully clear the stage. After you've used up your free attempts, you'll need tickets (Goldplumes) to enter.
Goldplumes can be obtained by completing excavated blocks in Enigmine Mode.
Optimized Statues Effects
We've improved several UI elements—including filtering/dismantling, character selection, the skill menu, and skill slots—to make navigation smoother and clearer.
Dungeon statues have also been updated: previously, their effects didn't scale with difficulty, making them almost useless in later stages. Now, while their core mechanics remain the same, their effects and values have been adjusted to scale with gameplay difficulty.
Gear Rework
🛡️ Gear Rank: Ancient & Prime
In SS5, the old gear ranks (Ranks I, II, etc.) will be retired and replaced with two new tiers for high-end gear: Ancient and Prime. These tiers only apply to Legendary and Insane equipment.
Equipment from prior seasons will be classified as regular rank (before Ancient). The Legendary Effects levels for Regular, Ancient, and Prime gear will be set to Lv1, Lv2, and Lv3, respectively.
Ancient Legendaries are guaranteed to reroll at least one gold affix, while Prime Legendaries offer fully gold affixes. And when reforging a Prime item, we get to reoll 2 affixes that are guaranteed to be Legendary.
Ancient vs Prime Legendaries
You'll find these new treasures in Helxar dungeons, Enigmine, and the Wartorn Ruins. And once you climb high enough in Provings Grounds, the merchant's gear chests might surprise you with Ancient or Prime drops.
🛡️ Gear Chest Content
Meanwhile, the merchant has been restocking his gear chests.
- Equipment added: Astryss Helmet, Conductor's Wig, Celesturgy Locket, Helheart: Pyro, Helheart: Cryo, Helheart: Electro, Helheart: Veno, Helheart: Tenebro
- Equipment removed: Infernal Mask, Bishop's Biretta, Dominant's Jackboots, Fettered Fury.
🛡️ New Legendary Gear
🛡️ Equipment Drops
In SS5, some gear pieces will start to drop in Helxar dungeons—check Codex for deets. Meanwhile, prefixes and suffixes of equipment drops for all slots will be adjusted. Owned gear won't be affected.
Eidolon Updates
A new wave of divine power is arriving.
Queenmother Eidolon
Untarnished Physique: All resistances are increased; for each type of resistance that reaches a certain number, you gain a damage increase.
Hearthmistress Eidolon
Unquenchable Flame: Periodically ignites all nearby enemies, causing them to take increased damage.
Profile System
Your journey finally gets the spotlight it deserves. The new Profile feature lets you check your ranked history and total monster kills all the way back to S1.
Send "Like" to other players' profiles. Show some love… or flex a little.