Strategy
This is a targeted farm for Zekoa, the Headcrusher with four modifiers, captured as a companion with Tame Beast. Until now, a 4-mod Zekoa needed a Ritual-based route close to a city tech. This method skips Ritual completely. It uses tablets that add summoning circles to maps, and each circle use has a chance to summon a map boss. Zekoa counts as a map boss.
The engine is Hilda’s rare-monster nodes. One of them gives each rare monster a 25% chance to be replaced by a random map boss. The effects that grant uniques extra rare modifiers also apply to bosses spawned this way, so you get more chances at a Zekoa with the mods you want. This is not a currency farm. It’s for players who want this companion for their build, and it gets there faster than the Ritual route.
Atlas Tree & Setup
- Gem: buy a corrupted Tame Beast, ideally level 21, before you start. Corrupting your own copy after capturing could break the minion you just farmed.
- Tablets: four, each with +1 additional rare modifier and contains an additional summoning circle. The creator says these cost about 1 Divine each.
- Maps: any 6-mod waystone. Tier doesn’t seem to matter; the creator uses T15s. Alchemy the map and use up to two Exalted Orbs to reach six mods.
- Master: Hilda, taking the breeding-season nodes for more rare monsters and the node that turns rares into random map bosses.
- Keybind: bind the market panel to an easy key under Input settings. Opening it pauses the game, so you can read the boss mods before you engage.
Investment & Returns
- Investment: mid. A corrupted level-21 Tame Beast, four tablets at about 1 Divine each, plus alchemy and exalt costs per map
- Returns: low in currency terms. The payoff is a 4-mod Zekoa companion, and Zekoa won’t spawn every map
- Scaling: more circle uses and more rare monsters mean more boss rolls per map
Step-by-step
- Roll a 6-mod map (Alchemy plus up to two Exalts), place the four tablets and open it.
- Find the summoning circle, a set of three pillars. Click the small circle stones from the tablets one at a time to add uses to the pillars. The creator says clicking several before using the pillars is buggy.
- Use the pillars. Pause with the market-panel key to read the summoned boss’s mods.
- Clear the circle. Then rush the map to find the next small summoning stone. Clicking one gives you a checkpoint, so you can teleport back to the pillars and use them again.
- Every use is another chance at Zekoa. It may not appear even once in a map, so repeat on every map until you get a 4-mod one, then capture it with Tame Beast.
Risks
- Results are very random. Zekoa is one of many possible map bosses and may not show up for several maps.
- Clicking the circle stones is buggy, so pop them one by one or you can lose uses.
- Using an uncorrupted gem and corrupting it afterwards risks breaking the captured minion.
- You spend currency on tablets and map rolls each run and don’t get currency back.
Credits & Source
Method credited to Mezuman. See the source video: NEW ZEKOA 4 MOD TECH NO RITUAL - GET ZEKOA FASTER (POE 2 0.5.5 Forbidden Rites).