Complete Guide to the Ancient One’s Trial in Once Human: Tips and Rewards

The Ancient One’s Trial in Once Human is the latest public event where you can take on a shooting challenge to snag some sweet rewards and boost your late-game resources. To get started, head to the mountains in the Chalk Peak region, and use your map to track down any current public crisis events (press X to reveal them). Your target is the highest mountain at around coordinates 2329,-5204—there’s a teleporter nearby, so take that up.

Once you hit the teleporter, climb the mountain from the eastern side. When you get to the middle, swing over to the west and find these grey rocks to climb. You’ll hear whispers encouraging you to make your way up. At some point, leave your bike behind and finish the hike on foot. When you reach the top, head toward the northern cliff and look for a wrecked airship, aka the Ancient One.

Get close to the airship and use the airstreams around to climb on top. You’ll spot a red glowing orb, which starts the challenge. In the first few seconds, you'll be aiming at levitating balloons, but then the Ancient One takes off, and you’ll need to shoot them down as you go. You can team up with friends, making it easier and more fun if you’re not feeling up for the solo grind.

The balloons are color-coded: Yellow ones give you 20 points, red give 10, and blue give five. There are black balloons too, and while they don’t give points, they do explode in an AoE, popping other balloons around them and boosting your score. Focus on black and yellow balloons to rack up points, followed by red and blue. For this event, using a SCAR or LMG works best because of their high fire rate, and you can also equip Bounce or Unstable Bomber builds for extra firepower.

Since you'll be shooting from a moving plane, you’ve gotta watch for bullet drop and manage your spray patterns. The balloons do self-burst after a while, so make sure to hit them quickly for the best rewards.

Speaking of rewards, once you finish the Ancient One’s Trial, you'll get a score. The higher your score, the better the rewards:

• 2500 points: Ancient One’s Blessing one – 60 Stardust Source, 20 Stellar Planula, six Barreled Premium Fuel, and 60 Portable Mixed Fuel.
• 4000 points: Ancient One’s Blessing two – 90 Stardust Source, 30 Stellar Planula, nine Barreled Premium Fuel, and 90 Portable Mixed Fuel.
• 5000 points: Ancient One’s Blessing three – 150 Stardust Source, 50 Stellar Planula, 15 Barreled Premium Fuel, and 150 Portable Mixed Fuel.

If your score is, say, 4500, you’ll get both the Blessing one and two crates. These get transferred right to your inventory, and you can open them by hitting F on the crates in your inventory to grab your rewards.