Runefather's Challenge | PoE2 Mechanic

What Runefather's Challenge does

Current rules

Use an off-hand Hit to apply Runefather's Challenge. Eyes of the Runefather can also apply it to enemies up to 6 metres in front of you when you raise the shield, no more than once every 2 seconds. The extra 5 Power feeds any effect that reads that enemy's Power, including the shield's Runefather's Boast generation and Crushing Fear's kill shockwave.

Challenge adds 5 Power: The debuff raises the affected target's Power by exactly 5. It does not state that it directly changes the target's Life, damage, resistances, item drops, or rarity. Power is an input read by other skills, items, and resources.
Off-hand Hits apply it: Eyes of the Runefather makes off-hand Hits inflict Runefather's Challenge. Legacy of A Worthy Foe grants the same off-hand Hit application when placed in a Shield, allowing a different Shield to carry the debuff.
Raising Eyes of the Runefather applies it in front: Raising Eyes of the Runefather applies the debuff to enemies within 6 metres in front of you. This application can occur no more than once every 2 seconds, so repeatedly lowering and raising the Shield cannot bypass that limit.
The published value is not per Hit: Runefather's Challenge is described as one debuff that raises Power by 5. Its wording does not say that each Hit adds another 5 Power, so repeated applications must not be calculated as additive Challenge stacks.
The duration is not shown in game data: The Challenge definition and item modifiers do not publish a duration. Current community testing reports that it appears to expire after about 10 seconds. Treat that as an observed value, not a stated game-data value, and reapply the debuff before the target dies when Boast generation matters.
A Unique target becomes 25 Power while affected: Unique monsters normally have 20 Power. Runefather's Challenge raises that value by 5, so an affected Unique target counts as 25 Power before another effect that changes how Power is counted.
Only the consuming effect decides the payoff: The extra Power has no universal reward. Eyes of the Runefather converts Power on a challenged kill into Boast stacks, while Crushing Fear converts the killed target's Power into more shockwave Damage and Area of Effect. Other Power consumers use their own wording.

How Runefather's Challenge is applied and used

6 cases

01

Eyes of the Runefather

Off-hand Hits inflict the debuff. Raising the Shield also applies it in a 6 metre frontal area, with a 2-second application limit. Killing an affected target grants one Runefather's Boast per point of its Power.

Block chance28%Armour(428-535)Evasion Rating(388-485)Base Movement Speed-0.015RequiresLevel 62, 64 Str, 64 DexGrants Skill: Raise Shield (Level 25)(300-400)% increased Armour and Evasion+(40-50)% to Cold ResistanceOff-hand Hits inflict Runefather's ChallengeInflicts Runefather's Challenge on enemies 6 metres in front of you when raised, no more than once every 2 secondsGain 1 Runefather's Boast per Power of targets affected by Runefather's Challenge you killFrom aeons past, Dannig felt the Runefather'sgaze, challenging him. There is no honour in ease.True greatness is torn from the jaws of defeat., Raise Shield, Hit, Block, Runefather's Boast

02

Legacy of A Worthy Foe

This limited Aldur's Legacy makes off-hand Hits with a Shield inflict Runefather's Challenge. Its Bonded effect grants +45% Cold Resistance to Shields. It does not state that it grants Runefather's Boast on kill.

Currency: Legacy of A Worthy FoeRelated: Aldur's Legacy, Hit

03

Runefather's Boast

Eyes of the Runefather grants one Boast stack per point of Power when you kill a target that is still affected by Challenge. The added 5 Power therefore gives five additional stacks from that kill before other Power-counting effects.

Related: Runefather's Boast, Power

04

Crushing Fear

Its kill shockwave has 10% more Damage and 5% more Area of Effect per Power of the killed target. Challenge adds five units to that calculation, which adds 50 percentage points to the skill's per-Power more-Damage value and 25 percentage points to its per-Power more-Area value.

Related: Crushing Fear, Power

05

Power-sensitive effects

Warcries, Glory, trigger Energy, Flask and Charm charges, and some items read Monster Power in different ways. Challenge changes the affected target's input, but every consuming effect still applies its own range, event, cap, and calculation rules.

Related: Power, Warcry, Glory, Energy, Flask, Charm

06

Runemastered shield variants

Patch 0.5.2 fixed a bug that made every Runemastered Eyes of the Runefather variant a Buckler. Only the variant intended to use Parry is a Buckler now; the other variants can use their appropriate Shield behavior.

Block chance28%Armour(428-535)Evasion Rating(388-485)Base Movement Speed-0.015RequiresLevel 62, 64 Str, 64 DexGrants Skill: Raise Shield (Level 25)(300-400)% increased Armour and Evasion+(40-50)% to Cold ResistanceOff-hand Hits inflict Runefather's ChallengeInflicts Runefather's Challenge on enemies 6 metres in front of you when raised, no more than once every 2 secondsGain 1 Runefather's Boast per Power of targets affected by Runefather's Challenge you killFrom aeons past, Dannig felt the Runefather'sgaze, challenging him. There is no honour in ease.True greatness is torn from the jaws of defeat., Runeforging

Limits and exceptions

7 rules

Runefather's Challenge is a debuff, not an encounter or quest.
The debuff does not state that it directly makes an enemy deal more damage or take less damage.
Repeated Hits do not state that they stack additional copies of the +5 Power modifier.
The approximately 10-second duration is an observed community value because the current tooltip does not publish one.
The target must still be affected when you kill it for Eyes of the Runefather to grant Boast stacks.
Legacy of A Worthy Foe grants Challenge application but does not itself state that challenged kills grant Boast.
Power-changing effects may use different wording and order. Do not assume one worked example applies to every combination.

Related pages

14 connections

mechanicRunefather's Boast

Runefather's Boast is a stacking Buff granted by Eyes of the Runefather when you kill an enemy affected by Runefather's Challenge. Each stack grants +1 Armour, +1 Evasion Rating, and +1 Stun Threshold.

mechanicPower

Monster Power is a value that represents an enemy's relative strength. Skills and resources use it so that one dangerous enemy can count more than one weak enemy.

unique itemEyes of the Runefather

(300-400)% increased Armour and Evasion

Eyes of the RunefatherUnique | Venerable Defender

Block chance28%Armour(428-535)Evasion Rating(388-485)Base Movement Speed-0.015RequiresLevel 62, 64 Str, 64 DexGrants Skill: Raise Shield (Level 25)(300-400)% increased Armour and Evasion+(40-50)% to Cold ResistanceOff-hand Hits inflict Runefather's ChallengeInflicts Runefather's Challenge on enemies 6 metres in front of you when raised, no more than once every 2 secondsGain 1 Runefather's Boast per Power of targets affected by Runefather's Challenge you killFrom aeons past, Dannig felt the Runefather'sgaze, challenging him. There is no honour in ease.True greatness is torn from the jaws of defeat.

currencyLegacy of A Worthy Foe

Shields: Off-hand Hits inflict Runefather's Challenge

currencyAldur's Legacy

All Equipment: When socketed into a Unique Kalguuran or Ezomyte item, destroys the item to create a Rune imbued with that item's power

skillCrushing Fear

Dash to an enemy and Strike them, Culling enemies if their life is low enough. When this skill kills an enemy you draw out their final fears, crushing them to create a shockwave. Enemies around you that can be Culled will be highlighted.

skillRaise Shield

Raise your Shield to Block all incoming Blockable hits. Release immediately after Blocking when an enemy is close to perform a Shield Bash, damaging and Stunning enemies. While your Shield is raised you cannot be Light Stunned by hits you Block, but Blocking too much damage may Heavy Stun you. You cannot Evade while your Shield is raised, but Evasion instead grants an equal chance to avoid this Heavy Stun buildup.

mechanicHit

A Hit is an instantaneous damage event. Any damage that is not damage over time is Hit damage, whether it comes from an Attack, a Spell, Thorns, or another effect.

mechanicBlock

Block prevents the damage of a blockable Hit. Passive Block rolls the character's Block chance for each eligible Hit, while active Block from a raised shield guarantees a block from the protected direction under that skill's rules.

mechanicWarcry

Warcries are active skills that count the Power of nearby enemies and then apply their own damage, control, Guard, Rage, or attack empowerment effects.

mechanicGlory

Glory is a resource that must be spent to use certain powerful Skills. These Skills each have a method of generating Glory, and actions taken against enemies will generate Glory equal to the monster's Power. Different Skills gain and lose Glory separately, and each Skill can only generate Glory once every 0.5 seconds per monster.

mechanicEnergy

Energy is a resource generated and spent by certain Meta skills. Each Energy-generating skill keeps its own counter, separate from other Meta skills and completely separate from Energy Shield.

mechanicFlask

A Flask is an equipped item that spends charges to recover Life or Mana. Flasks are reusable, but they must regain charges from monsters, checkpoints, Wells, passive generation, or another explicitly stated source.

mechanicCharm

A Charm is a charged trinket that activates automatically when its implicit condition is met. Charms are equipped in slots supplied mainly by belts and provide a timed defensive, utility, or reward effect without being pressed manually.