Ember Rifts
The endless endgame. Open a timed rift with a key, fill its bar, beat its guardian, and climb the tiers. Weekly leaderboards for every class and party size.
At a glance
- Take a
Rift Key to the 
Rift Altar just outside Emberfall's south-west wall (combat level 40 and up). - Kill monsters to fill the rift's bar, then beat the Rift Guardian, all within 6:00.
- Clear it in time and everyone in the rift gets a key one tier higher. Tiers never end: every tier makes the monsters stronger, and heroes are never reset.
- Every week the fastest, deepest clears go on a leaderboard for each class and party size.
Keys
Your first key is free: the altar gives a tier 1 key to any hero who has none, in their bag or their bank. After that, keys come from clearing rifts.
- A key's tier sets the monsters: level 40 at tier 1, +3 levels per tier, and on top of that their life grows 12% and their damage 9% more with every tier. Item level climbs with the monsters, so deeper rifts drop better gear.
- A key rolls modifiers (none or one at the first tiers, up to three deeper down). Each one makes the rift harder and pays for it in extra magic find, gold find and XP while you're inside.
- Opening a rift, the altar keeps your key and hands you a fresh key of the same tier with new modifiers. Fail, and that is the key you keep. Clear it, and that key climbs a tier where it is.
- Keys are bag items: bank them, trade them, list them on the Grand Market. They can't be worn or sold to a merchant.
Modifiers
| Modifier | What it does | Magic and gold find | XP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swift | Monsters move 30% faster | +15% | +10% |
| Fire-Enchanted | Every pack leader bursts into flame when it dies | +15% | +10% |
| Champions | Twice as many champion packs | +20% | +10% |
| Stalwart | Monsters have 40% more life | +20% | +15% |
| Brutal | Monsters hit 30% harder | +25% | +15% |
| Withering | You heal half as much: potions, food, regeneration and life on hit | +25% | +15% |
| Volleys | Every pack leader and the guardian fire volleys of missiles (Projectiles) | +20% | +10% |
| Thorned | Every monster returns some of the damage you deal (Thorns) | +20% | +15% |
| Warbanners | Every pack leader carries a monster aura (Might, Frost, Holy Fire or Conviction) | +25% | +15% |
A key with two modifiers pays both bonuses. The rift's bonus shows on your stat sheet as "Rift modifiers" while you're inside.
Running a rift
- Open it. At the altar, choose a key and open it. Party members standing with you come along; the rest of your party gets a prompt to join, and can walk in any time while it's open (from the prompt, the party frames, or the altar).
- Fill the bar. Each rift draws four kinds of monsters from the regions its level has reached, all at the key's level. Each kill fills the bar: 1 for a monster, 2 for a pack leader, 5 for a champion. When the rift thins out, fresh packs tear in far from you.
- Beat the guardian. When the bar is full, the Rift Guardian tears through near whoever opened the rift:
The Ashen Warden or one of the lair bosses up to the rift's level, grown to its tier. - Go home. The guardian leaves a Homeward Gate by its body. Click or tap it to return to Emberfall.
The clock runs from the moment the rift opens and never stops, not even for the dead. Fall and you rise at the rift's mouth after a few seconds; walking back is the price. When time runs out the rift stays open, but the key doesn't climb. If the guardian is already out you can still beat it for its loot; if the bar wasn't full, no guardian comes.
Tiers
| Tier | Monster level | Extra life | Extra damage | Guardian life (one hero) | Guardian hit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 40 | ×1 | ×1 | 7,000 | 300 |
| 3 | 46 | ×1.25 | ×1.19 | 10,163 | 404 |
| 5 | 52 | ×1.57 | ×1.41 | 14,534 | 538 |
| 10 | 67 | ×2.77 | ×2.17 | 33,885 | 1,046 |
| 15 | 82 | ×4.89 | ×3.34 | 75,309 | 1,948 |
| 20 | 97 | ×8.61 | ×5.14 | 161,986 | 3,516 |
Monsters and the guardian also grow with every hero in the rift, the same way they do in the Depths. There is no last tier.
Loot
Every kill rolls its monster's own drop tables as usual, at the rift's level, plus the Ember Rift table:
| What | Chance | From tier |
|---|---|---|
| Chaos Ember | leader 1/100, champion 1/25, guardian Always | 1 |
| Ashen Shard | champion 1/50, guardian 50% | 1 |
| Emberstone | champion 1/100, guardian 35% | 1 |
| Emberstone | guardian 35% | 6 |
| Ashen Ichor | guardian 1/20 | 10 |
| Any world unique for its level | guardian 1/17 | 1 |
The guardian also drops its usual boss hoard: rare items, each with a chance to be one of its own uniques. Loot is personal, as everywhere: every hero in reach rolls their own.
The weekly leaderboard
Every clear in time goes on the leaderboard for your class (Melee, Ranged or Magic, from the weapon you carry) and your party size (solo up to five: everyone who set foot in the rift counts). Each hero's best clear stands: the highest tier, then the fastest time. A new leader is announced to everyone online.
The board resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC; last week's stays readable. Open it from the Rift Altar, or see the top clears of the week under Settings → Hiscores → Ember Rifts.
Tips
- Keys you've outgrown are worth something to heroes a few tiers behind you.
- Champions fill the bar five times faster than ordinary monsters: a Champions key is quicker than it looks.
- Withering hurts most solo: bring more food than you think.
- Stay together. The guardian arrives near whoever opened the rift, and fresh packs spawn far from all of you.