Rifts

The Rifts are three expedition-only zones that tear open beyond the Sundered Vale once you defeat the Sundered One. They are the game's deepest expedition content: repeatable boss fights, a currency all their own (Rift Shards), the Riftforged armour set, the Rift Bazaar where shards are spent, and — unlocked by your first Ascension — Rift Ranks: tougher Beta and Alpha refights of the same four bosses for steeper rewards.

Opening the Rifts

The Rift Fringe unlocks the moment you beat the Sundered Vale's guardian, the Sundered One. The deeper zones open only by clearing the one before: the Deep Rift unlocks once you've defeated the Rift Warden (the Rift Fringe's boss), and the Riftheart unlocks once you've defeated the Twin Sovereigns (the Deep Rift's boss). Within the Riftheart itself, Storm the Riftheart Core carries its own extra gate on top of that zone unlock — it refuses to fight you until the Riftheart Colossus has fallen at least once.

Each zone also asks its own Expeditions level, and, once you're standing in it, 25 patrol wins in that zone before its boss will fight you — see below.

Rifts do not appear on the Valley Map as ordinary Biomes; they are their own late-game layer past the Vale.

The three zones

Each zone has a patrol action you can run freely and one or two boss fights. Boss fights are repeatable, but each zone's boss is gated behind 25 patrol wins in that zone — clear patrols to earn the confrontation, then fight the boss as often as you like. Storm the Riftheart Core carries the extra requirement described above: no amount of Riftheart patrolling opens it until the Riftheart Colossus is dead.

Zone	Action	Type	Expeditions level	Difficulty	Time	XP	Key rewards
the Rift Fringe	Rift Skirmish	Patrol	68	260	62 s	345	Fringe Shard, 3 Rift Shards, Apex Scale (4%), Riftglass (3%)
the Rift Fringe	Confront the Rift Warden	Boss	72	640	130 s	1,430	Warden's Sigil, 25 Rift Shards, Riftforged Visor (head, 5%) + Aegis (shield, 5%)
the Deep Rift	Deep Rift Patrol	Patrol	78	310	66 s	435	Rift Bloom, 3 Rift Shards, Emberheart (3.5%), Riftglass (3%)
the Deep Rift	Confront the Twin Sovereigns	Boss	82	800	140 s	1,850	Sovereign Twinshard, 25 Rift Shards, Riftforged Plate (chest, 5%) + Greaves (legs, 5%)
the Riftheart	Riftheart Assault	Patrol	88	360	70 s	540	Heartshard, 3 Rift Shards, Apex Scale (4%), Riftglass (3%)
the Riftheart	Confront the Riftheart Colossus	Boss	92	980	150 s	2,400	Riftheart Core, 25 Rift Shards, Riftforged Cleaver (weapon, 5%) + Idol (trinket, 5%)
the Riftheart	Storm the Riftheart Core	Boss	96	1,100	160 s	3,000	Rift Prime Shard, 25 Rift Shards

Every patrol also has a small chance (1.2%) to drop a Sundered Vale dig map for Excavation. Boss fights hit hard but their damage is scaled down so a single blow can never overwhelm a maxed fighter.

Rift Shards

Rift Shards are the rift currency. Patrols pay 3 per win; the four boss fights pay 25 at their ordinary difficulty, 45 at Beta rank, and 75 at Alpha rank (see Rift Ranks, below). They cannot be sold — no trader will touch them — so their only use is the Rift Bazaar. This keeps the rift economy self-contained: shards in, permanent rewards out, with nothing to launder back into Amber.

Rift Ranks

Since v0.49.0, once you've completed your first Ascension (the late-game prestige reset), every rift boss gets two tougher, repeatable variants: Beta and Alpha. They're the same four fights — the Rift Warden, the Twin Sovereigns, the Riftheart Colossus, and the Riftheart Core — refought at higher difficulty for a richer payout. Below your first Ascension these rows don't exist at all: no listing, no cost, no drops.

Unlocking a rank

Each boss reveals its own Beta and Alpha tier independently, by lifetime win count on the tier below it:

Beta reveals after 8 wins on that boss's ordinary fight.
Alpha reveals after 8 wins on that boss's own Beta variant.

So the Rift Warden's Alpha rank only cares about Rift Warden wins — it says nothing about your Twin Sovereigns tally. All the normal gates from above still apply underneath: the zone has to be unlocked, its 25-patrol clear met, and (for the Core) the Riftheart Colossus dead.

Ascending resets the ladder — defeated-boss flags, patrol clears, and rank-reveal win counts all restart, so the zone-unlock chain and every Beta/Alpha tier have to be re-climbed each cycle. What carries over: any Rift Standard, Riftbound Trinket, or Riftheart Relic you already hold, and every one-off Bazaar purchase you've made (the Sigil Press included) — none of those ever need re-buying.

Rift Sigils

Every Beta or Alpha attempt costs 1 Rift Sigil, spent whether you win or lose. Sigils are never sold or dropped — they mint automatically off ordinary rift patrol wins: 1 Sigil per 12 patrol wins across the three rift zones, or 1 per 10 once you've bought the Sigil Press from the Bazaar (1,800 Shards, one-off).

The fights

Difficulty climbs with rank, and so does the payout; incoming hits are softened by that same factor, so a Beta or Alpha blow lands no more dangerous, proportionally, than the ordinary fight's — you're just taking more, smaller hits for a longer fight. The level requirement doesn't change with rank; only the numbers below do.

Boss	Rank	Level req.	Difficulty	Time	XP	Rift Shards	Extra rewards
Confront the Rift Warden	Beta	72	960	156 s	1,644	45	—
Confront the Rift Warden	Alpha	72	1,280	182 s	1,859	75	Riftheart Relic (6%), Quality Whetstone (8%)
Confront the Twin Sovereigns	Beta	82	1,200	168 s	2,128	45	—
Confront the Twin Sovereigns	Alpha	82	1,600	196 s	2,405	75	Riftheart Relic (6%), Quality Whetstone (8%)
Confront the Riftheart Colossus	Beta	92	1,470	180 s	2,760	45	—
Confront the Riftheart Colossus	Alpha	92	1,960	210 s	3,120	75	Riftheart Relic (6%), Quality Whetstone (8%)
Storm the Riftheart Core	Beta	96	1,650	192 s	3,450	45	—
Storm the Riftheart Core	Alpha	96	2,200	224 s	3,900	75	Riftheart Relic (6%), Quality Whetstone (8%)

Every rank fight also still pays its boss's usual crest item (Warden's Sigil, Sovereign Twinshard, Riftheart Core, or Rift Prime Shard) and rolls that boss's Riftforged pieces at the usual 5% each — ranked wins are a legitimate way to farm the Riftforged set, not just shards. Only the Rift Shard payout and, at Alpha, the Relic/Whetstone rows change from the ordinary fight.

Riftheart Relic

Alpha-rank wins alone can drop the Riftheart Relic (6% per win). It's pitied: the chase is shared across all four Alpha fights, and if you're still empty-handed on your 25th dry Alpha win, that win grants it outright. Holding at least one adds a flat +25 expedition score inside the three rift zones — on top of the Riftbound Trinket's +6% rift win chance and the Rift Standard's own +10, which applies everywhere. The chase ends the moment you hold one; further copies still roll at the base 6%, purely as sellable dupes (8,000 Amber each).

Quality Whetstone

Alpha-rank wins also carry an 8% chance at a Quality Whetstone. Nothing in the rift chain spends it — it's a crafting-quality ingredient used past the rift/Ascension gate. The Bazaar sells extra copies for 120 Shards (Ascension count 1+), and the separate, Ascension-gated Warden's Bounty Exchange sells it too, for 800 Marks.

The Rift Bazaar

The Bazaar spends Rift Shards on permanent stock. Two offers are one-time gear purchases available from the start; five are repeatable egg crates for thin stables. The rest only appear once you've Ascended: three more items unlock at Ascension count 1 (alongside Rift Ranks itself), and seven Blueprint sheets for a higher gear tier unlock at Ascension count 3.

Offer	Cost	What you get	Unlocked at
Rift Standard	1,500 Shards (one-off)	A carried banner: +10 expedition score on every expedition	Always
Riftbound Trinket	2,500 Shards (one-off)	A trinket-slot charm (+12 attack, +20 defence) that adds +6% win chance inside the rifts	Always
Small Egg crate	90 Shards	3 Small Eggs	Always
Speckled Egg crate	90 Shards	3 Speckled Eggs	Always
Large Egg crate	90 Shards	3 Large Eggs	Always
Rich Egg crate	90 Shards	3 Rich Eggs	Always
Pristine Egg crate	90 Shards	3 Pristine Eggs	Always
Sigil Press	1,800 Shards (one-off)	Speeds Rift Sigil minting from 1-per-12 patrol wins to 1-per-10	Ascension 1+
Quality Whetstone	120 Shards	A crafting-quality ingredient spent past the rift chain	Ascension 1+
Primal Catalyst	400 Shards	A stockpile item — no confirmed use in-game yet	Ascension 1+
Blueprint: Moonshadow Saddle	1,500 Shards (one-off)	Teaches the recipe for a saddle	Ascension 3+
Blueprint: Sky-Tempered Casque	1,600 Shards (one-off)	Teaches the recipe for a head piece	Ascension 3+
Blueprint: Riftwarden Aegis	1,800 Shards (one-off)	Teaches the recipe for a shield	Ascension 3+
Blueprint: Stormstride Greaves	1,900 Shards (one-off)	Teaches the recipe for leg armour	Ascension 3+
Blueprint: Valeglass Warblade	2,000 Shards (one-off)	Teaches the recipe for a weapon	Ascension 3+
Blueprint: Moonlit Barding	2,100 Shards (one-off)	Teaches the recipe for dino barding	Ascension 3+
Blueprint: Vale-Heart Cuirass	2,200 Shards (one-off)	Teaches the recipe for chest armour	Ascension 3+

The egg crates are a pity source for players whose stables don't yet lay a given egg class themselves. Vale Eggs remain stable-only — you can't buy them here. The seven Ascension-3 blueprints teach an equipment tier above the standard Blueprints list; selling them from the Bazaar rather than dropping them means they're guaranteed, not chased.

The Riftforged set

Riftforged is a boss-only expedition set — the bridge between the Sundered set and the top-tier Primal set. Its six pieces drop only from rift bosses (ordinary fights and ranked refights alike), at designated slots, 5% per piece per win:

Rift Warden → Visor (head) and Aegis (shield)
Twin Sovereigns → Plate (chest) and Greaves (legs)
Riftheart Colossus → Cleaver (weapon) and Idol (trinket)

Per-piece stats: weapon +85 attack; each armour piece +68 defence; trinket +13 attack / +20 defence. Wearing the full set adds a flat +20 expedition score. Duplicate pieces sell for 780 Amber each.

Related pages

Expeditions — the skill the rifts extend
Sundered Vale — the zone whose guardian opens the rifts
Sets — where Riftforged sits among the expedition sets
Blueprints — the recipe sheets the Bazaar's Ascension-3 rows teach
Breeding — egg classes the Bazaar crates supply
Amber — what Riftforged dupes and Relic duplicates sell for