The Pit of the Artificers is an endgame system similar to Rifts in Diablo 3. The challenge increases in difficulty based on your success in meeting or surpassing the time requirements. Rewards from The Pit include the much-needed Glyph upgrade for your Paragon boards.
What is The Pit?
The Pit is an endgame dungeon variant similar to the Greater Rifts (GRs) from Diablo 3 and is a tier-based endgame system that is only available after level 60. Furthermore, with 150 levels of difficulty, it becomes increasingly challenging as you progress through each tier.
How to Unlock The Pit
After reaching level 60, you will automatically unlock The Pit from Tier 1 to 20 and can start progressing through the different tiers.
Completing endgame activities will allow you to collect Artificer’s Stones. This material can be found throughout the world and various endgame activities such as Helltide, World Bosses, Legion Events, Nightmare Dungeons, and Whisper Bounties. The Runeshards can be gathered and used to activate the Artificer’s Obelisk in Cerrigar, the main town of Scosglen. It requires 3x 
Artificer’s Stones to open the portal and enter the depths of The Pit.
Your progression in The Pit is shared across all your characters in the same realm.
Tier System and Mechanics
The Pit offers a tiered system with 150 levels of difficulty. Completing a tier with plenty of time to spare can unlock up to +5 tiers for you to run next. If you finish a run with 4-6 minutes left, you skip two level and unlock an additional tier. Additionally, if you defeat the boss with 6+ minutes left on the timer, two additional Tiers will unlock. For example, successfully clearing Tier 1 unlocks up to Tier 5, or clearing Tier 4 unlocks up to Tier 9.
During The Pit challenge, you must slay enough monsters within 10 minutes. Artillery and Blast Wave shrines will not spawn inside The Pit.
Dying in The Pit results in a timer penalty! The first death removes 30 seconds, the second 60 seconds, and the third and subsequent deaths 90 seconds each. While in a party, the death of one player will increase the timer penalty for the whole party.
Upon slaying enough monsters within the 10-minutes timer, a portal to the boss’ arena appears. Defeating the boss before the timer runs out awards an opportunity to upgrade your Glyphs, and unlocks the next tier.
- Defeating the boss with 4-6 minutes left unlocks 3 additional tier.
- Defeating the boss with 6+ minutes left unlocks 5 additional tiers.
- If the Mastery timer expires before completion, you can still finish to get some rewards, but you will not receive any Masterworking materials or unlock the next tier.
Shadow bosses will cause damage during the boss fight. You can do your best to avoid the mechanics. If you take damage, you will be impacted by a debuff that can stack up to three times. After the third and final stack, the Pit Boss’ damage will be considerably increased.
World Difficulty Tiers
World difficulties are associated to Pit tiers. There are 5 Pit tiers per standard difficulty (Normal, Hard, Expert and Penitent) and 15 Pit tiers per torment difficulty (Torment 1 to 4).
As you progress through the Pit tiers after level 60, you will automatically to unlock new world difficulties from Torment 1 to 4 when reaching certain thresholds.
| Tier Ranges | World Difficulty Tier |
| Tiers 1 – 4 | Normal |
| Tiers 5 – 9 | Hard |
| Tiers 10 – 14 | Expert |
| Tiers 15 – 19 | Penitent |
| Tiers 20 – 34 | Torment 1 |
| Tiers 35 – 49 | Torment 2 |
| Tiers 50 – 64 | Torment 3 |
| Tiers 65 – 100 | Torment 4 |
Rewards
Completing a run within The Pit will reward you with the following:
- Ancestral Legendary Items
Murmuring Obols- Paragon Glyph, and Glyph upgrade chances
You will be able to upgrade your Glyphs at the end of a Pit run. You are rewarded with three attempts to upgrade your Glyph’s rank, with a bonus attempt if you didn’t die during the run. You can upgrade any Glyph that hasn’t reached max level yet. The likelihood of a successful upgrade depends on the Glyph’s current rank and the Tier of the Pit you completed.
For example, completing a Pit Tier 10 level higher than your Glyph’s Rank guarantees an upgrade.
Completing a Pit Tier significantly above your Glyph’s Rank can grant bonus upgrade ranks with each attempt, making it a strategic way to level your Glyphs.
What to Look Out For
- To cancel The Pit run, teleport back to town, head back to The Pit entrance, and start a new run. It will subsequently close the previous portal and open a new one.
- Collect Artificer’s Stones! Since Artificer’s Stones are required to enter The Pit, make sure to gather them during your endgame activities and use them when you are fully prepared.
- Optimize your build: Choose skills and gear that increase your ability to defeat monsters quickly and deal with bosses effectively.
- Keep an eye on the timer and focus on defeating large groups of enemies to make sure you open the boss’ arena in time.
- Understand the death penalty: Remember that dying reduces your remaining time. In solo play, be cautious, and in group play, coordinate with your team to minimize deaths.
- Learn the boss mechanics to defeat them without losing too much time. The faster you defeat the boss, the more tiers you unlock.
- Upgrade your Glyphs: Complete high-tiered Pit runs to get better chances for glyph upgrades.
- Keep upgrading your gear: As you progress through The Pit’s tiers, continually upgrade your gear to match the increasing difficulty.
- Know when to retreat: If a run is not going well, do not hesitate to teleport back to town and restart The Pit to save time.
