Diablo Immortal Elder Rifts Explained

Elder Rifts are instanced dungeons with randomized layouts, monsters, and final bosses. They are the scaling difficulty counterpart to Challenge Rifts' statistically fixed trials. Elder Rifts are quick, endlessly repeatable, and potentially very rewarding (loot-wise) content, with an important stipulation — the best rewards will only come from enhancements paid for by real money.

Elder Rifts are unlocked during the Westmarch questline very early on in the campaign, as you acquaint yourself with the various activities in the main town hub of Diablo Immortal. Once you have access to the Elder Rift Entrance in Westmarch, you can revisit this activity anytime and farm Legendary Gems, Runes, and Fading Ember.

Elder Rifts are randomized dungeons, with varying layouts, monster composition, and final boss contained within. While on a surface level they seem different from dungeon to dungeon, Elder Rifts share the following common traits:

• Elder Rifts are completed by killing regular monsters and picking up the Progress Orbs from slain Elite enemies. Your progress is tracked by a bar in the upper right corner; once full, all regular and Elite monsters disappear and a Rift Guardian spawns.
• Elder Rifts can be opened for free (but we advise against it — more on that later), and can be finished at your leisure. Similarly to Challenge Rifts, there is a timer — but your rewards to not hinge on beating it! It simply rewards you with extra loot if you do.
• The challenge in Elder Rifts is scaled to your current Combat Rating, making them a consistent experience irrespective of the progress of your character. This practically guarantees that Elder Rifts are trivial to complete (both solo and in group) in a timeframe of 3-5 minutes.
• While you can enter an Elder Rift as-is, you are heavily encouraged to spend Crests ( Crests or Legendary Crests) at the entrance. Adding Crests modifies the rift with random factors (both beneficial and detrimental, but largely inconsequential — see Rift Modifier section below).
• Far more importantly, adding Crests at the beginning of an Elder Rift increases the chance of — or outright guarantees — receiving Legendary Gems and Fading Ember upon completion. Legendary Gems will NOT drop from running a Rift with no Crests at all! This is not affected by your party members' Crests!
• You can add up to 3 of the (free-to-play accessible) Rare Crests. You can add 1, 2, 3 or a whopping 10 (no in-betweens) of the paid Legendary Crests.
• Leaving a Crested Elder Rift before it is finished will return all Crests used at the entrance, so you need not fear disconnections or untimely interruptions.
• The Legendary Gem crafting currency, Fading Embers, drops at a rate of 1 per Crest used, and is affected by your party members' Crests. You have a hard cap of how many Fading Embers you can get — limited to 200/week for your own efforts, plus an additional 120 from party members using Crests.
• Daedessa's Blessing is an additional buff that can be active depending on the factional warfare between Shadows and Immortals. If Immortals clear the faction-specific Kion's Ordeal raid, they and the Adventurers (neutral, non-factioned players) get up to 3 Blessed Chests per day (1 per Elder Rift run). If Kion's Ordeal is not cleared, said buff goes to the Shadows faction. Blessed Chests mostly contain Aspirant's Keys (used to open chests in Iben Fahd's Sanctum, yielding rewards for the Legacy of the Horadrim passive upgrade system). There is a small chance for Blessed Chests to drop a Crest as well.

There is not much strategy to Elder Rifts, even with rift modifiers factored in. You will always find that monsters inflict trivial amounts of damage, while you overpower them in a handful of strikes — simply due to the fact that Rifts scale to your own Combat Rating. That being said, you can still optimize your experience in Elder Rifts by following these pieces of advice:

• Always group up: With the built-in matchmaking system, you are sacrificing mere seconds before the start of every Rift. On the flip side, you greatly benefit from: 1) your team's overall damage, 2) the ability to split up into individual pulls and progress Rifts faster, and 3) the additional weekly Fading Ember coming from your teammates' use of Crests.
• Pull hard, and pull reckless: Due to the aforementioned monster scaling in Elder Rifts, you can get away with Elite and monster pulls that will be outright suicidal in Challenge Rifts. Draw the attention of large groups of monsters, aggro Elites, and pull this entire mess together in one large clump. Then, proceed to mow it down with your heavy hitters. You will be able to tank the monsters' retaliation, we promise.
• Go full-in on damage: There are places to be tactical and deliberate in Diablo Immortal — Challenge Rift pushes, Raids, PvP. Elder Rifts are quite the opposite. Equip your hardest-hitting cooldowns, stack damage buffs, and dive fearlessly into the fray. On top of that, you should abuse Rift Modifiers to the maximum; some of them are absolute game-changers (and the helpful modifiers usually vastly outweigh the hindrances — see Rift Modifiers section below).

Rare Crests and Legendary Crests modify Elder Rifts by helping and hindering both characters and monsters. The number of modifiers is determined by the top three rarest Crests applied from all party members (read — Legendary Crests take precedence). Legendary Crests apply 2 Rift modifiers (usually 1 positive, 1 negative); Rare Crests apply one (either positive or negative).

Rift Modifiers have 1 of 3 different rarities: Common, Uncommon, and Rare. Each Crest used to open an Elder Rift grants Rift Modifiers that are independently selected for each Crest. The chance to receive each rarity of Rift Modifier when using a Crest (irrespective of its quality, Rare Crest or Legendary Crest) are:

• 64% chance for a Common Rift Modifier;
• 34% chance for an Uncommon Rift Modifier;
• 2% chance for a Rare Rift Modifier.

• Energetic — Monsters drop more Energy Orbs.
• Fleet-Footed — Player Movement Speed increased by 20%.
• Frenzy — Player Attack Speed increased by 20%.
• Hit and Run — Every 5 yards players move without stopping increases skill damage by 10%.
• Illusive Strides — Players can move unhindered through enemies.
• Pursuit of Victory — Killing enemies grants a 30% Movement and Attack Speed increase for 2 seconds.

• Chain Lightning — Player attacks call Chain Lightning.
• Dirty Tricks — Players periodically Blind surrounding enemies.
• Frequent Blessings — Increased chance to find shrines.
• Holy Vengeance — Players sometimes inflict Holy Vengeance.
• Legendary! — Gain an extra legendary item affix for the Rift.
• Rend and Tear — Player attacks cause the enemy to Bleed after three hits.
• Shockwave — Player attacks have a chance to trigger a shockwave.
• Ultimate Overflow — Player Ultimate skills gain charge faster.
• Will to Survive — Players take 5% reduced damage for every 10% Life they have lost.

• Gilded Goblin — Find the hidden Treasure Goblin for bonus loot.
• Under Pressure — Beat the clock (under 3 minutes) for bonus treasure.

• Acidic — Acid pools slow players.
• Ambusher — Monster attacks from behind are always Critical Hits.
• Cruel — Monster Critical Hit Chance increased by 50%.
• Evasive — Monster Dodge Chance increased by 20%.
• Fleet-Footed — Monster Movement Speed increased by 20%.
• Frenzy — Monster Attack Speed increased by 20%.
• Lookout — Monsters sense players more easily.
• Rampage — Monsters deal 5% increased damage for every 10% Life they have lost.
• Sacrificial Power — Skills have reduced cooldowns, but cost health.

• Deadly Hoarders — Stronger Elite monsters, but improved rewards.
• Erratic Behavior — Monsters alternate being enraged and weakened.
• Explosive — Monsters sometimes explode on death.
• Flash Freeze — The floor freezes periodically, affecting movement.
• Near-Sighted — Player vision reduced.
• Lava Floors — Lava periodically erupts beneath players.
• No Loitering — Players standing still more than 1 second will be briefly Immobilized.
• Phoenix — Monsters sometimes resurrect.
• Poison Fog — Rift filled with poisonous fog. Find an Antidote to protect yourself for a short time.
• Terrified — Monsters will flee in Fear when damaged below 50% health.
• Trapped — Traps immobilize players.
• Windstorm — Fierce winds push away players.

• Elitist — All monsters are Elites.
• Guardian Gauntlet — Defeat a series of Rift Guardians.
• Untold Riches — Monsters sometimes drop treasure chests.

While their completion can yield a decent amount of XP and loot, by far the most important reward from Elder Rifts are the Legendary Gems. Legendary Gems primarily come from Elder Rifts enhanced by Crests. (Your other options are to craft them with Runes at the Jeweler, which is also tied to Elder Rift completion due to the Fading Embers Rune currency, or to buy them with Platinum from the Marketplace.)

Legendary Gems are a massive source of power for your character — increasing their Combat Rating (outright damage and survivability gain), Resonance (multiplying base stats of gear), and adding mighty, unique effects of their own. Needless to say, paying attention to Legendary Gems and their improvement is a must for your character progression, and their acquisition is closely tied to Elder Rift runs.

Base (uncrested) Elder Rift rewards include experience, items of varying quality from slain monsters ((Common, Magic, Rare, and even Legendary), and basic crafting materials. You also get 8 Fading Embers — the currency used at the Fading Embers and Runes trader to purchase Runes for Legendary Gem crafting. All in all, the rewards for uncrested Elder Rifts are close to non-existent; do other activities in the game instead. An exception can be made if:

• You want to cap your Blessed Chests from Daedessa's Blessing for the day.
• You want the Battle Points for a "Run 6 Elder Rifts" task in the Quests tab of the Codex.
• You desperately need to cap your Fading Embers for the week (you still get 8 Fading Embers for an uncrested run).

Adding one Crest or Legendary Crest to the Rift sets the Rune drop chance to:

• 80% for the following 1-Star Runes: Weh, Nie, Pyr, Lux, Ord, Syl, Urs, Bol, Ent, Dro, Vox, Rae, Tyr, Aud.
• 20% for the following 2-Star Runes: Nou, Imm, Ece, Cir, Laz, Zuh, Phy, Oth.

Note: Additional Crests of any quality do not modify the Rune drop chances. Additional Crests do however modify the amount of Runes dropped. Rare Crests give 4 Runes, meaning a maximum of 12 Runes per 3 Crests used. Legendary Crests give 3 Runes and 1 guaranteed Legendary Gem, meaning a maximum of 30 Runes per 10 Legendary Crest used.

Every Crest or Legendary Crest added to a Rift also increases the Fading Ember reward by 1, stacking on top of the base 8 per run. When using Crests, this means a maximum of 11 Fading Ember per 3 Crests used. When using Legendary Crests, this means a maximum of 18 Fading Embers per 10 Legendary Crest used.

Every Crest added to a Rift gives you a 5% drop chance for a 1-Star Legendary Gem. This drop chance is non-cumulative with additional Crests; you simply get up to three 5% RNG "rolls". You cannot obtain 2- and 5-Star Legendary Gems by using the (free-to-play accessible) Crests.

Every Legendary Crest added to a Rift gives you the following drop chances for Legendary Gems:

• 75.395% chance at a 1-Star Legendary Gem;
• 20.105% chance at a 2-Star Legendary Gem;
• 4.5% chance at a 5-Star Legendary Gem.

This drop chance is non-cumulative with additional Legendary Crests; you simply get up to ten RNG "rolls" with the percentages outlined above. Note that 5-Star Legendary Gems have an additional 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-Star internal tiers. The probabilities for those tiers are as follows:

• 75% chance at a Quality 2 5-Star Legendary Gem;
• 20% chance at a Quality 3 5-Star Legendary Gem;
• 4% chance at a Quality 4 5-Star Legendary Gem;
• 1% chance at a Quality 5 5-Star Legendary Gem.

Elder Rifts are a laid-back, group-oriented, in-and-out activity that you can fit even in the tightest of gaming schedules. Rift modifiers provide further randomization to an activity that already thrives on variation and unpredictability. Unfortunately, the Elder Rift reward structure — as vital as it is due to Legendary Gems — is based on ruthless free-to-play caps that demoralize F2P and low-spending players. And on the flip side, it encourages reckless P2W whaling. This puts a serious dampen on the joy and enthusiasm of the simplest, most casual type of loot run in Diablo Immortal.