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Rifts - Just add monsters

Apart from doing the various bounties there is also what I would call the “bread-and-butter” of Adventure Mode, more specifically the Rift System. Using a keystone fragment, which can be acquired through the sweet bounties, you can open up a portal to another realm, where everything is mixed up. Every monster from every act is brought together in this crazy instance which can give some really interesting (and frustrating) combinations of special monsters, with multiple groups of these close together =)

First Rift and I dinged 70! :D

On top of this, the difficulty is turned up a notch and we all know what that means... Better monster = Better loot! :D And at the end of every rift, when (almost) every monster has been killed, there’s even a neat boss holding shinies for you to take :D However, as it is with the actual bosses in the story mode, they’re not really much of a challenge :( (with exception of Malthael, who can actually be pretty tough :P)

The last bosses of a Rift do have a sweet function, though. Killing one gives a Keystone of Trials, an event where players have to fight and kill as many waves of enemies that they can within a given time frame. After this event, the Keystone of Trials is replaced with a Greater Rift Keystone. These special, and last, tier of Keystones then scales in level, according to how you did in the trials. Very interesting and a really neat way of rewarding better players :)

Better Rifts, better everything

Using one of these Greater Rift Keystones opens - Yes, you’ve guessed it - A Greater Rift :D Difficulty in these scales according to the level of the Keystone, so these are the ultimate Rifts in the game. Where a normal Rift is “just” another world for killing monsters, there’s an added timer in a Greater Rift.

The timer makes the whole experience a lot more hectic and fun :D Suddenly, it actually matters how the bad guys are taken out, since you have to be as efficient as possible… And that means absolutely no fooling around! :P

Awaiting our first trials... We didn't manage to kill the first wave in time xD

To aid the players in their quest to cleanse a Greater Rift, so-called Pylons are put into the instance at random. Once acquired, these adds tremendous amounts of power to the characters, such as an AoE lightning( which basically one shots all monsters it hits) and just adds to this incredibly fun element! :D

Let me just drop an example of how much power they bring to the table: During our first Rift-run, my girlfriend and I encountered one of these AoE lightning-pylons. Because of its power, my girlfriend then proceeded to rush through the next couple of Rifts in search of one… And by rushing, I mean running and dashing through the instance without ever touching a monster. The consequence of this was that I would get overwhelmed by her having pulled most of the Rift in one go :(

However, once you get your better half under control, the Greater Rifts offer sweet, sweet loot - Of course xD Beside the always amazing drop rate from the monsters, there’s also a Rift Boss (who can drop a legendary gem), so there is a lot of opportunity to upgrade gear :) And If that wasn’t enough, once a Greater Rift is complete, a nice spirit appears and offers to either upgrade a legendary gem or the keystone (but not both) for a chance at even better loot :P

Looks like we're fine on time in the Greater Rift, though :P