N
The Daily Insight

Diablo 3 how do rifts work

Author

Daniel Rodriguez

Updated on March 26, 2026

Challenge Rifts do away with the normal randomization of Diablo in favor of a set experience. A Challenge Rift challenges you to beat another player’s Greater Rift run time.

There are other answers below:

Nephalem Rifts (formerly known as “Loot Runs”) are special dungeons accessed via the Nephalem Obelisk in town. Rifts require one Rift Keystone to open, are only present in Adventure Mode (not Campaign Mode), and are found only in Reaper of Souls, not Diablo 3. (Blizzard initially planned to include them in D3, but changed that plan during RoS’ development.)

A Greater Nephalem Rift is a timed rift whose difficulty is independent of the current game’s difficulty setting. Monsters inside Greater Nephalem Rifts drop no loot except for the Rift Guardian. The time limit for any Greater Nephalem Rift is 15 minutes. Note that Patch 2.3 greatly overhauled (read: simplified) the Greater Rift feature.

How Challenge Rifts Work in Diablo 3. In CRs, you are given another player’s character to use instead of one of your own. This character comes with their own build already pre-chosen, so you have to work with what you’ve got. The challenge then comes from trying to beat the original player’s time for the rift.

There are three core activities in Adventure Mode, the gameplay mode where you will spend the majority of your playtime: Bounties, Regular (“Nephalem”) Rifts, and Greater Rifts. Greater Rifts are considered the “endgame” of the three, a challenging mode where you funnel all of your character development efforts.

Nephalem Rifts are a gameplay feature of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls. They are available in the game’s Adventure Mode and use a randomized dungeon system. Nephalem Rifts are alternate realities to Sanctuary , accessible from the mortal realm, where nephalem test their strength, in order to prove their worth.

Greater Rifts are the only place to get Legendary Gems in Diablo 3 — except for the one that drops in the Treasure Realm, the Boon of the Hoarder. Legendary Gems can also be leveled up to a higher level at the end of a completed Greater Rift — the higher level the GR, the more chance Urshi can increase the level of your Legendary Gem.

Example: if a player completes a rank 25 (T6) Rift in 12 minutes, leaving 3:00 minutes remaining, Rifts up to rank 26 (25 + 1) will be unlocked. After that, completing an additional level 25 Rift with less than 4:30 remaining will not unlock a new Rift rank.

To jump into a public game, you have to coordinate properly before jumping into one since the grift games are random and most likely not be the levels you’ll be looking for. If you can solo 48, rounding up to the next highest torment level (which would be 50 for you) plus 5 …

How Challenge Rifts Work in Diablo 3 In CRs, you are given another player’s character to use instead of one of your own. This character comes with their own build already pre-chosen, so you have to work with what you’ve got. The challenge then comes from trying to beat the original player’s time for the rift.

Related Questions

How do Challenge Rifts work in Diablo 2?

Blizzard has provided new details explaining exactly how they work, and they sound like a good change in pace from the usual style of play. Challenge Rifts do away with the normal randomization of Diablo in favor of a set experience. A Challenge Rift challenges you to beat another player’s Greater Rift run time.

What are greater Nephalem rifts in Diablo 3?

Diablo 3’s Patch 2.1.0 added a new feature called ” Greater Nephalem Rifts “. What are they, and how do they work? Show activity on this post. A Greater Nephalem Rift is a timed rift whose difficulty is independent of the current game’s difficulty setting. Monsters inside Greater Nephalem Rifts drop no loot except for the Rift Guardian.

How do Greater Rifts work?

Greater Rifts are the only place you can obtain legendary gems and upgrade them. With a fresh character, every new completed Greater Rift will reward you with one legendary gem, until you fill your entire collection (the only exception to this rule is Boon of the Hoarder — read about it in the regular rifts article ).

How do rifts work in Reaper of Souls?

Every player who wants to enter the rift must have such a greater keystone, unlike the normal Nephalem Rifts which only require keystones from the player who opens the rift and then let anyone else in the game enter for free. Shortly after Reaper of Souls’ release, Blizzard announced a +25% drop rate bonus for legendary items in Rifts.