Greater Rifts

Greater Rift Complete banner.

Greater Rifts (GRs or GRifts, initially known as Tiered Rifts) are a higher level of Nephalem Rift, added in Patch 2.1. Grifts are designed to provide an end game play mode with progressively increasing difficultly, and rewards to match.

Each Greater Rift is equivalent to a Nephalem Rift in size, layout, and monster density. The difference is that Greater Rifts must be completed within 15 minutes (to advance), and are scaled to their own 1-100 levels of difficulty (GR 25 is roughly equivalent to Torment 6). When players complete each Greater Rift by moving the progress bar to 100% and then killing the Guardian that appears, before the 15m timer runs out, they receive a token for a higher level Greater Rift. (Faster clears earn bigger jumps up in the Grift key level.)

Other game aspects tied to Greater Rifts include Legendary Gems, which are only found and upgraded (via Urshi) in Greater Rifts, and the Realm of Trials which exists as a way for players to earn higher level Greater Rift Keystones. (Saving them time over clearing multiple lower level Grifts as they work their way up.)

Quick notes:

There are very few shrines in Grifts and Pylons last only 15 seconds. There are no Conduit Pylons at all.
Treasure Goblins are not found in Grifts. Early on the PTR they were present, and would drop Progress Orbs when killed.
No loot or gold drops in Grifts, and there are no chests and very few destructibles.
Respecs and gear changes are not permitted during a Grift. In early PTR testing players could return to town and change gear, but this is no longer permitted.
Greater Rifts are found only in Adventure Mode and as such are only in Reaper of Souls or Ultimate Evil Edition.

Difficulty

Enter the Realm of Trials to earn higher level GRKs.

Greater Rifts do not use usual Diablo 3 difficulty system. GRs are numbered from 1-100 in ascending difficulty, and as players clear rifts they will earn Greater Rift Keys (GRKs) to enter higher level Rifts.

It's impossible to directly compare difficulty levels^[1] due to vagaries in monster spawn and density, but the approximate levels agreed upon by testers are:^[2] ^[3]

Approximate Greater Rift Level = Difficulty

Greater Rift Level 1 = Normal
Greater Rift Level 3 = Hard
Greater Rift Level 4 = Expert
Greater Rift Level 6 = Master
Greater Rift Level 8 = Torment 1
Greater Rift Level 12 = Torment 2
Greater Rift Level 15 = Torment 3
Greater Rift Level 17 = Torment 4
Greater Rift Level 20 = Torment 5
Greater Rift Level 25 = Torment 6
Greater Rift Level 25+ = Harder and harder.

GR30 was about the limit for a very well-equipped (softcore) character entering the Patch 2.1 testing on the PTR. Going higher than that required great gear and/or various exploits (many of which were patched during the PTR testing after players found tricks to reach GR100) or very good teamwork. Post Patch 2.1 Blizzard expects that characters with top gear and Legendary Gems will be able to clear up into the 30s or low 40s. Higher than that will take real dedication and exceptional gear.

Greater Rifts require a balance of gear, since they must be defeated within the 15m time limit, and since dying means no restart from corpse option. Players thus can't die much (or at all solo), but players also can't be too conservative with lots of toughness but not enough killing power.

Accessing Greater Rifts

The series of steps to enter Greater Rifts:

Find a Keystone of Trials, which can be dropped by any Nephalem Rift Guardian.
Use the Keystone of Trials at the Nephalem Obelisk in town to enter the Realm of Trials.
1. In the Trial fight waves of enemies, killing as many as possible to earn a higher level Greater Rift Key.
Use your Greater Rift Key to open a Greater Rift of that level.
Clear the Grift and kill the Guardian within 15m to earn a higher level GRK.
GRKs are upgraded via Urshi, and a higher level GRK will be created based on how fast the rift was cleared.
Use the new GRK to enter a Grift of that level, and repeat until you can not finish a Grift in time.

Prior to the introduction of the Realm of Trials, players simply found GRK 1 and started on level one, moving up quickly to higher levels via very quick completions of the low difficulty GRifts. This was boring for well-geared characters though, having to repeatedly rush through the equivalent of Normal difficulty Grifts, hence Blizzard implemented the Realm of Trials to provide higher level GRks that could be earned fairly quickly.

Progress Bar and Rift Speed

The progress bar in a Greater Rift looks the same as the bar in a normal Nephalem Rift, with two added slider needles, displayed above and below the bar. The total bar coloured in orange, and the icon above it show your current progress towards completing the rift. The icon below it and any colour in blue shows how fast you need to progress to complete the rift in time.

Ahead of the progress time.

Behind the progress time.

When players are battling through a Rift that's just at the limit of their killing power, they will often see their progress dropping behind, or moving slightly ahead of the timer bar, depending on the monster density and their relative sleepd. Since the Rift Guardian appears last and has very high hit points, players must be some distance ahead of the end time on the progress bar to have time to finish the Guardian as well, and most Rifts "fail" while players are locked in fevered battle with the GRG.

Since the speed will vary quite a bit depending on the monster spawn, players can get unlucky and fail to complete a Rift due to poor enemy density. The opposite can be true as well, and players are advised not to beat a Rift too quickly if they're approaching the limit of their ability. For example, if you get a very easy spawn on a level 20 rift, you might want to stall for a few minutes before beating the Rift Guardian, so your GRKs would only upgrade to level 21 or 22, instead of jumping all the way up to say level 25, where you'd be over your head and unable to complete in time. (Or in danger of death if you're playing Hardcore.)

Players can judge their speed in a rift and know if they need to go faster or slower depending on the progress bar. Characters who are well ahead of the time but coming close to death should look to improve their Toughness and defensive properties/skills. Characters who are having no trouble surviving but are not killing fast enough to keep up with the timer should look to raise their DPS, perhaps by trading off some Toughness or defensive buffs. (These changes can not be made in any given rift, and must be made between games.)

When characters fail to complete a rift in time they can still earn the item and gold rewards for killing the Greater Rift Guardian. They just fail to earn more Greater Rift Keystones and thus can not progress to a higher level Rift. If they have no more GRKs they must restart at a level one GR (or go clear normal Rifts until they find a GRK) and work their way back up.

Rewards

Typical Guardian drop.

All gold and item rewards in Greater Rifts are granted by the Greater Rift Guardian at the end of the level, who pops with a massive shower of gold, items, and materials, including usually at least one legendary item.

No gold or items are meant to drop (early in the PTR Patch testing some were still from destructibles) from normal or Elite enemies in a Greater Rift, there are no chests or clickables (loose floor tiles, dead bodies, armor/weapon racks, etc) and very few destructibles. Monster kills do grant experience as well as Rift Progress, but the gold and item and material rewards come entirely from the Greater Rift Guardian.

Greater Rift Reveal

Blizzard revealed the first details about Greater Rifts in a Patch 2.1 preview blog on June 17, 2014.^[4]

To access a Greater Rift, simply complete a regular Nephalem Rift in any difficulty. When you defeat the Rift Guardian, they’ll have a chance to drop a Greater Rift Key. You can then use this new key at the Nephalem Obelisk, similar to other Rift Fragments — this will open a Greater Rift. If you have members in your party, each player will be prompted to use one of their own Greater Rift keys to join the fun!

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While Greater Rifts are a type of Nephalem Rift, there are some key differences between the two features. In Greater Rifts:

You’ll race against a clock to fill a progress bar by accruing monster kills.
Most monsters do not drop loot; rewards have been completely shifted to the Rift Guardian.
This removes conflicting pressure from attaining a better time versus picking up all your loot.
Monsters grant differing amounts of progress for your progress bar; the tougher the monster, the more they fill up your progress bar.
You cannot resurrect at your corpse or in town while in a Greater Rift -- only at the last checkpoint.
Note that, currently, if you die in a Greater Rift on a Hardcore character, that death will be permanent.
You cannot use player banners or the Teleport option if the target player is in a Greater Rift.
Higher Greater Rifts levels are progressively more difficult.
This difficulty is separate from the standard difficulty settings (Master, Torment I-VI, etc.)

If you complete a Greater Rift before time expires you’ll advance to the next difficulty level. Should your time be exceptionally good, you might even skip a few levels! If time instead expires, you’ll have reached the end of your current Greater Rift journey and your best results will be posted to the appropriate Leaderboards.

Greater Rift Leaderboards

The top characters and teams during each Season will be ranked on Leaderboards, giving bragging rights and epeen to the most dedicated players.^[4]

Greater Rift Leaderboards

Greater Rift leaderboards will be split between both Hardcore and Normal gameplay modes as well as Seasonal and Non-Seasonal characters. To help encourage a variety of play styles and allow you to measure yourself against similar competitors, we’ve also broken up Greater Rift leaderboards into the following categories: