Rift Guardian

Rift Guardians are large bosses, randomly-selected from a large list of potential enemies. They appear when the player(s) in a Nephalem Rift kill enough enemies (around 500) to bring the progress bar to 100%.

Rime goes enrage-mode when near death.

Rift Guardians drop more items (including materials and gems) than any other single target in the game, and are the single best source for Blood Shards, dropping at least 20 on Normal difficulty and far mroe (80+) on the higher Torment difficulties. During the Reaper of Souls beta test Guardians dropped like any random Elite, with the main reward for clearing a rift coming in a Horadric Cache, but this drop was moved directly to the Guardian during testing.[1]

Rift Guardian Types and Powers

Rift Guardians are randomly-assigned to each Rift, with one picked from the possible Guardians on a large list. (With one exception; the Lord of Bells only appears after the Easter Egg Infernal Bovine cow rifts.)[2]

Rift Guardians are all "purple" Unique monsters, with special powers and abilities that are pre-set, rather than randomly-spawned as the Modifiers are on random Elites. Many Guardians have some special abilities that do not appear on other bosses, such as the full screen elemental attacks displayed by Rime and Blighter when they drop below 25% health.

Some Rift Guardians are modified quest bosses, and players will encounter Guardian versions of Zoltan Kulle, The Butcher, Maghda, Cydaea, Leoric] and many others.

Rift Guardian Index

The Rift Guardians are randomly-selected to appear at the end of the rift. They are entirely random and unweighted, with any able to appear in any type of Rift, with one exception. The Lord of Bells is the Easter Egg version of the Cow King and will only appear at the end of the ultra-rare Infernal Bovine rift.

Rift Guardians Achievement listing.

Media

A selection of images of Rift Guardians.

Typical Rift Guardian drop.
Rift Guardian achievement, from the Beta.
Rift Guardian Blighter with his special poison attack.
Rift Guardian Rime with his special cold attack.
60 Blood Shards dropped on Torment I.
After killing the guardian, the Rift can be ended.

Pre-Release Datamined Rift Guardians

A list of available loot runs bosses, from Reaper of Souls datamining in late 2013. As with the other datamined strings, these were not final and subject to change before release.

Encounter_Name - The Cultist Legion

Encounter_Join_Instruction - Triggered by {s1}
- TestBossEncounter_Info_Text - Cultist Legion
- TestBossEncounter_Taunt_Text - Wave Fight Challenge

Boss_Alcarnus_01_SkeletonKing_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Random Boss Fight

Boss_Alcarnus_01_SkeletonKing_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Boss!

Boss_Keep_01_Gluttony_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Random Boss Fight

Boss_Keep_01_Gluttony_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Boss!

ZoltunKulle_Encounter_Name - Boss: Random Boss Fight

ZoltunKulle_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Boss!

Boss_Keep_01_Despair_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Library of Fate

Boss_Keep_01_Despair_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the demon Despair!

Boss_Keep_01_Gluttony_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Gluttony

Boss_Keep_01_Gluttony_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat Ghom, the Lord of Gluttony!

Boss_Keep_01_SpiderQueen_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Lair of the Spider Queen

Boss_Keep_01_SpiderQueen_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Spider Queen!

Boss_Alcarnus_01_SkeletonKing_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Crypt of the Skeleton Monarch

Boss_Alcarnus_01_SkeletonKing_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Skeleton Monarch!

FallenChampion_Summoner_Encounter_Name - Boss: Rokrak

FallenChampion_Summoner_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Brutal Fallen Master

Boss_Belial_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Battle for Caldeum

Boss_Belial_Taunt_Text - Defeat Belial, Lord of Lies!

Boss_SpiderQueen_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Lair of the Spider Queen

Boss_SpiderQueen_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Spider Queen!

Boss_SkeletonKing_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Crypt of the Skeleton King

Boss_SkeletonKing_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Skeleton King!

Boss_Siegebreaker_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Demon Gate

Boss_Siegebreaker_Taunt_Text - Defeat the demon Siegebreaker!

Boss_MistressOfPain_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Maiden of Lust

Boss_MistressOfPain_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Maiden and destroy the final Sin Heart!

Boss_Maghda_Encounter_Name - Boss: Maghda's Den

Boss_Maghda_Taunt_Text - Defeat Maghda!

Boss_Gluttony_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Larder

Boss_Gluttony_Taunt_Text - Defeat Ghom, the Lord of Gluttony!

Boss_Despair_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Library of Fate

Boss_Despair_Taunt_Text - Defeat the demon Despair!

Boss_Butcher_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Butcher's Lair

Boss_Butcher_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Butcher!

LittleBelial_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Crypt of the Skeleton King

LittleBelial_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Skeleton King!

Boss_Keep_01_Maghda_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Malefique

Boss_Keep_01_Maghda_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the cruel Malefique

Boss_Keep_01_Despair_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Despair

Boss_Keep_01_Despair_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the vicious Despair

Alcarnus_01_Despair_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Despair

Alcarnus_01_Despair_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the vicious Despair

Boss_Alcarnus_01_Warden_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Reformed Warden

Boss_Alcarnus_01_Warden_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Reformed Warden

Boss_Keep_01_Warden_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Reformed Warden

Boss_Keep_01_Warden_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Reformed Warden

Boss_Keep_01_MistressOfPain_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Mistress of Pain

Boss_Keep_01_MistressOfPain_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the alluring Mistress of Pain

Boss_Alcarnus_01_MistressOfPain_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Mistress of Pain

Boss_Alcarnus_01_MistressOfPain_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the alluring Mistress of Pain

Boss_Keep_01_SpiderQueen_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Spider Queen

Boss_Keep_01_SpiderQueen_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Spider Queen

SpiderQueenB_Encounter_Name - Boss: Spider Queen

SpiderQueenB_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Spider Queen

Boss_Alcarnus_01_SpiderQueen_01_Encounter_Name -Boss: Spider Queen

Boss_Alcarnus_01_SpiderQueen_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Spider Queen

Boss_Spider_01_Warden_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Reformed Warden

Boss_Spider_01_Warden_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Reformed Warden

Boss_Spider_01_Maghda_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Malefique

Boss_Spider_01_Maghda_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the cruel Malefique

Boss_Spider_01_MistressOfPain_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Mistress of Pain

Boss_Spider_01_MistressOfPain_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the alluring Mistress of Pain

Boss_Spider_01_SkeletonKing_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Crypt of the Skeleton Monarch

Boss_Spider_01_SkeletonKing_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Skeleton Monarch!

Boss_Spider_01_Despair_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Despair

Boss_Spider_01_Despair_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the vicious Despair

Spider_01_Gluttony_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Gluttony

Spider_01_Gluttony_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat Ghom, the Lord of Gluttony!

Boss_Cath_01_Warden_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Reformed Warden

Boss_Cath_01_Warden_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Reformed Warden

Boss_Cath_01_Despair_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Despair

Boss_Cath_01_Despair_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the vicious Despair

Boss_Cath_01_SkeletonKing_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: The Crypt of the Skeleton Monarch

Boss_Cath_01_SkeletonKing_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Skeleton Monarch!

Boss_Cath_01_Gluttony_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Gluttony

Boss_Cath_01_Gluttony_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat Ghom, the Lord of Gluttony!

Boss_Cath_01_MistressOfPain_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Mistress of Pain

Boss_Cath_01_MistressOfPain_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the alluring Mistress of Pain

Boss_Cath_01_SpiderQueen_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Spider Queen

Boss_Cath_01_SpiderQueen_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Spider Queen

Boss_Crypt_01_Warden_01_Encounter_Name - Boss: Reformed Warden

Boss_Crypt_01_Warden_01_Taunt_Text - Defeat the Reformed Warden

Rift Guardian

Contents

Rift Guardian Types and Powers

Rift Guardian Index

Media

Pre-Release Datamined Rift Guardians