Fight beneath a Rift and it wakes

In Emberfold it hangs over the Cinder Basin, a shallow bowl of ember scree and ash ringed by burnt antler-trees, a short walk north-east of Hearthrib's hearth court.

On the Tidecrowned coast, the first Rift hangs over the kelp forest on the flats of Saltglass Reach.

A Rift reaches its boss after about ten to fifteen minutes of fighting beneath it, whether you are alone or in a crowd: a crowd angers it faster, but its waves grow to match. Leave it alone and it calms over a few minutes.

You hear it too. In the highlands an angering Rift is a low brass groan under a dry crackle; on the coast, a deep wet rumble with a glassy ring. Both rise with its anger.

• Stirring In the game now

  Violet crackles run along the scar, and its first creatures drop.

• Angry In the game now

  Clouds swirl round the tear, lightning strikes where its creatures land, and the music changes.

• Furious In the game now

  The sky darkens round it, the tear widens, the ground cracks with Rift light, and elites fall.

• The boss In the game now

  The Rift's boss descends.

• Cinderhusks In development

  Rift-dried husks of the valley's dead, hunched, their cracked hide seamed with ember and their horns broken.

• Ember wisps In development

  Floating sparks of the Rift in a slow amber flame, trailing over the ridged grass.

• Riftgnawers In development

  Lean six-legged hounds of violet rift-glass and bone with a long split jaw. They hunt in threes.

• Drowned husks In development

  The drowned dead, raised by the Rift: tall and stooped, crusted in brine, their fins broken.

• Brine wisps In development

  Cold sparks in a sheath of mist, drifting over the kelp.

• Reefstalkers In development

  Spined six-legged hunters of coral and violet rift-glass.

Over Emberfold it is the Pyre-Antlered: a tall antlered creature with a ribcage of violet fire, its antlers burning at the tips. Over Saltglass Reach it is the Tidemaw, a vast jawed thing that comes down trailing sea water under a mantle of violet light.

The fight can be lost. If the boss still stands after about ten minutes, or if everyone falls, the Rift swallows it back and calms by a stage. Anger it again and it will return.

A realm is built from a seed, so no two are alike. It is put together from hand-made pieces, themed to the land it opened over, and carries random modifiers such as creatures that deal extra cold damage, or less healing.

Up to about twenty players share a realm; a bigger crowd is split into several realms of the same seed. You clear it together through packs, events and lesser bosses to its final boss. Fall and you return at a checkpoint: the realm is lost only if everyone is down at once.

There is no pile to fight over and nothing to steal. Rifts are the main source of loot in the game, and they can drop anything the game has: the most valuable things are unlikely, but always possible.

Some unique items drop only from Rifts.

How Rifts climb in tiers comes in a later slice, once the base loop is in your hands.