# Riftfall

Every player, or every pair, wakes on a shard of the broken sky with nothing in hand. The Vael caches hold blades, armour and blocks; the **Crown isle** at the centre holds the best. Bridge, loot, fight. There is no waking again. Then the **Rift** wakes, and the isles crumble into the cloud sea from the edge inward. The last one standing wins.

## How to get in

- **From the title menu:** under Emberhold, press **Riftfall**. Its window has three tabs: **Play**, **Ranks** and **Record**.
- **Solo** sets 8 players on 8 shards, one each. **Pairs** sets 12 players on 6 shards, two to a shard. Each button says how many are waiting.
- Your character is the one you play in the Riven Lands, with your name and your look. Your bag stays at home: you start a round empty-handed.

## The round

![A Riftfall round in play: the Rift’s ring as a small chart with you as a dot, its count, and how many are left.](https://riventale.world/guides/modes/riftfall-hud.webp)

*The Rift’s ring, its count, and who is left.*

- **Sides.** In Pairs, each shard’s two wear its colour: Red, Cyan, Yellow, Purple, Green or Orange.
- **Bots fill the seats.** 30 seconds after the first player sits down, bots take every empty seat. A bot carries a hollow rune before its name. Bots loot, bridge and keep ahead of the Rift; beating one gives fewer Embers, and it never counts for the ranks.
- **The countdown.** 6 seconds; nothing can hurt you before the fighting begins.
- **6 minutes at most.** The last player or pair standing wins at once. If anyone is still up at 6:00, they are ranked by kills, then by players left, then by health.

## The Rift

![The Rift closing: two outer shards over the cloud sea, the next it will crumble.](https://riventale.world/guides/modes/riftfall-rift.webp)

*The outer shards fall first.*

The Rift is a ring round the centre of the Sundered Crown. Every block outside it crumbles into the cloud sea, isles and bridges alike, and nothing can be built past it. While it moves, the tops about to fall turn to glowing **riftstone**, about 12 seconds ahead. When the ground under you starts to glow, move inward.

| When | The ring | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 to 1:15 | Holds at 48 blocks | Calm: loot your shard and bridge out. |
| 1:15 to 3:45 | Closes from 48 to 12 blocks | The shards fall first, then the mid isles. |
| 3:45 to 4:45 | Holds at 12 blocks | Only the Crown isle stands. |
| 4:45 to 5:45 | Closes to nothing | The last close. Nothing is left. |

The ring’s chart on the HUD shows its edge now, where it is closing to, and you as a dot. The count beside it says how long until it moves or stops.

## The caches

Vael caches stand on every shard, on the mid isles and on the Crown. What is in them rolls new each round. Your shard’s first cache always holds Skystone, a Stone Sword and food, and sometimes an Iron Helmet.

| Where | What a cache can hold |
|---|---|
| **Your shard** | Skystone, Iron Swords, iron armour, Recurve Bows and Arrows, Iron Pickaxes, Stone Bricks, now and then a Sunapple |
| **The mid isles** | Iron Swords and iron armour, Recurve Bows and Arrows, Sunapples, Squall, Skystone |
| **The Crown isle** | Dawnspar Swords and Dawnspar armour, Recurve Bows and Arrows, Sunapples, Squall and Stonewake, Skystone |

The Crown is worth the crossing, and everyone knows it. Loot your shard first, then decide who reaches the centre before the Rift decides for you.

## Building

- Skystone and Stone Bricks from the caches go down as in Hearthwar, and only what was put down this round breaks. The shards themselves never break; the Rift takes them.
- Skystone breaks in 0.5 seconds by hand. Stone Bricks take 4 seconds by hand, 1.1 with an Iron Pickaxe.
- A bridge is a road for anyone. Break it behind you, or wall the end.

## Dying

- **One life.** A death is final.
- **What you carried spills where you fell,** for whoever gets there first. Fall into the void, and the void keeps it.
- **In Pairs,** your partner fights on. Your pair is out when both have fallen.
- Out, you watch the players still fighting.

## Embers and rewards

![The results of a Riftfall round: every side in its finishing place with its kills, your Embers and your record.](https://riventale.world/guides/modes/riftfall-results.webp)

*The results.*

- **Embers** by place: 32 for the winner, then 20, 16, 13, 11, 10, 9 and 8, and more for every kill. A bot is worth less than a player.
- **Items** go to your bag in the Riven Lands: 8 Skystone for a round, 16 Skystone and a Wanestone for a win.
- The day’s caps are shared by Emberhold, Hearthwar and Riftfall: at most 400 Embers a day across every mode, and items for your first three finished rounds. Every cap starts over at midnight UTC.
- They are the same Embers Emberhold gives, spent on the same looks: see [Embers in the Emberhold guide](https://riventale.world/guides/emberhold/#embers).

## Ranks and your record

- **Your record** for Riftfall keeps wins, rounds, kills, deaths, your win streak and your best streak. The Riftfall window’s **Record** tab shows it.
- **The Ranks** list players by wins or by best streak, among your friends or everyone. Only players signed in to an account are ranked, and bots never are.
- **Seasons** last 28 days, as in Emberhold. The Ranks start over each season; your record never does.

## Commands

`/riftfall` in chat, in a round, says which round it is, what it is doing and how many seats are taken. Outside a round it points you to the title menu.

A server’s operators can run a round by hand: `/riftfall start` sends the bots to the empty seats now, `end` ends the round, `calm` holds the bots back, and `skip <seconds>` runs the clock on, the Rift with it.

The other round modes: [Emberhold](https://riventale.world/guides/emberhold/) and [Hearthwar](https://riventale.world/guides/hearthwar/). More ways to play with others: [Playing together](https://riventale.world/guides/playing-with-friends/).

Next: [Riftways](https://riventale.world/guides/riftways/). All sections: [the guides](https://riventale.world/guides/).

Play now: https://riventale.world/