Editing Ancient Rift (section)

== Implementation ==
Ancient Rifts can be opened from any [[Spatial Bypass]] beacon once the player finished the [[Story (ES2)|story]] and reached the maximum possible [[level]], with an option given at the start to set the overall difficulty and reward of the rift by adjusting its Lunacy (between 0 and 2,000 in increments of 100). There is also an option to add a [[Reliquary]] and its stage blessings, adding its loot quality to the final bonus, albeit with a minimum lunacy level to use. Once Lunacy has been confirmed, the [[Ships (ES2)|ship's]] equipment and consumables are locked (i.e. items cannot be added, removed or switched), and the player is thrown into the first zone and forced into combat against waves of [[Ancients/Everspace 2|Ancient]]-controlled enemy ships from all major hostile [[factions]].

* The player's goal in the first three areas of an Ancient Rift is to meet a specific enemy kill quota (akin to that of High Risk Areas) while maintaining their Resolve.
** Resolve gradually drains over time from an initial value of 100%, but can also be lost by taking damage or regained by killing enemies.
** Losing all hull (with [[Perks (ES2)#Adam/Hero - Player Perks|Close Call]] already used) or allowing Resolve to drain to 0% will not cause a game-over, but it will force the player out of the Ancient Rift early, forfeiting any possible [[Equipment (ES2)|equipment]] rewards.
** Enemies killed in these areas have a chance to drop [[Tears of the Mad]], a rare resource which is not available anywhere else.
* When the enemy kill quota for the current area is met, all remaining enemies will retreat and 1-3 portals to the next area will appear, each with a difference choice of high-risk-area style mutator, which give a bonus to loot quality based on the rift's lunacy and the mutator's potential difficulty.
** On first area completion, 3 portals will appear. Going through a portal starts the second area with the portal's listed mutator.
** On second area completion, 2 portals will appear with a different selection of mutators. As in the previous area, going through a portal starts the third area with the listed mutator, along with whatever mutator was listed in the second stage.
** On third area completion, only one portal will appear which will always take the player to the final area and boss, which will have a random boss mutator (not including the mutators from the previous stages). There is also no loot quality bonus with this final mutator.
* The player's goal in the final area is to slay a capital ship while under fire from its endlessly-regenerating fighter wing. Destroying this final boss completes the Ancient Rift, warping both the player and a generous cloud of loot back to the Spatial Bypass beacon used to open the rift, along with a lootable [[reliquary]] container if one was used, with an additional legendary and other loot.
** Depending on the Lunacy of the rift, the loot dropped from the boss may include one or more [[legendary items]], extremely potent pieces of equipment with their own signature effects.
** When opening an Ancient Rift while using a reliquary, the player has the option to artificially reach the reliquary's required lunacy by investing Tears of the Mad (instead of raising the difficulty to match the required lunacy).
* Regardless of how the Ancient Rift ends, the ship's health, [[Secondary Weapons (ES2)|secondary weapon]] ammunition, [[Consumables (ES2)|consumables]], and limited-use perks are restored to their pre-rift states upon the player's return to normal space.