Ancient Rift

Ancient Rifts are an endgame content mechanic in Everspace 2 which was initially introduced in Early Access version 0.10.30110, the Ancient Rifts update. They are the primary way to obtain powerful Legendary items.

Initial Vision[ | ]

Ancient Rifts were initially planned to be a series of procedurally generated areas, increasing in difficulty as the player progresses (similar to Everspace's gameplay). Progressing through these rifts would reward the player with valuable and unique loot, potentially including Ancient artifacts which could be used to upgrade equipment. Loot would be kept on death, but there would be a bonus based on progression.

Kickstarter description

[[File:]]

While exploring a certain sector in the endgame, you might come across sudden cracks in space, strange anomalies that will lead you to dangerous regions full of unrelenting enemies. This is where you have to prove all your strength and cunning to survive zone after zone of ever-increasing difficulty, collecting powerful artifacts and super-rare resources that can be used to upgrade your equipment with Ancients’ technology.

If pilots die, they are thrown out of the crack and wake up as if from a dream at their previous location. Despite their abrupt demise, they can still enjoy the loot they have collected and a hefty bonus, depending on how deep they ventured into the territory. Mysterious…

Implementation[ | ]

Ancient Rifts can be opened from any Spatial Bypass beacon once the player finished the 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 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 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 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 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 weapon ammunition, consumables, and limited-use perks are restored to their pre-rift states upon the player's return to normal space.

Notes[ | ]

All enemies in rifts count as Ancients or Ancient-controlled units. This affects several modifiers:
- The universal weapon modifier "20% increased damage against Ancients and Ancient-controlled units" applies to all enemies inside rifts.
- Modifiers adding bonus damage against specific factions do not apply.

Lunacy[ | ]

Lunacy level	Loot Quality
0
500
1000
1500
2000

Mutators[ | ]

Current mutators and blessings can be viewed via opening the map tab in the menu while in a rift.

Type	Name	Quality Bonus (L2000)	Effect	Notes
Stage	Burst Bulbs	+180%
Stage	Corrosive Death	+180%
Stage	Evasive	+300%
Stage	Explosive Death	+0%
Stage	Farsighted	+240%
Stage	Hidden Health	+120%
Stage	Jarred Sensors	+90%
Stage	Mines on Death	+180%
Stage	Nearsighted	+300%
Stage	No Lock	+300%
Stage	No EMP	+180%
Stage	Overheated Systems	+180%
Stage	Repair on Kill	+180%
Stage	Strength in Death	+360%
Stage	Vengeance	+300%
Boss	Apocalypse	N/A	BOSS: Periodically spawns energy shield bubbles and builds up an ARC-like explosion that can only be survived by entering the bubbles.	There is a four-second grace period of invulnerability after leaving a bubble or when it dissolves. Bubbles also grant invulnerability to debuffs.
Boss	Evasive Drift	N/A	BOSS: Periodically tries to relocate by boosting away.
Boss	Guardians	N/A	BOSS: Periodically becomes invulnerable and spawns two Ancient Wardens that need to be destroyed before it can be attacked again.
Boss	Phase Barrier	N/A	BOSS: Surrounded by an energy shield that cannot be penetrated by weapons, forcing you to fly inside the shield to damage them.
Boss	Quantum Mend	N/A	BOSS: Periodically teleports to a random location and starts repairing until he takes damage again.
Boss	Stasis Snare	N/A	BOSS: The stage is filled with bubbles that slow down all ships and drones that touch them.

Gallery[ | ]

Concept art
A rift stage with a cracked asteroid

Trivia[ | ]

The Ancient Rifts were the first and only unlocked stretch goal from the Kickstarter.
Completing (either by completion or being forced out) the first rift during the story awards the "Still in One Piece" achievement.
Successfully completing a rift at any lunacy awards the "Rift Runner" achievement.
Successfully completing a rift at 500 lunacy or higher awards the "Legendary Lunatic" achievement.