Riftspinner Expanded Systems

Abilities, evolutions, heat, events and the Daily Rift, with the real numbers.

Build 20261036 adds a lot to Riftspinner without changing how a basic run feels. This guide covers every new system with the real numbers from the game: level-up rerolls, tag sets, weapon evolutions, rig abilities and drones, wave events, rift tyrants, cursed caches, the black market, heat levels, mutators, the Daily Rift, challenge codes, the collection and the app features. Nothing here is required. A plain run works exactly as before, and the new layers are there when you want a harder or deeper game.

Level-ups: rerolls, banishes and tags

Each level-up still offers four cards. You now start every run with 2 rerolls and 1 banish. A reroll replaces the four cards with a fresh set (press R on the level-up screen, or tap the button). A banish removes one card from the pool for the rest of the run, which is how you stop a card you never want from showing up again (press B, then pick the card). Cursed deals, the black market and some cache prizes give you more of both.

Cards, weapons, armour and relics now carry tags: Electric, Venom, Blast, Pierce, Vital, Crit, Swift. When you hold two or four sources of the same tag you earn a set bonus. The status screen lists the sets you have started and your count in each.

Weapon evolutions

Every weapon style has one evolution. When your build has enough sources of the evolution's tag (three, for every evolution), an EVOLVE card joins your next level-up. Taking it transforms your equipped weapon of that style into its evolved form, keeps its affixes and adds the bonus below. A weapon can evolve once.

Behaviour cards and rig perks

Behaviour cards change how you play rather than adding a number. An example is Last Stand: once per run a killing blow restores 45% health, protects you for 3 seconds and blasts nearby hosts. Others react to kills, dashes and shocks. They appear in the normal level-up pool, and some are locked until you meet a condition, shown in the collection screen. Each rig also has two perk cards of its own that only that rig can be offered:

Rig abilities

Every rig has an active ability on R (or the ABILITY button on touch, and a gamepad button). It starts with a 10 second cooldown at the beginning of the run. After that the base cooldown is shown below, and kills recharge it: a little for fodder, a lot for elites and bosses. A mutation card makes it recharge faster.

Drone cards add companions for the rest of the run: an Attack drone circles you and shoots the nearest host, a Medic drone heals you every few seconds, a Guard drone shoots hostile bolts out of the air, and Drone Tuning makes all of them fire 25% faster and hit 25% harder.

Wave events

From wave 5 there is a 26% chance that a wave comes with an event, and boss waves never do. The CHAOS mutator makes it every wave from wave 2. Each event also has an earliest wave, so only some of them can appear early. An announcement, an edge-of-screen pointer and a banner on the HUD tell you what is happening.

Rift tyrants

At waves 25, 50 and 75 a rift tyrant arrives. It is a boss with 1.6 times the normal health, a larger body and 20% more damage. At half health it enters a second phase, changes shape and calls in 8 adds. It always drops a legendary item that is never auto-scrapped, but like all loot it crumbles if you leave it for two waves. Defeating tyrants counts towards the Tyrantslayer and Throne Breaker achievements and unlocks the Bone White body colour.

Map hazards

Rift strikes mark the ground with a warning and then hit it, so keep moving. On Rift II, sticky mires slow you inside them. The Storm Front event triples strike frequency, and heat 7 adds 60% more.

Cursed caches and the black market

From wave 4 a cursed cache can appear (about a one in three chance per wave, with a cooldown). Walk up and press the inspect key to see a prize and its price. Accepting stacks a curse; each curse can stack up to three times.

Every fifth wave a black market opens between waves. It sells a field repair, a loaded draft (+2 rerolls and +1 banish), a salvage crate (a rare or better item, 20% epic), a signal boost (an instant level-up) and a back-alley deal (an epic item at half price that carries a curse). Prices rise with the wave and are paid from your banked ash, so the market is where long-term savings turn into a stronger run.

Heat levels

Heat is a stack of difficulty rules. Each level includes every level below it, and each adds 12% ash and experience. You start with heat 0, and unlock the next heat by reaching wave 20 on your highest unlocked heat. Players who already reached wave 15, 30 or 50 in an earlier build begin with heat 1, 2 or 3 unlocked.

Mutators

You can pick up to two mutators in Run Setup. Each one multiplies the ash and experience you earn, and the values multiply together.

Run setup, challenge codes and the Daily Rift

RUN SETUP on the main menu sets your heat and mutators. Fix the map pins the layout to a seed, and the code box turns heat, mutators and seed into a short code beginning RS1 that you can copy to a friend, who loads it to play exactly the same challenge. Runs with any modifier are practice for the main leaderboards and are not posted to them.

The Daily Rift is the same challenge for everyone for one UTC day: heat 2 to 5, one or two mutators and Rift I. Your best run of the day goes on the Daily Rift board, and you can try as many times as you like. The server checks submissions for plausibility and accepts one every 20 seconds. Boards keep seven days. To appear, claim a name on the normal leaderboard first. The board relies on the game reporting honest results, so treat it as a friendly daily race rather than a tamper-proof contest.

Collection, cosmetics and unlocks

The COLLECTION screen tracks body colours, trails and kill bursts, the evolutions you have found, the cards you have seen and your unlock tree. Cosmetics never change stats.

Sharing and clips

After a run you can create a share card, an image with your rig, wave, kills, heat and mutators that you can save or share. If your browser supports it, you can switch on Record clip under Extras in Run Setup to keep the last seconds of a run as a video file. Clips are off by default and are saved to your device only.

Languages and installing the game

The LANGUAGE button on the main menu cycles English, Spanish, French, German and Portuguese. It translates menus, buttons, prompts and settings. Item names, enemy names, achievements, the long guide pages and the in-run item text stay in English for now. A new player whose browser language is one of these starts in that language.

The INSTALL APP button appears when your browser can install the game (Chrome, Edge and most Android browsers). On iPhone and iPad it shows how to use Share, then Add to Home Screen. Once installed the game opens in its own window and loads again when you are offline. Scores, the Daily Rift board and error reports need a connection.

Common questions

Do the new systems change my old progress?

No. Your ash, shop ranks, rigs, bestiary and achievements carry over. New save fields start at sensible defaults.

Can I turn things off?

Heat 0 with no mutators plays the classic game. Ability use is optional, and clip recording is off unless you switch it on.

Is there co-op?

No. Riftspinner is a single-player browser game. The Daily Rift board is the shared, asynchronous way to compare runs.

Why was my modified run not on the leaderboard?

Only standard runs post to the main boards, so heat and mutator runs cannot be compared unfairly with them. Use the Daily Rift for a shared modified challenge.