Shadow Dungeon Greater Rifts: All 4 Difficulties & Loot

Unlocking Rifts

Per the official 1.0 notes, Greater Rifts unlock after completing the main story — by which point the campaign’s pacing has you at roughly level 99-100 (walkthrough). Rifts are the endgame: the campaign teaches the loot system, rifts are where you exploit it.

The Four Difficulties

Normal → Master → Nightmare → Inferno. Two official rules govern the ladder:

1. Higher difficulties raise the chance of rare items.
2. Weapons found at higher difficulties can roll more affixes.

That second rule is the quiet one that matters: affix count is build power in this game (see items), so Inferno isn’t just faster farming — it drops structurally better weapons.

Rift-Exclusive Loot

These item families only exist inside rifts, per the 1.0 announcement:

Climbing Advice by Class

Melee (Holy Warrior) gear-checks earliest — Inferno pack damage punishes closing distance; prioritize projectile-block granted skills. Ranged classes (Archer, Sorcerer) climb on kiting fundamentals but need defensive affixes for the hits that land anyway. Necromancer’s minion wall makes it the most forgiving first pusher. Full rankings on the tier list.

Alongside rifts, the level 100 cap opens the Paragon talent tree — rift farming and Paragon filling are the same loop: rifts drop the runes, Paragon spends the levels.