Rift Challenges

Note that the first three clears per day have an increased chance to give gear so don't continue to spam this more than three times a day if you're looking for augmented gear, wait until the next day

Starting at base level 20 you can do rift challenges with a drop rate bonus up to three times per day in a party of up to 5 people.  They also can drop newbie equipment that's actually quite good.  

Turtle Island Watch rewards you with materials used to upgrade your weapons to Tier 5.  Established players will want to start running this ASAP.

To enter, reach base level 20 to unlock access to Instances in the More menu.  Then tap More > Instances.  On the left side, the top option in the list is Rift.  If you don't see a list of instances like the below example then click the down where the red circle is below to bring up a list of all the rift instances.  Select the one you wnat to run, the difficulty to run it at, then challenge this instance.

Accessing Instances

Rift Challenge Options

Each of these are six man group dungeons that pit you against three waves of enemies.  After each wave a set of three cards will appear and you get to choose one that provides you with a buff for the rest of the run.  After the final wave a large chest appears that gives you base exp, job exp, zeny, materials, and with luck some new armor.

Harder difficulties are unlocked as you clear them so you'll have to finish the novice versions to access adventurer, etc.  Higher difficulties offer better rewards such as more exp, and Brilliant gear, better versions of the armor that drops from Novice difficulty.  This gear rolls random stat augments and is actually quite strong and it appears as if the gear can even drop pre-refined as the example below is already at +2.

New players should definitely spend their CT here to obtain some powerful augmented equipment.  You should still get people to run you through Ponape Museum for augmented ancient gear but this will do nicely until then.

Example of card selection between waves

Ring from Novice Difficulty

Ring from Higher Difficulty

This new gear can be socketed and safe refined using Wasteland Ember, a material created using Wasteland materials farmed in areas outside of Wasteland such as Sunset Beach.  You likely don't have many of these materials as they don't drop in the areas that you've been farming to grow your Yggdrasil tree but may want to branch out to these other spots once you can so you can use those materials to upgrade your Wasteland Ancient Equipment.

You can also craft this gear, including the Brilliant versions which come with a random augment.  This uses both Yggdrasil Spirit Tree materials and Louyang area materials but this allows you to create a whole bunch at once to roll for augments on a specific piece of gear so this may be a great option if you're looking for a specific upgrade.

For more on this type of equipment visit the Ancient Equipment page.

Instant Clear

Once you clear a time rift dungeon for the first time you’ll be able to instant complete it from the instance screen.  Click on the More > Instance button.  Then select the instance and difficulty that you want to instantly complete.  Click on the Raid button and it will prompt you to proceed.  This will consume 60 minutes of combat time but instantly clear the instance.

Accessories that used to drop from Time Rift dungeons like INT Earrings have been moved to the Mission Board as random rewards.