Diablo 3 Patch 2.6.0 Adds New Zones, Items and ‘Challenger Rifts’

Information regarding Diablo III’s upcoming patch has slowly been trickling out of Battle.net’s blog page, mainly regarding the introduction of new zones, items and now the ‘Challenge Rifts’.

Challenge rifts essentially allows you to play as somebody else character and play through their Greater rift run with the same make-up of gear, abilities and items that player had along with the same creeps they encountered during the session. This essentially allows you to see that characters build and learn about new character variations and playstyles. If you manage to beat the other players run you are rewarded with crafting materials and Blood Shards.

The rift run is generated every Monday, giving you something new to look forward to every week in Diablo III. Check out the video detailing the new addition below.

Challenge Rifts are a weekly static version of a previously completed Greater Rift. To create a Challenge Rift, we pull a Greater Rift run directly from a player’s account. Once we have that snapshot, we make that exact character, including their items, paragon levels, skills, and gear available for everyone to play.

This also includes an exact copy of the Greater Rift they completed with that character. Enemies, pylons, and the dungeons you encounter will all be exactly as they appeared when the original player completed their run. If you beat the original runner’s time, you’ll be rewarded with a weekly satchel filled with bounty and crafting materials and some Blood Shards.

There is no release date for patch 2.60 yet, but we should hear some more tidbits from Blizzard in the coming days. Keen to hop into Challenge rifts? Let us know in the comments below.