How The June 2021 Side Quest Works – Castle Raid of Doom

Summoners!

Rifts are back this June! Explore Queen Haasen’s (Morningstar/Purgatory) Castle to earn crystal shards, catalyst fragments, and signature stones, and take RNG out of the equation by using your Castle Skeleton Keys. Here’s all the info on how June’s Side Quest works!

Read the Official Forum Post

EVENT SCHEDULE

Begins/Week 1 “Main Floor” Unlocks: Wednesday, June 2 at 1pm EST

Week 2 “Basement” Unlocks: Wednesday, June 9 at 1pm EST

Week 3 “Catacombs” Unlocks: Wednesday, June 16 at 1pm EST

Week 4 “Mausoleum” Unlocks: Wednesday, June 23 at 1pm EST

Ends: Wednesday, July 7 at 1pm EST

IMPORTANT STATS

Entries Per Quest (at each difficulty level): 7

Total Entries per difficulty level: 28

Skeleton Keys: 4

Energy Cost Per Tile: 0

HOW TO PLAY

This is actually a pretty simple event to play through. Each week a new chapter of the Side Quest will unlock, and you’ll be able to run each chapter of the Side Quest 7 times per difficulty level. There will be 4 difficulties: Heroic, Master, Epic, and Legendary.

Note that while you can save up all your entries and run them at the end of the event, you can’t spend them all on the same quest or difficulty level. Also, once you open the quest, you’ve used up one of your entries and it won’t be returned, so make sure to finish the quest!

You’ll be able to use 3 attackers in the Side Quest. When you enter the Side Quest, there will be 7 possible paths. If you use a Skeleton Key, you can choose the path you go down. If not, you’ll be randomly put on a path.

There is no energy cost to run the Side Quest.

CASTLE SKELETON KEYS

If you want to take RNG out of the equation and pick your path reward, you’ll need a Castle Skeleton Key. If you remember the last Rifts event, there was something called a Chronometer. The Skeleton Key is the new Chronometer.

There are only 4 Skeleton Keys available, so make sure you use them wisely. You will earn a Skeleton Key the first time you defeat the boss in each chapter of the Side Quest. You can defeat the boss at any difficulty level to earn the Skeleton Key, and the key you earn is valid for any difficulty.

When you see a reward you want in the Side Quest, use the Skeleton Key to open the gate. The Key will be consumed when you finish the quest and open the reward. If you back out, you’ll get the Key back, however you will lose your entry fee.

REWARDS

Each week of the Side Quest has a different set of random rewards per difficulty level. As the rewards are random, there are no “max rewards” for this Side Quest. Simply do all your available runs and use your 4 Skeleton Keys on the highest difficulty you can complete.

This month also features Solo Objectives for completing the Castle Rifts Side Quest. You need 20 runs per difficulty to complete the Heroic and Master Solo Objectives, and 26 runs per difficulty to complete the Epic and Legendary Objectives

Players on the hunt for Tier 5 Class Catalyst Fragments will want to save their Skeleton Keys for Weeks 1, 2, and 4, where there is a chance for a 2% Fragment Crystal, and complete the final Legendary Solo Objective, which rewards five 2% Fragment Crystals.

Another popular choice for the Skeleton Key will be the 1,000 6-Star Shards drop, which is available in Weeks 1, 3, and 4 from Legendary Difficulty.

EXTRAS

This side event will also reward Iron Tomb Crystal Shards, which can be used to purchase Iron Tomb Grandmaster and Cavalier Crystals. Both types cost 4K shards, so you’ll obviously want to purchase the Cavalier Crystals if they are available to you.

The Iron Tomb Shards are available for completing the Castle Rifts, in the milestones of a special weekly arena, in Solo Events, and in Solo Objectives. You can purchase the Iron Tomb Crystals in the Special Crystals Tab of your Crystal Vault.

The following champions are in the Iron Tomb Crystals: Captain America IW, Doctor Doom, Magik, Sorcerer Supreme, Hulk Ragnarok, Immortal Hulk, Morningstar, Terrax, The Hood, Venom The Duck, Air-Walker, Guillotine, Hulk, Mephisto, Silver Surfer, Dormammu, Hela, Red Skull, Captain America, Captain America WW2, and Joe Fixit.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Alright, this one actually looks pretty simple as long as you’re willing to take a ride on the RNG train. There are only 4 Keys to chase down, and they are earned from completing the Side Quest, so we won’t have a monotonous grind to deal with like we did for the Ten Rings Event.

As always, I highly recommend that you hold off from jumping into the Side Quest at launch in case there are any bugs that need to be sorted out. Best of luck with your Rifts!

-Dano357