Unstable RiftGive feedback

Overview

Update History

Music

Unstable Rift icon

Unstable Rift is an Objective in Deadlock.

The Unstable Rift

Overview

When an Unstable Rift spawns, it first appears as an in-world only visual effect on top of a random side lane's bridge. 60 seconds after this effect appears, an announcement is made to all players and the Rift becomes visible on the map. 20 seconds after the announcement, the Rift opens and creates a capture point with a 20m radius around the bridge, indicated by a green circle effect.

The Rift takes 12s to be captured (not counting comeback modifiers). Both teams earn progress as long as they have at least one player in the capture point, but the Rift can only be claimed once there's only one team in the point. The progress rate is the same regardless of how many players per team are in the point. Any players in the rift point are revealed on the Minimap.

A player does not contest the Rift while sent to the Baroness by The Doorman, or while reviving with the Rejuvenator.

Timing

Based on when the initial visual effect appears, Unstable Rifts spawn starting at 11 minutes, and respawn every 7 minutes thereafter. However, this timing is variable by up to one minute, meaning the first Rift can spawn at any time between 10 and 12 minutes, and subsequent Rifts can spawn between 6 and 8 minutes after the previous Rift.

Comeback mechanics

The team that is trailing in souls receives bonuses that scale linearly based on how behind they are, up to a 15% difference in total net worth. These bonuses are (at maximum difference):

• Capture time reduced to 6s (50% shorter) for the trailing team, and increased to 18s (50% longer) for the leading team.
• +35% Bullet, +35% Spirit, and +35% Debuff Resist, provided within a 35m radius.

They also receive bonus rewards if they capture the rift (see below).

Rewards

Rift Troopers in York lane

The rift's base soul bounty is  1482 Souls and increases by  222 Souls per minute of game time. However, unlike other objectives, the rift's bounty starts scaling from 13 minutes, instead of from minute 0.

Source	Soul Value	Soul Gain (/min)	Notes
Unstable Rift	1482	+222	Starts scaling at minute 13. Split equally among the team

When a team wins the rift:

• Rift Troopers will spawn in that lane for the winning team. They are larger and colored black, and don't drop souls when killed. They spawn at a minimum of 5 troopers, every 0.3 seconds.
  • On the first rift, they have +100% health and damage compared to normal troopers, as well as 25% Melee Resist, and 30% Spirit Resist. The bonus health and damage increases by +20% (additively) for each consecutive rift, up to 160%, and the bonus spirit resist increases by +5%, up to 45% (the melee resist does not increase).
• All souls are distributed instantly and equally to all team members.

If the rift has been contested for over 50s, a warning shows up. After 60s of being contested, all souls will be released as 13 Soul Orbs to be claimed by either team. The orbs float for several seconds, and if unclaimed, they disappear and the souls are lost.

Comeback reward

If the trailing team wins the rift, they get a soul bonus that scales based on game time and the team's soul deficit. They also get up to +9 Rift Troopers (14 total).

Update history

View the full update history: Unstable Rift/Update history

Update	Changes
July 9, 2026	Unstable Rift warning time reduced from 25s to 20s Rift Troopers now have Spirit Resist (30/35/40/45%) Rift Troopers now have Melee Resistance (25%) Rift Troopers spawn interval increased from every 0.3s to 0.5s (spawns slightly more staggered) Unstable Rift comeback resist aura radius increased from 20m to 35m Rift Troopers max comeback count increased from 12 to 14
June 30, 2026	Urn running is now its own objective. King of the Hill objective has been rethemed and renamed to "Unstable Rift" Unstable Rift no longer requires an Urn delivery to trigger the start of the event. It now has a variable start time of +/- 1 minute. There is a global announcement 25s before it spawns. 60s before that there is also an in-world only visual effect to let you know which lane it'll randomly spawn in. Unstable Rift spawn interval increased from every 6 minutes to every 7 minutes Unstable Rift comeback bonuses (resists in the area, extra comeback bounty, and trailing/leading team claiming timer) now all scale linearly based on the amount of NW they are trailing (scales from no bonus at 0% NW behind to full bonus at 15% NW behind) The team that secures the Unstable Rift now also has a wave of 5 Rift Troopers sent down from the rift location. When trailing, spawns up to 12 troopers instead (using the same linear ramp from 0% NW to -15% NW) Rift Troopers drop no souls when killed Rift Troopers spawn with 100% extra health and damage (they also look larger and have custom VFX). Their bonus health and damage grow slightly per event (first one is 100%, then 120%, 140%, etc) Any players in the Unstable Rift Zone are now revealed on the minimap Unstable Rift bounty increased by 35% (to account for the 35% loss with no urn runner bounty, overall objective bounty is unchanged) Unstable Rift no longer grants +1 permanent buff to each player (there is also no +3 buffs to the urn runner) Debug command: citadel_koth_dev_test_spawn - This moves your hero and spawns the Unstable Rift in the early warning state then quickly transitions to the 25s broadcasted timer
June 11, 2026	Urn give up time reduced from 75s to 60s Urn bounty reduced by 10% (unreduced for trailing team) (Undocumented) New voice lines for the Urn during depositing phase

Gallery

• 
  In-world visual effect of unopened Unstable Rift

Commands

citadel_koth_dev_test_spawn - Spawns the rift warning and moves the player to its location

Trivia

• Based on datamined strings, Unstable Rift was originally called Dying Star during development.
• In the June 4, 2026 update, the Soul Urn was reworked to start a King-of-the-Hill capture point mechanic when delivered. This was later reverted and separated into its own objective on June 30, 2026 as the Unstable Rift.