It’s been announce on Trion’s Community Page that the much anticipated RIFT 2.5: Song of Dreams patch will begin to be rolled out beginning November 6th continuing through the weeks to come. On the PTS there are many new features, content and a new zone that will be seen with the launch. Noone knows which features will be available on November 6th for the launch so I’m going to be covering as much as I can see on the PTS. Keep in mind that not all of these will be available right away and some of them will remain only on the PTS for testing for now. Keep in mind this post will be updated further as what is currently compiled is not yet complete to my own expectations however I wanted to get this posted. Read on for the full details of things to come while you wait for RIFT 2.5: Song of Dreams to update…
RIFT 2.5: Song of Dreams
- Release Schedule
- RIFT Store Wishlist
- Underwater Ember Isle Content
- Zones
- Breaker Point
- Ruins of Gakulos
- Dream Furnace
- Temple of the Moon
- Atia
- Dream Hollow
- Underwater Rifts
- Carnages
- Rare Carnage Quests
- Quest Companions and Planar Focus
- Zone Achievements
- Zones
- 10-Man Intrepid: Drowned Halls Achievements
- Dungeon: Return to Deepstrike
- Return to Deepstrike Achievements
- New Chronicles
- Intrepid Chronicle’s Achievements
- Planebreaker Bastion: Aftermath
- Aftermath Achievements
- Nexus Attunements
- Attunement of Nature
- Attunement of Cinder
- Attunement of Storm
- PvP Tier 3 Attunement
- Sinister Prescences Everywhere
- New Puppet: Ducklar the Sploiter
- Dimension: Infinity Gate
- New Dimension Music Boxes
- Dimensional Distance Indicator
Release Schedule
Since all of the following features won’t be available right when the gates to RIFT 2.5: Song of Dreams open, it has been reported that the following will be the dates for each new piece of content we will be seeing unveiled. The following dates could be subject to change as features and new content is rolled out.
- November 13th – Return to Deepstrike
- November 20th – Intrepid: Hammerknell
- November 27th – Intrepid: Greenscale’s Blight
- December 4th – 10-Man Intrepid: Drowned Halls
- December 11th – Planebreaker Basion: Aftermath
- December 18th – Intrepid: River of Souls
Check out the Trailer for RIFT 2.5: Song of Dreams now!
RIFT Store Wishlist
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I’d like to begin with a new feature placed within that which everyone sees on a regular basis where players get their Service Items, Boost, Costumes, Dimension Keys, and perhaps one of the first subtle yet quite noticeable change in RIFT 2.5: Song of Dreams. In the RIFT Store there is a brand new section in the top left which allows players to create their very own wishlist within which everyone can easily access their Friends lists and even search for any other player to view their Wishlist. Once you have some items in your Wishlist it will look something like the screenshot below.
Add Items to Your Wishlist
Items throughout the RIFT Store will have a new square selection box that, when checked off, will add that item to your Wishlist so your friends and other players can see what it is you’ve always longed for from the RIFT Store. Currently on the PTS any item can be checked off and added, however, I believe they will amend this behaviour so that only giftable items with have a checkbox as it makes more sense.
For items that allow you to buy more than once you will be prompted to input the quantity of that item you’re wishing for.
Find Your Friends Wishlist or Search For Another Players
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You will notice a dropdown menu within the Wishlist section that will contain all of your friends so you can quickly access their’s and there is also a search bar to facilitate searching for Players who are not your friend.
Look to See What Others Are Wishing For
Once you select a friend or successfully complete search you will be able to see all the things they hope to get off the store sooner rather than later.
History of Gifts Given to You and From Who
Once a person has Gifted the item of your dream, it will come in the form of a Gift just like any other gifted item but it’ll also now be in your history and so you can easily access their Wishlist whoever they were.
Underwater Ember Isle Content
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Zones
The following are areas that have been accessible on Live for quite some time, however up until recently have been quite barren and deserted without NPC’s, quests or beasts to slay and only had a Travel Stone, Area names and buildings scattered through the areas. If the quest giver leading you to Ember Isles’ newest Travel Stone is located in the same place in Live as he is on the PTS, you will find him in Tempest Bay to the right of the Porticulum while you are facing it with the name Keeper Ivan <Emissary of Gakulos>. He will guide you to his comrade Keeper Dria residing on the tiny island West of Ember Isle called Breaker Point.
Breaker Point
Even populated Breaker Point has one Drink vendor, and three quest givers including a character most players should recall during their leveling experience the Faceless Man <Master of the Unseen> who returns to aid you in the fight against a threat he worries may have been brought forth through the defeat of Akylios. To find out more you’ll need to wait for the Story Quests to hit Live tomorrow, I wouldn’t want to spoil the whole story for you!
Ruins of Gakulos
The first area you will venture into for your first leg of story quests beginning by speaking to Keeper Dria, will be Ruins of Gakulos. A great city that has since fallen into the depths of the ocean where it lay until something began to stir from it’s depths causing the attention of the Keepers of the Flame when they noticed it’s sudden habitation of of monsters. As such they seek the aid of the powerful Ascended to battle the foes within the churning expanse of water.
Dream Furnace
One of the more exciting looking areas, not just for the architecture but because in this zone molten lave seeps into the water and will damage you if you venture too close. One of the Rare Carnage quest beasts is located somewhere, right on the lava, so make sure you’re not taking lava damage whilst defeating him.
Temple of the Moon
Temple of the Moon has probably the most buildings residing within the area compared to the others and is quite populated with monsters and meaning within the story quests. Here is where you will enter and exit a sort of Nightmare world and taunted by menacing words from a new foe in a dragon form Demogos <Nightmare>.
Atia
When you enter the buildings within the Temple of Moon area you should notice that the music will change and you’ll actually discover a new area called Atia. Within these buildings there will be a couple times you will need to venture into them to defeat some Story Quest foes. Also I did happen to find a number of Artifacts inside them, although this may be because they seem to be more obvious under water.
Dream Hollow
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I found Dream Hollow to be the most boring area, as it is really just an underwater crater with creatures swimming about and a mount in the center of it.
Until you go there for the quest where you’ll use a special type of lure to open a rather unique and pretty cool Rift that will bring some of us memories of fighting Akylios back in the Hammerknell days.
Fallen Healers
Medics are available to heal your soul underwater and can be found on top of rock spires within the underwater Zones, one of which is located, at least on the PTS, at 11675, 3605 (approximately) in the Ruins of Gakulos closer to Dream Furnace.
Underwater Rifts
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Underwater Rifts will be opening off the coast of Ember Isle and above is the look of them above water and I thought you’d like to see what they look like as when they’re formed they do look quite different, at least aesthetically . I think they’re a good cross between kinda of creepy and awesome looking! Check out the following pics and see what you think. The stages for the Rifts are quite similar to others some of which have an idol of sorts in the middle you’ll need to destroy to close the Rift.
Carnages
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Along with all of the underwater areas come a variety of swimming creatures ranging from 2-headed turtles, water breathing Hellbugs, and large sharp-toothed hard shelled swimming beasts plus more. The story quests will drag your through these wriggling monsters and you’ll discover more than a couple Carnage quests amongst them for which you will be handomsely awarded 600 Notoriety with The Keepers, 90 Infinity Stones, 38961 XP and 43Gold 38 Silver for completing them. These Carnages will ask you to kill anywhere from 6-12 of the desired specific type of mob.
Rare Carnage Quests
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As your being guided through the different underwater Zones you should run into one or more Elite Monsters that look unique compared to all the surrounding creatures and for myself I ended up thinking of them as Mini Carnage Bosses but they are actually Rare Carnage Quests according to the Achievement associated with killing these particular foe. As I said these are Elite Level 60′s which I found 2 of; I didn’t hunt for them but if I was to guess I’d think there might be 1 in each area, but I’m not sure about that, the Achievement does state that there are four. They’re easy to solo, if it’s easy for you to solo Level 60 Elites in Dendrome that is and for slaughtering these creatures you will complete a Carnage quest which has the same rewards as the other Carnage quests. As well as the mentioned achievement which grant 5 points for killing the Elite Level 60′s Aqanjale, Nado, Ichytchul, and Heat Sink.
Quest Companions and Planar Focus
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As you complete the story quests you’ll see most quests giving basic rewards of 600 Notoriety to The Keepers and some form of currency, but there 3 Quests which give pretty cool rewards including 2 Collectible Companions – Weaver and Dreaver, as well as an Account Bound Planar Focus which has +20 Water Resist already applied much like the Wave of Madness event reward, Barnacle Encrusted Source Machine
some players will still probably have.
Quest Companions
Weaver and Dreaver below both are acquired by completing a quest along the story line chain of quests, Weaver is the first you will receive and Dreaver is awarded later on. Keep in mind I wanted my screenshots to be detailed therefore these Collectible Companions will quite a bit smaller than you see here.
Weaver Dreaver
Planar Focus
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One of the final quests you will recieve in Breaker Point before unlocking the Daily Quests will be the one to award you your, possibly, second Planar Focus to be equipped with +20 Water Resist called Nightmare Touched Planar Focus.
Underwater Zone Achievements
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With the new zones will inevitably come a number of new Achievements to strive for, which currently most of them only have points attributed as Rewards, for now. However once you complete all the of the underwater Achievements you do receive 3 rare type of lamps for your dimension.
10-Man Intrepid: Drowned Halls Achievements
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Throughout the weeks a new 10-Man called Intrepid: Drowned Halls Revamped for level 60 quality encounters and complete with it’s own share of Achivements in RIFT 2.5: Song of Dreams.
New Dungeon: Return to Deepstrike
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With RIFT 2.5: Song of Dreams comes the unveiling of the recently reworked Dungeon for Level 60 calibre fights – Deepstrike Mines the Dungeon itself I believe will be called Return to Deepstrike since that’s the title in the following Achievements which, just like some of the Chronicles to come is the only evidence of their arrival. However, most more than casual players should be aware of this since Trion had held a Public Vote in order to decide which Level 50 Dungeon should be revamped and taken to Level 60 standards and by the Peoples votes Deepstrike Mines won with 32% out of 3498 Voters.
Return To Deepstrike Achievements
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New Chronicles
Earlier this month and for a bit before that there were three new titled Chronicles called Intrepid: Hammerknell, Intrepid: River of Souls, and Intrepid: Greenscale’s Blight, which as I understand it are simply rescaled fights similar to the ones you’d experience at level 50 but on a level 60 scale. The only evidence of these right now on the PTS is there list of Achievements as follows –
Intrepid Chronicle’s Achievements
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These are still being expected to be released tomorrow or in the coming weeks, as well as brand new Chronicle – Planebreaker Bastion: Aftermath.
Planebreaker Bastion: Aftermath
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The newest Chronicle, fresh and full of new content, aimed at requiring more than 1 Person to complete, I attempted to get to the first boss by myself on the PTS however the trash simply hit me to hard and I kept dying. It’s definitely one of the Chronicles you’ll want a friend to come with to complete. As soon as I have the information and screenshots I’ll be posting an update to the bosses within this new Chronicle.
Aftermath Achievements
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Below is the list of Achievements that will become available to complete with the release of the new Chronicle – Planebreaker: Aftermath.
Nexus Attunements
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Within the next few weeks we’re going to see an interesting twist happen concerning your Planar Attunement and where your points are spent. There will be three (3) new Planar Attunement called Nexus Attunements and in order to unlock these and drop some Planar Points into them you need to be absolutely maxed out in the 2 Pre-requisite Planes. These Nexus Attunements are based off me being a Rogue, so these stats will obviously cater whatever type of player is looking at them. The three Nexus Attunements are Nexus of Nature, Nexus of Cinder, and Nexus of Storm, each one requiring the completion of 2 Planar Attunements. To tap into the Nexus of Nature complete Attunement of Earth and Attunement of Life, for the Nexus of Cinder you need Attunement of Fire and Attunement of Death, and finally for Storm you need to finish filling the slots of Attunement of Air and Attunement of Water.
Attunement of Nature
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Once you have completed Attunement of Earth and Attunement of Life will you have unlocked the Attunement of Nature, granting a mix of Endurance, Life resist, some Attack Power and other minor stat increases.
- 4 Red slots giving out a total of 8 Attack Power
- 6 Green slots together granting a total of 40 Armor, 12 Life Resist and 12 Earth Resist
- 1 Purple slot will be giving out a 1% increase to all the coins that you grab of beasts that you’ve killed
- 6 Blue slots handing out a total, when full, of 16 Endurance, 1 Strength, 1 Dexterity, 1 Intelligence, and 1 Wisdom
Attunement of Cinder
To begin to spend points into the Nexus of Cinder you first have to have Attunement of Fire and Attunement of Death completed. This attunement contains the following slots –
- 5 Blue slots granting a total of 16 Strenght, 1 Endurance, 1 Dexterity, 1 Intelligence, and 1 Wisdom.
- 4 Green slots which will give a player a total of 12 Death Resist and 12 Fire Resist.
- 4 Red slots which, once full, will grant 8 Attack Power.
- 3 Purple slots which give a few interesting ones, a total of 2.0 to your Health Regeneration rate and 1% increase to all coins looted from monsters.
Attunement of Storm
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As said before, in order to begin in this Nexus Attunement of Storm you need to first complete the Attunement of Air and Attunement of Water. Lets take a closer look at what this Nexus of Storm has to offer me as a Rogue.
- 6 Blue slots giving you a total of 16 Endurance, 1 Strength, 1 Dexterity, 1 Intelligence, and 1 Wisdom.
- 6 Green slots, once full, grant a total of 40 Armor, 12 Life Resist and 12 Earth Resist.
- 4 Red Slots which once full will give you 8 Attack power.
- finally, 1 Purple slot which will give you and increase of 1% to all the coins that you will collect off monsters.
PvP Tier 3 Attunement
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Players will finally have access to the last Tier of PvP attunement slots to boast their stats even further into PvP prowess. Broken down by stat because there are so many Blue slots to put points with varying types, here is what you’ll get once you’ve completely filled this final Tier for Attunement of War, again these stats are for my Rogue character.
- 40 Armor
- 30 Vengeance
- 15 Endurance
- 15 Dexterity
- 6 to All Resist
- Increase health regeneration by 2.0
- Reduces the cooldown of Anathema by 1 second.
Sinister Presences Everywhere
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Most people that have run the new 5-Man Expert Dungeon Realm of Twisted Dreams will have a taste of what I’m about to refer to because within that Dungeon at the top of the cliff near the very entrance was a “Sinister Prescence” much like the ones you see as you go throughout the Nightmare style Dungeon. Well it seems this Presence has escaped from the Dream World and now has invaded Chronicles and Expert Dungeons alike, each accompanied with their own Achievement stamp once down them. For those that have not defeated the Sinister Presence while he was there in Realm of Twisted Dreams he dropped “Definitely Not a Sinister Companion” which was basically a mini-sinister presence that you could get to chase a target you apply it to. It will then follow the targeted Player and say menacing things to them. I wonder if they will continue to drop this one, or perhaps even more types 
.
Below are all of the different Sinister Presence Achievements currently on PTS.
New Puppet: Ducklar the Sploiter
Bringing some Forum humour to the game there will be a new achievement within the Ceremony of Attunement tab under Dungeon Achievements and will require you to collect a number of Epic and one Relic quality Artifact in order to unlock a knew puppet named – Ducklar the Sploiter. These Artifacts will be found within the first Chronicle you’ll have access to once you’re Level 50 – Meridian: Ceremony of Attunement.
Lets take a look at this new puppet which, I’m guessing from the quality of the Artifacts will take some time for a player to acquire.
The back story is that the above picture of a mallard duck was posted by Daglar as a friendly reminder how someone might know if they’re taking advantage of an exploit in game, something most people look down upon.
New Dimension – Infinity Gate
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Coming with RIFT 2.5:Song of Dreams is a brand new and pretty decent size dimension which can be purchased on the RIFT Store for 900 Platinum or 1530 Credits, with Patron discount, getting you the Key to Dimension: Infinity Gate. So the above map is the approximate area of what you get to work with, outlined in black, to build an awesome dimension. I’m not a Dimensioner but when I explored the one I bought on the PTS it felt pretty large to me, also, those lines are approximates only.
Here are some pics from within the Infinity Gate Dimension:
New Dimension Music Boxes
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Presently on Live there are a grand-total of 3 Music Box which plays the theme music in the background from their respective Zones – Ember Isle, Iron Pine Peaks and Silverwood Music Boxes. Either tomorrow, or sometime in the near future, there will be a plentiful increase in Music Boxes which will bring the total to well 16, see for yourself. Keep in mind these are just on the PTS we’re not sure if they’ll come tomorrow or later on, but my bet is on tomorrow.
Dimensional Distance Indicator
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Another new item will be appearing under the Interactive tab within the Dimension section of the store and will show Distance from the object out to a max of 30 yards in 5-metre increments. The item does warn the user that if placed on an angle the measurements will be inaccurate.
