Maps

Unstable Rift

The Unstable Rift is a capture objective on a randomly selected side-lane bridge. Its initial visual appears in the world, followed 60 seconds later by a global announcement and map marker. The Rift opens 20 seconds after the announcement, creating…

ContentsHide
  1. 1Capture and timing
  2. 2Comeback modifiers
  3. 3Rewards
  4. 4History and command
  5. 5Source update-history table
  6. 6Sources and editorial notes

The Unstable Rift is a capture objective on a randomly selected side-lane bridge. Its initial visual appears in the world, followed 60 seconds later by a global announcement and map marker. The Rift opens 20 seconds after the announcement, creating a 20 m capture circle.

Capture and timing

Each team with at least one player in the circle gains progress at the same rate regardless of player count, but a team can claim the Rift only when no opponent remains inside. Base capture time is 12 seconds. Players in the zone appear on the minimap. A player sent to the Baroness by the Doorman or reviving with the Rejuvenator does not contest.

The initial visual normally appears at 11 minutes, varying by up to one minute; subsequent appearances are seven minutes apart, also varying by up to one minute. If the Rift is contested for over 50 seconds a warning appears; after 60 seconds it draws. No Rift Troopers spawn, and 13 soul orbs are released for either side to claim. Unclaimed orbs disappear after several seconds and their souls are lost.

Comeback modifiers

The team behind in total net worth receives bonuses that scale linearly with its deficit, reaching the maximum at 15% behind. Values update dynamically during the contest. At maximum deficit the trailing team captures in six seconds and the leader in 18. Within 35 m, the trailing team also receives Bullet, Spirit and Debuff Resist: the maximum starts at 10%, increases by one percentage point per minute and reaches 40% at 30 minutes. A trailing winner also gets a soul bonus based on time and deficit and up to nine extra Rift Troopers, for 14 total.

Rewards

Base bounty is 1,482 souls, increasing by 222 per minute starting at minute 13; the winning team receives it instantly and equally. At least five black, enlarged Rift Troopers spawn in the captured lane at 0.5-second intervals. They drop no souls. On the first Rift they have 100% more health and damage than ordinary Troopers, 25% Melee Resist and 30% Spirit Resist. Each successive Rift adds 20 percentage points to the health and damage bonus, up to 160%, and five points to Spirit Resist, up to 45%; Melee Resist stays at 25%.

History and command

The June 4, 2026 Soul Urn rework introduced a capture objective on delivery. On June 30 it became the separate Unstable Rift, with a variable spawn time, Rift Troopers and deficit-based scaling. July 9 added Trooper resistances and increased the comeback aura radius and maximum Trooper count. September 16 changed maximum comeback resist to 10% plus 1% per minute, capped at 40%, and removed a fixed bonus for even a small deficit. The development command citadel_koth_dev_test_spawn moves the player to a Rift and starts its warning sequence. Datamined strings call the earlier concept Dying Star.

Source update-history table

The following recent changes are historical, as displayed in the cited source revision; they do not by themselves establish current values.

Update Changes
September 16, 2026 Unstable Rift comeback resist max values now scale over the course of the game. Previously the max values were 35%. Now it is 10% + 1% per minute (around ~20% for the first one), with an upper limit of 40% at 30 minutes. Removed a fixed amount of extra bonus souls you would get for being behind even a very slightly amount in net worth for both hero kill bounties as well as Unstable Rift bounties (this had a larger impact on the early to mid game)
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

Sources and editorial notes

Adapted from Unstable Rift (revision 159557) by Deadlock Wiki contributors, checked 2026-11-01. Source text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.