Developer Diary: Explore the Uncharted Rifts in ‘Asgard’s Wrath 2’

Last month, Oculus Studios Senior Producer Mari Kyle took us behind the scenes of Asgard’s Wrath 2—the highly anticipated sequel to Sanzaru Games’ epic ARPG VR game, Asgard’s Wrath. In that first Dev Diary, she laid out the backstory of the Cosmic Guardian and the role that god-scale mode plays in Meta Quest 3’s flagship epic. Today, she’s back for a deep dive on Asgard’s Wrath 2’s asynchronously social dungeon-crawling mode.

“The Uncharted Rifts are a rogue-lite, endless procedurally generated dungeon mode,” explains Kyle. “Each time that you go into the Uncharted Rifts, it’s a completely new layout based on your hero and which hero loadout you choose for the Rifts.”

The Uncharted Rifts let you test your agility, survive treacherous traps, engage in thrilling combat, and even score some treasure.

“You’ll find a ton of exclusive loot in this mode that you can actually carry back with you in the base game,” Kyle says. “Say you need an item in order to make an armor piece for a character in the main questline. You can go into the Uncharted Rift and harvest these resources and send them back using features we call dimensional wells.”

When you die in the Uncharted Rifts, in general rogue-lite fashion, you lose all the items you’re holding at the moment. The only way to retain the awesome loot you find is to send them back in these wells before you die. With the deadly challenges you’ll face in the rifts, you’ll want to use every dimensional well you can find.

Each rift ends with a Divine Trial—an epic battle that pushes your combat skills to the breaking point. In order to survive these Divine Trials, you’ll need to use all the potions, relics, and more that you’ve gathered in the rifts thus far. Whether your Divine Trial is coming face-to-face with a massive scorpion known as the Deathstalker or an all-out 1-versus-many combat scenario, these boss levels are sure to present a challenge to even the most seasoned of Wrath 2 players. Additionally, the Weavers of Fate will task you with various challenges that you can complete to earn in-game rewards.

“They’ll ask for you to kill a certain amount of a certain type of enemy, they’ll ask for you to find a certain amount of treasure chests in a Rift,” Kyle notes. “You’ll be able to complete these challenges during your run and get some cool perks after you’ve completed those as well.”

And the more you play, you’ll begin to unlock Revelations—buffs that persist throughout your entire Rift run. You can mix and match up to three Revelations at a time. Not only can these Revelations increase your odds of survival, they also let you take your character’s skills to new heights. The perfect combination of Revelations could be the difference between topping the leaderboards and dying too soon in your rift runs.

Of course, VR, like many things in life, is better with friends—and sometimes foes. And that’s where asynchronous multiplayer comes into play.

“When you’re playing the Uncharted Rifts, at the very end of your run before you restart, you’re given the option to select a Divine Soul or a Dread Soul,” explains Kyle. “That’ll leave behind this after-image of yourself, so you can really feel like your friends are present and with you on your intense dungeon runs.”

Divine Souls will help other players in the Uncharted Rifts, much in the same way that the Followers assist you in the base game. Once you pull a Divine Soul into your game, it will fight alongside you and help you in combat—emulating the playstyle of the player who left it behind by using the same weapons and elements.

Dread Souls, on the other hand, are quite the opposite. When you send a Dread Soul into another player’s game, it acts as a mini-boss—though it once again mimics your weaponry and playstyle from your own dungeon run. These Dread Souls are stronger and tougher than other enemies, and if you defeat them, the other players will get a notification that their Dread Soul has been bested in combat.

“There are so many mysteries and challenges and exclusive loot awaiting you in the Uncharted Rifts,” says Kyle. “I can’t wait for all of our Cosmic Guardian champions to come in and demolish the leaderboards.”

Tune in next month for a new deep dive where we’ll look at Asgard’s Wrath 2’s collection of Mortal Heroes and Followers—a beloved part of the original game that’s getting a serious upgrade for the sequel.

Pre-order Asgard’s Wrath 2 now to secure the following benefits:

• An exclusive Asgard’s Wrath 2-themed character skin and the title of “Cosmic Guardian” able to be equipped immediately in POPULATION: ONE
• A free digital copy of the original Asgard’s Wrath for PC VR, which you can play with a VR-ready PC either on the Rift Platform or wirelessly on your Meta Quest headset via Air Link
• The Great Sand Sea environment for your Meta Horizon Home
• Epic in-game gear for Asgard’s Wrath 2: the Sword of Ra and the Sun God’s battle armor

Click here for details on how to claim your pre-order benefits.