Rift Wizard 3 Guide: 500+ Spells and Artifacts (2026)

Updated 2026-10-28: The week-long 25% deal ended October 19, and Steam lists Rift Wizard 3 at its full $19.99 again.

Rift Wizard 3 entered Steam Early Access on June 23, 2026, from Dylan White, Khoops and Jacob Martinez. It costs $19.99; the 25% deal that took it to $14.99 ended October 19. Reviews sit at Very Positive: 90% of 394 are positive on October 28, and 91% of the 61 from the last 30 days.

Rift Wizard 3 by the numbers

We counted everything in the community compendium's copy of the live build data (build 24995190, generated October 12, 2026). Steam's own pitch says "more than 500 spells and magical artifacts," and the launch-day Early Access note said "more than 200 spells, 400 spell upgrades, and 300 craftable items." Here's where the live build stands.

Two things follow from that table. First, the spell list is small enough to learn and the equipment list isn't, so crafting is where you'll do the reading. Second, 269 of the 365 pieces of equipment are trinkets or weapons, which is where most of your build-defining effects will come from.

How a run works

You play an "immortal amnesiac wizard" on the way to defeat his nemesis; the final boss is Mordred. Each realm is a single grid map. You clear it, collect what it offers, then pick the next realm through a portal. Steam's description sums up the design: "You choose which levels to visit, where to start, and how to spend your resources." It also promises there's no stealth or stair dancing: "you must face each level head on."

Spells have charges, not mana. The live data gives every spell a charge count (Magic Missile has 20, Teleport has 2), and the HUD tracks them next to each spell. SP is the other currency, shown at the top of the HUD. Upgrade prices sit next to each upgrade on the spell card, and the patch notes move them often: the August 31 patch priced the new Venomous Word upgrade at 4 SP and cut Silver Spear's Impalement from 3 to 2.

Screenshot: Steam store page (Dylan White)

The other half of the design is determinism. Steam says the game "eschews randomness and complex combat formulas in favor of puzzle-like simplicity," and the line under it is the series motto: "Every victory is earned, every death deserved." Realms do get harder in a predictable way. The data file's spawn bands rise from [1, 1] at realm 1 to [9, 9] at realms 20 and 21, so the late realms draw only from the top band.

Between realms you'll also see shrines. The August 31 patch added three: the Shrine of Offering (sacrifice a component to see its tag more often), the Shrine of Haste (permanent quickcast on one spell) and a Transmutation Shrine (convert a component to another with a shared tag, three uses).

GODEEPER: The Rift Wizard 3 tips guide covers the habits that keep a first run alive past realm 5.

No classes: how spell tags work

There are no classes and no locked schools. Every spell carries several tags, and the tags decide which equipment and upgrades boost it. Sorcery (75 spells) and Conjuration (65) are the two biggest groups, followed by Enchantment (59), Dark (46) and Arcane (41). Translocation is only 11 spells, and you should own one of them.

For damage, watch the damage type tag, because monsters resist by damage type. Our count of all 363 monsters:

Dark is resisted by 140 monsters. Holy is the reverse: 90 monsters take extra Holy damage. Poison is the extreme case: 153 monsters are fully immune and nothing is weak to it, so a poison build needs a second damage type from the first realm on.

The two enemies Steam names in its pitch, "the spry and pushy Leghead" and "the alien and terrifying Void Child," both have 100% Poison resistance. Legheads add 100% Dark and 50% Arcane; Void Children add 50% Arcane and 50% Physical. Neither resists fire, which corrects what this hub said until today.

GODEEPER: The Rift Wizard 3 spell guide ranks the opening buys and the translocation options, with stats from the live data.

Crafting: where the 365 items come from

Rift Wizard 3's new system is crafting. You find components across the realms and combine them into equipment for five slots: weapon, head, body, feet and trinket. Recipes ask for components by tag. Acidifier, for example, needs one Dark, one Enchantment, one Nature and one component of any tag. Recipes in the live data cost between 4 and 10 components.

Components do two jobs. 68 of the 93 trigger something when you pick them up: an Arcane Mote refills a charge of every spell you have. The other 25 are rare and change the item you craft with them. Mithril Ore adds 9 damage to equipment that has a damage attribute, and a Journeystone gives Translocation equipment +6 range and max charges (it was +3 before the August 31 patch). Steam's line for this is "rare crafting ingredients even having unique impacts on the crafted item."

Screenshot: Steam store page (Dylan White)

The store page's examples show what this enables: "Make lightning fly out of your arcane damage, commandeer enemy spawners, give your demon summons fire breath." The equipment cards above work the same way. Talking Hat gives your Enchantment spells quickcast. Volcanic Lance turns each Fire cast at an enemy into an extra beam. Galvanic Armor redirects incoming Lightning damage after you cast a Metallic spell.

Our rule: craft for the effect, not the stat line. A trinket that changes how a tag behaves (Volcanic Lance, Talking Hat) shapes the rest of the run. A flat bonus helps for a realm.

GODEEPER: The Rift Wizard 3 crafting guide goes through the equipment sets, component codes and the Desired target on the HUD.

Builds that win

Steam's description lists the obvious paths ("blasting apart your foes with fire and/or lightning, summoning hordes of metallic constructs") and then the deep end: "obscure arcane metamagical trickery." Players on r/riftwizard keep landing on summons. One summed up what's been winning for them as "Mostly all summon builds tbh." Another picked out a specific combo: "summon blades into ritual of flying knives is great."

The numbers support the summon route. Conjuration is a third of the spell book (65 of 196), summons soak hits that would otherwise land on your wizard, and a summon's damage type is a separate problem for the 153 poison-immune and 85 dark-immune monsters to solve.

Screenshot: New Content Trailer, 0:17 (k. hoops, Rift Wizard 3 developer)

The developers' New Content Trailer shows the arcane path at 0:17: Cantrip Cascade casts all your level 1 ranged Sorcery spells on every enemy in a cone, and in that realm 11 fight Bouncing Slimeball has done 848 of the 1,155 damage. Cheap level 1 spells become a big area spell. That's the metamagic Steam is talking about.

GODEEPER: The Rift Wizard 3 builds guide goes through the multi-tag builds players have finished runs with.

Bosses and the end of the run

The live data marks 18 boss entries. The final fight is Mordred, in three forms: Mordred (697 HP), Mordred, Unbound (6,970 HP) and Mordred, Ascendant (9,999 HP, with 99% resistance to every damage type). Steam says the final encounters, "including Mordred himself, have been greatly expanded and revised."

Mordred isn't the tankiest boss. The Gardener has 42,000 HP, followed by The Body Electric at 24,000. Gaia, "the vengeful nature god" from the store page, has 4,000 HP and 75% resistance to Physical, Fire, Lightning and Ice. The August 31 patch added The Body Electric, Amaru and Sanguine Hierophant as 5x5 bosses.

For the fights themselves, read the Realm 20 boss guide and the Mordred boss guide.

Companions, wardrobe, modes and mods

The first patch, on June 29, added three companions: Bard, Alchemist and Valkyrie. The August 31 Patch Day brought the Wardrobe, which "currently contains 80+ Wizard outfits" with matching achievements. The same patch added new mutators "for Mutated / Weekly / Custom runs," and mancer trials now roll more realms with components that match the trial's tag. One player stuck on the Necromancer trial called it "definitely harder than rift wizard 2".

Steam lists Steam Workshop support, and the patch notes have added modding helpers for custom tags, components and wardrobe outfits.

Guides for each: the companions guide, the wardrobe guide, the weekly and mutated modes guide and the achievements guide.

What's changed since launch

The game ships a beta build every week and merges it to the main branch every one to three months, so a guide from launch is already out of date. The four updates that matter:

The August 31 spell changes are the ones you'll feel. Hatebolts went from 14 to 30 damage. Soul Wind went from 3 charges to unlimited. Word of Beauty doubled from 50 to 100 damage and now hits Dark units too. The October 12 beta changes are beta only for now; on the main branch, Fireball still has 12 charges.

The nine monsters added on August 31 were the Trollet, Crackler, Maggot Leech, Haunted Casket, Toad Knight, Divine Hammer, Glass Seer, Void Saint and Prismancer, alongside four 3x3 giants: Idol of Piety, Gryla, Orochi and Rainbow Slime. If your bestiary from launch doesn't list them, that's why.

Price, demo and Early Access plan

The demo is the developers' own answer to whether you should buy it: "Rift Wizard won't click for everyone, we don't think you should have to spend money to find out." We agree with them. Five realms is enough to find out whether you like solving each turn before you take it.

Our take

Rift Wizard 3 is a fair price at $19.99, and an easy buy whenever it drops to $14.99 again. The data explains why it holds people: 196 spells is a learnable list, 365 pieces of equipment isn't, and every run mixes the two differently. The 27.1% first-win rate is the honest warning. Nearly three in four players who own it haven't won yet, and the game won't hand you a lucky run.

We'd play the demo first, buy if realm 5 hooked you, and spend the first full runs on a summon build with one translocation spell. We'd skip poison and dark as main damage types until you know the bestiary: 153 and 85 monsters respectively are fully immune. One player says most of their Rift Wizard 3 time is spent "in google docs planning haha. (I love it)". That's the right expectation.

All Rift Wizard 3 guides on this site

• Rift Wizard 3 Tips: 9 Rules for Surviving Early Runs: the open spell pool, translocation, crafting basics and early positioning.
• Rift Wizard 3 Spell Guide: the best spells to buy first, tag counts and monster resistances.
• Rift Wizard 3 Builds Guide: multi-tag builds players have tested.
• Rift Wizard 3 Crafting Guide: equipment sets, components and the Desired target.
• Rift Wizard 3 Late-Game Guide: what realms 15 to 21 spawn and what each Realm 20 boss punishes.
• Rift Wizard 3 Realm 20 Boss Guide: the penultimate bosses.
• Rift Wizard 3 Mordred Boss Guide: the final fight's three forms.
• Rift Wizard 3 Companions Guide: Bard, Alchemist, Valkyrie and the later additions.
• Rift Wizard 3 Wardrobe Guide: the 80-plus outfits and their achievements.
• Rift Wizard 3 Weekly and Mutated Modes Guide: mutators across Weekly, Mutated and Custom runs.
• Rift Wizard 3 Achievements Guide: every unlock and the live win rate.
• Rift Wizard 3 Review: our Early Access verdict.
• Rift Wizard 3 Early Access launch preview: what the June 23 launch promised.
• All Rift Wizard 3 coverage: every post in one index.

How we checked this

On October 13, 2026 we downloaded the live build data (build 24995190, generated October 12) from the community Rift Wizard 3 compendium and counted spells, upgrades, equipment, components, monsters, resistances and bosses with a script. We read the Steam store page, the store API, Steam's global achievement stats and review summary, and every patch post since launch. We watched the New Content Trailer frame by frame and read three r/riftwizard threads.

References

• Rift Wizard 3 on Steam
• Rift Wizard 3 news and patch notes (Steam)
• Rift Wizard 3 compendium (community, live-build data)
• RIFT WIZARD 3 New Content Trailer (k. hoops)
• r/riftwizard