Rift activity spawn rates in 1.20

[Echo Weaver]

OK, I was warned that the rift monster spawns by rift activity would drop precipitously when I upgraded to 1.20. Whoa Nelly, you guys weren't kidding. I can work outside during a high night, and I might see two drifters or a shiver.

I liked it the way it was, when I wanted to get home at dusk during nights of high or apocalyptic activity because the only thing I was going to be able to do outside was fight drifters. (And I don't particularly like going mano-a-mano with monsters; I want to be back where my traps are.)

Do we have any idea what led to this change? I saw some stuff in the change logs about tweaks to make it less likely for drifters to spawn inside bases. Is it about light level? I don't know under what circumstances that rift spawns were showing up inside of bases, but I never observed it myself.

I pawed through the mod database and only found mods that reduced spawns or monster difficulty, and that's the opposite of what I want.

I'd love to be able to tweak rift activity behavior back to the way it was.

Edited July 16, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[FlareUKCS]

The team is looking to the waters a bit this time, the 1.21 pre version have tried to add some fun to the waters, but not to the point other things spawn there, or a reason to actually go into the ocean... coral and/or waves but not mobs yet, I dont doubt the team will do something as this is a step to making oceans interesting but at least now we have coral and waves... its a good start I would say.

I think that spawns may be adjusted so we get a few less daylight spawns, unless you have a cave near to spawn them so they can move to you. I think the spawns are still linked to light radius, so some random shade could be ok as a spawn but I haven't been too hassled by drifters, I do the usual despawn trick, my only change is to make a rooftop access so I can drop and run.

[Thorfinn]

14 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

OK, I was warned that the rift monster spawns by rift activity would drop precipitously when I upgraded to 1.20. Whoa Nelly, you guys weren't kidding. I can work outside during a high night, and I might see two drifters or a shiver.

I was wondering if that were a real thing, or if I was just getting better. That is one huge advantage of the rift spawn system, I guess. If you plan your nighttime activities around where the rifts are, they don't wander into you very often. That just means you have to be pretty flexible instead of formulaic. 

 

[Zane Mordien]

16 hours ago, Echo Weaver said:

OK, I was warned that the rift monster spawns by rift activity would drop precipitously when I upgraded to 1.20. Whoa Nelly, you guys weren't kidding. I can work outside during a high night, and I might see two drifters or a shiver.

It feels inconsistent to me. Sometimes at high rift activity I see no rifts around me and it's a quiet night and others at low activity the drifters are beating on my door all night. As of the last stable 1.20 it is better IMO. The rifts are more consistent and spawn closer to me at night. Although it could all be in my imagination and it's been the same all throughout 1.20.

[Thorfinn]

2 hours ago, Zane Mordien said:

It feels inconsistent to me.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the rifts despawn if you are too far away from them for too long. This lets them respawn closer to you. That's how I'm rationalizing it, anyway. If I just stay clear of the rifts and, say, dig clay and clayform, I can often pass the night on Apoc unmolested. But if I go a few hundred away, I'll often hear new rifts appearing somewhere (un)reasonably close.