In contrast to Challenge Rifts in which the player is able to buy cheap Diablo IV Gold set the level of difficulty, this is not the case with Elder Rifts scales automatically. This implies that the stronger the player is, the more difficult the Elder Rifts will be. How much of a problem this is depends upon various factors which include the player's age, class structure, build, and whether they're playing solo or with friends. There's no limit on the number of instances Elder Rifts can be undertaken, and no real penalty for death , aside from the agony of having to restart. This is why the difficulty of scaling isn't really a major problem, but it's something that should be kept in mind.

The process of killing monsters in The Elder Rift fills up a blue progress bar that is located at the lower right part of the page. After the bar is filled, a Rift Guardian boss is summoned. This is in contrast to Challenge Rifts, which the player will fail automatically if the Rift fails to be completed before the timer ends, Elder Rifts can still be completed when the time has expired. By killing the Rift Guardian prior to the timer expiring will grant the player bonus rewards, so there's an incentive to fill in the timer as quickly as you can. Even if the player dies several times in the Rift, their rewards will be similar so long as they reach the end and take down the Rift Guardian on time.

Using Crests and Legendary Crests can allow the player to strengthen an Elder Rift. An empowered Rift provides the user with Runes as well as Legendary Gems, whereas an unpowered Rift provides the user with less valuable loot buy Diablo 4 Gold. The general rule is that it's only worthwhile to spend time running Elder Rifts if the player is equipped with the Crests to empower them.