There are lots of ways to farm Glass Beads in Rift‘s Carnival of the Ascended. But out of all of them, this is the best one. It involves an onslaught of invading rift creatures, all converging on a single defensive point. While that may sound like any other onslaught-type quest you might get while leveling up in Rift, the zone it takes place in makes things a lot different.
These onslaught locations in Planetouched Wilds (PTW) can be divided up into a two-person quest, a three-person quest, or a five-person quest. You should get about 300-500 glass beads from each successful onslaught — not bad for 5 minutes of work.
These glass beads can be used to purchase high-level essences for your focus, or pets, clothing, and food items. If you want prize tickets, then the Carnival mini-quests are what you want to check out. And if you want the special Dubloon currency, this guide can help.
There are around 7 different spots, each at the green diamond teleport locations. The types you will find are either air rift mobs, death, or earth.
Step 1: Upgrade your Defenses
Each spot has three main defenses. You have the turret, which is charging in the image above. On the top left, you can see a pillar, which counts as a healing spot. In the center, there is also the focus, which needs to be protected in order to win the match.
Here’s another example of the healing building.
The strength of the invasions depends on three main things. First, it depends on the number of defenses you build. Second, it depends on the level of the defenses. And third, it depends on the number of people with you from the start of the quest.
Each level of defenses adds bonuses if you stay near them, like increased damage or supporting defenders to help protect you. Just don’t rely on them too much.
Step 2: Know which way the enemy will come
The reason why this spot counts as a two-person onslaught quest is mainly because the invading mobs circle around to near where I’m standing on the map above. So instead of all of them converging and you trying to kill everything at once, you are given breathers.
Step 3: Watch invasions fight each other
Different invasions aren’t that friendly with each other. For instance, the wind types and fire types will fight with each other. This isn’t something you need to worry yourself about. Just think of it as the enemy of your enemy being your friend.
They should last around 30 seconds anyways, which will lead to:
Step 4: The Initial Onslaught
Remember how I mentioned that the waves circle around, giving you a breather? Well, if you can’t kill the mobs attacking you fast enough, that breather just won’t happen.
But since the purpose of this guide is to show you how to make a massive amount of beads (each one of these rift mobs give 2 glass beads), then I guess I should show you what that number builds up to.
There’s around 150 glass beads waiting for you in this first of three waves. But if you are not geared enough to do it, it will lead to your death.
And there you have it. The single best way to farm glass beads during Rift’s Carnival of the Ascended. I already bought out everything I wanted with a 30 minute grind. I bet you can do the same too.
