Talk:Pawns/@comment-180.194.240.201-20120511180316/@comment-67.189.247.140-20120611162522

You get rift crystals from certain bosses and quests.

Also, it costs 0 (zero!) rift crystals to hire a pawn - another player's pawn or a randomly generated one - that is your level or lower.

The only exception I've seen to this is if a lvl 20 pawn is equipped with high-level items (which they can only get if they were gifted to the pawn's creator by another higher level player). In one case, hiring a pawn my own level (lvl 21 at the time) that was wearing post-game gear cost me 1 rift crystal.