Legends of Runeterra progression and economy – how do you unlock more cards?

How does Legends of Runeterra progression work?

Legends of Runeterra progression design lead Ryan Giuliany posted a lengthy overview of progression in the game. It’s a bulky piece, so we’ve simplified it for you just below.

What rewards are available?

Capsules and Chests can be opened to earn cards. You can upgrade them to gain better and rarer rewards, with the chance of chaining upgrades to increase rewards multiple times.

See below the table detailing the potential Chests and Capsules you can earn – Chests contain both Shards and Capsules, whilst Capsules contain wildcards.

For the open Beta, Chests now contain fewer Shards at higher levels.

Economy Updates for Launch (Patch 1.0)

To celebrate LoR’s launch and to help folks get started, Riot has added a one-time per account track of fire-week login rewards. All existing accounts as of Patch 1.0 will get to run through the track – lovely stuff.

Here’s a quick look at the rewards you’ll earn from the track:

• Day 1: 1x Capsule
• Day 2: 1x Expedition Token
• Day 3: 1x Golden Chest
• Day 4: 1x Commander Ledros, 2x Atrocity
• Day 5: 1x Champion Capsule
• Day 6: 1x Platinum Chest
• Day 7: 2x Ashe, 1x Rimetusk Shaman, 1x Icy Yeti, 2x Icevale Archer, 2x Shatter. A new starter deck (Freeze and Decay) will be added to your collection, based on the above 8 cards plus others acquired in the Prologue starter decks.

With the arrival of Bilgewater as a Region, all Region Roads are now extended so you can pursue all the new cards in Rising Tides. New and returning players (as well as those who just like to take their time) can now earn extra XP for early levels in the the original regions.

Again, here’s a quick breakdown of the new Region Road tracks:

• Bilgewater Region Road added.
• All Region Roads extended from 20 to 25 levels.
• New levels for existing regions will only drop Rising Tides cards (until you unlock them all).
• Levels 1-20 can now drop Rising Tides cards.
• The last level for each region rewards a regional card back!
• “XP Boost Level” system added—earn extra XP towards completing early Region Road levels.
• From Patch 1.0, the first 12 levels on the original six Region Roads (i.e., not Bilgewater) will multiply XP applied toward them by 50%.
• System will be adjusted over time—for example, to include Bilgewater levels, or to advance further down Region Roads with future releases.

If you’re after info on everything that’s arrived with LoR’s launch expansion, our Legends of Runeterra: Rising Tides hub has you covered.

What are Wildcards?

Wildcards can be traded for any card of the same rarity. The four rarities are Common, Rare, Epic, and Champion. So, if you’ve got a Common Wildcard, you can trade it in for any common card you want.

You can buy Wildcards in the Store with Coins, purchasable with real money, or you can earn them as rewards for progressing within the game.

In the open beta version of the game, you could only purchase a specific number of Wild Cards per week. Riot has lifted this restriction, so now you can purchase an unlimited amount of Wild Cards with your Shards, or with Coins. This makes it much easier to fill out your collection or complete a specific deck if you’ve not quite got the right cards!

It was also confirmed by Giuliany that you won’t be able to obtain a fourth version of the same card, since you’re only allowed to play with three in a single deck. If you receive a fourth copy of an Epic or Champion rarity card, it’ll automatically change into a card of the same rarity you don’t already own. If you get a fourth Common or Rare, the card will be transformed into Shards.

How do Shards convert to cards?

Shards are the other way you can create cards, aside from Wildcards. You’ll be able to earn them from Chests, as detailed above, as well as Quests. When you receive duplicates of Common and Rare cards, you’ll receive Shards instead of the automatic reroll you get from Epic and Champion cards.

Here’s how many Shards you’ll get from each card rarity, and how many Shards you’ll require in order to create a card of that rarity.

Update:

Shard rewards have been changed for launch, so these numbers might be slightly off. We’ll update you as soon as we know more.

• Common: 25 Shards (100 required to craft)
• Rare: 75 Shards (300 required to craft)
• Epic: 300 Shards (1200 required to craft)
• Champion: 1000 Shards (3000 required to craft)

Remember: you won’t need to worry about getting Shards for Epic and Champion cards until you own every single one, meaning there’ll be a constant stream of new unlocks for you to try out.

XP Rewards

The preview patches of Legends of Runeterra sometimes felt sluggish, progression-wise. Here’s how XP gain has been updated to combat this.

Constructed XP:

• PVP wins in Normal / Ranked and Expeditions net you at least 200 and 100 base XP (respectively), every time. Play as much as you want!
• AI wins will always provide at least 50 XP going forward.
• First-win bonuses – 400XP bonus for your first PVP win of the day, 200 for your second, and 100 for your third.
• More XP for losses – you now receive 100 XP for a loss, rather than 25.
• Expeditions XP – Base XP gain unchanged, but shares the same diminishing returns as constructed play. Bonus of 0-2000XP upon trial completion.

What are Quests and how do you complete them?

You’ll be able to earn XP each day from Quests. These work in a very similar manner to Hearthstone’s Quests, in that you’ll receive one per day and you can hold up to three at a time.

They reward you with different levels of XP depending on the level of difficulty. Remember to keep a slot clear so you don’t miss any!

You can reroll a Quest once a day too, so if you get told to play a bunch of Noxus cards and you’re not really feeling it, you can immediately get another Quest that’ll offer the same amount of XP as a reward.

What are Region Rewards?

You’ll earn XP as well as other rewards for playing with specific Regions. There’s an in-depth description on the Legends of Runeterra FAQ site, but to put it simply: you earn rewards for playing cards from certain Regions.

Even though you can have decks including two separate Regions, only one can be ranked up at a time. You can choose which Region to rank up by clicking Rewards on the left hand side of the LoR client. From there, select Change Regions, and choose the one you want to rank up.

Keep playing cards from your chosen Region and you’ll start unlocking rewards. You’ll need to earn 52,500 XP to fully rank up to Level 20 in a single region. Level 1 is 250 XP, and each level requires 250 XP more than the last.

As mentioned at the top of this page, new and returning players will also gain +50% XP boosts for the first twelve or so levels of a Region track to help them get back into the game.

Here’s the rewards available for fully ranking up a single region.

• 1 Rare Wildcard
• 1 Epic Wildcard
• 1 Champion Wildcard
• 3 Random Epic Cards
• 1 Bronze Chest
• 1 Silver Chest
• 3 Golden Chests
• 2 Platinum Chests
• 1 Diamond Chest
• 2 Capsules
• 3 Wild Capsules
• 2 Epic Capsules
• 3 Champion Capsules
• Region Card Back

What is the Legends of Runeterra Vault?

Each week, you’ll be able to open the Vault. The more XP you’ve earned in the past week, the better your rewards, giving a similar feeling to random pack openings without the required payment.

You can find your Vault level on the Home menu. Click the icon in the bottom right, and you’ll be able to see how close you are to maximising your rewards. It’ll also show how many days you’ll need to wait to open up your Vault, as well as the rewards you’re currently on.

In the open beta, your Vault levelled to a maximum of 13. Well, it’s even better now. Your Vault’s maximum level remains at 13, but you can still earn unlimited rewards beyond this level. Plus, there are better rewards earlier on, guaranteed Champion cards, and more.

Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll earn as you level up your Vault and beyond.

• Earn unlimited (and improved) Vault rewards.
• Level 2+ includes an Expedition Token (previously awarded at level 10).
• Level 5+ includes a random Champion card (you can Braum Wave goodbye to bad luck Vaults with no Champions).
• Level 10+ includes a Champion Wildcard (replaces level 5 random Champion card).
• Beyond Level 13, unlock additional, unlimited capsules, each of which contains at least 3 Rares and 2 Commons, with a chance to upgrade to an Epic or Champion Capsule.

Will I keep what I’ve purchased after the Account Reset?

All your progression and content from the preview patches has been reset. However, from now on, all content will be yours to keep. If you’ve purchased coins, the exact number you get back will have changed, but you’ll have at least as much purchasing power as you did before due to the price changes.

We’ve got more information on the game’s launch on our pre-registration page.

That’s all for our progression guide for Legends of Runeterra! There’s a lot to take in but hopefully it all makes sense. Check out our guide hub for more tips on Legends of Runeterra, as well as our page detailing the best decks to try!