Searching for cards in Legends of Runeterra
© Riot Games
esports
How to build your card collection in Legends of Runeterra
Is it too expensive for you to buy the cards you want in Legends of Runeterra? Here are some simple ways to use your time efficiently to earn the cards you want.
By Molly Gatt
7 min readUpdated on
Legends of Runeterra, also known as the League of Legends card game, is a free-to-play title that combines strategy and creativity to outwit your opponent. LoR plays similar to Hearthstone and is cross-play and cross-save on PC and mobile, so it's easy to switch between your phone and your computer, letting you play anywhere with an internet connection. Players build decks of exactly 40 cards with however many units, spells and landmarks they want, but each deck can only have a maximum of six champions. You use your cards to protect your Nexus while simultaneously dealing damage to your opponent’s. The first player to bring their opponent’s Nexus to zero, or force another win condition, will be victorious.
After the huge success of LoL, LoR, along with Valorant and Teamfight Tactics, was developed by Riot Games in recent years to carve out space in the esports scene for genres outside of MOBAs. A confirmed upcoming League of Legends fighting game is keeping esports fans excited for more staple games for the industry. As for Legends of Runeterra, Riot Games keeps things interesting with regular expansions for competitive and casual play.
Building a big collection of cards across all the regions of Runeterra is the best way to grow your game knowledge and build the best decks so you can challenge any opponent. It may seem difficult to acquire a huge collection and some may resort to paying for the cards they want. LoR is very generous with giving cards away for free if you know how to earn them. Here are some strategies to maximize the number of cards you can earn for free so you only need to spend money on customizable features or premium content.

Where do cards come from?

There are two ways to build your card collection in Runeterra. You can either buy cards or earn them. If you choose to buy, you will simply purchase however many coins you need from the store to buy wildcards, which can be converted into any card you want. This can get pricey, as a single champion wildcard is 300 coins, which is around five Canadian dollars. Unless you have money to burn, it’s best to use your cash solely for decorative elements like guardians or emotes which, for the most part, can only be purchased with coins. Those who choose to earn their cards can acquire them from free wildcards, shards, capsules and chests.
Wildcards come in four different varieties: common, rare, epic, and champion. If you acquire a common wildcard, which is the easiest to get, you can only use it on a common unit, spell, or landmark. Shards let you craft any card you want if you collect enough of them. A champion is 3000 shards, an epic is 1200, rares are 300 each and commons are 100. Lastly, capsules and chests are random booster packs that may offer you units, spells, landmarks, champions, shards, or wildcards. Capsules and chests, as well as the cards inside them, can upgrade randomly to offer better rewards. It’s a nice surprise whenever it happens, but there’s no way to predict when it will materialize.

Know where to get XP and how to use it

Experience points, or XP, are your best friend when it comes to earning your collected cards. If you haven’t already finished the prologue to unlock all of the regions in Runeterra, do so, because region rewards, which are unlocked in a level system with XP, will be your regular source of new cards. LoR is very generous with XP and rewards players that play a handful of games strategically every day as opposed to grinding out a bunch of wins against the AI in one sitting.
Each day, players receive a daily quest, which can award them with 1000 to 1500 XP to put towards region rewards. There are also three daily PvP bonuses: a 400 bonus XP for the first win, then 200 and 100 XP bonuses for the second and third victories. Most regions also offers a 50% boost to XP up to level 12.. Other than that, players receive 200 XP for a win against another player or 100 XP for wins against the AI. Players also get XP for losses, it's not much unless you farm for it, but that’ll be explained later on.
Exploring other game modes like The Path of Champions can help you complete daily quests that require you to use certain cards and play styles that you might not have access to right away as a new player. This game mode is also a great way to earn XP because you will be playing lots and lots of games against the AI and receive 200 XP for every win. You can find The Path of Champions on the Home page right above the Weekly Vault.
The Weekly Vault works similar to region rewards, but it only opens once a week and the number of rewards you get is based on how much XP you acquired during the seven days between openings. It’s recommended to reach at least a level 10 Vault so you can get a champion wildcard to use on whatever champion you want. Players that are playing a few games every day to beat the daily quest and get their PvP bonuses while taking advantage of region boosts, and dabbling in The Path of Champions, will be able to reach level 10 in their Vault easily every week..

Distribute your time and resources efficiently

Make sure to change your region every day, at least if you’re brand new to Legends of Runeterra. It’s a good way to gain cards faster as you need less XP to unlock rewards in the early levels of a region. When you’re more established you’ll want to change your region every fourth level, so four, eight, 12 until you hit the end of your new region boost to collect cards as efficiently as possible.
Don’t use rerolls to try and change a daily quest reward from 1000 XP to 1500 XP. The game knows what you’re doing and will only award you a certain amount of XP from daily quests per week. Instead, use your rerolls if you don’t have the cards to complete a quest and need a different one that will make better use of your current playstyles.
You can farm losses in PvP and against the AI if you’re not up for playing but want to gain XP. You have the option to surrender the match immediately after it begins, gaining XP without having to play the game. After 10 losses a day, the game will stop rewarding XP. You can get 700 XP from 10 losses in PVP and 325 XP from 10 losses against the AI and that’s not even including the new region boost. You can also farm losses against your friends for up to five games a day. You’ll get 500 XP if you surrender to your friend five times and 1000 XP if your friend surrenders to you five times.
Farming losses may be considered an annoyance for some of your opponents who are trying to test out their decks and you surrender right away instead of playing them properly. While others might be happy that they’re getting their PvP matches out of the way without having to work for it. It’s not a very common practice but it can be an effective way to gain XP if you’re also combining it with the bonus XP you get from winning games.
Make sure to take advantage of the refund system so you can get back whatever you spent on a card if you change your mind, just make sure you don’t use the card and return it within three days. You’ll know if a card is still refundable in your purchases, as it’ll give you the option to refund it right away with the push of a button.
Don’t hold back on spending your wildcards once you get them. After you’ve collected three of the same card and you get it again in a capsule or chest the game will either replace it with shards, 15 for a common and 60 for a rare, or in the instance of an epic or champion, you’ll get another of the same type that you don’t already have multiples of. No need to be stingy with wildcards just build your collection!
esports
Gaming