Gaming
Gaming
Legends of Runeterra 101: A Guide for Beginners
Want to learn how LoR works without having to go through the trial and error of figuring it out on your own? Here’s a step-by-step guide to the game, so you know exactly where everything is.
Legends of Runeterra (LoR) is a digital collectible card game developed and published by Riot Games in 2020. Similar to games like Magic: The Gathering Arena and Hearthstone, LoR is free-to-play on PC and Mobile with cross-play and cross-save. This title was developed to be very new player friendly but it’s still a massive game that can be daunting to navigate on your own. Luckily you have this step-by-step guide and additional resources to get you started.
Starting from Scratch
If you’ve never played this game before and are completely lost, you’ll have to make a Riot account to start. You do so by going to LoR’s website and clicking Play Now. From there, create a profile using your email or an existing Facebook, Google or Apple account. After you’ve successfully created your Riot account, download the app, either on your computer or smartphone. It’s not a very graphics-heavy game, so almost every device can run it.
Once you're in the game, you’ll enter a nickname for yourself and start the tutorials. The tutorials are very basic and show you how to attack, block, use spells, manage your mana and level up your champions. Afterwards, you’ll unlock a few decks to help you finish the prologue. It's a pretty new-player-friendly game with lots of instructions, and the mechanics are introduced to you slowly so you won't feel too overwhelmed by how big this game really is.
To complete the prologue you’ll need to gain XP by completing quests. You’ll find these objectives by clicking the scrolls on the top right corner of your screen and by beating the AI. You’ll unlock decks, cards, challenges, online play, and then (finally) the full game and the regions of Runeterra, here’s a breakdown of all 10 if you need it. From here on, you have five pages to choose from on the left hand side when you enter the game -- or six if there’s an Event going on -- Home, Play, Collection, Rewards and Store.
The Home page
The Home page is the first one you’ll see when you boot up the game. It has your player icon, which is the circle on the top left, where you can set an image that best captures your mood or personality. Here you can see your game Summary, Collection and Mastery. Summary features information about your experience playing the game, like how many cards you’ve collected, your favourite deck, the highest you’ve ever ranked in competitive play etc. Collection shows you the percentage of each region in Runeterra you’ve collected cards for, and Mastery gives you insight on how much you’ve used each champion in the game.
On the top right corner of the Home page you have, from left to right, news, quests, friends and options. Your news tab will give you updates about what is going on in the game, whether it’s patch notes, new additions or upcoming events and tournaments. Quests show you how you can earn XP to put towards getting rewards and growing your card collection. Friends lets you add people you know so you can easily challenge them to a match and it also shows you when they’re online. Options lets you alter your game settings for a more tailored experience.
The Home page also has the total currency available to you for spending on cards and cosmetics, as well as how far along you are in your Weekly Vault, which we will get into more detail later on when we discuss the Collection and Rewards pages. There’s also easy access to The Path of Champions game mode that recently got expanded, with an upgraded progression system, as well as new champions, regions and quests.
The Play tab
Play is where you go to play the many game modes Legends of Runeterra has to offer. From the top down there’s VS Player, VS AI, Challenges, Gauntlet, Tournament and Labs. VS Player is for playing people online. You can play ranked matches if you’re confident in your decks and abilities and want to try and climb the ladder. You’re also able to enter a normal game that has no stakes, making the mode more suited towards completing quests or testing new decks. VS AI is playing against the computer. You get less XP when you play this mode so, as soon as you unlock VS Player, it’s best to just make the switch.
Challenges are small matches against the AI that focus on specific mechanics or in-game situations. These are great for people that are just learning the game and want to get a better grasp on gameplay with a little extra XP for their efforts. Labs is currently just The Path of Champions, a PvE game mode that is more of a roguelike deckbuilder, similar to Slay the Spire. These are fun for players that are bored with the standard rules and want to switch it up by doing something more creative and adventurous.
Gauntlets are mini-tournaments that become available leading up to the Seasonal Tournament. To enter, you'll need to select your top three decks to use against any opponent. Your decks can’t have any of the same champions, so be sure to feel comfortable with several regions and champions if you want to enter this competitive mode. If you manage to beat all of your opponents in a best of three, without losing two matches in a row on your first try, you will acquire Prime Glory to put towards your wins for the Last Chance Gauntlet, which happens one week before the Seasonal Tournament.
You can qualify for the Seasonal Tournament through VS Player mode by being in the top 700 Masters ranked players in your region, or by being one of the first 324 players to achieve Prime Glory in the Last Chance Gauntlet. Even if you’re not one of the first 324 players to do so, you’ll be put on the waitlist and be able to register for the tournament. You may get a chance to compete if not all 324 players are able to register on tournament day. If you want to learn more about the specifics of competitive Legends of Runeterra, more information can be found here.
Collection
The Collection page is where you’ll acquire cards and build your decks. This page is also where you can purchase cosmetics if you happen to find yourself away from the Store page. Decks and Cards are going to be the main tabs you use on this page. The former will display all the decks you’ve made in alphabetical order. If you want a specific deck at the top, add it to your favourites. Select your decks to edit, delete or share them. If you want to make a new one, select New Deck at the top and add 40 cards from up to two regions, with a maximum of six champions.
If you’re not that good at deck building you can import a deck that someone has shared by using a code. There are a lot of websites that offer deck codes, depending on what you’re looking for. Some of the bigger sites are Runterrafire and Decks of Runeterra. Once you copy a code you’re interested in, return to the game and select Import Deck. It will automatically be added to your decks and all you need to do is name it so you can find it once it’s been added. If you’re missing cards from an imported deck, they will be labelled with a big red exclamation mark and you will need to add those cards to your collection to make the deck usable.
To see all the cards you’ve collected, and the ones you don't have, select the Cards tab on the Collection page. You can collect up to three of every card and they can be purchased by three different forms of currency. The in-game currencies are coins, green shards and wildcards. There’s also the red prismatic shards but those just for making your cards shiny. Coins can only be acquired by spending real money, but they are used to buy everything in the game, from cards to cosmetics, while green shards and wildcards can only be used to buy cards.
Cards are separated into four classes, common, rare, epic and champion. You need fewer coins and green shards to purchase a common than you would an epic or champion card. For using wildcards, you need a common wildcard to purchase a common card or a champion wildcard to purchase a champion. You gain wildcards and shards through chests, capsules, or the Weekly Vault, and other rewards by gaining XP. If you want to learn more about growing your card collection, especially if you want to do it without spending any real money, we’ve got tips for that too.
Rewards and Event pages
These pages are where you’ll be using your XP to grow your card collection and earn other rewards. There are 10 regions in the game, all sporting their own unique units, spells, landmarks and champions. Once you select a region, all the XP you gained from playing the various game modes will be put towards unlocking those rewards. For the most part, the lower the level a reward is, the easier it will be to unlock. Most regions also give a 50% boost for the first 12 levels. We recommend you switch up your region rewards every four levels when you first start to play the game, it will grow your collection faster than if you just focused on one.
Your XP also goes towards your Weekly Vault, which acts like a big card drop that matures over a one-week period. When you gain experience points it will show you how it affects your region rewards as well as your Weekly Vault. The higher your Weekly Vault level is, the more cards, shards and wildcards you’ll get when it finally opens. We recommend getting to at least level 10 every week, in order to get a champion wildcard, since those cost about $5 in real money. When gaining XP in this game, playing a little bit every day to take advantage of daily quests and PvP bonuses pays off more than trying to grind it all out in one afternoon.
The Event page comes and goes, usually becoming available when Riot drops a bunch of new content. It lasts for about a month and there will be special quests you can do to unlock items from the Event. Not everything will be available for free, though. You’ll need to buy an Event Pass to unlock the premium content, which could range from diamond chests to emotes, card backs, prismatic rewards, wildcards and various other cosmetics. You can purchase an Event Pass from the store using coins.
Store
This is where you go to spend real money. Everything in the store requires coins to unlock. To get your hands on some coins simply press the plus sign next to how many coins you have to be shown some options. You can use these coins to buy skins for your champions, wildcards, boards, cute little companions called guardians, card backs and emotes.
To add these new purchases to your gameplay, select a deck to bring up a side menu. Click on any of the five options to alter your skins, emotes, boards, card backs or guardians. If you change your mind and want to refund a purchase, simply go to purchases and the game will let you know if you qualify for a refund of coins, shards, wildcards etc. You’re more likely to get your money back if you don’t use your new purchase and return it within the first day or two.
