Lore & Legends Overview

Unlock, lock in, and explore Runeterra through time and place with Lore & Legends. Our next set brings history to life with more champions than ever before, thanks to our Unlockable Champions mechanic. Just how many champs? 100! That’s 40 more than the usual roster of around 60, but 40 of these champs will be Unlockables added to your pool only after completing their Unlock conditions. All this will release when Lore & Legends unlocks with Patch 16.1 on December 3rd. 

UNLOCKABLES (40)

40 additional champions enter the Convergence as Unlockables that you can add to your draft pool, giving them a chance to appear in your shop. Let’s break down the core rules for the system and a few examples.

Some Unlockable units come with relative ease such as two-cost Bard, our resident reroll flex carry, whose ability launches more damaging Meeps at his foes for each 3-star unit on your board. Bard is unlocked simply by rerolling four times before Stage 2-7, so if reroll is your style, all you have to do is just that!

Other Unlockables are a bit harder. The Darkin Aatrox is a flexible 5-cost who gains Attack Damage equal to his Omnivamp, comes back from the dead upon his first death, and cycles through a devastating combo that Sunders, knocks up, and executes. To unlock Aatrox you’ll need to field a unit with 40% Omnivamp in Combat and be Level 8. That’ll take a lot of Bloodthirsters, but don’t worry, he’ll make use of those!

Alright now that you’ve seen two very different Unlockables, let’s get into the core rules. But don’t worry, we’ll cover WAY more Unlockable Champions as we get into the Traits of the set! These get a bit technical, so if you get the gist of it and wanna go see the new Traits and champs just give this section a scroll.

UNLOCKABLE CORE RULES

- Once Unlocked, the unit will appear in the furthest right slot of your shop on your next roll

- Unlocked units have the same amount of copies as other units of their tier. Note that units above 5 gold still count as Legendary (gold shop border) units and have the same unit pool sizes (9 for Legendary units).

- If multiple players Unlock the same Unlockable units they will be taking copies from the same shared Unlocked pool.

- If you Unlock a unit and do not have a copy of it on your board/bench, you will see it less often. If you continue to not purchase this unit and not have it on your board or bench, it will appear less and less down to a minimum of 20% of the normal appearance rate for that unit. This is to keep your shop focused on the units you want to field. If at a later point in the game you purchase this previously ignored unit from the shop, they return to the pool as normal.

- If you sell an Unlockable unit, it returns to that unit's pool as normal

- For 4- and 5-cost Unlockables, if a small number of players have them Unlocked, the odds of them appearing after you have 3 copies become much worse based on the total copies in the pool. So if one player has a champ unlocked, buying 9 copies is much harder than a standard champion. This is to ensure three-starring them is roughly equivalent to three-starring a regular unit that can be contested. Note, once four players have that unit unlocked, their weight (frequency) returns to normal as they can be adequately contested.

For the rest of this article, I'm going to get into most of our Origin Traits, but note that there's a lot more in this set that I could cover here, and also note that the specific numbers for Traits and champion abilities are subject to change as we continue to adjust them ahead of our December 3rd live date! Alright, let's hop in a Portal and see what's happening over in Bandle City!

YORDLE (2/4/6/8)

• Lulu 1G Arcanist
• Rumble 1G Defender
• Poppy 2G Demacia, Juggernaut
  • UNLOCK: Field a Demacian or Yordle with two items in combat.
• Teemo 2G Longshot
• Tristana 2G Gunslinger
• Kennen 3G Ionia, Defender
  • UNLOCK: 8 star levels of Ionia, Yordle, or Defender
• Kobuko & Yuumi 3G Bruiser, Invoker
  • UNLOCK: 6 star levels of Bruiser, Yordle, or Invoker
• Fizz 4G Bilgewater
  • UNLOCK: Field 5 Yordles or Bilgewater units and be Level 7
• Veigar 4G Arcanist
  • UNLOCK: Field a unit with two Rabadon's Deathcaps in combat
• Ziggs 5G Zaun, Longshot
  • UNLOCK: Field a Yordle or a Zaunite with three items and be Level 9

I know what you're thinking…that's a lot of Yordles, but you likely won't be fielding all of them all of the time (although you are more than welcome to!). Yordle's a large trait that's typically played as a vertical reroll comp, but even when played vertically will look drastically different depending on where you take the comp. Portal your way from Bandle City to Ionia, Bilgewater, Zaun, or even a Class-based comp with Kobuko & Yuumi at its core. Who you Unlock in this comp will change everything from your splashed-in units, to your cute lil' Yordle carry. Let's check out the trait:

(2) Yordles gain 50 Health and 7% Attack Speed for each Yordle fielded. 3-star Yordles grant 50% more!

(4) AND your first shop each round has a Yordle in it!

(6) AND get 2 free rerolls each round!

(8) AND get a Yordle Grab Bag each round!

What's in the BAG!? Oh I do hope it's a Needlessly Large Rod so I can work towards unlocking the proto-short-king, Veigar. Veigar is an Arcanist carry that needs two Deathcaps to unlock, but once you do make these caps, he'll put them to good use. Stacking one cap on top of the other gives Veigar the confidence of a medium-sized child-huge heights for a Yordle. (Short) jokes aside, Veigar's got a passive where he gains more Ability Power from all sources, making Arcanist (trait that provides AP) and those caps great!

All this AP will enhance his ability which calls down a storm of meteors across the battlefield that each deal magic damage. And leave the Jeweled Gauntlet at home; these meteors can innately critically strike, and each one that kills an enemy permanently grants Veigar 1 AP. Now that's how you reach great heights!

IXTAL (3/5/7)

• Qiyana 1G Slayer
• Neeko 2G Arcanist, Defender
• Milio 3G Invoker
• Nidalee 4G Huntress
  • UNLOCK: Field two 2-star Neekos in combat together
• Skarner 4G
  • UNLOCK: Field a non-Tank with a Gargoyle's Stoneplate in combat
• Brock 7G
  • UNLOCK: Collect 500 Ixtal Sunshards total

Ixtal is our choose your own adventure (and risk) Trait that'll offer you three quests with varying difficulty and Sunshards to compensate. After you complete a Quest, you'll be able to embark on a new Quest or cash-in those Sunshards for an equivalent reward. Later stages will offer more Sunshards -just remember to trade them in for power before you trade your game in for a grey screen. Don't worry, as you field more and more Ixtal champions, gathering Sunshards and living to tell the tale will get easier!

(3) Complete Quests to earn Sunshards and spend them for loot!

(5) Heal 2 player health at the start of each player combat.

(7) After winning combat, find 50 Sunshards and unearth bonus loot.

Let's hop into a few example Quests and their rewards, but as with all of the content in this piece, the specific numbers are subject to change as we continue to balance from feedback and playtests!

There are a lot more Quests to uncover, but hopefully this gives you a starting point to think about your first Ixtal expedition.

The 7-cost, Brock, is our most Brock unit to date. He’s only Unlockable after getting 500 Sunshards, so you’re going to want to get questing early. But once you’ve got him, he’s the type of Brock you can rely on, even when you're stuck between a Brock and a hard place. Brock’s passive gives him CC immunity, allowing his attacks to briefly knock up the target and deal damage in a 1-hex radius around them. His active ability has him slamming into the ground dealing damage to ALL enemies, reduced for those further from the center. If it’s the first cast of the fight, then he’ll also knock them up. Afterward, his Seismic Slam will cause rocks to fall around the battlefield, dealing damage to enemies hit. Your foes best wear their helmets, cause this rockfall is like all rockfall—very serious and high consequence. 

Why risk it all on a loss-streak when you can risk it all on love? If you want to play Ixtal more as a tempo-comp, taking easier Quests to constantly gain power and playing for powerful Unlockable units is the way to go. Working your way to an early Nidalee Unlock by fielding two Neekos can help you on your ultimate Quest: Winning! 

Neeko’s ability has her leap towards enemies, shielding herself before slamming down, dealing damage and reducing attack speed with a Chill effect. While Nidalee will jump to a nearby enemy, deal damage to them and adjacent foes and recast if any hit enemies die, the real kicker is in the bond these two share. While Neeko is alive, Nidalee will be completely untargetable—but untargetable doesn’t mean invulnerable, so watch out for those AOE splashes.

NOXUS (3/5/7/10)

• Briar 1G Slayer, Juggernaut
• Sion 2G Bruiser
• Darius 3G Defender
  • UNLOCK: Have Draven drop 1 gold
• Draven 3G Quickstriker
• LeBlanc 3G Invoker
  • UNLOCK: Field a Sion with 2 items in combat
• Ambessa 4G Vanquisher
• Swain 4G Arcanist, Juggernaut
• Mel 5G Disruptor
  • UNLOCK: 2-star Ambessa with 1 item dies

Unleash the power of Atakhan, Bringer of Ruin, the Noxus summon that'll join the fight after 15% of the enemy's Health has been lost. His power scales with Noxian star levels on your board, and the breakpoints you can reach with the trait.

(3) He slashes enemies, dealing magic damage.

(5) Noxians get more powerful the longer he is alive.

(7) He drains the souls of enemies on cast.

(10) After 10 seconds, BRING RUIN.

As a summon, Atakhan can be splashed in for an extra body at (3), or played to empower his Noxian allies at (5) and above. He’s the perfect support and frontline for a capstone carry in Mel, who’s Unlocked only by spoiling key events in my favorite show.  

Anyways, let’s talk Mel. Mel’s passive allows her to throw out two radiant orbs around the target that each deal magic damage in a 1-hex radius and drain 1 Mana from units hit each second. It’s the perfect passive to proc her secondary Trait, Disruptor, which applies Dazzle to damaged enemies, reducing their damage output. But the real radiance comes from the reward she gains after draining enough mana: a random Radiant Item! So if you get her early, by hitting Ambessas early and often, you can flex into Noxus to reap the benefits of a scary Darkin monster AND shiny Radiant Items.

That’s just her passive though. When Mel gets enough Mana through draining and more natural occurrences, she’ll detonate the orbs on her target, causing a 3-hex radius explosion that deals magic damage to them and all other enemies hit. 

IONIA (2/4/6)

• Jhin 1G Gunslinger
• Shen 1G Bruiser
• Xin Zhao 2G Demacia, Warden
• Yasuo 2G Slayer
• Ahri 3G Arcanist
• Kennen 3G Yordle, Defender
  • UNLOCK: 8 star levels of Ionia, Yordle, or Defender
• Wukong 4G Bruiser
• Yone 4G Slayer
  • UNLOCK: 3-star Yasuo
• Yunara 4G Quickstriker
• Sett 5G The Boss
  • UNLOCK: Level 8 and field only 1 unit in the first 2 rows of combat

Travel to Ionia and walk a different path each game. The path will be the same for each player and will shape the way you play the comp. Let's get the lay of the land with a trail map:

• Path of Spirit: Ionians gain bonus HP. When one casts, they gain stacking AD and AP
• Path of Generosity: Every third takedown Ionians participate in grants 1 gold. Ionians gain AD and AP, increased by 1% for every gold earned this way.
• Path of Enlightenment: Ionians gain AD and AP plus more based on your level. After each player combat, gain XP.
• Path of Transcendence: Ionians gain bonus Health and deal bonus magic damage. These effects increase if they're three-starred.
• Path of Blades: Ionian attacks have a chance to trigger an extra attack, and their attacks deal bonus physical damage.

Whether you're rerolling with the Path of Transcendence or fast 9-ing with the Path of Enlightenment, there are many ways to play Ionia-but there are even more than what the paths decree. Find the Trials of Twilight Augment and you can reroll Xin Zhao into his inevitable death and rebirth as the ultra-powerful Darkin champion, Zaahen.

Zaahen will kill Xin Zhao and take his items after five combats with a three-star Xin Zhao. Dark, but if you like that kinda stuff, let me tell you the story of how one dude cursed an entire island to bring his wife back from the dead only for her to be like, nahhh; it's Shadow Isles time.

SHADOW ISLES (2/3/4/5)

While much of the set will have you flex around what you Unlock, Shadow Isles asks you to lock in through dedication to their fallen King, Viego. As the only non-Unlockable unit in the Trait, the 1-cost Viego will be your path to salvation as you use the Trait to collect Souls, grow more powerful, and spread ruination!

• Viego 1G Quickstriker
• Yorick 2G Warden
  • UNLOCK: Field a 2-star Viego with 2 items in combat.
• Gwen 3G Disruptor
  • UNLOCK: Collect 20 Souls
• Kalista 4G Vanquisher
  • UNLOCK: Collect 75 Souls
• Thresh 5G Warden
  • UNLOCK: Collect 150 Souls

Whenever ANY champion dies, you'll gain their Soul. Shadow Isles champions' abilities are uniquely empowered based on the number of Souls you have. Shadow Isles champions gain Attack Damage and Ability Power.

(2) 1x Souls, 18% AD & AP

(3) 1.30x Souls, 20% AD & AP

(4) 1.60x Souls, 22% AD & AP

(5) 1.90x Souls, 25% AD & AP

The 5-cost of the Shadow Isles is one of my favorites in the set. Thresh drains health from foes within two hexes and upon cast will create a prison of walls that lasts 5 seconds. During this time, his passive drain is doubled and enemies who touch the prison walls take damage. If there are less than two enemies inside his prison at any time, Thresh will drag another enemy in. If they collide with the wall, well, good luck.  

Looking to add more scare-factor to your Shadow Isles comp? Even though he’s not technically from the Shadow Isles, Fiddlesticks certainly embodies the terror of the ruined isles, and as a Vanquisher, he’s the perfect splashable unit to get your Kalista’s ability critically striking. 

With Crowstorm, Fiddlesticks teleports into the largest cluster of enemies, stunning them before dealing damage each second until he runs out of mana. He’ll lose 20 Mana each second while channeling Crowstorm, but with his Legendary trait, Harvester, will keep the mana (and the crows) coming whenever an enemy champion dies.

With only one real trait (Vanquisher), which activates as a two-piece, Fiddlesticks is one of the many MANY threat-like (flexible) units of Lore & Legends that will have you splash in and out of as you spike, or desperately roll down.

BILGEWATER (3/4/5)

• Illaoi 1G Bruiser
• Graves 2G Gunslinger
  • UNLOCK: Field a Twisted Fate with 2 items in combat
• Twisted Fate 2G Quickstriker
• Gangplank 3G Slayer, Vanquisher
• Nautilus 3G
• Fizz 4G Yordle
  • UNLOCK: Field 5 Yordles or Bilgewater units + Level 7
• Miss Fortune 4G Gunslinger
• Tahm Kench 5G Glutton, Bruiser
  • UNLOCK: Spend 500 Silver Serpents

The Black Market is open for those with enough Silver Serpents in their coffers. Every round you'll gain Silver Serpents, plus an additional 2 per Bilgewater takedown. Spend these Serpents for stats for your Bilgewater champions or special loot, with rare and valuable loot becoming available at higher tiers of the trait.

(3) 15 Serpents

(5) 30 Serpents, improved loot

(7) 60 Serpents, superior loot

(10) 100 Serpents, 4x Stats, FIRE CANNONS!

Bilgewater can be played as a reroll comp with dual carries that roll deep: Graves and Twisted Fate. To unlock this chaotic couple, you’ll need to field Twisted Fate with two items in combat. But you’ll be happy when you do, cause the boys work together with Twisted Fate marking targets that Graves can hit to gain Attack Speed with his cone AOE auto attacks. But they both benefit from each other, as Twisted Fate also gains AP for each marked target Graves takes out. All that crime will help you spike early with Bilgewater, gaining extra Silver Serpents to invest in stats and loot. Spend enough Silver Serpents and you’ll Unlock the 5-cost for Bilgewater, Tahm Kench!

There's no hunger quite like Tahm Kench's. With his Legendary passive, Glutton, you can pluck an ally off your bench and feed them to the River King, granting him stats based upon how they taste (e.g. tanks give him defensive stats).

His ability has him swallowing his target whole, gaining durability, and slowly digesting them with magic damage. If they perish inside his belly, he spits out a shiny reward. If not? They're hurled across the battlefield stunning foes on impact with their disgusting taste-bleh.

ZAUN (3/5/7)

Not all that shimmers is gold, but all the Shimmer-fused units in this trait will help you get gold. After 4 seconds, Zaunites become Shimmer-Fused, granting them 10% Durability and 90% decaying Attack Speed for 4 seconds. A few seconds after it wears off, they become Shimmer-Fused again.

(3) Refresh after 4 seconds.

(5) At 60% Health, Zaunites restore 25% Health over 3 seconds and instantly become Shimmer-Fused.

(7) Shimmer-Fused bonuses are increased by 30%. Refresh after 3 seconds instead.

Let's check out the roster:

• Blitzcrank 1G Juggernaut
• Ekko 2G Disruptor
• Vi 2G Piltover, Defender
• Dr. Mundo 3G Bruiser
• Jinx 3G Gunslinger
• Singed 4G Juggernaut
  • UNLOCK: Take 35 player damage and field 4 Zaunites or Juggernauts
• Warwick 4G Quickstriker
  • UNLOCK: 2-star Jinx & 2-star Vi
• Ziggs 5G Yordle, Longshot
  • UNLOCK: Field a Yordle or Zaunite with 3 items and Level 9

Zaun isn’t just about honoring canonical familial connections; it’s also about the thematic and pragmatic. Keep an eye out for one of the set’s Team Up Augments, like Poison Pals that’ll have you mixing things up.

Poison Pals will grant you a Singed and a two-star Teemo. Every 4 seconds, Teemo fires a dart at Singed's target. When an enemy poisoned by Teemo dies, Singed gains Ability Power for the rest of combat.

DEMACIA (3/5/7)

Tough like Petricite, Demacians gain Armor and Magic Resist. Each time your team loses 25% max Health, Demacians RALLY, making their Abilities cost less to cast for the rest of combat, and allowing them to fight their way back.

(3) 18 Armor & MR, -10% Mana cost

(5) 35 Armor & MR, -10% Mana cost

(7) 35 Armor & MR, -10% Mana cost. On Rally, smite enemies for 5% of their max Health.

(11) 60 Armor & MR, -20% Mana cost. FOR DEMACIA!

• Jarvan IV 1G Defender
• Sona 1G Invoker
• Poppy 2G Yordle, Juggernaut
  • UNLOCK: Field a Demacian or Yordle with 2 items in combat.
• Xin Zhao 2G Ionia, Warden
• Vayne 3G Longshot
• Garen 4G Defender
• Lux 4G Arcanist
• Galio 5G Heroic
  • UNLOCK: 12 star levels of Demacia

Demacia is a big vertical with a simple goal-field Demacians and get the bonus-unit Galio. Bonus-unit!? That's right, with his Heroic Legendary trait, Galio can't be fielded in combat. Instead, his traits count from the bench and when Demacians Rally, he dives into the fight. On landing, he creates a 3-hex shockwave that deals a portion of his max Health as magic damage. Enemies hit are knocked, reduced by distance from the center. Once on the battlefield Galio becomes the Clapio we know and love, with every 3rd attack dealing bonus magic damage (scaling with MR) in a circle around the target, and an ability that has him dash into the largest group of units and inspire all allies within two hexes, granting them a shield. Afterwards, he then crashes down, dealing bonus magic damage to enemies with two hexes. That's a lot for a unit that doesn't even take up a slot on your board!

I know what you're thinking, you're excited to play the standard and strong Demacia vertical your first few games to avoid getting dizzy, but hey, that guy over there is contesting you!? I guess it's time to hold hands in bottom four, unless there's someone else you can hold hands with: Sylas.

His hands are strong, and they have the aura of someone stealing your magic, but the real kicker with this hunk is how you Unlock him and what he can unlock for you (top four?). Sylas is only Unlocked upon selling a 2-star Jarvan, a 2-star Garen, and a 2-star Lux-talk about a pivot! He's a Legendary unit with the Arcanist and Defender class traits, and an Origin trait, Chainbreaker, that allows him to rotate between three powerful spells:

Cataclysm: Leap on a nearby enemy. Deal magic damage to all enemies within 2 hexes and Stun them.

Demacian Justice: Deal massive magic damage to target. If they are below a health threshold, execute them.

Final Spark: Gain a Shield for 2 seconds. Then deal magic damage to all enemies in a line.

I wonder where he got those spells?                                

This is just a brief rundown of some of the Traits and champions you will see in Lore & Legends. There is a lot more content from more Champion and Team-Up Augments to other regions like Piltover, Void, Targon, and Shurima! There’s so much more to discover when Lore & Legends goes live on patch 16.1, December 3rd! See ya then!