2020-01-24T17:02:25 01:00

Legends of Runeterra: Tips & Tricks for the card game

In this guide toLegends of Runeterra you will learn:

The basics of the card game
How to build your first deck
What tips will help you get started

Legends of Runeterra is the second project from League of Legends makers Riot Games to enter the open testing phase. The game is particularly interesting because it makes the League of Legends universe accessible to gamers outside the MOBA genre. In this guide, we explain the basics of the card game and reveal the best tips and tricks.

Table of Contents

Legends of Runeterra: The Basics
The perfect deck
Crafting and making cards
Unit cards
Spell Cards
Legends of Runeterra patches and future
Summary of the best tips

Legends of Runeterra: The Basics

In Legends of Runeterra, two players compete against each other in a direct duel. The goal is to reduce the life points of the opponent's Nexus to zero. Cards are summoned using mana.

Each player starts with a mana capacity of one, which is increased by one additional point after the end of each turn. Unused mana is stored in the so-called Spell Bar at the end of the turn. There it can be used at a later time, but exclusively for spells. The spell bar can store a maximum of three additional mana points.

Each turn consists of the assigned role of attack and defense for players, which is symbolized by the sword and shield markers next to the mana bars. After the completion of a turn, the roles are swapped. Unlike other card games, during a turn attackers as well as defenders can summon cards from their hand to react to their opponent's actions.

At the beginning of each game, you draw four random cards from your deck. If you don't like your starting hand, you can replace them in a mulligan. Especially at the start of the game, make sure that the mana costs for the units in your hand are not too high. Before you go into battle with a new deck against players, training matches against A.I. will help you get familiar with the cards. Both newcomers to the card game and experienced gamers should also complete the introductory missions to learn about all the status effects and traits such as recovery, challenger, or freeze.

The perfect deck

Each deck consists of 40 cards in total and can contain a maximum of two copies of each unit. To build your deck, you have unit and spell cards at your disposal. You can also use the Share feature to send your deck build to your friends via code, so they can get to know and copy your decks. In our guide to the best decks in Legends of Runeterra, we'll also tell you which cards work best together.

Crafting and making cards

You can obtain cards in Legends of Runeterra not only through quests, chests and purchases, but also by crafting them yourself. It definitely helps to consider all possibilities anyway, since quests and chests also sometimes give you materials for crafting.

To craft new cards you will need either wildcards or shards. Each wildcard grants you the crafting of cards of your choice without additional resources. However, they are rare and you should use them to make only your most important cards.

Splitters, on the other hand, give you more. However, depending on the rarity of the cards, you will have to dig deeper into your pocket:

Common: 100 shards
Rare: 300 shards
Epic: 1200 shards
Champion: 3000 Shard

Tips & Tricks for Unit Cards and Champions

Units are the main component of any deck of cards. These cards fight by being used on the card table as attackers or defenders. Accordingly, each unit also comes with an attack value and a life value - the higher the better. Besides small and cheap units, there are also powerful creatures and champions.

Champions are especially rare cards with great strength. When you fulfill one or more requirements, you can level them up and thus strengthen them further. The champion Braum reaches level 2 when he has survived at least 10 points of damage. The Knight Darius card, on the other hand, only levels up when the enemy Nexus has a health of 10 or less.

Such cards are especially important for victory, and you need to support their development with the other components of your deck. So, at the beginning, you should familiarize yourself with your champions to be able to play their abilities at the right moment. They are the key to victory.

How do spell cards work in Legends of Runeterra?

Spell cards, unlike units, do not have attack and life values, but activate special effects. Unleash the devastating power of Avalanche and cause massive damage on the field, or strengthen the defense of your troops with the Elixir of Iron.

Spells are a great way to counter your opponent's moves and give you an advantage on the battlefield. However, keep in mind that your opponent also has magic spells with which he can react to your spells at any time. Spell cards also have different properties that determine how quickly the effects can be cast:

Instant spells are the fastest and cannot be countered by your opponent.
Fast spells are cast in the same turn, but can be countered by your opponent.
Slow spells are very powerful, but cannot be cast in combat or as a reaction, so your opponent can guard against the attack.

When creating a new deck, you should pay special attention to a balanced mana curve. To win, you need both cheap cards with low mana costs that you can play at the beginning of each round, and expensive and powerful creatures that can finish off your opponent in the late game.

To do this, follow the curves of the pre-made decks that you can see in the deck overview. Over time, you'll unlock more and more cards, so you can create your own decks as well. Use the daily challenges and the rewards from the weekly vault to get new cards quickly.

Legends of Runeterra Patches and Future

Like almost all competitive online games and those that are still in beta, Legends of Runeterra is patched frequently. This brings changes to the cards and thus also changes the common meta decks in Legends of Runeterra.

Also, be prepared that the game will not receive a complete wipe before release. So you will keep all your progress and cards.

So you don't have to worry: All earned and purchased currency will be preserved for the release of the game.

In the image above, you can once again see the entire course of the roadmap for Legends of Runeterra in 2019 and 2020. This also reconfirms the official release for mobile devices () such as smartphones and tablets.

Summary of the best tips

Make sure your deck has a balanced mana curve.
Make sure you have strong attackers as well as resistant defensive units.
With the Spell Bar you can save mana to perform powerful spells.
React to your opponent's moves with spells to give you an advantage in battle.
Champions are the key to victory.

Since Jan. 24, 2020, you can try out Legends of Runeterra during the open beta phase on PC. For the official release on April 30, the game will also be released for smartphones. by Constantin Krüger