Strategy lovers welcome to guide with tricks and advice on how to win in Legends of Runeterra, the new card game from Riot Games. The game's open beta kicked off on January 24th, but making your way into ranked matches isn't easy.
So let's see one set of strategies to be put in place before you start playing for real, so as to always ensure victory.
Legends of Runeterra: tricks and strategies to know
If you are a fan of card video games or simply the world of LoL, Legends of Runeterra (LoR) is definitely a game that will meet your expectations. THEThe title of Riot in fact draws heavily from other major titles in the sector (Magic, Hearthstone, Gwent etc) but manages to add its own mechanics to the gameplay that make the games intense and fun to play.
Like any self-respecting card title, however, it has bases or, if you want, internal strategies that must be known first of all to learn how to play but also, and above all, to farm and get cards without spending real money. So here are our tricks to better face the game:
The tutorial, let's learn the basics
Apart from the basic one that introduces you to the initial phase, LoR has a section of 13 tutorials in total (in the Play menu) where you can learn the strategies of each type of deck, discover their strengths and weaknesses, as well as unlock a good portion of the Champions and cards of each faction.
Before proceeding to any other section of the game therefore it is recommended to finish each tutorial available which will also allow you to get several experience points to level up and unlock new Rewards, also enhancing the weekly Chests.
Unlock and level up Champions
Champions are fundamental cards in the LoR game economy and often manage to make the difference between a mediocre deck and a high-level one. For unlock Champions, as already mentioned, the best method is to terminate i tutorial. Only this is not enough to unlock them all and to get the strongest champions - like Fiora, Ashee, Teemo o Vladimir- we'll have to progress in the Rewards section of their home region by obtaining experience points.
To quickly unlock a Champion it is also possible to tackle the Expeditions or use one Jolly Champion card (the orange cards) that allow you to unlock a Champion of your choice. However, these cards can only be obtained by purchasing with real money, through the advanced part of the Rewards section or inside the Weekly Chests which, if upgraded to the right level, allow you to find a sample as well.
Each of these types of release is detailed in the appropriate section of this guide.
Champions can also level up during a game. Once one of them is put on the field, it will be enough to complete the requirements to trigger its evolution (Pokemon style) which will last until the card is destroyed or the game ends. Evolution of Champions is an essential mechanic to know and master in order to build a good deck.
Rewards, such as switching regions and opening more chests
The Rewards section is thought of as a path full of chests to open that increase in value and content as you go along. Initially, only one region will be available in the rewards section but it will be enough for you to finish it (gaining experience) for unlock all other regions of the game:
- Demacia
- Freljold
- Ionia
- Noxus
- Piltover and Zaun
- Shadow Islands
Via the option Change Region (top left of the Rewards screen) you can then choose the most functional path for your deck but there is more: if you want, for example get more cards from various regions, you can change the region at any time, and start a new path. All without losing the experience accumulated in the other region.
Daily missions, bonus points for quickly gaining experience
How do you then ad to get so much experience in Legends of Runeterra? The answer is by playing, because every activity completed in the game, from the tutorial to the ranked match, produces experience. However, fundamental precautions must be maintained in order to also obtain experience bonuses:
- victories - 400 bonus points for the first win of the day, 200 for the second, 100 for the third. The base points for each win can go up to 250 depending on the match stats. They drop to 150 above 10 daily wins. At 100 over 16 wins, always per day, at 50 over 20 and 0 over 30. It is therefore advisable to try to win 10 games a day and then wait for the next day.
- Defeats - Similarly to victories, even losses have base points which are 100 up to 5 losses per day, 75 over 10 losses, 50 over 10 and 0 over 20 losses per day.
Besides playing online, the other way to quickly level up and complete the daily missions. Try to always aim for the missions that offer 1500 experience points and if there are none, just use the changes (be careful because they are limited) until you find one.
Finally there are also the Shipping, accessible only by paying an Expedition Token, a certain amount of fragments or real money. It is about 7 battles against other opponents in which lost 2 times you are defeated. Once you have won all the battles, you get great rewards but just arrive after 4 to get chests worthy of the undertaking.
The weekly chests: how to farm and level up quickly?
If you have read this far you will have noticed that we have often talked about weekly chests, but what are they? how do they work? how do you level them up? The answer is always in playing and gaining experience. Thanks to this, in fact, the value of the 3 weekly chests (which can be opened every Tuesday) is increased and so are the rewards inside them.
Going from simple bronze chests it is possible to get up to having epic chests that really contain a lot of high-level cards. To maximize the chests it takes a total of 24 hours of gameplay per week, about 4 hours of gameplay per day. This, however, if you maintain a win percentage of at least 50% and not counting the missions that could speed up the task.
By increasing the weekly chest to the maximum level you will get:
- 66 Common Cards
- 22 Rare Card
- 4 Epic Cards
- 2 Champion Cards
- 3,400 Shards
Un very rich booty which pays for the hours spent playing and gives you the opportunity to completely review your deck strategy or create a new one.
How to balance the deck
To create good decks on LoR is important to be balanced. In the deck creation menu there is a handy diagram that helps you to understand how many cards of each cost and type you have placed in the deck. A well-balanced deck, at least to start with, comes with:
- 10 spells
- 4 Champions
- 26 Other cards (Concentrated around cost 3, with some cards costing 1 or 2 more than those costing over 5)
Of course we are talking about a mixed deck, highly recommended for learning the basics of two different factions. However, no one forbids playing a single faction, even if it is more complex, especially if you do not have all the cards of that faction. Legends of Runeterra it pushes the player to experiment thanks to the numerous techniques that combine perfectly between faction and faction.
Know the Keywords
Playing without knowing the keywords of each card is practically equivalent to suicide, which is why it is good to face each fight prepared in order to use your deck the best and destroy the opponent's strategy.
To help you in the composition of the deck here is one keyword list most useful to increase your fighting ability:
- Avoidance, cards that can only be blocked by other evasion cards. Many players don't use evasion cards so a deck like this that directly attacks life points without being blocked could be a good starting strategy.
- Fearsome, cards that can only be blocked by others that have at least 3 power. This means that decks that use low-cost cards or characters that are all about defense will struggle to defend against such a deck.
- Rapid attack, cards that, during the attack of another card, hit first without suffering the opponent's damage. Very useful for leaving the opponent always without cards on the game board and attacking him undisturbed.
- Challenger, cards that can drag a certain opponent onto the field to defend against their attack. In this way you can evade the opposing strategies that will hardly be able to keep up with these constraints.
- Overwhelm, cards whose attack power goes beyond the life of the opposing card and directly affects the life points. They are very useful if you are building a deck that is all about brute strength, but use them in moderation as their cost is much higher than the others.
The first hand, shiftwork and bluffs
Once you have created your deck to see if it works you will have to put it in running in and you can do it either in a fight against the game's AI or against real players in ranked or normal modes. If the deck is still being tested, we recommend that you choose the normal fights so that the losses suffered do not affect the rank achieved in ranked matches.
To see if a deck performs well you must be able to play it practically all the time first hand. when you play first you must almost always have a 1 card to play while when you play for seconds you must find yourself with at least a 2 card. If you have played 3 games and in all 3 you have found yourself with 5 cards in your hand first round, despite the mulligan, it means that there is something to review.
Once the first hand turns, it must be understood and dominated shiftwork. Attack and defense rounds will alternate where it is necessary to prepare well. For example, if it is your turn to attack and you know you can do good damage but remain without cards in the field, give up, because the next turn the opponent may decide to attack you immediately, taking away the possibility of playing characters.
Instead, prepare the defense, eliminate as many opposing cards as possible and at the end of the defense turn field all the attackers you can. As soon as your turn to attack begins, be the first to strike leaving the opponent with no chance to fight back.
Finally don't forget that it's a card game as well bluffer it is a fundamental thing. try to deceive the opponent, lead him to believe that he has you in hand until the end and then defeat him.
There are many spells perfect for these strategies such as the Chilling Shot. This spell cost 3 with the keyword gust (uses the spell without giving the enemy time to counterattack) allows you to reset the strength of an enemy card for one turn. Use it during a fight is equivalent to inhibiting an enemy and to save, not only your life points, but also one of your characters who could go from victim to executioner by destroying the frozen opponent without taking damage.
As for the basic strategies, see you in the next guide, in the meantime let us know how you built your deck, we hope to meet you on Runeterra.
