Legends of Runeterra 2022 Roadmap

Legends of Runeterra dev team has released a video and an accompanying article, laying down their plans for the growth of the game and content releases in 2022.

We can expect a ton of stuff coming this year: massive Path of Champions improvements, a new card release schedule with standalone themed expansions, as well as ‘Runeterra Champions’ that aren’t tied to any region and break deckbuilding rules. One such champion has already been teased – Jhin, the Virtuoso is coming to LoR in May!

Additionally, the devs announced several new skin lines coming our way in early 2022 – Infernal, Pulsefire, and Rift Quest themes. They also said that they’ve been working to improve the quality and immersion of the skins offered – based on the feedback from players. And as part of the LoR 2-year anniversary celebration in April, all players will receive free Arcane Jinx and Arcane Vi skins.

When it comes to the competitive scene, it seems that Riot will be looking to decrease their investments this year. Seasonal Tournaments are here to stay, but they will no longer be officially broadcasted. On the bright side, Worlds 2022 have been confirmed to take place in September, and it will remain as the big celebration event that will be officially produced and streamed by Riot.

Check out the official video and the Roadmap infographic below, as well as the excerpt from the article accompanying the announcement, originally published at PlayRuneterra.com.

The Path of Champions 2.0, Runeterra Champions, Worlds 2022, free Arcane Jinx & Vi skins, quality of life updates to existing skins, Pulsefire, highly-requested reworks to older champions, and more! With the exception of Worlds 2022, which is coming later this year, you can expect all that in just the first half of 2022. We won’t be going over every single item here, but let’s dive into the details of some of the bigger topics at hand.

Our Next Expansion Arrives in May!

First, let’s address timelines – A Curious Journey has an extended season leading up to the release of our next expansion in May. We had originally planned to follow the same 2-month cadence for expansion releases, which would have placed it in April, but it became apparent that we needed a bit more development time for everything coming in the next expansion. We’re releasing quite a bit more new content & experimental gameplay systems than past expansions, so we’re targeting May for that release. We’ll keep everyone informed of our progress and share more details as we get closer to the expansion!

The Path of Champions 2.0

When we released The Path of Champions last November, we were confident we were shipping something that players would enjoy, but we were blown away by the scale of the mode’s popularity. Since its release, players have been consistently spending more time in The Path of Champions than all other game modes combined. What we did know, however, was that this was just the start of our journey into PvE, and we know we can do so much more with the experience.

We’re colloquially referring to this update as The Path of Champions 2.0: more adventures that tell new stories, a large-scale progression revamp, as well as new regions, relics, and more! Look forward to more information about The Path of Champions 2.0 as we head towards May.

Expansions Over Sets

With this next expansion, we’re changing the definition of “expansions” in Legends of Runeterra.

We’re no longer grouping releases by “sets” as we did for previous releases – i.e. Call of the Mountain, Empires of the Ascended, and Beyond the Bandlewood were all “sets” broken into 3 “expansion” releases revolving primarily around the newest region added to the game.

Moving forward, expansions are now standalone releases that expand content for both PvP & PvE. This approach allows more freedom to explore adding new champions & storyful PvE adventures on a more regular basis. We love our Yordles, but it’ll be nice to be able to explore more of Runeterra as a whole with each expansion.

Runeterra Champions

Speaking of Runeterra, you just got a sneak peek at Jhin, our first Runeterra champion. Rather than being tied to a single region, Runeterra champions tend to wander around the world, or have conflicting allegiances across several regions. Adding one to your deck completely alters your deck-building rules. For example, adding Jhin to your deck allows you to add cards with skills from all other regions. Runeterra champions bring a ton of potential for creative decks that have never been seen before, and we’re excited to see what players do with them!

April Champion Adjustments

While we’re excited for our next expansions, we haven’t forgotten about our existing roster. We’re taking a look at some champions who could use some attention to make their game plans smoother to execute and bring them up to a more competitive level.

Events & Cosmetic Improvements

Lastly, over the past year we’ve gotten a lot of great feedback from players who have wanted to see more, and higher-quality offerings from events and cosmetics, including champion skins. Additionally, we’ll be granting all players free Arcane Jinx & Vi skins for Legends of Runeterra’s second anniversary in April.

You may have noticed that Arcade Anivia & Arcade Miss Fortune have new skins for their champion spells. In April, we’re going back to all previously-released Epic-tier champion skins and giving them the same treatment. We’ll also be looking for additional ways to continue improving our champion skin features in the future, so keep the feedback coming!

For events, much like with the Final Boss Veigar boss battles in the Arcade Battle Event, we’re going to continue exploring ways to innovate and improve events moving forward. Starting with the Pulsefire Event, you’ll also see more free reward nodes on the Event Pass than in previous passes to provide more ways to improve your collection – whether you choose to buy the Premium Event Pass or not.

We’re excited to continue exploring new ways for Legends of Runeterra to level up in the coming year. Stay tuned for more information about The Path of Champions 2.0, our next expansion, and so much more in the coming weeks and months!

What are do you think about the roadmap, are you satisfied with the content plans for 2022? How are you liking the idea of ‘Runeterra Champions’, and Jhin being their flagship?

Do you like the PvE aspect of the game? As LoR is shifting its focus from competitive PvP to casual players, are you disappointed or do you like this direction?

Feel free to let us know in the comments below, or join our Discord for discussion!