Legends of Runeterra Progression 2.0: Massive Economy Changes Expected with the Next Patch

Legends of Runeterra economy system will see a ton of changes in the upcoming 0.9.3 patch that will hit the live servers on March 31.

Riot team have announced a profound economy revision and has delved deep into explaining their intentions in the recent Devs’ Notes article on the official website.

Developers have decided to pull back on some of their principles, such as wildcard stock limit and daily XP cap. They have said that their aim was to ‘increase player agency’ over collection acquisition by restucturing Vault rewards.

All in all, the economy changes cater to both free-to-play players and ‘whales’. F2P grinders will be able to enjoy uncapped progression with even more generous rewards. And those players who want to buy a whole set day one and venture into experiments, will also be unhinged.

How LoR economy will change in the next patch:

Earn unlimited (and improved) Vault rewards

• Level 2+ includes an Expedition Token (previously awarded at level 10).
• Level 5+ includes a random Champion card (you can Braum Wave goodbye to bad luck Vaults with no Champions)
• Level 10+ includes a Champion Wildcard (replaces level 5 random Champion card).
• Beyond Level 13, unlock additional, unlimited capsules, each of which contains at least 3 Rares and 2 Commons, with a chance to upgrade to an Epic or Champion Capsule

Earn unlimited XP

• PVP wins in Normal / Ranked and Expeditions net you at least 200 and 100 base XP (respectively), every time. Play as much as you want!
• AI wins will always provide at least 50 XP going forward

Purchase unlimited wildcards

• No more weekly stock in the store
• Alternatively, you can directly purchase cards in the Collection tab using Coins (cost is identical to the equivalent wildcard)

Easily and consistently play Expeditions

• Entry is 2000 Shards or 200 Coins. Combined with the Token in level 2 Vaults, those who love the mode will be able to play Expeditions more easily and less expensively.

Why the change?

Below are the key points that explain the changes, for full breakdown please refer to the original Devs’ post.

• Although some parts of the progression system—like limited stock in the store and a max level on the Vault—did seem to help the meta evolve more slowly, that benefit was overshadowed by notable downsides, like not being able to fully experiment with a majority of the cards.

• We still want to create a game with satisfying progression while fostering greater periods of experimentation and discovery—but we also don’t want the second half of that goal to come at the expense of the first.

• We’re making wildcards unlimited to ensure new players weren’t forever behind those who stocked up earlier, to enable players who wanted access to the full set of cards for experimentation, and to eliminate the implicit pressure to make purchases because of the limited weekly stock.

• We also had to figure out how to give players who invest time, rather than money, more agency. Turns out, it was a similarly simple solution: make XP gains and the Vault unlimited as well, and ensure players had more access to (and control over) Champion cards.

XP Boosts coming later this year

Riot have additionally announced an XP boost system on Region Roads that will help new or returning players to catch up with the rest. This feature will be live later in the year as LoR will release its first expansion.

• We never want anyone to feel like LoR is only playable if you’re grinding out games or dropping a bunch of cash. We’re also personally familiar with the fear of missing out and falling behind when you dip out of a game for a little while. 

• Additional XP Boost levels will be added based on how long and how quickly active players have been progressing to ensure there isn’t a huge disparity in card collections. If a significant part of the community ends up rocketing way ahead of the pack, the rest of the community can draft off them to catch up.