Beta Season and Beyond: Legends of Runeterra in 2020

Timestamps:

• 0:12 PC and Mobile
• 0:32 Preview Patch Recap (Core Gameplay and Expeditions)
• 0:51 Open Beta 
• 1:39 Ranked
• 2:42 Friend Challenge & Social Panel
• 3:33 Personalization (Guardians and Boards)
• 4:53 New Sets, Regions, and Champions

To quickly recap, here are a few highlights from the video:

• Open Beta kicks off on January 24th!
• New cosmetics added:
• Guardians - Gromp Jr., Scaled Snapper, and T-Hex shown.
• Boards for each region including unique music!
• Ranked mode will be added during open beta
•  You also won't de-rank during the season.
• Friend Challenges & Social panel added.
• Multiple Sets will be added over the next 12 months - these will include new regions and champions! 
• Every set will also add new champions for all the other regions.
• No more account resets after the Open beta!
• Few card changes can be seen - notably Anivia with significant changes from previous build.

Gallery:

Check out the Open Beta FAQ from the Legends of Runeterra website - including mention of a day of early access for those who played in the preview patches OR pre-registers on PC by January 19th.

"Legends of what now? 

Set in the world of League of Legends, Legends of Runeterra is the strategy card game where skill, creativity, and cleverness determine your success. 

If you’re new here, check out our Announce FAQ for a bunch more info, or just watch this:

Wait, does that title say OPEN beta? When can I play? 

Yup, you read it right. We learned a ton during last year’s limited-access preview patches, especially that a lot more of you wanted to play than we were able to let in. So, we took a look at our timeline, hit the gas, and focused on getting LoR ready for open access. Here’s the new plan: 

At 11 AM PT on January 23, LoR service will be back online. Anyone who played during the preview patches OR has pre-registered on PC by 11:59 PM PT on January 19 will gain access on 1/23. Pre-registered folks who did not play in the preview patches should look for an invite email—some of these may take a few hours to roll out, so don’t stress if you don’t have access right at 11 AM. 

Note that only those who’ve pre-registered on PC (not mobile) will get access on 1/23. If you’ve only pre-registered on mobile, you’ll need to also do so on PC at https://playruneterra.com in order to get access on 1/23. 

The next day, at 11 AM PT on January 24, open beta officially begins and LoR will go completely open access—anyone will be able to immediately create an account, download, and play for free. 

As a bonus for being part of the inaugural Beta Season, anyone who plays during open beta will receive an exclusive Moonstruck Poro Guardian once Legends of Runeterra fully launches. To redeem this variant for the Poro Guardian, you’ll just need to login once during beta (though you won’t get the variant until LoR launches) or within seven days after LoR launches. Don’t worry, your poro pal will wait for you. 

Will there be any more account resets? 

Nope! We’ve reset accounts that played during the preview patches, but there will be no further account resets—anything you earn once open beta starts is yours to keep.
If you purchased coins during the preview patch, check out the question below for some more important context. 

What’s changed since the last preview patch? 

Glad you asked. We’ve added a new Ranked mode, three new guardians and six new boards to personalize your gameplay, and a social panel and friend challenge feature. You’ll be able to friend anyone on all three current LoR shards (Americas, Asia, and Europe), though challenges are within-shard only. We’re also updating 20+ cards—including a major update to Anivia—and making a bunch of general improvements. You can check out the full patch notes right here on https://playruneterra.com at 11 AM PT on January 22. 

For a less wordy, more visual update of what’s arriving with open beta (including some adorable guardian animations), check out this video preview:

We’ve also made a variety of changes to the overall economy, impacting everything from the relative cost of coins to how much experience you’ll receive from wins. These changes deserve an article of their own—keep an eye out for it the same day as the patch notes. 

Lastly, an early note for anyone who spent money during the preview patches: as part of the overall account reset, we’ve reset any content you purchased with coins and returned that value back to your coin balance. Your exact number of coins has changed as part of the economy changes mentioned above, but you’ll have at least as much purchasing power as you did before (i.e. prices have changed too). 

How does Ranked work? 

Our goal from the start was to create a card game with enough strategic depth and interaction to support skilled competition. Now it’s time to see where you stand among the best players in Runeterra: Ranked will be live in the beta! 

You'll see some similarities to League, like earning LP to advance through divisions and climbing from Iron all the way to Master. There are no promotion series; once you hit 100 LP, you’ll automatically move to the next division (or if you’re in division I, the next tier’s division IV). 

But we’ve also made some changes based on Legends of Runeterra’s 1-on-1 Ranked experience. For example: one problem we’ve seen in card games is that you can feel like you’re locked into playing a proven meta deck if you want to climb, versus trying different strategies to get to the top. 

We want you to be able to test different competitive decks without sacrificing progress. So when you reach a tier in Legends of Runeterra, you’ll hold that rank for the rest of the season—you’ve earned it. 

Your rise through the ranks starts with the Beta Season, which will last until launch. At the end of the season, you’ll earn an icon reward based on your highest tier reached to commemorate your first climb in Ranked LoR. 

Good luck (not that you need it)!

When will LoR officially launch? 

Later this year. When we know more, you’ll know more!

When will LoR release on mobile? 

Mobile is coming when we officially launch later this year, at which point LoR will be fully playable cross-platform. 

What should I expect from open beta versus full launch? 

It’s not a perfect science, but open beta is essentially an experimental period where we’re still tuning the overall game experience. You may see sizable adjustments to cards, systems, and the economy, but we’ll always communicate these as they happen. We still need to complete a few major features before we’ll consider LoR ready to launch—specifically, mobile and new card content. 

Do I need the League of Legends client or a LoL account to play LoR? 

No to both—Legends of Runeterra is a standalone download. If you have an existing LoL account, you can use it to pre-register or play, but those without one can easily make a new Riot account while pre-registering or playing for the first time. 

I’m confused about the recent updates to Riot account usernames. 

You’re not the only one. Check out the support article for a detailed breakdown. 

What languages and regions does LoR support? 

LoR currently supports English, Korean, Japanese, French, Italian, German, and Spanish (Spain). 

By launch, we also plan to support Turkish, Russian, Spanish (Latin America), and Portuguese (Brazil). We’re also working on Polish, but currently do not expect to have it ready for launch. We’ll provide further info on languages and timing as it becomes available throughout the year. 

Please note that Southeast Asia is unfortunately not included in the PC open beta. For more information, head to the LoR Southeast Asia Facebook page."

The Moonstruck Poro Guardian was previously shown during the launch and can also be seen in client!

Head on over to the Legends of Runeterra website to pre-register now.