How to Get Started in Legends of Runeterra

Hello!

I'm Marcela, known as MahSgarbi, and today I came to talk a little about how to get started in Legends of Runeterra, in addition to giving some tips for card game fans. For those who don't know me yet, I've been a LoR streamer for a year, I have a YouTube channel and I also host and narrate tournaments.

Let's go straight to the point, shall we?!

Legends of Runeterra, also known as LoR, is the cardgame from Riot Games that was launched in April 2020 on all platforms (iOS, Android and Windows). In addition to being a very immersive game due to its gameplay, League of Legends (LoL) lore lovers are also thrilled, as the game speaks even more of the history of champions and other characters from Runeterra, such as The Ruin, which is coming now in all the Riot Games.

LoR has many things in common with other card games, but at the same time it manages to be quite different and engaging for us players, mainly because it is a fully digital game and has such a beautiful gameplay with its cosmetics, in addition to the effects that are placed as we play some spells or units.

Before explaining how to get started, let's understand why you need to play LoR. I'm not going to put here that you need to stop playing another card game to play LoR, quite the opposite, but I believe there are some advantages there of which other games don't have.

A big difference from LoR to other card games is that the game is free-2-play, which means you don't need to spend your money buying decks. All you need to do is play, and that will be enough to get you started. What's more, the game rewards you while you play, which I'll explain further below. Of course, if you want, you can buy decks (unlike other games, where you only rely on packs and loot boxes), which would save time.

Another important point is that we have direct communication with the game's developers, either through twitter, discord or also with some texts on reddit. This communication helps the community to an inexplicable level, as questions about patch notes, bugs and other issues can be easily answered. You can find Rubin Zoo, one of the LoR developers, on his Twitter.

To start playing, the first thing you need to create is a Riot account, but if you already have one due to other games, you can use the same login and password. After login, regardless of where you are playing (PC or mobile) the game will automatically start a game to teach you some things like the life and power of the card, the cost of the card (mana), how to attack, how to defend, some "level ups” of champions and other things.

An important piece of information that may be obvious to some, but new to others, is that the aim of the game is to beat the opponent by taking his Nexus (life) to 0.

As the rounds go by and attacks are being made, you can arrive to this result in several ways. The "quickest" way is with aggro decks, but it's also possible to take up to turn 20 with control decks. I'll explain more about archetypes and decklists in another article.

After this initial tutorial, the game asks you to perform the prologue and so you will play against Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). You can do this while testing 3 decks: Style and Undo, Spells and Stealth and Death and Spiders. To complete the prologue, you will have to do some missions and after completing them, you will enable all regions of Runeterra and also enable other game modes, such as ranked, normal game and others.

In the prologue, the game already shows you the challenges you can do. They are small tutorials where the game teaches very well-explained how each keyword in the game works. In addition, for each challenge made, the game grants you experience (XP), which will help in your development.

Another option that can be cool for beginners is the expedition mode, as it is a game mode in the "Draft" style, where you can have access to cards outside your collection and, thus, learn how each card in the game works. At the end, you get an epic chest, which can help you increase your collection!

But after all this, should you start with the ranked or the normal game?

I think the best answer is: whatever you want. If you're a competitive person, there's no point in not starting your ranked journey right away, so you start your race from iron to master, which is the last tier in LoR. But if you want to explore the game gradually, you can enjoy it with the expedition mode.

Now that I've explained how you get started in LoR, how about we talk about how you can get more cards faster?

As in many other games, LoR has gifts for the first days of login, where you log in for 7 days straight and earn cards, chests (which have more cards) and even a full deck on the last day. When you earn a card you already own, the game will give you green shards that can be used to forge cards. So, one way to complete your collection faster is to leave your weekly chest above level 10. Just go on doing your daily missions and earning experience (XP)! Now, if you really want to be the “try hard” of the game, leave your chest above 13+ and your collection will be complete even faster!

XP helps you to evolve within LoR, which means more cards without spending money! The more XP you have, the bigger your weekly chest, which is open on Thursdays, and the bigger your chest, the more cards you can earn, plus extra shards and wildcards. In other words, do the daily missions and earn lots of XP, so you can always have more chances to earn cards without spending a penny.

Another important tip is the region rewards (which are like colors in Magic or classes in Hearthstone), which will also give you more cards. And for you to have access to more cards, always switch regions every 4 levels.

If you want to completely close a region first, there is no problem, but you will have fewer cards from other regions and with that, making different decks can take a little longer, and we know how the metagame can vary, right? Thus, having cards from all regions can be a great advantage to switch decks when necessary!

Another point is that whoever owns Amazon's Prime Gaming gets an in-game reward. Previously this reward was a champion wild card (yellow), which means you can buy any champion you want, but today we have access to an epic wild card (purple), which is not bad, after all it is a free reward, but surely the champion was more interesting!

Inside the game, we also have the rare wild cards (blue) and the common wild cards (green). All of these wild cards can be earned from the region reward chests and the weekly chest. They're great when it comes to finishing a deck, so the more you have the better!

I believe these are the initial steps for you to have more cards without spending any money.

My final tip for those just starting out in our LoR is: play the game, study the metagame, watch lives and/or videos, and read articles that can help you. Always ask and clear your doubts because sometimes the obvious isn't so obvious to someone starting out in card games.

I hope to bring you more LoR topics soon, such as archetype and decklist information, how to get started in competitive, and much more. Any questions, I'm available in the comments or on social media!

Hope you have fun sending your favorite emote while playing a ranked game!

Till next time!