Legends of Runeterra is currently offline until November 14, 2019.
Legends of Runeterra is the recently announced card game by Riot Games based on League of Legends characters and lore. The game is planned for release in Q1 of 2020, the rollout plan can be found here. Since the announcement, they have given a number of keys for a patch preview this past week to content creators (like myself) and a lucky few who won the lottery via pre-registration with increased odds for playing League of Legends or watching it streamed on Twitch.
We have a number of articles detailing Runeterra more extensively, but my goal today is to answer this question: What is Runeterra like compared to Hearthstone and why should you care?
I'd like to start by giving you some of my background with Hearthstone. It is the first collectable card game I ever played, I found it on mobile and was instantly hooked by the beautiful graphics, easily accessible gameplay, and playful nature of the cards. I began playing during Blackrock Mountain with a brief hiatus during Pirate Warrior's Reign of Terror (it was 67% of the metagame and consistently won by turn 4). I had a year of play almost exclusively in Arena before getting deeper into Standard Ranked play with the introduction of Death Knights when I hit Legend for the first time. I joined Out of Cards to share the same knowledge the community gave me when I was learning how to play the game. My ties with Hearthstone run deep and I haven't been able to find a suitable replacement up to this point. I played Auto-chess but got bored, I recognized Artifact as an overcomplicated-joke, and Magic has too much history for me to get into; Hearthstone remained king.
That changed when I played Legends of Runeterra. The other night I couldn't put it down, I played until 2:30 am for 6 hours straight. It stands a real chance of becoming my main game and this article details why.
Game Overview
Your goal in Runeterra is the same as in League of Legends: destroy the enemy Nexus. The Nexus is essentially your health pool in Hearthstone. Both players start with 20 health and 40 cards in their deck. There is an attacking phase and a defending phase that you and your opponent alternate each turn. Both players are allowed the same amount of mana and a chance to take the same number of actions each turn. We'll get into more details below.
Deck Building
Let's talk about deck building and how it is different in Runeterra.
Classes vs. Regions
Legends of Runeterra does not have Classes to build your decks around, instead, it has Regions. There are no neutral cards. There are 6 regions with their own card sets and mechanics, you are allowed to combine any two regions to build a deck. In Hearthstone, you can reasonably play around cards based on which class you are up against; but you need to play around the neutral cards as well. Runeterra displays which regions your opponent's deck hails from, allowing for similar play-around. The best comparison for decks in Runeterra is dual-class arena in Hearthstone. Dual-class arena runs every October in Hearthstone, it's the only time of year I always play arena due to the unique deck-building. Deck-building in Runeterra is best related to Hearthstone as building a dual-class deck with only class cards.
The opponent is playing Ionia and Freljord, as seen on the left side of the screen.
By the Numbers
Deck-building limitations:
- Runeterra: 40 cards, 6 Champion limit, 3x of any card (including Champions), 2 Regions
- Hearthstone: 30 cards, 1x Legendaries, 2x any other, 1 Class and Neutrals
How do the differences change my deck-building process?
Statistically speaking, you are much more likely to draw cards that are part of your plan in Runeterra than you are in Hearthstone. In general, the effects of cards in Runeterra is much weaker than in Hearthstone. The impact of individual cards in Hearthstone is and should be much greater due to Legendaries being 1x in every deck. This tradeoff of more consistency for less power in each card feels fair to me. In Hearthstone I am often waiting for the 1 card in my deck that will win me the game. In Runeterra my deck accomplishes what it was built to do almost every game, whether I win or lose.
Champions
Hearthstone has minions, Runeterra calls them units. Runeterra has two distinctions for units: followers and champions. Champions are your Legendary cards from Hearthstone, the most impactful ones in the game. You can combine any 6 champions from 2 regions in any deck. Champions are the most powerful cards in the game and are typically the build-around cards for your decks. Each champion functions much like quests from Hearthstone. Champions have the ability to level-up once their conditions are met, these leveled-up champions often result in winning the game.
Upon leveling, they'll turn into...
Note the new borders, higher stats, and no more level-up condition.
There are 24 Champions planned for the game's release, with each region getting 4 Champions. You can see them all here.
Followers
Followers are your Common, Rare, and Epic minions from Hearthstone. You can have up to 3 of any of them in your deck. Followers have a variety of keywords on them and they vary quite a bit depending on how you want to build your deck. They are region-specific and many of them form the essential body of the deck around the Champions. Some have interactions with specific Champions and others simply have powerful abilities.
See them all here and check out these examples:
Green, Blue, and Purple - the same as Hearthstone rarities!
Spells
Spells are an essential part of the game, just like in Hearthstone, but the effects are weaker for their cost. The key difference is that spells have a speed associated with their cost. There are 3 speeds: Burst, Fast, and Slow. Burst spells are instant and can be used at any point in during one of your actions for an immediate effect, your opponent is not allowed a reaction. Burst spells are essentially cantrips (if you are familiar with this D&D term): relatively weak, but effective. Fast spells can be used during one of your actions, your opponent can also play a fast spell in reaction. A slow spell takes up an entire action and will allow your opponent to play any type of spell or a unit in response. Spells play a huge role in how combat plays out. Learning how to utilize and manipulate spells will be a huge part of the learning curve.
See them all here and check out these examples:
Keyword Glossary
Just like in Hearthstone, Runeterra has it's own set of keywords. A few of these have direct correlations with Hearthstone, those are:
- Last Breath = Deathrattle
- Barrier = 1-turn Divine Shield
- Lifesteal
Others do not. Here are the list and definitions: Keywords.
What does a turn look like?
Every action you take in Runeterra gives your opponent the opportunity for a reaction. Hearthstone presents the player with a static board to make decisions, Runeterra only gives you the choice to make one decision at a time before the opponent can respond as they wish. Runeterra gives the defender initiative to initiate trades rather than the attacker, thus improving the ability to make meaningful decisions at each stage of the game. If you play a unit (think minion), your opponent will also get to play a unit or play a Slow spell.
Runeterra has two turn phases: Attacking - indicated by the Sword icon - and Defending - indicated by the Shield icon.
Attacking
Attacking is the only phase when you are allowed to deal damage to the enemy nexus with your units. When attacking, you are first given the option to attack with any units you have on board, you can also play any Burst or Fast spells prior to attacking. Your opponent can then choose to block or play any Burst or Fast spells they wish in response. If you choose not to attack immediately, you can play a unit or spells of any speed with a limit of 1 Slow spell. Your opponent is then given the option to play a unit or their own spells with the same restrictions. You and your opponent are allowed to trade actions until you are both out of mana or you both pass. You are not required to attack, sometimes it's in your best interest not to.
Defending
When the opponent chooses to attack, you are given the option to select which one of your units defend each attacker. When blocking an attacking unit, it will not any deal damage to your nexus unless it has the keyword Overwhelm. You can respond to any attack with Burst or Fast spells prior to the attack occurring as well. Once all actions have been decided, the attack takes place.
The Spell Stack
The Spell Stack is nonexistent Hearthstone, but central to Runeterra. Spells played will be put on the stack in the middle of the board to show their order. Spells stack from right to left. Burst spells resolve, then Fast spells, and then Slow spells. For each spell speed, the leftmost will resolve first and the rightmost last. The interaction of spells plays a big role in how board states are resolved each turn in Runeterra.
Mana
Runeterra has a mana-system incredibly closely tied to Hearthstone. You are granted one per turn, some cards can give you more mana each turn as well. You get mana on attacking and defending phases, the same as your opponent. The only real difference is a special pool of mana called spell mana. Any unspent mana at the end of your turn will be added to the spell mana reservoir to be used on a later turn. Spell mana has a maximum of 3 and can only be used on spells. This allows you to use all of your mana efficiently over multiple turns and should be considered in your turn-planning each game.
Winning the Game
A game of Runeterra typically ends with you or your opponent destroying the enemy nexus, with the exception of [Hearthstone Card (Fiora) Not Found] who has a built-in win-condition when you kill 4 units with her. Most games I played in Runeterra feel like a mid-range battle for board and resources with the winner being whichever player lands the biggest board to find lethal. There are aggro decks, combos that defeat the opponent with spells, big minion pressure, and decks that out-resource the opponent. The ways you can build a deck and win games seem limitless at this point, but that is certainly going to change with the creation of a metagame when Runeterra is released. Almost every time, the better decision-maker won the game because they maximized each turn's potential.
Amassing your Collection
I will give a brief overview of my experience, but we have an article with more detailed plans from Riot here. Riot has built their economy to remove paying for random card packs. I absolutely love busting open packs, but afterwards, I feel unsatisfied that I did not get the exact cards that I wanted. If you pay for any cards in their game; you will receive specific cards or wildcards, which can be turned into any card you want of the same rarity. They still have random loot packs and bundles that you can unlock through gameplay to satisfy the thrilling, gambling itch. Additionally, for your duplicates and some gameplay rewards you can receive shards to craft cards you want for your collection. This system seems like a good balance in my opinion, but I will have to see it in practice to know for sure.
Riot has said that they plan to limit the number of wildcards you can buy each week. This should translate to a better free-to-play experience because a player has the ability to get exactly which cards they want from wildcard rewards. I'm hopeful that purchase limits will result in slower metagame development because once a player creates a deck with money-bought cards, they have to wait a week or earn more in-game before doing so again.
Conclusion
I have loved my experience with Runeterra so far. I am very sad that I can't play it beyond the Patch Preview. I can't wait for November when it opens again. I can't wait for full release of the game next year, my hype is sky-high. I will be thinking about this game and how to build decks for it in the coming months as I eagerly await its full release.
Please comment below with your questions, comments, hype, and disagreements!
Comments
Are you denying my existence? No one plays for the lore? I think I've made it rather clear during my time on this site that it's half the reason I DO play this game, lol. Yes, they take artistic liberties with the lore, but each one is spun as a tall tale around important locations, events, or groups from the lore. Also, you didn't touch on my other mention of the art. Art is often a matter of personal taste, and I find the atmosphere created by the Hearthstone art style to be fun and colorful. By contrast, the art depicted in this article looks dull and bland to me. I repeat the fact that these are my personal reasons and views and I understand that many don't share them, but I consider them to be perfectly valid in themselves and wish for them to be treated as such.
You already said that art is a personal taste, That's why i didn't touch that topic. For me for example, I prefer MTG's art %100 of times. Same with Elder Scrolls: Legends but you are right about that art is an important part to decide playing some card games. That's why i didn't even try Shadowverse, Eternal, Mythguard etc. because of their card arts and UI designs.
For the lore, I've started Hearthstone because of Warcraft Lore no doubt. I remember how I was excited when they announce and how I waited for beta invite but Hearthstone is just a game which uses Warcraft Universe, There is no other connections with the game anymore.
Lorewise, I only loved Naxxramas, Blackrock Mountain and TGT. All of other expansions were bad for lore imo. KotFT for example. There is no such thing as Frost Lich Jaina for example. If you do that for a MOBA cosmetic, it is always ok like this;
But giving new powers to the hero and change it for a card game was ridiculous for my taste of lore. Same with all other Death Knights. You can always bring something new but you should do that without changing the lore. They should have been added new characters as Death Knights, shouldn't have changed well-known characters.
I am not denying your existence, That was just an exaggeration to make myself understood. I am also playing and started this game for the lore but I realized long ago that Hearthstone stopped being lore-friendly. I've waited them so long to make a Burning Crusade related expansion, New classes like Warcraft has, Well-known characters from the game but everytime I waited so long, They brought Aya Blackpaw or Hagatha the Witch or King Togwaggle to the game.
What Blizzard has done and still doing is is disappointing for their own royal players. Did you check 1000 win rewards ? They are laziest stuff of Hearthstone. That really describes and proves that what I'm saying here. Blizzard doesn't really care older and royal players, They always care potential of new players. They really think like they already earned us and people keeps buying from Blizzard even they do mistakes so that causes Blizzard care older player lesser because even they do whatever they like, People are still buying.
It's not a boycott call, don't get me wrong but I left paying Blizzard long ago because of their game-related actions. They changed and ruined every game I love and grown up with.
They kinda dropped the whole Heroes of Warcraft didnt they?
You can play both card games but i believe that in the end ppl will only play one hence the problem with pur college here.
I was only able to play LoR for a little bit but damn the impression was so heavy on me. I really dig it plus the rounds arent as long as i thought they would be specially with the auto pass enabled
100% agree and this is a big reason why I don't intend to move over. Although I only played a tiny bit of WoW, a big part of what drew me to HS was the lore since I did play WC2 & WC3. HS has actually helped me "catch up" on what happened after WC3, which has been great to get me to re-engage. It's also why I enjoy the single-player content so much - I find it hard to engage with any game (card or otherwise) where I don't know/care what's going on and/or what the let's say "broader implications" are to my actions.
I would liken this to sports games - if you don't care about basketball & the teams/players, why in the world would you play NBA2K?
Also, and this is just my person thought - given how insanely fast Artifact died, I would not jump into (and certainly wouldn't spend any money) any new card game until I saw the new game was actually taking off. I can't imagine how pissed off I'd be if I bought the intro bundle for $40 or whatever it was and then 2 months later there were only 500 people playing the game still...
Reluctance to make an investment into a new card game is understandable, as none of us are still quite sure how it will play out until it does.
That said, this is already doing much better than Artifact could've done, and given that it's F2P and easy for people less familiar to watch, it's going to be gaining a larger fanbase than Artifact ever did in a much better time than they ever could've.
I'm excited to see how much this game takes off, and I want this game to succeed because I enjoyed playing it. The only thing we can do at this point however is wait and see.
Honest question - how are you making that determination? Since 1) the game is still in beta, and 2) from what I (admittedly very) vaguely recall for Artifact there was a fair amount of hype around it just based on it being Valve and the game itself had a good number of players for the first few weeks until everyone abandoned it.
Easy.
LoR was online for a week and its not the final version and the majority loved it. Artifact took less than a week after release for ppl to state its main issues like pay wall economy of cards and over complicated and bored drawnout gameplay which eventually dictated it's doom. Hell ppl before the release where already mentioning this issues and saying the game was dead on arrival. Spot on.
Theres none of that for LoR. Now will it take HS spot? Nope for a variety of reasons being customer loyalty the main one. HS exist for 6 years plus theres the love for the WoW connection and the company Blizzard.
Having said this i predict that LoR will draw out ppl from HS Eternal Shadow verse and Magic. It will eventually take the spot of Magic but it will never replace it cause the player base that likes it wont switch to a dumbed down version tho the state of the meta and the cluttered UI of MtG Arena is on an all time low.
If LoR remains as good as it was this week i will switch from HS to LoR and many will too but like i said it wont be the king in terms of player base but i wouldn't be surprised if it is a huge hit and probably the first successful card game in the west after HS. I dont count MtG cause its a paper game conversion
I say that because the critical reception of the game has been better so far, and a part of it is also because the game doesn't have a buying price so it's instantly more accessible to everyone (with a key anyway).
Artifact did have a fair bit of hype to it, but I think everyone who played Artifact (which, I admittedly did not) saw through all of the problems within the first week (in less than 2 months, it lost 95% of its players). That hasn't happened to me. I do see some things that could be improved, but it doesn't have all of the problems Artifact was plagued with upon first stage release.
For my own experiences the game felt like MTG&Hearthstone hybrid as %65 MTG and %35 Hearthstone.
There are three things that feels like hearthstone.
First is that Units keep their damages unlike MTG. Runeterra has Regeneration keyword which is basic mechanic for all of the minions in MTG. They regenerates health after combat. This is what Runeterra brings from Hearthstone to MTG.
Second is; MTG has no minion limit for battlegrounds, Hearthstone has and Runeterra has also. This is the second mechanic that Runeterra brings from Hearthstone to MTG.
And Third is mana system which is almost same with Hearthstone with the exception of Spell mana and I can say that Spell mana is a wonderful idea ! MTG has land system which I think it really sucks sometimes. I mean you need to set your mulligan around it and mulligan system is completely more random for MTG than hearthstone. Someone can say that "harder is better" but I don't think so. Sometimes, A bad mulligan is an instant surrender in MTG.
Playing runeterra feels like Playing Hearthstone with MTG's blocking and reaction system or vice versa. Playing MTG with Hearthstone's mana, limited minions on battlefield and minion damage system. More like 2nd because Fatigue is same with MTG. If you can't draw you completely lose. There is no fatigue damage. Fatigue means lose basically. Also there are reaction order in Runeterra like MTG. You can counter a spell or buff a minion with Fast or Burst spells while it is your opponent's turn.
I always wanted a game which is a MTG/Hearthstone Hybrid and now I've got it. I personally think that this game will catch the people like me who want to play a game which feels like Hearthstone and MTG at the same time.
I don't know what people think but I think that the game will achieve good things around card games.
Edit: Also for the guide, it is completely useful for people who couldn't find beta key to play. Great work ! You can add Drain as the keyword which is Lifesteal for spells. Hearthstone has lifesteal keyword for spells too. :)
and Also you can add in Region section that Riot said they are not planning to add neutral cards to the game. It is an important part for me. Because that means like we won't face any Leeroy Jenkins finisher in all classes/Regions or Ragnaros the Firelord or Sylvanas Windrunner or Mountain Giants in all classes. All regions will feel unique to play. This part is so important for me because I really can't make sense of other classes than hunter or Druid can control beasts for example. Same with Demons except Warlock etc. .
I always defended that Hearthstone should limit neutral cards but We all know that thing will never happen.
This is the article I've been waiting for, and your summary is very much in-line with how I read it. I played Magic 20 years ago, and was excited to try out MTG: Arena. Then I got mana-screwed. Over and over and over again. Even if you don't get completely screwed, if your opponent curves perfectly, and has a 1-2 land advantage through the mid-game, there's nearly nothing you can do. Same with drawing dead lands in the late game. It flooded me with unpleasant memories of playing the game 20 years prior. It's still the Ur-CCG, but I'll take the RNG of Hearthstone over the Magic mana-system 100% of the time.
I also remember being an expert (among my friends) of the spell stack and order of operations in Magic. Making that smooth was one of the most impressive things about MTG: Arena. Waiting on the phases was certainly no worse than the Hearthstone players that take 60 seconds to play a single vanilla minion on turn four.
The genius of this game seems to be streamlining and rethinking the spell stack and really the entire turn structure. Having both players getting to play slow spells regardless of who has attack initiative is brilliant. Also, while I'm a little rusty on Magic, the Burst vs. Fast explanation makes more sense to me than the Instant vs. Interrupt. Fast spells certainly have more restrictions on when you can play them than Instants which makes for less phases overall. Add in the restricted unused mana pool, and the best of Magic & Hearthstone's keywords, and I'm legit pumped.
Thanks for the run down!
This is the first DCCG that I've seen since Hearthstone that interested me. Gwent was boring and took way too long for the limited time I have to play during each day, Artifact was expensive and boring, and MtG has always had a bit too much going on with the phases in each turn for me. Pokemon CCG was fun but I've never been one to invest much in physical CCGs and the digital version never held the same fun for me.
Runeterra looks like a game I'd enjoy learning and possibly investing a bit in.
Imo Runeterra phases are weirder than Mtg's. Watching the videos I never know when the opponent is gonna play a spell or a creature
I was like that too until i played the game. Its a lot more snappy and intuitive. Plus its fast if u have auto pass enabled.
So far, this game looks a lot like a faster version of Magic without lands. I singed up to try this game out, but I don't know if I will stick with it simply because I already play 2 Trading/Colleectable card games and I am not sure if LoR will be different enough from Magic to hold my interest beyond a couple of weeks.
But the only way to find out is to give it a try!
To me the biggest selling factor is the Region system.
The fact that some very basic effects can be executed in different ways and therefore shape how certain builds are played just sounds a lot more fun than having a Neutral card pool out of which the best cards appear in all decks.
It also allows for much better balancing options. If a specific deck is overpowered you can basically nerf the offending card without affecting other decks too much.