History VideoGame / LegendsOfRuneterra

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** Demacia has eventually pitched a small tent in that strategy with [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/For_The_Fallen_(Legends_of_Runeterra) For the Fallen]] card. It supplements their usual gameplan of playing a lot of Elites by becoming cheaper while it awaits in hand, and eventually if the enemy manages to wipe out your board, it can immediately refill with new 3/3 units. And if you happened to draw another one in the meantime, it will get cheaper in turn.

*** Xerath deals 5 damage to the Nexus and your opponent's weakest unit every round, putting them on a direct countdown to death.

* {{Bowdlerise}}: [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_cards_with_alternate_art_(Legends_of_Runeterra) Many cards have tweaked artwork]] for Chinese servers to remove or alter potentially questionable content, such as blood, skeletons, corpses, alcohol, and overly-revealing clothing. Among the most prominent targets are [[BloodMagic Vladimir and the Crimson Circle]] (changing the color of their blood magic from red to purple), as well as many Shadow Isles cards (many given light redesigns to reduce their skeletal features, usually replacing their [[SkullForAHead skull faces]] with spooky iron masks).

** The Bandle Tree, introduced in Beyond the Bandlewood, adds another to the game, allowing you to win the game at the start of the round if you've summoned units from all 10 regions. The landmark also helps the condition by giving you a follower from a new region at Round Start, and its region, Bandle City, also has access to dual region followers and Champions, each of which basically adds an extra region to your count when played.

* VanillaUnit: Cithria of Cloudfield is one of the plainest units in the game, being one of the cheapest units in the game at 1-mana and having no keywords or passive effects for dynamic play. While she does have slightly higher stats than what her cost implies, 2-power and 2-health for a 1-cost card, nothing about her is really gonna be swinging the game around.

* {{Roguelike}}: The single-player Lab of Legends, where you start out with one of ten Champions and draft more cards and items to enhance those cards along the way. Unlike most roguelike modes, the enemies you face are fixed.

** [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Twisted_Fate/LOR Twisted Fate]], moreso than any other champion, requires careful precision to use while being able to single-handedly win games. He has a difficult level-up requirement (seeing you draw 9 cards) while being the third-weakest champion in the game after Teemo and Zoe at only 2/2, despite his costly 4-mana price tag. But once you have him leveled up, you've pretty much won unless your opponent can remove him ''immediately'' (and you don't have another copy) because the amount of value he generates is simply insane. The most popular deck built around him (the "Casino deck") is generally considered the single hardest deck to play properly in the entire game, but is also one of the most powerful when it works.

** '''[[MightyGlacier Noxus]]''' are the resident Powerhouse faction that have a ton of extremely deadly units that thrive on [[UnskilledButStrong overwhelming combat force]]. They usually have less health than other factions in exchange for dealing massive damage, and are able to fight dirty with their powerful Stun and Challenger mechanics. Their key mechanic is the powerful Overwhelm keyword, which allows them to do consistent damage even if the enemy line seems to be impenetrable- and their use of Stun makes it often very dangerous to let them build up. However, their overwhelming force means that factions like Ionia and the Freljord can poke holes in their offense to reduce them to nothing, which is often why Noxus is pared with more Specialist factions to support their power. Alternatively, one can spec into the Vladimir line for making strong wave-clearing decks at the cost of making your weak units even more vulnerable.

** '''[[NoSell Frel]][[StatusBuff jord]]''' is the most buff and debuff centered faction in the game, mostly revolving around the extremely strong (and faction unique) mechanic of Frostbite. Frostbite allows a unit's power to be reduced to zero, effectively turning it into a meatshield and nothing more. On the flipside, the Freljord has tons of really powerful buffs, like free mana regen and strong permanent stat increases. Thus, their matches then to flow like this: Freljord sets up a line, the enemy does too, the Freljord heavily debuffs the enemy's line, and they clash. The enemy strikes hard, and the Freljord strikes back ''harder''. Freljord also boasts a plethora of [[HerdHittingAttack mass damage spells]] that can sweep away swarms of weaker units and buy time for their heavy hitters to come into play However, this comes with the obvious drawback of being the most mana-reliant faction in the game even above Piltover and Zaun, resulting in them often deploying fewer units compared to other factions and falling back on their mechanics to make a difference, and they have very few answers to Elusive foes that they can't simply crush by blocking with a big unit. They also have access to the seemingly weak but very deadly Poro subfaction, allowing them to build up their line with weak Poro units that can combine into ''ridiculously strong'' Heart of the Fluft units that can end matches extremely quickly if you can't reliably thin their herds.
** '''[[LightningBruiser Io]][[FragileSpeedster nia]]''' revolves around outsmarting your enemies and manipulating the flow of the battle, as well as building up your strongest units into deadly powerhouses. Ionia tends to revolve around the Barrier and Recall mechanics, allowing them to be deceptively tanky and remove enemies from play. This is their modus operandi- control the battlefield through deception and tactics to achieve victory. Because of this emphasis on manipulation and stealth, many Ionia units capitalize on techniques over raw skill, and are the central faction revolving around the Elusive mechanic. Elusive units cannot be blocked except by other Elusive units, which are rare to the other factions. This means that if you're clever, you can run a deck of nearly impossible to hit foes. Lifesteal also plays a large part in the faction as does Barrier, which makes Ionia very versatile at whatever tactic you want to implement. The problem is that their individual units are often weak and fragile. While their assassination and misdirection mechanics are indeed strong, it's possible for them to be outdone by Piltover and Zaun, Demacia and the Shadow Isles forgoing subtlety and simply [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer attacking them back with more force]] or outright ignoring their Elusive mechanic to target them directly.

* EarthShatteringKaboom: [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/The_Skies_Descend_(Legends_of_Runeterra) The Skies Descend]] portrays a hypothetical situation of what would happen if Aurelion Sol gained complete freedom from the Aspects of Targon- he'd take his revenge on all of Runeterra by splitting it open like an egg. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation It's not even a fraction that powerful in-game, though]], only doing 15 damage to all enemy units (not even touching the Nexus) and is capable of being blocked by a simple Spell Shield or Barrier.

** In the lore, Noxus' invasion of Ionia changed those nations forever. Yasuo decks often rely on cards from Noxus due to it containing the majority of the game's Stun effects, which are central to Yasuo's strategy.

* FacePalm: One of the six default emotes (which take the form of animated stickers) that are the only means of communication between players is Darius doing one of these while shaking his head, usually used by a player in response to a silly blunder or heinous bit of bad luck.

* FryingPanOfDoom: The [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/War_Chefs_(Legends_of_Runeterra) War Chefs]] brandish these as their weapon of choice, as expected from a ChefOfIron. One of their attack quotes is "Pan to the face!"

* BreakingOldTrends: While there were a couple of instances of Champions from ''[=LoL=]'' being added to the game in the form of Followers (Senna, Sentinel of Light and Yone, Windchaser, albeit the latter of whom would only be added to ''[=''LoL=]'' as a champion ''after'' his initial appearance in ''[=LoR=]''), the "Awakening" expansion saw the release of the first ''[=LoR=]''-exclusive ''Champion'' in Yuumi's master Norra. While she was an established ''character'' in ''[=LoL=]'', she'd been TheGhost up to now after going missing during one of her adventures, and Yuumi's story was entirely centered about her traveling Runeterra in search of her.

* BreakingOldTrends: While there were a couple of instances of Champions from ''[=LoL=]'' being added to the game in the form of Followers (Senna, Sentinel of Light and Yone, Windchaser, albeit the latter of whom would only be added to [=''LoL=]'' as a champion ''after'' his initial appearance in ''[=LoR=]''), the "Awakening" expansion saw the release of the first ''[=LoR=]''-exclusive ''Champion'' in Yuumi's master Norra. While she was an established ''character'' in ''[=LoL=]'', she'd been TheGhost up to now after going missing during one of her adventures, and Yuumi's story was entirely centered about her traveling Runeterra in search of her.

Superficially similar at a glance to other games like ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'', the game uses a unique shared turn system. Every turn (or "round"), both players increase their maximum mana by 1 and draw a card, and then take it in turns to deploy new units, cast spells, deploy landmarks, or equip units with equipment, with the player who has priority going first and being the only player allowed to attack their opponent (unless special effects allow their opponent to rally and gain an attack opportunity of their own). This allows players to directly respond to their opponent's moves, making it more of a battle of wits. Once both players pass on taking an action, the round ends and priority swaps to the other player. Up to 3 unused mana can also be stored as "Spell mana", which can only be used to cast spells, giving players a reason to not always expend all their mana every turn for fear of losing tempo. Player decks contain 40 cards from up to two of the game's factions (including Demacia, Noxus, Ionia, Piltover & Zaun, the Freljord and the Shadows Isles at launch, later joined by Bilgewater, Targon, Shurima and the Bandlewood), giving you a lot of possible combinations. A deck can include up to 6 Champion cards from the selected regions taken from the playable cast of ''League'', with the rest of your forces being made up of Followers. Champions can be leveled up into a more powerful form if you're able to meet their conditions.

Superficially similar at a glance to other games like ''VideoGame/{{Hearthstone}}'', the game uses a unique shared turn system. Every turn (or "round"), both players increase their maximum mana by 1 and draw a card, and then take it in turns to deploy new units or cast spells, with the player who has priority going first and being the only player allowed to attack their opponent (unless special effects allow their opponent to rally and gain an attack opportunity of their own). This allows players to directly respond to their opponent's moves, making it more of a battle of wits. Once both players pass on taking an action, the round ends and priority swaps to the other player. Up to 3 unused mana can also be stored as "Spell mana", which can only be used to cast spells, giving players a reason to not always expend all their mana every turn for fear of losing tempo. Player decks contain 40 cards from up to two of the game's factions (including Demacia, Noxus, Ionia, Piltover & Zaun, the Freljord and the Shadows Isles at launch, later joined by Bilgewater, Targon, Shurima and the Bandlewood), giving you a lot of possible combinations. A deck can include up to 6 Champion cards from the selected regions taken from the playable cast of ''League'', with the rest of your forces being made up of Followers. Champions can be leveled up into a more powerful form if you're able to meet their conditions.

* The "Worldwalker" Expansion was released on May 25th 2022, introducing Runeterran champions with special deck building rules and new keywords alongside the launch of the Path of Champions 2.0.

** The third and final expansion, "Awakening" is currently set to be released on August 30th 2022 and will complete "Worldwalker".

** Speaking of memes, the emotes released at the launch of the Call of the Mountain expansions are based on memes. The Lulu drinking a plum is based on Dumb Fuck Juice meme, the Diana drying herself is based on the Sweating Towel Man meme, Nocturne being blasted away is the Defeated [[Anime/{{YuGiOh}} Kaiba]] meme, and Taric head pointing is based on the Roll Safe meme. More memes from the final set of the expansion was added, which includes Viktor pointing (specifically) towards the hissing Nyandroid, referencing the Woman Yelling at Cat meme.

** [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Spirit_Fire_(Legends_of_Runeterra) Spirit Fire]] places an effect that damage the cards by 2 after reducing their Power by 2. This card completely counters aggressive decks that rely on high attack but low Health. A similar card is [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Blighted_Ravine_(Legends_of_Runeterra) Blighted Ravine]], which acts similar to Avalanche, but happens at the end of the round as well as healing you for 4.

'''Jarvan IV:''' What does he ''see'' in you?!

** [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Shen/LoR Shen]], though he himself does not have the Barrier keyword, grants an ally Barrier when he attacks and support another ally. In addition, his level-up requirement is seeing 4 instances of Barrier granted to a friendly unit (including himself) and when he is leveled up, he provides 3 additional Power to any card with Barrier for that round. Several of his associated cards like [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Stand_United_(Legends_of_Runeterra) Stand United]], [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Spirit%27s_Refuge_(Legends_of_Runeterra) Spirit's Refuge]], and [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Ki_Guardian_(Legends_of_Runeterra) Ki Guardian]] also provide Barriers to help him level.

* The "Worldwalker" Expansion is was released on May 25th 2022, introducing Runeterran champions with special deck building rules and new keywords alongside the launch of the Path of Champions 2.0.

* The "Worldwalker" Expansion is set for release on May 25th 2022, introducing Runeterran champions with special deck building rules and new keywords alongside the launch of the Path of Champions 2.0.

* OddFriendship: The game uses voice interactions to highlight connections between characters, and it takes advantage of this to develop previously-unrecognized rapports between champions with tenuous, if not nonexistent contact in present canon. Examples include Katarina and Fiora (who both share a similar "[[DanceBattler waltz of]] [[MasterSwordsman swords]] and [[KnifeNut daggers]]" approach) and Ezreal and Jinx (both [[RebelliousSpirit reckless free spirits]] [[IndyPloy with nary a plan between them]]).

* BatteringRam: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The]] [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Battering_Ram_(Legends_of_Runeterra) Battering Ram]], which starts out with 12 Health with no Power but every time it attacks, it gets 4 Power and since it has Overwhelm, it'll deal damage to the Nexus if it's Power destroy a card with less Health than the Power. It's very strong offensively and defensively as its high Health allow it to tank some damage and deal damage back.

* HowWeGotHere: The color story [[https://universe.leagueoflegends.com/en_US/story/destiny-and-fate/ "Destiny And Fate"]] serves as an explanatory lead-up to the "Double-Double Cross" cinematic. Explaining why Miss Fortune captured TF and who the mysterious shaman woman is.

** The third and final expansion "A Curious Journey" is set for release on February 16th 2022 and will complete "Beyond the Bandlewood".

** The [[https://leagueoflegends.fandom.com/wiki/Towering_Stonehorn_(Legends_of_Runeterra) Towering Stonehorn]] is a 6-cost follower card that has an effect which makes them immune to damage from spells or skills. As a result, this card cannot be widdled out unless it is silenced. With that said, however, while it is immune to damage, it is still destroyed from effects like Vengeance or Devourer of the Depth's Devour skill.