League of Legends developer Riot Games has reworked the hit MOBA game’s champion pricing model, and it’s about to get considerably cheaper to collect every character. The LoL champion pricing update was initially revealed by game designer Tim ‘Truexy’ Jiang in a Reddit thread last month.
Under the new structure, announced by competitive team design lead Jordan ‘BarackProbama’ Checkman and lead champion designer August ‘August’ Browning, the difficulty of champions is now taken into account alongside their age when it comes to deciding how much they’ll set players back.
“As our strategy has shifted from the early days of shipping a character every other patch to a cadence that allowed us to better plan around champions, we felt that it was time to change the way we approach price reductions”, the devs say.
You can check out the new structure and the criteria for each pricing tier below:
- 450 BE / 260 RP – Champions that are awesome for new players. These have a strong fantasy and an approachable kit that our data suggests helps folks find success early. Examples include Malphite, Miss Fortune, and Yuumi.
- 1350 BE / 585 RP – Champions that are a bit more complex than the lower tier, but still approachable for interested folks. These will have more nuanced skill checks in their play patterns, but maintain reasonable skill floors and have proven to be fan favorites. Examples include Yasuo, Lucian, and Sett.
- 3150 BE / 790 RP – Champions that have a larger degree of difficulty or specialization in their play. These will often have steeper learning curves to climb before one sees consistent success with them. Examples include LeBlanc, Shaco, and Yorick.
- 4444 BE / 880 RP – Only perfection and beauty are allowed at this tier. HAHAHAHA.
- 4800 BE / 880 RP – The majority of the roster will live here.
- 6300 BE / 975 RP – Champions that have come out in the past two seasons, after which they will move to the tier above after the next season starts.
- 7800 BE / 975 RP – Champions that have come out in the past week.
Alongside the aforementioned pricing changes, the devs also reveal that new champion bundles are coming, “that cover a variety of gameplay roles within each tier.” According to the devs, players buying up every champion from scratch will save a whopping 140,606 Blue Essence, or 14,905 Riot Points compared to the old system.
However, there are a few notable champions that are actually having their prices increased in Kayle, Ryze, Singed, and Twisted Fate. The devs say that, because these champions aren’t the most new player-friendly – something which is backed by data – they’ll sit in the 4800 BE tier. Even though their RP price will be kept at 260, it’s a good idea to snag them now if you’re going the free-to-play route.