Legends of Runeterra 1.4 Patch Notes - The Season of

Legends of Runeterra’s 1.4 update is now live, its patch notes revealing the start of the Season of Fortune, balance changes and more.

The 1.4 update also adds the limited-time Gauntlet mode, available only during weekends, to Legends of Runeterra, alongside new cosmetic items.

The Season of Fortune also includes changes to Expeditions Archetypes and an entire suite of bug fixes that add some extra polish to the free-to-play card game

LOR Patch Notes 1.4

Here are all the changes and additions that Legend of Runeterra sees in its 1.4 update, as per its full patch notes:

New Mode: Gauntlet

Gauntlets are limited-time competitive modes with unique deckbuilding rules. The Gauntlet will open every Friday through Monday, with each weekend featuring a single format from the Gauntlet rotation.

The first Gauntlet begins June 26 and will use standard deckbuilding rules as we test-drive the underlying tech; a second type of Gauntlet, Singleton, joins the rotation on July 3, and will challenge you to build a deck using no more than one copy of each card.

In addition to XP based on your number of wins, everyone who takes on a particular Gauntlet format will receive a special icon, while those who make it to seven wins will earn the exclusive Gauntlet Conqueror icon. In the future, we plan to add more exclusive rewards and improve the Gauntlet mode overall, using the technology to build our way to full-scale in-game tournaments.

Ranked Rewards + New Season

The Season of Plunder ranked season has now ended, and ranked reward icons (see below) will be distributed with this patch based on your performance.

Ranked will be disabled until 10 AM PT, June 24, when the Season of Fortune will begin!

Ranks will be partially reset for the new season:

Master accounts will drop 800LP (8 divisions).

Diamond and Platinum accounts will drop 750LP (7 divisions + 50LP).

Gold and Silver accounts will drop 675LP (6 divisions + 75LP).

Bronze and Iron accounts will reset to Iron IV.

Masters LP update

Master tier now uses an LP system rather than one based on ladder position.

Up until now, Masters tier has been rank-ordered by player MMR, but we’ve realized this has some unfortunate downsides—mainly that it was unclear how much your rank could change in a single game, and losses could feel overly punishing.

Now, instead of displaying your rank order within Masters, you’ll see your current Masters LP, and upon first entering Masters, you’ll get an initial LP amount based on your MMR relative to other players in Masters. From there, your LP gains and losses will be determined by a combination of factors including your MMR, your opponent’s MMR, and how much LP you have compared to other players in Masters. These values are centered around 20 LP (the same amount of LP gained or lost in Platinum and Diamond) and can range from a maximum of 25 to a minimum of 15. At the end of each season, Masters players will be reset to Platinum 4, regardless of how much LP you have.

Our hope is that this brings much needed clarity to the ranking process while keeping Masters tier the apex of competitive play in LoR. Let us know how the new system feels, and good luck making it to the top!

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Card Updates

Champions

Darius (level 2)

Health: 5 → 6

We’re increasing Darius’ health at Level 2 to make him more durable and consistent, increasing the payoff for meeting his level up condition and giving Noxus aggro decks a more appealing top-end option.

Anivia

Cost: 7 → 6

When compared to other similar champions like Nautilus (same cost) or Karma (same level-up condition), Anivia’s power level and kit weren’t quite matching up outside of very specific strategies. A cost adjustment should help her see more effective and widespread use.

Anivia (level 2)

Cost: 7 → 6

Braum

Cost: 3 → 4

Power: 0 → 1

Added text: The first time I survive damage, summon a [Mighty Poro].

We’re looking to preserve what players liked about Braum’s old design while adjusting him to have healthier gameplay patterns that are also a better fit for more Freljord decks. While his cost has increased, his new baseline power and access to a Mighty Poro at level one should make him more widely usable. Similarly, adjusting his leveled-up stat boost to a more typical +1

+1 should improve his general power and ability to end games.

Braum (level 2)

Cost: 3 → 4

Power: 0 → 2

Health: 7 → 6

Super Mega Death Rocket!

Created by Jinx (level 2)

Cost: 2 → 1

Jinx’s Rocket offers a satisfying payoff but could use a bit more consistency, especially in Expeditions.

Followers & spells

Genevieve Elmheart

Power: 4 → 5

Health: 4 → 5

Genevieve has stiff competition at her cost and we’d like her to be a more generally appealing option, so she’s getting a straightforward stat boost to improve her impact.

Unyielding Spirit

Spell speed: Burst → Fast

We like the idea of Unyielding Spirit’s dream (making an immortal unit), but it’s definitely been contentious and was ultimately resulting in some toxic gameplay patterns.

When it comes to new content, we typically want to allow players time to solve for metagame problems with existing tools—hell, we think it’s a big part of the fun of card games. In this case, that played a part in us not initially changing Unyielding Spirit, but we ultimately feel the card is too prone to causing frustrating results and needs additional options to be countered.

Basilisk Rider

Health: 2 → 3

Captain Farron

Old text: Play: Transform all cards in your hand into [Decimates^.

New text: When I'm summoned, create 3 [Decimates] in hand.

Ol’ Captain Decimate is meant to be a late game finisher against slow decks, but discarding your hand (and requiring cards in hand to do anything) was a bit too high variance for that role, so we’ve adjusted his effect to simply create Decimates in hand.

Aurora Porealis

Cost: 7 → 6

Aurora Porealis had too steep a cost for no immediate impact, so we’re moving it down in cost to allow it to be used without falling so far behind.

Poro Herder

Cost: 4 → 2

Power: 3 → 2

Health: 4 → 3

Old text: When I'm summoned, draw 2 Poros if you have a Poro ally.

New text: When I'm summoned, draw a Poro if you have a Poro ally

Accompanying our changes to Braum, we’re adjusting Poro Herder to provide Poro decks a more appealing on-curve option.

She Who Wanders

Added keyword: [Regeneration]

One of the OG bombs in LoR back during beta, She Who Wanders has seen better days. We think she could use a boost when it comes to being a huge, gameshaking bomb for niche decks, so we’re adding Regeneration to help her close out games.

They Who Endure

Cost: 6 → 7

They Who Endure provides a massive payoff for decks that can kill many of their own units, but is a little too efficient and flexible. With this change, we want to preserve that payoff while allowing more time for opposing plans to develop.

Ren Shadowblade

Cost: 8 → 4

Power: 6 → 3

Health: 4 → 3

Old text: When the enemy summons a follower, grant it Ephemeral.

New text: [Quick Attack] Strike: Create a [Shadow Fiend] in hand (1 mana, 4/3 Ephemeral).

Jae Medarda

Cost: 8 → 6

Health: 6 → 4

Power: 6 → 4

Old text: [Elusive] When I'm targeted, draw 1.

New text: When I'm targeted and survive, draw 1.

Jae’s line of text is really exciting as a build-around possibility, but his cost and stat profile often made it feel like a trap to do so. We’re adjusting him across the board with the goal of making the dream (or parts of it) more consistently attainable.

Escaped Abomination

Created by Cursed Keeper

Health: 4 → 3

It can be extremely difficult to come back against aggressive Shadow Isles decks if they get off to a quick start and you fall behind early. We want Escaped Abomination to be a bit more answerable in the early game, especially in the context of Cursed Keeper + Blighted Caretaker curves that create a large board advantage while contributing to synergies.

The Harrowing

Cost: 10 → 9

The Harrowing is meant to be a splashy finisher for Shadow Isles decks, but it’s struggled to find a home. We’re dropping its cost by one to help out more synergy-driven Shadow Isles strategies.

Dreg Dredgers

Power: 2 → 1

Deep decks have generally been in a good spot, but their tools for creating early game presence have been stronger than we want for a deck that can sink you in the late game. This adjustment should make sure Deep decks are playing from behind a bit more often.

Mind Meld

Cost: 8 → 7

Mind Meld was simply too costly for its effect.

Petty Officer

Health: 1 → 2

We want to both give a boost to Barrel decks and provide a more effective option for aggressive Bilgewater decks—this buff should help push Petty Officer towards its intended role as a versatile option that allows more decks access to Barrels.

Steal-from-deck cards

Drawing from the enemy deck has been a contentious mechanic in Rising Tides, and we’re making a change to address some of the frustrations players have experienced. First, let’s call the effect by its new keyworded name—Nab—which has the important difference (versus prior functionality) of drawing from the bottom of the enemy deck rather than the top.

Previously, these effects caused unintentionally sharp match-ups with any deck looking to manipulate the top of their deck (particularly Freljord deck buff strategies). We also understand that it can feel particularly frustrating to have the card you were about to draw used against you, regardless of there being no general statistical difference in drawing from the bottom.

As a minor note, this change will also prevent Nab effects from filtering your opponent closer to drawing their Champions—while this could be an interesting tradeoff, it wasn’t an explicit design goal for the mechanic and we think it’s worth losing in the name of overall improvement.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the impact of these changes, and are open to making further adjustments as necessary.

Effects that draw from the enemy deck now draw from the bottom of the enemy deck (rather than the top).

New keyword implemented—Nab: Draw a non-champion card from the bottom of the enemy deck.

Black Market Merchant

Health: 2 → 1

Plunder: Nab 1

Pilfered Goods

Nab 1

Plunder: Nab 1 more

Yordle Grifter

Allegiance: Nab 1

Card text consistency

Since launch, we’ve heard a lot of good feedback regarding card text consistency issues, and will continue to make improvements over time as needed. This patch, we’ve made a variety of consistency and clarity changes covering several issues, including:

Various usage consistency (“fleeting,” “I see,” “create,” “shuffle”).

Swapping “next round” to “next round start” to clarify exact timing.

“Enemies” vs. “the enemy Nexus” consistency.

Swapping written-out numbers to digits where possible.

Rules text on the following cards (both collectible and non-collectible) updated for clarity and/or consistency:

Arena Bookie

Avarosan Trapper

Back to Back

Bloodsworn Pledge

Brightsteel Formation

Brothers’ Bond

Chief Mechanist Zevi

Chump Whump

Concerted Strike

Double Trouble

Final Spark

Jinx (level 2)

Lee Sin (both levels)

Lux (level 2)

Magnum Opus

Pick a Card

Plunder Poro

Pool Shark

Powder Keg

Sapling Toss

Sejuani (level 2)

Senna, Sentinel of Light

Shen (both levels)

Shen’s Stand United

Stand United

Super Mega Death Rocket!

Tall Tales

The Leviathan

The Undying

Twisted Fate’s Pick a Card

Twisted Fate (level 2)

Personalization

Boards

Lee Sin’s Iron Will

For legends who extend their senses and strike with skill.

Guardians

Von Yipp

Unrivaled genius in Zaun. Beloved companion in Piltover.

Personality: Devious

Hobby: Unregulated experimentation

Card Backs

3 new card backs available for purchase

The Blind Monk

The Tidal Trickster

The Bounty Hunter

Emotes

3 new emotes available for purchase.

Bundles

The Lee Sin Bundle now available for 1332 Coins. Bundle includes:

Lee Sin's Iron Will (board)

The Blind Monk (card back)

An exclusive Lee Sin icon

Expeditions Archetypes

As usual, the primary goal of these changes is to help out some struggling archetypes (e.g., Fishbones, Scrapheap, and Spell Slingers) while reducing the potency of others that have been overperforming (e.g., Afterlife, Disruption, and Noxian Might).

We’ve also made a tweak to improve the consistency of tri-region drafting by reducing the chances you’ll see Wild Pick options from archetypes that aren’t confined to those regions. For example, if you’re drafting Demacia, Freljord, and Noxus, you’ll now see more packs from archetypes that only contain cards from those three regions (such as Suit Up or Battle Scars), and fewer packs from archetypes that include other regions (such as Retribution or Raiding Party). We’ll be watching the results of this change closely and may adjust further in a future patch.

While drafting a tri-region deck, significantly reduced how frequently you’ll be offered Wild Pick options from archetypes that include cards from other regions on their roster.

Afterlife

Added: Mark of the Isles, Phantom Prankster, Splinter Soul

Removed: Glimpse Beyond, Neverglade Collector

Battle Scars

Added: Avarosan Marksman

Removed: Stalking Wolf

Death’s Door

Added: Vengeance

Disruption

Added: Blade’s Edge, Shadowshift

Fishbones

Added: Chum the Waters, Rising Spell Force, Scrapdash Assembly

Removed: Coral Creatures, Daring Poro, Hired Gun

Noxian Might

Added: Culling Strike, Shunpo

Relentless

Added: Armored Tuskrider

Removed: Mobilize, Savage Reckoner

Scrapheap

Added: Crimson Disciple, Imperial Demolitionist, Savage Reckoner, Used Cask Salesman

Removed: Armored Tuskrider, Clump of Whumps, Rummage, Zaunite Urchin

Shadows and Dust

Added: Glimpse Beyond, Shadow Fiend, Warden’s Prey

Removed: Sapling Toss, Vengeance

Spell Slingers

Added: Double Up, Pilfered Goods, Pool Shark, Salvage, Spirit’s Refuge

Removed: Jailbreak, Rivershaper, Rush, Sleight of Hand, Will of Ionia

Total Recall

Added: Recall

Removed: Zephyr Sage

Wild Pick Bonus Chance increased to High (from Medium)

Vault cap + bot account bans

While we’re always working to protect players from botting and similar activity, we generally won’t share specifics. However, this patch we’re making a minor change to the Vault as part of these efforts, and would like to provide some context.

Recently, we saw a spike in botting attempts associated with the infinite bonus capsules offered past level 13 of the Vault. As part of our ongoing efforts to combat this kind of activity, we’re capping bonus capsules at 25—still functionally infinite for humans without offering the same level of botting incentive. We’ve also issued an associated wave of account bans (Riot account-wide), and are adding automated elements with this patch. As always, thank you for your reports on suspicious account behavior

Vault bonus capsules now capped at 25.

Miscellaneous

Teemo level-up effects polished.

Players will no longer always act first in Play vs AI matches.

Added some under-the-hood safety measures so players can creatively format decknames without potentially causing crashes.

Bugfixes

Fixed an issue where Arena Battlecaster would sometimes become invisible when attacking.

Fixed an issue where Vi would sometimes not have appropriate buffs when copied by Dusk and Dawn.

Fixed an issue where a cardback could become stuck over the center of the board and block player actions.

Fixed an issue where Stand Alone wasn’t displaying a gold highlight when its requirement was met.

Fixed an issue where players would sometimes be unable to target certain units or interact with specific game elements.

Fixed an issue where the Play options on Petty Officer would sometimes display rarity gems.

Fixed an issue where Boosted XP rewards would display incorrectly when completing multiple quests and earning a daily PVP bonus after a single match.

On iOS, fixed an issue with excessive iCloud usage.

Fixed an issue where Expeditions pick options could sometimes go missing.

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