Frequently Asked Questions About the Upcoming Leveling and Rewards Changes

RiotRiot Cactopus·Sep 12, 2017·1 votes·186,063 views

Hi friends. In the wake of our big announcement about changes to IP, rewards, and leveling, we've seen lots of questions popping up in the community. These are big, complicated changes, so we figured we'd walk through some of the most common questions we've seen and give y'all clear answers.

Let's jump in!

#Are players who level from 1 to 30 in the new system going to get exclusive stuff that I'm missing out on?

Nope. New players going from 1–30 won't get ANY exclusive content. That said, we will use the new leveling system do a little more handholding for new players. Instead of dumping random champion shards on them, they'll get accessible champs like Garen and Ashe. We're thinking of letting noobs unlock a couple of random (but not exclusive) cosmetic things like ward skins as they level up, but that stuff will be available to everyone who levels up past level 30 as well.

#What about the 30 capsules new players get when leveling from 1 to 30? Aren't we missing out on those?

No, because it will still take new players a long time to climb to level 30 and get the 30 capsules along the way. If you spend that time instead on your level 30 account, you'll get a bunch of capsules as well and you'll be well on your way toward unlocking one of the exclusive cosmetic rewards at the milestone levels.

Also, remember that the new leveling system will be a replacement for the IP you get after games now. You already got rewarded for all the games you played when you leveled from 1–30, but it was just in the form of IP. So new players aren't going to get anything you didn't already get for playing the game.

#What exactly will I get for leveling up past level 30?

Beyond level 30, you'll almost exclusively get unlocked chests with champion shards inside whenever leveling up. The only real exceptions to this will be on certain "milestone" levels like 50, 75, 100, etc. When these levels are reached, you'll get exclusive rewards that you can use to show off your status in-game. One of these rewards is a special emote which you can evolve using blue essence.

#Will leveling in the new system get slower the higher you climb?

Yes, but it won't ever get much slower than it is now. The leveling curve will get slightly harder and slower as you go, but it stops getting tougher once you reach level 150. Basically, the climb from levels 151 to 175 will take exactly as long as the climb from levels 176 through 200. Even at this highest, toughest level (like the jump from level 199 to 200), the average number of games you'll have to play between levels will be somewhere between 15 and 25 games. It varies depending on how many games you've won with the First Win of the Day (which will soon give bonus XP) active.

One nuance to understand with this is that the difficulty won't increase in a straight line. Leveling will get a little bit tougher as you approach each milestone level (every 25 levels) and then it'll speed up again until you get closer to the next one.

#When you introduce uncapped leveling, why we don't start current players past level 30?

The new, uncapped leveling system is primarily aimed at giving you more goals to shoot for (and rewards for hitting them). With that in mind, we didn't think it made sense to start so many of you at a very high level. That would take the goals away from the very people this system is intended to support.

That said, we've been paying attention to your feedback on this point. A lot of you have pointed out that folks who've been playing since the earliest seasons don't have a good way to express that—that seems to be a big part of the reason that some of you are asking for a head start in the leveling system. So we're looking into work on the profile page that'll let you show other players when you started playing League (including all your previous ranked badges). We're hoping to ship that by the end of this year or the beginning of early next year.

We're also planning to give out exclusive emotes based on how many hours you've put into since the beginning of League. Playing 500 hours gets you the Defender of the League emote, 1,500 hours gets you the Champion of the League emote, and 2,500 hours gets you the ultra-rare Conqueror of the League emote.

#What else are you doing for players who'll have tons of BE with nothing to spend it on?

The biggest thing is the special blue essence store, which is specifically designed to give those of you who've already unlocked all the champs (and stored up big piles of IP) tons of cool exclusive content to buy. The highest priced items in the store—gemstones and URFWick—are meant for folks who've been around earning IP for many seasons. For the first go-round this preseason the store will include:

1,500 BE - Mystery icon box (guaranteed to be an icon you don't already own)
2,000 BE - Chromas (includes all chromas that have been available for at least six months)

https://news-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/misc/forums/2017/Maokai_Meowkai_chromas.jpg

2,500 BE - “Mystery Mini” Icons Box (exclusive to the special BE store)

https://news-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/misc/forums/2017/MysteryMinis.jpg

3,950 BE - Mystery Champions (guaranteed to be a champion you don't already own)

https://news-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/misc/forums/2017/MysteryChamp-2.jpg

4,900 BE - Mystery ward skin box (guaranteed to be a ward skin you don't already own)
6,000 BE - Rune ward skin (exclusive to the special BE store)
50,000 BE - "Make it Rain" emote (exclusive to the special BE store)
50,000 BE and up - Gemstones (First one costs 50,000, second costs 75,000, third costs 100,000. Limited to three per account during the special BE store sale)
150,000 BE - URFWick skin (now exclusive to the special BE store)

https://news-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/misc/forums/2017/Urfwick.jpg

#Will the special BE store ever come back?

Right now we're thinking we'll bring back the special blue essence store at least once a year. We're not sure what it will include when it returns, but when we bring it back we'll be sure to include the unique stuff like the rune ward skins and the "make it rain" emote.

#Is the URFWick in the special BE store different than the original URFWick?

The URFWick skin we release with the blue essence store will be a 2017 edition, similar to what we did with Championship Riven. Original owners of URFwick will automatically receive a special limited edition upgrade of the original skin, a loading screen border, AND the new URFwick.

#Will we receive blue essence after every game?

No, the new rewards system is all designed around champion shards (which can be turned into blue essence) dropping whenever you level up.

#Mystery Hextech coins are going away. Why?

Mystery hextech coins were added so you'd have a path to upgrade your mastery tokens with IP. Since IP and BE will soon be combined, they've become less necessary. Plus, if you were really into the random champion shards, you’ll be getting those a lot more frequently anyway from the leveling capsules.

#I noticed that champ shard re-rolling is going away. What about skin shard re-rolling?

You'll still be able to re-roll skin shards just like before!

#Should I do anything with my existing champ shards?

It really just depends on what you want to do. If you want a bunch of extra BE, you should probably disenchant them now since they'll give out relatively less blue essence after preseason hits. That said, you're free to hang onto them if you think you might want to use one of the shards to unlock a particular champion.

#Will upgrading to Champion Mastery 6 & 7 still cost the same amount of Blue Essence?

The cost will be scaled up in the same amount as your IP to Blue Essence conversion, so it will "cost" the same in the new system, but the numbers will be higher across the board.

#I hate RNG stuff. What if I get a cheap, useless champion shard when I level up?

You can actually get multiple champion shards whenever you level up. If you get a low priced champion shard like Ashe, it will come with other shards to bring up the total value of the capsule. The capsules are balanced like this so that everyone will get close to the same value from hitting any given level, so luck won't make a difference to how quickly you can unlock champions.

#What is Riot doing for people who had special legacy runes?

We'll introduce an exclusive ward skin (shown below) for anyone who owned any special legacy runes OR who spent at least 125,000 IP on runes before the September 1, 2017 cutoff date. We'll also give rare rune owners a special commemorative icon.

https://news-a.akamaihd.net/public/images/misc/forums/2017/runeward4.jpg

#We're giving partial refund to players for buying runes in the past, but it's not a FULL refund for all runes purchased since the beginning. Why?

Our business model is to use the money we get from selling optional content to improve the game, esports, our servers, and everything else. Making new runes free for everyone, giving players thousands of BE, and keeping champion earn rates about the same as today means significantly less RP spent on champions, rune pages, and the cosmetics in the blue essence store. It’s a big investment that’s only possible because of your support over the years.

We understand that it can feel bad to have something you paid for suddenly become free for other people, and that's why we're giving folks who spent on runes back in the day the blue essence amounts we announced in Riot Pls. But we also have to focus on using our resources to reinvest in the game. We think that giving a little something back (rather than a full refund) strikes the right balance for players today and in the future.

345 Comments

MysterQSep 12, 201722 votes

25 GAMES to level up?!? And that is the only way to get BE to buy a new champion?!? And only if you actually disenchant.

I am OCPD, this forced disenchanting thing sucks for me. Just letting it out there.

LostFr0stSep 12, 201715 votes

25 games isn't that long.

25 is also the higher end of the spectrum (15 is the low end listed) and it's probably way less with just WotD.

MysterQSep 12, 201714 votes

25 is long, especially for a guy who may only play 1 a day. Granted even now it may take like a month to get a champ.... but now it will take a month (ok half a month) to get a champ shard.... that AT MOST will be 1260be..... yea that is not going to be buying any champs any time soon.

Again, we will have to play it to see. But now I have to level up AND disenchant to buy champs. And if I don't level I never get anything.

RiotRiot MortdogSep 13, 201736 votes

{quoted}

25 games isn't that long.

25 is also the higher end of the spectrum (15 is the low end listed) and it's probably way less with just WotD.

25 games is not actually how it will play out for most players:

An average game will give you approximately 200xp.
Win of the Day will give you around 575xp.
The lowest amount of XP to level (from 30-31) is 2500xp.
The highest amount of XP to level (from 174-175) is 4600xp.

Because of this, if you play 2 games a night, and win 1, it will actually only take 10 games to level even at the hardest part of the curve.

LostFr0stSep 13, 201714 votes

Thank you for this concise and accurate rundown. Everyone here appreciates it :)

RiotBuboBuboSep 13, 201720 votes

We appreciate you =)

ThatHaleStateSep 12, 201717 votes

Will we receive blue essence after every game?

No, the new rewards system is all designed around champion shards (which can be turned into blue essence) dropping whenever you level up.

Wait, what? We won't be receiving anything for each game we play? Only exp towards our next level? I forsee issues with this

MysterQSep 12, 20178 votes

I hate this, but I haven't tried it yet.

BUT you might level up in 15 games.... and get a 6300ip champ shard.... which disenchants into 1260BE.... so 5 more capsules and maybe you too can afford a new champion (15x5 = 75 games WHAT).

RiotBuboBuboSep 12, 201715 votes

The overall champion earn rate should be the similar to today or better for most players. The dev blog has a bit more info clarifying this.

KoboldSep 13, 20175 votes

Can't wait to see the "I got a Bottom tier champion shard 12 levels in a row AMA" on reddit about this cause thats what 2000 BE max?

NewerthianSep 13, 20179 votes

Please please please reconsider BE earning. Award a little BE, maybe just for the FWotD.

Otherwise unlocking champs is going to become a real chore.

LYRKLSep 12, 201712 votes

Will we receive blue essence after every game?

No, the new rewards system is all designed around champion shards (which can be turned into blue essence) dropping whenever you level up.

You see this is where i see a problem, putting your currency on an RNG system is an atrocious idea. We don't know the numbers right now, but seeing that if you happen to get a 500BE champion you'll probably just end up getting a second 500BE or 1350BE (if lucky) champion if the champion shards are going to stay at the same chance low-high ratio. Which if you for example disenchant two 500BE champions you will probably only get around 400BE for 15 or so games which is nowhere near "comparable" to how much we get right now including the 150ip daily win bonus and around 80 or so ip per win.

500ip champions are the MOST LIKELY to get, i myself feel like if i ever get a champ card its only 500ip or 1350ip champs. So this is the most likely scenario, besides the system throws random champs at you that you probably don't like or already own out of the 137 champions in the game right now.

I absolutely don't want the currency to be based on RNG, i want to know how many games approximately i have to win to get this one champ I'm willing to save up for, not play for xp and 15 or so games later hope I'm not unlucky and this hasn't been a waste of 8 or more hours for nothing but 400be for 15games.

This is all speculations but i just hope this system isn't as terrible and RNG based it seems to be, wanted to spread my concerns.

RiotBuboBuboSep 13, 20178 votes

Heyo - I think we tried to mitigate this. Please take another look and let me know if you still have concerns. Apologies if you've already covered it and I misread it =/

I hate RNG stuff. What if I get a cheap, useless champion shard when I level up? You can actually get multiple champion shards whenever you level up. If you get a low priced champion shard like Ashe, it will come with other shards to bring up the total value of the capsule. The capsules are balanced like this so that everyone will get close to the same value from hitting any given level, so luck won't make a difference to how quickly you can unlock champions.

CadyaSep 13, 20176 votes

Bubo its not about the "total value" of a capsule... hes worried about not beeing able to work towards a specific champion in a reasonable amount of time because of the randomness of shards and the low amounts of BE you are able to get just from playing.. sure you can bank a ton at the beginning.. but after that ? lets say i wanna target a special champion that i liked in the rotation.. lets say it costs 6300 in the current pricing.. how long will it take if i dont get lucky af and get a shard on my next level up ? you have no "i can play 15 games and farm that currency and i will have that exact champion to 100%" if those changes go live

Fisherman FizzSep 13, 201711 votes

When you introduce uncapped leveling, why we don't start current players past level 30? The new, uncapped leveling system is primarily aimed at giving you more goals to shoot for (and rewards for hitting them). With that in mind, we didn't think it made sense to start so many of you at a very high level. That would take the goals away from the very people this system is intended to support.

That said, we've been paying attention to your feedback on this point. A lot of you have pointed out that folks who've been playing since the earliest seasons don't have a good way to express that—that seems to be a big part of the reason that some of you are asking for a head start in the leveling system. So we're looking into work on the profile page that'll let you show other players when you started playing League (including all your previous ranked badges). We're hoping to ship that by the end of this year or the beginning of early next year.

We're also planning to give out exclusive emotes based on how many hours you've put into since the beginning of League. Playing 500 hours gets you the Defender of the League emote, 1,500 hours gets you the Champion of the League emote, and 2,500 hours gets you the ultra-rare Conqueror of the League emote.

Personally I don't care about any of these things and just want my level to actually accurately represent how long I've played.

When Champion Mastery first came out, it felt pretty bad that none of my 1000+ games on some champs mattered and I started at 0 anyway. This is the same thing just with level instead of mastery points.

In literally every other game that has uncapped leveling like this, you can look at someone's level and get an idea of how long they've played. By not applying the exp retroactively, this will be the only game I have ever seen where the level someone is literally means nothing because as many as 7 years worth of games are just going to be ignored. So what even is the point then?

Putting a season 1 badge on my profile or giving me an emote doesn't accurately tell people how long I've played. Having my level actually be accurate does. No amount of workaround solutions will change the fact that my level will forever be straight up completely inaccurate no matter how many games I play.

PrinceBedazzledSep 12, 201710 votes

So, im super glad I have all my champions already. Because from the sounds of it good luck with that guys... Seems pretty tilted in riots favor unless you get a lucky drop. :/ Im glad to see this changing, but 25 games for a shard that may or may not give all that much ip.. Seems wrong.

Monstrous YiSep 12, 20177 votes

[deleted]

RiotRiot CactopusSep 13, 201710 votes

If you spent on rune pages that counts as well. (I know you did cuz we talked on reddit)

Monstrous YiSep 12, 20176 votes

[deleted]

WILDCASABLANCASep 12, 20174 votes

[{quoted}](name=Monstrous Yi,realm=EUW,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=c7He9MWq,comment-id=000f,timestamp=2017-09-12T23:09:48.246+0000)

I just calculated the runes that i bought years ago and i spent 108240 IP on them before September 1, 2017. The rewards requires at least 125,000 IP, that's 16760 IP more than i spent. I feel absolutely shit right now, i have over 100k ip and 42k BE, bought all the rune pages with RP too beside that i wont even get a mystery skins for my rune pages because i already own every skin. I get nothing from this, how is that even fair?

Can we get a confirm on whether RP pages count for the total IP?

Because they should in my opinion, we spent just as much effort, if not more, to get to the top of the Rune system.

And I would much rather have this ward skin than some stupid epic skin shards.

RiotBuboBuboSep 13, 20173 votes

RP pages count as 6300 per page

GarrotteSep 12, 20175 votes

Odd there is nothing in between 50k and 150k price points.

StexeSep 13, 20175 votes

Ugh... while some of these changes are better, they are still definitely under what people had anticipated. The less than 20% refund and lack of Blue Essence per game is a huge shame.

This looks like it also means new Champion unlocks will be much slower than before.

And why are so many things clumped together? Limited Edition Runes were of many different varieties. The holiday ones were fairly common compared to the special event ones (Razer / Rumble). Why not a different thing for each?

And bringing back Urf WW? Fine, but can't we also get some RP for it returning as well? That's what the original post said when it mentioned LE skins coming back.

Is there any way to check our hours in-game? I'm really hoping I'm not on some border.

DaniGrimSep 13, 20175 votes

Question regarding hours played - I've been playing since season 1 (have the summoner Icon to prove it :) ), and just recently moved my account to NA (less than a year ago), after I moved to the US. If I go to a website like WastedOnLoL, I see that I have 65 hours played. This is probably the time I've spent on the NA servers. Will you be able to account for players that have moved their accounts across regions?

NotSoEvilDeadSep 13, 20175 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Cactopus,realm=NA,application-id=A7LBtoKc,discussion-id=c7He9MWq,comment-id=,timestamp=2017-09-12T22:06:30.363+0000)

#Will we receive blue essence after every game?

No, the new rewards system is all designed around champion shards (which can be turned into blue essence) dropping whenever you level up.

Awful

Lemon the FoolOct 29, 20173 votes

Have to be with u on this one, it would really feel less rewarding to do this... at least 100BE per FWotD would be nice

gertriKSep 12, 20174 votes

#What is Riot doing for people who had special legacy runes?

We'll introduce an exclusive ward skin (shown below) for anyone who owned any special legacy runes OR who spent at least 125,000 IP on runes before the September 1, 2017 cutoff date. We'll also give rare rune owners a special commemorative icon.

125,000 just in runes or with rune pages aswell? Because if it's 125,000 just for runes bought, it will be really unfair... I spent like 110k in runes, and I already have a ton of them, way more than most of my friends, and I still wont be eligible for that ward? It feels really bad :s

RiotRiot CactopusSep 12, 20176 votes

I posted this on Reddit too but just so people know: When we calculate your total for this we'll count the rune pages you bought for RP as if you spent 6300 IP each on them. So you deffo made the cut.

He4rtkillerSep 13, 20174 votes

I noticed that champ shard re-rolling is going away. What about skin shard re-rolling?

You'll still be able to re-roll skin shards just like before!

Couple of questions most people are probably wondering about:

Skin and ward shards will be worth less orange essence but we will get a possibility of multiple loot drops from a single chest.** Will we still be able to unlock skins from loot at the same rate as right now?**
After the update, will we lose any orange essence that we have right now?
What about bonus orange essence that we get when we get an icon from a loot chest, will that change somehow?

Mysticman89Sep 12, 20173 votes

Profile account age is only at the season level of precision correct, or will we get more exact dates?

Will former season ranked badges being displayed be mandatory to display, or can players opt out? Some players may not want to have their bronze days haunt their profile for example.

Is there any good way for people to figure out:

Their total hours played?

Their IP spent on runes prior to Sept 1st?

The latter seems very tedious to work out if you're someone who bought some runes after sept 1st as well as before, and I don't know any way to figure out the former.

ÁrYaNSep 12, 20171 votes

[deleted]

RiotBuboBuboSep 12, 20175 votes

This website gave me a really inaccurate number for my personal account. I don't play very many normals so I don't think that would explain it for me.

PinneappleSep 13, 20171 votes

{quoted}

This website gave me a really inaccurate number for my personal account. I don't play very many normals so I don't think that would explain it for me.

This is my exact issue with these sites. So my only question, are we going to get an official way to view our hours?

RiotBuboBuboSep 13, 20173 votes

No official way on this one. We thought it would be valuable but not as much as what we'd have to cut to make it happen within the timeline =/ Sorry man

PinneappleSep 13, 20174 votes

{quoted}

No official way on this one. We thought it would be valuable but not as much as what we'd have to cut to make it happen within the timeline =/ Sorry man

Not going to lie, that's super saddening. Is it at least in the pipeline, and planned for the future?

ScuttleSep 13, 20171 votes

If we ticket support can they tell us?

RiotBuboBuboSep 13, 20173 votes

Not at the moment. This would compete with more urgent / actionable player needs. This is one of pieces we had to cut and just won't be optimal as a result =/ Sorry about this