A blood moon is rising.

Riot·Feb 8, 2017·10 votes·207,285 views

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BLOOD IN THE HEAVENS. BLOOD ON THE EARTH.

To the Cult of the Blood Moon, the sign is clear. The heavens call for brutal sacrifice, and the cultists will take the night to slaughter anyone foolish enough to be caught beneath the looming orb.

GAME MODE: THE HUNT OF THE BLOOD MOON

Available from 2/10/17 - 2/14/17 and 2/17/17 - 2/21/17

Slayers stalk the night, hunting demons, spirits, and each other to appease the blood moon in this murderous 5-on-5 mode.

ITEMS & CHAMPS

The blood moon's curse has removed all defensive items from the shop, and only 20 of the most vicious champions are available for the Hunt (10 of which will be lurking in the free champ rotation).

DEMONS & SPIRITS

Demons and Spirits rule the night. The Demon Herald takes the places of the Rift Herald and the Dragon, and Spirits wander the ominous Rift. Performing a killing spree (counting champions or spirits) grants you the Demon Brand, turning you invisible to hunt down your enemies.

OBJECTIVES & WINNING

Each team earns points by killing the Demon Herald, roaming Spirits, and other players. The first team to 350 points wins the game.

Happy hunting.

SKINS

The Blood Calligrapher’s masterpieces are as beautiful as they are horrific. For him, each victim represents a new inkwell, and his canvas will be as broad as that ink will allow. The sanguine marks on the ground signify the Cult’s power and deepen the artist’s connection to the spirit world.

BLOOD MOON JHIN

1350 RP

The moon shines most vividly as the Blood Priestess approaches. Scarlet rays from the night sky beam down on her victims, and the lunar assassin is never far behind. Her ritual slaughter is done swiftly, her arcing blade glinting in the dark moonlight.

BLOOD MOON DIANA

1350 RP

Few agree on the true nature of the Trickster Demon, who deals death from his deck of afflictions. Whether he is a demon from the spirit world or a mortal in a mask, quiet whispers spread conflicting rumors of his whereabouts. The truth belongs only to him—and the spirits trapped in his cards.

BLOOD MOON TWISTED FATE

1350 RP

As precise as he is patient, the Blade Demon is thought to be the result of a broken symmetry between the blood moon and the earth, sent down from the deathly sky itself to collect its due. Silhouetted against the crimson moon, he descends on his victims from the canopy above.

BLOOD MOON TALON

1350 RP

ICONS & WARDS

BLOOD MOON
JHIN ICON

250 RP

BLOOD MOON DIANA ICON

250 RP

BLOOD MOON TWISTED FATE ICON

250 RP

BLOOD MOON TALON ICON

250 RP

BLOOD MOON RISING ICON

250 RP | 1500 IP

(AVAILABLE FOR IP FROM 2/9 11:00 PT - 2/13 23:59 PT)

BLOOD DEMON WARD

640 RP

BLOOD MOON RISING SET

6402 RP
8891 RP with Champions (25% off Jhin, Diana, Twisted Fate, and Talon)
Available from 2/9/17 - 2/13/17

BLOOD MOON JHIN

BLOOD MOON DIANA

BLOOD MOON TWISTED FATE

BLOOD MOON TALON

BLOOD MOON
JHIN ICON

BLOOD MOON DIANA ICON

BLOOD MOON TWISTED FATE ICON

BLOOD MOON TALON ICON

BLOOD MOON RISING ICON

BLOOD DEMON WARD

CRIMSON CRESCENT SET

5299 RP (30% off)
10158 RP with Champions
Available from 2/9/17 - 2/13/17

BLOOD MOON AKALI

BLOOD MOON ELISE

BLOOD MOON KALISTA

BLOOD MOON KENNEN

BLOOD MOON SHEN

BLOOD MOON THRESH

BLOOD MOON YASUO

BLOOD MOON ZILEAN

211 Comments

OhmeiFeb 9, 201717 votes

Blood Moon Akali splash looks so out of place.

Colorful DreamFeb 10, 20178 votes

That's because hers is the one that isn't representative of the demons. At least in the original Blood Moon lore. But that lore might be gone now, looking at what they wrote for these 4 new skins.

Wiksolop72Feb 12, 20179 votes

Actually, I believe you are correct and the old lore still stands.

For those who don't know, Akali & Shen put on a performance during a previous Blood Moon festival with Akali playing the role of the heroine and Shen as the monster chasing her. As the story goes, she would always run from the monster, but it would always give chase. This went on and on until she finally summoned the courage to face the monster head-on. But when she turned to face her foe...it was gone, never to be seen again.

Blood Moon Akali seems so out of place because she is the hero in this story, but all the others are basically visual representations of Ionian horror stories.

SyphurFeb 9, 201712 votes

I love seeing all the hate and negativity when something new is released. "Why didn't this champ get the skin", "why is this champ in the game mode but not this one?", "rito sucks". The new skins look great, I like the game mode, and rito, you're pretty alright in my books.

BexarGryllsFeb 9, 20179 votes

So.. blood moon skin for zil, thresh, and others.... BUT, they can't play in the game mode?

ParallelityFeb 9, 20178 votes

Assassins only... that being said its kinda stupid that we arent allowed to use 2 of the new skins. heck jhin is even an assassin secondary, atleast he should be playable.

RiotRiot DefaultcharFeb 9, 201726 votes

Yeah, that was definitely something we were sad about as well; This is the first time we've experimented with a limited pool, so we'll be keeping an eye on all feedback (Including how sad people are/ aren't about being unable to use the new skins :) ) going forward.

For this particular mode we definitely tried to push the theme as well as we could; Kennen and Elise both came from being thematically appropriate as well as rounding out the pool a bit. That said, our first priority is getting the gameplay as good as we can, and Jhin and Zilean were warping enough (...and generally poor enough of a "Playing As" experience in this mode) that we decided to keep them out of the pool.

If you want more details on what I mean by Warping: Marksman in general (Very much including Jhin) lean pretty heavily on "Normal" teamfight structure to have interesting play: they want a tank line to protect them from... well, basically every champion in this mode, hahah. Without those lines for combat, or a normal laning phase to do laning things, they don't really have room to do the things they're best at. Beyond that, they rely pretty heavily on clumping to not die (Stay near allies for protection/ scouting), which we wanted to avoid in this mode as much as possible.

With Zilean, basically we just wanted to minimize Hard CC as much as possible, and the rest of his kit is about empowering, which led to the clumping I mentioned above. Double Bomb from stealth felt super degenerate and was incredibly hard to hit outside of that, we didn't really want him escorting other people and, at least for this iteration, were trying to keep AoE CC to a low (Ekko is the one real exception here, and his is less core to his pattern).

HellioningFeb 9, 20175 votes

I don't like how often featured game modes tend to encourage assassins. Ascension is basically made for assassins to do their thing, they're fairly common in hexakill, and they're pretty annoying in URF (though, who isn't?)

This might just be the first game mode I skip out on because I just don't like playing any of the champions involved.

The Great AxelFeb 11, 20175 votes

Ascension isn't made for assassins, it's made for bruisers/brawlers: darius, olaf, riven, wukong. People who have survivability and can make use of the ascension buff.

Champion SkinFeb 9, 20173 votes

You could probably allow more or less all champions that doesn't have lots of CC or defensive utility (shields, revive or other such protection) Since even tanks aren't actually all that tanky if they build all damage and no defensive items

Thunderbird330Feb 10, 20173 votes

Actually, y'all might still have to work on the grouping problem a bit. Almost every game I played today, people were grouping up to just annihilate anyone who got in their path, which works but seems to be besides the point.

Also, for any non-Rioters playing the gamemode (and I guess any Rioters who play too), I generally find Kennen a little too slow and Yasuo a little too immobile for this mode. I'm not gonna tell you my personal favorites, but be careful. :P

GenJadnMaxFeb 15, 20173 votes

Agreed. Staying with the group, at least until you got feed a little bit, was the only way to get ahead in this game mode. Perhaps if vision was more limited, the lone assassin aspect could be more realized. As it was, any time the other team realized you were on your own, they would converge on your position. With your hp getting shredded so fast, it was usually better to stay with your group.

H4N S0L0Feb 10, 20178 votes

I think that the limited pool idea would help you guys push a narrative ark a little better for instance, if you had butcher bay with only the people from bildgewater, or the targonians when you were working that story, it would be more grounded. like back in the day when you guys did the noxis vs ionia games. It might even be a way for us the community to be part of the story, you have all these statistic trackers, it would be nice if you included some of actual gameplay into the lore of league. An example I could make here is something like having a limited champion pool for a piltover zaun game, and you do a look at how many times xchampion was killed by xchampion, then the team releases a narrative about them becoming bitter enemies and rivals because of those events.

rtbf209480835Feb 11, 201713 votes

how cool would it be to have a game type where you voted for your team's faction and then had to play characters from there?

AeszarckFeb 9, 20178 votes

Super cool webpage, videos, Summoner Icons, Ward Skin, and Skins. Great job Riot. I think the mode looks awesome too.

RiotNuslifulFeb 9, 20176 votes

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

AeszarckFeb 9, 20175 votes

[{quoted}](name=Riot Nusliful,realm=NA,application-id=Ag8jgd8Q,discussion-id=OARufjKB,comment-id=00070000,timestamp=2017-02-09T19:41:04.400+0000)

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Hi! You should contact a Boards mod so you can get your name red! EDIT: There you go! :)

RiotNuslifulFeb 9, 20175 votes

Fixed! :)

lightdragoon88Feb 9, 20176 votes

Why is Blood Moon Jhin icon cost more than the others?

SpaceNinjaFunkFeb 9, 20176 votes

The In-game store shows the Jhin icon at 250 RP, so it's just a mistake I'm sure they'll fix soon

RiotBilbyFeb 9, 201797 votes

The icon's cost was briefly cursed by the blood moon

5000000000000000Feb 9, 201711 votes

How did you dispel the curse?

EvilMerodachFeb 10, 201718 votes

They convinced Jhin to make it affordable.

...I'll leave now.

allblacksFeb 9, 20175 votes

I suck with Diana but I need that skin.

Why is the Blood Moon Jhin icon so much more expensive?

CressaliaFeb 9, 20179 votes

Just an error on this page, it's 250rp in the shop.

OkarimaFeb 9, 20174 votes

It isn't actually that expensive, I just checked the store and it's also 250 RP.

TraveelFeb 9, 20175 votes

[deleted]

AeszarckFeb 9, 201714 votes

Wrong topic for this discussion!

SexccubusFeb 10, 20175 votes

Tried the mode and it plays kind of weird. It's similar to Ascension, with the addition of wards.

Pros: something different, different feel, music, etc. Cons: limited champ roster, limited team engagement

What I'm experiencing from this mode is a lot of people just running around doing their own thing, or hiding in the bushes waiting to ambush. Even when people are not hiding and you randomly run into them (bc there are so many walls and bushes on the rift), that either you kill them or they kill you in a millisecond. There's not much back and forth, engaging/disengaging, making plays.

In Ascension, at least you and your teammates can compete for the relics or team fight for ascension. With this mode, not seeing much of anyone competing for anything. Just mainly buying wards and running into people randomly. The limited roster also deflates this mode. Yes, it's assassin-theme, but that cuts out a good amount of players who like to play other styles (range, tanks, melee, etc).

Having a limited roster makes game play repetitious and boring (similar to what happened with Nemesis Draft). In ND, for the whole weekend, people would pick the same champs over and over. I don't know how many times I had to play Urgot summoner 3 . It's like going to a buffet and being told you can only eat the salad. After a while, you just feel suffocated and ya leave.

Nice idea on this mode, but gonna have to pass until it improves. Hope that helps as constructive feedback.

KillroysKoltFeb 11, 20175 votes

This mode is super fun, I wish it'd become a core mode

midnight oil24Feb 11, 20174 votes

Same here. It's so fun.

KillroysKoltFeb 14, 20173 votes

Riot, make it happen.

ReavelockFeb 9, 20174 votes

Tito? Quinn? Xerath? Riven? Jhin? Nidalee??? Why is Kennen here and none of them?

ParallelityFeb 9, 20176 votes

Assassins only... ish. I don't get why riven isnt allowed and elise is, also dont get pantheon. I think kennen was allowed because hes a ninja and has a bloodmoon skin. now that i think about it elise might be allowed because of the bloodmoon skin too.

elon wątrobaFeb 9, 20172 votes

Pantheon can be played as assassin, he has shitload of burst with lethality/ad build.

KairoptraFeb 10, 20172 votes

"Assassins and aggressive divers" in Riot's words.

MaylaFeb 9, 20174 votes

Blood Moon Tf looks like Amon from Legend of Korra.... Like I an't unsee it.

Flamingo TangoFeb 10, 20174 votes

The new game mode is really fun! I hope it sticks around on the rotation as a featured game mode!

One thing: when dead, the "death status" text blocks visibility of the score... it's pretty annoying since when I'm dead I just wanna check where we're at !

I was pretty sad about dominion not even returning as a featured game mode, but this is about as fun as dominion, and it's on the weekday right now so it's great for a quick unwind after work. hooray!

adjothFeb 11, 20174 votes

Since this game mode was assassin only and considering that it's blood moon themed I feel that all assassin now need a blood moon skin. Blood Moon Ahri anyone? [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

ZukoLeJinxFeb 16, 20174 votes

You should really make this like a permanent game mode.

Z3CH19Feb 9, 20173 votes

When Jhin and Talon get new skins but aren't allowed in the game mode.

AeszarckFeb 9, 20176 votes

{quoted}

When Jhin and Talon get new skins but aren't allowed in the game mode.

Talon is allowed! You're right that Jhin isn't.

SilviaShadowFeb 9, 20173 votes

A New Game Mode!!!!!!!!!!! This looks awesome! I love anything that brings some new variety/feel to the game. I'm also super appreciating the icons that can be bought with IP, but what about more earn able icons? Like for getting so many killing sprees in the new game mode? Or winning so many games? I enjoy stuff that shows off my limited skills :P

GrashFeb 11, 20173 votes

Can we create custom games of this game mode? I want to try hide and seek on this gamemode.

ZaitelFeb 12, 20173 votes

Khazix Ah hahahaha!

I'm so in love with this game mode! You guys really created something unique here with only assassins. As I'm sure it's been explained else where, how hard that was and who to add. A less then 12min game each time? I'm having a ball.

MYRTLE SN0WFeb 12, 20173 votes

I love the hunt of the blood moon game mode riot!!! it comes so close to being my favorite game mode please keep this one around

LezbianLizard69Feb 9, 20172 votes

wouldn't the demon brand buff be useless on Evelynn since she's always invisible :/

GAm3CrAzYFeb 9, 20176 votes

demon brand buff is the short term invisibility like teemo, shaco, talon, etc have, eve, rengar and twitch have camoflauge(long term invisibility that only beats non control wards)

KairoptraFeb 10, 20175 votes

It gives you a buff that makes your next damaging spell or AA deal bonus damage and you get more MMS, plus you can get as close as you want without them seeing you.