Ever since an achievement system was flirted with back in the day, the League of Legends collective player base has been looking for something resembling a progressive record of their in-game accomplishments. Something to reward frequent players for returning. Something to aim for beyond simply destroying the enemy nexus. This week, that something has come in the form of Hextech Crafting.
This new system allows for the opportunity to craft, unlock, or buy a variety of content in the form of loot chests by doing well in the game. The particular details can be tricky, as to be expected. So here’s a brief rundown:
Chests
- Chests are earned when you or someone in your premade group scores an S-, S, or S+ Mastery rank during the game.
- You cannot earn a chest by gaining an S-, S, or S+ Mastery rank with the same champion twice in a season.
- You will gain one chest a week.
- You can only have 4 chests at any one time.
- Chests can be bought in the store for RP and won’t count against the chest limit.
- At certain times, chest bundles will be put on sale with higher chances at more valuable loot.
Keys
- Keys are required to open chests.
- Winning match made games (even ones that don’t grant mastery points like Twisted Treeline) grants a chance at earning a key fragment.
- Playing match made games in pre-made groups increases the chances of earning a key fragment with a win.
- Three key fragments can be combined to make a key.
- There is no limit to the amount of key fragments you can earn or keys you can hold at a time.
Loot
- Inside normal chests are shards of champions, skins, ward skins, or cosmetic essence.
- All available skins, except the lowest tier RP cost skins (520 RP), chroma packs, and event skins, are available through chests.
- There seems to be no restriction for earning shards related to new champions right after release.
- Every chest has a chance to drop a Rare Gem. 10 Rare Gems can be crafted together to make an exclusive skin: Hextech Annie.
- You can receive skin shards for champions you don’t own.
- You can receive shards for champions/skins you do already own.
Crafting
- Shards can be upgraded with essence to become permanent loot, or can be dismantled into essence to be used elsewhere.
- One shard can be traded for a 7 day trial period with that champ/skin.
- There are two types of essence, Champion Essence and Cosmetic Essence (Blue and Orange). Blue essence can only be used for champions, while orange is for everything else.
- Re-rolling three shards of similar type (champions, skins, ward skins, etc) will result in random permanent loot of that type. It won’t be a copy of anything in your hextech inventory.
Hextech Crafting is still in its early stages, and Riot is working on ways for people who have tons of this content already to enjoy the benefits of the new system. Let us know what you’ve been crafting on Facebook or Twitter.