League of Legends: Wild Rift — Everything you need to know

League of Legends has been a wildly successful game on PC since it launched in 2010, and now developer Riot Games is taking it to a larger mobile audience. League of Legends: Wild Rift is the mobile version of the PC game, but it's not a straight port. The game has been rebuilt from the ground up for mobile platforms, giving players a well-rounded experience no matter their preferred platform.

"Our overall approach was to create an authentic League experience on new platforms, and we knew we had to make some adjustments to the game, the champs, and the controls to really deliver on that promise to players," Brian Feeney, the design director of Wild Rift, said in an interview.

Wild Rift is also meant to be a way for new players to get in on the ground floor and learn how to play. Riot developers also expect players to also feel at home on Wild Rift, and in our review of the beta, we found that it does a great job with that balance. Here's everything else you need to know about this game, quickly becoming one of our favorite Android games.

What is League of Legends: Wild Rift?

League of Legends: Wild Rift is the long-running PC multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), but now available on mobile. It keeps the core gameplay — you play in a 5v5 match in a multi-lane arena, and the first team to get to the team's other side and destroy the "nexus" wins. Players get to choose from a variety of champions with different playstyles to take on the other team. Everybody starts at level 1 with one ability, but they can earn more skills and buy items as each round progresses.

Along the way, they'll level up and earn the chance to unlock more champions and rewards like cosmetics. Killing minions in the three lanes allows you to gain gold, which you can then use to buy items at homebase.

League of Legends is a game that takes skill and practice to master since players have to learn how each of the champions play, find one that fits their preferred style, and work with other players to strategize. The map even has other objectives you can complete to gain an advantage in battle.

While Wild Rift essentially brings the PC experience to mobile, it's not just a straight port. Riot Games rebuilt the game from the ground up for mobile platforms on an entirely separate engine. That means certain changes had to be made.

Is League of Legends: Wild Rift fun to play?

Like League of Legends on PC, the mobile version of the game has been optimized to be friendly for beginners while ensuring a deep and satisfying progression arc for veterans. In our review, writer Alex Huebner said this about the still-in-beta title:

As long as that welcoming environment persists once the game is out of beta, Wild Rift should be one of the best free Android games out there.

What are the differences between League of Legends and League of Legends: Wild Rift?

PC and mobile are two very different platforms for gaming. Shocking to hear, I know. While it isn't surprising, it does mean that Riot had to think about how they could best bring the game to mobile, and that meant rebuilding it with mobile in mind.

One of the big changes with Wild Rift being a separate version of the game is that there isn't any content parity. This means if you played on PC and wanted to check out the game on mobile, none of your items or progress would move over, even if both are tied to your Riot Games account.

Another smaller but still significant change involves the map. Unlike Summoner's Rift on PC, the Wild Rift map (appropriately called "Wild Rift") is smaller, and each round is shorter (around 15-20 minutes instead of over 45, depending on how close the game is). It still has the three lanes and the Jungle, but the Jungle is more streamlined; there are no specific Jungle items, and the dragons have been tweaked with different buffs. At the end of each round, there's also the chance to defeat an Elder Elemental Drake, which provides some large buffs that PC players are not familiar with. There are also no inhibitors or nexus towers.

Orientation is also different. Instead of moving left to right, you'll move from top to bottom.

There is also a new item for players. Baubles are small items players can throw at their enemies, sort of like an emote or as a way to brag to the opposite team. It's a part of Riot's way to experiment with decreasing toxicity on the platform. Considering how communication is limited on mobile vs. PC, it's also an easy way to drop a brag in-game instead of shouting in-chat. It also allows you to throw something like pizza around the map if that's what you've always wanted.

Finally, some of how champions work has been changed. Passive skills for each champion have been changed for mobile since keeping them attached to buttons on screen would result in crowding on the interface. The developers added active abilities instead. Some point-and-click spells have also been converted into skillshots.

What are the controls like in League of Legends: Wild Rift?

Instead of a mouse and keyboard, players have to use dual-stick touch controls. On the left is the control stick, but it moves with your thumb. On the right is a large attack button, along with each champion's four abilities. Spells cast are shown on the bottom. Movement works similarly to other mobile titles, with players tapping on the screen to direct where they want their champion to go.

To target specific enemies (a huge part of the strategy in League of Legends), you can hit one of the buttons near the attack button. This helps you prioritize certain targets like minions or towers. Otherwise, once you target something, it becomes locked, meaning the game prioritizes it over any others.

There are also camera controls, although they are optional and customizable. You can choose between something like a semi-locked camera or one that automatically pans when you set up long-range shots.

All the controls are customizable to an extent, and this goes for tablets as well as phones. There is even a tablet preset inside the customizable control settings that resize the buttons for larger screens.

While game controllers for Android have become popular over the past couple of years, Riot hopes that players will use the in-game touch controls instead since that's what Wild Rift was built on.

What champions are available?

Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned content parity issue, a lot of the champions you may have unlocked won't be playable in Wild Rift. This is partially due to them being two separate games, but mainly it's because not every champion will be available to play in Wild Rift.

In an interview, Feeney said that the team focused on transitioning some of the tougher champions first, just to see if it could be done, and has done a lot of experimentation on different champions. In the end, though, it's an issue with the sheer number of champions available.

When deciding which ones to move over to Wild Rift, Feeney added that it was less about "raw popularity" and more about how to get as many players as possible from PC to mobile. The team is seeking to have a variety of champion types and playstyles available.

However, new champions will be introduced in patches. For example, in Patch 2.2, the team has added Galio and Rammus and will be adding Kha'zix (May 6), Rengar (May 6), and Renekton (May 12). There are plenty of recognizable champions already available, including Garen and Ashe.

What gameplay modes does League of Legends: Wild Rift have?

During the beta, players can play unranked, ranked (it unlocks at level 10), co-op vs. AI, and a tutorial mode. However, in patch 2.2, players get the chance to play All Random All Mid (ARAM), which is when there is only one lane, and you get a random champion. It'll only be available for a limited time.

Are there special rewards for playing League of Legends: Wild Rift?

Wild Welcome

For those who got into the game from the start, there are special missions in their Wild Welcome with chests for champions, icons, emotes, baubles, and accessories. To qualify for the Wild Welcome, players had to begin by April 26th and have 30 days from the first day to complete the missions.

Kick-Off

Players, both new and veteran, can receive rewards simply by playing a normal co-op vs. AI or ranked game from March 30th to May 31st. What the rewards entail is unspecified.

Rift-to-Rift

As a special thanks to League of Legends veterans, the company created Rift-to-Rift rewards for linking an existing Riot account to Wild Rift. If you've spent money on your League of Legends PC game, Rift-to-Rift is made to give you rewards (such as skins) in an amount dependent on the money you've spent. There are also champions, baubles, icons, and more available depending on how much time you've spent playing the PC version.

What are the minimum specs for League of Legends: Wild Rift?

Android phones

● CPU: 4-core, 1.5 GHz and above (32-Bit and 64-Bit Support) ● RAM: 1.5G ● Resolution: 1280x720

iOS phones

● iPhone 6 Plus

The team is also expecting around 80-100ms ping for players, which should be fine for most Wi-Fi or 4G/5G connections.

Are there microtransactions in League of Legends: Wild Rift?

Just like in PC League of Legends, there are cosmetics and a Wild Pass available in Wild Rift. The battle pass costs around $6. The first season's battle pass reward is Hexplorer Jax.

There are two types of currency: Blue Motes, which can be earned by playing and can be spent on champions, and Poro coins, which are only for a special cosmetic shop. Players can buy skins, unlock champions, and, new for Wild Rift, purchase baubles.

What is Riot Games doing to prevent cheating in League of Legends: Wild Rift?

In their April 2nd announcement on win trading, Riot Games outlined these action items for players who attempt to rig games by ending up on opposing teams to throw the match:

1. Accounts with the highest win trading activity will be permanently banned. 2. Other accounts with evidence of win trading will be banned for 7 days as a warning, with all Season 1 rewards removed. These accounts will also be reset to Iron IV. Any repeat offenders from this list will be permanently banned.

It seems as though this won't be the end of their monitoring, but it was a good starting point that keeps players just having a bad game out of the crossfire.

League of Legends: Wild Rift release date

League of Legends: Wild Rift was originally meant to roll out in 2020, but the pandemic and other issues caused delays. The regional open beta kicked off a few months ago but was unavailable to players in North and South America. The open beta is now available on Android and iOS in the Americas with Patch 2.2A.

Riot Games is also looking into getting Wild Rift on consoles, along with cross-platform and cross-progression features. However, nothing is confirmed yet.

Latest League of Legends: Wild Rift patch

On April 20, Patch 2.2A was released, making a few changes to this Beta stage game. In addition to the usual free player rotation changes that we're used to with League of Legends, there were also new champions, skins, accessories, and events. The new skins are Stargazer-themed to go with the event that was going at the time of the patch release, as well as a few for the newly available champion Rammus.

There were some items that needed small tweaks such as a bug fix on the price display for Glorious Enchant, price for Infinity Orb from 2850g to 3150g, and changes to base damage (now down to 16 to 25) and bonus damage HP ratio (now down to 0.8%) for Sunfire Aegis.

Some of the larger changes include adjustments to the damage output of a few specific champion moves and separate, experimental changes to ARAM damage values to make them more rounded out. The champion selection time for ARAM has also been cut by 15 seconds. Turrets also underwent a big change, receiving an increase in armor and magic resist in the first 4 minutes of the game to help establish a longer laning phase of the game.