Released in February, Lab of Legends was Riot Games’ second attempt at creating a unique single-player experience for Legends of Runeterra players to experience the game in a PvE scenario. While the mode has remained largely unchanged for the past few months, Riot did include two newer champions from Empires of the Ascended, increasing the total roster of playable champions to 10.
In addition to more characters, a difficulty selection was added, giving players more chances to make the single-player PvE mode more challenging to their own liking.
If you’re aiming to play Labs solely for quests and just want quick wins, here are the best champions to do so.
10) Taliyah
Riot even admitted that Taliyah is the weakest champion in Lab of Legends. The Stoneweaver needs a ton of specific treasures to have a fighting chance for any semblance of victory.
Landmarks by design have you sacrifice tempo to gain eventual value at a later stage in the game. But right now, Lab of Legends rewards decks that aim to win faster and higher curve strategies don’t mesh well in this single-player mode.
If you’re aiming to win with Taliyah, especially at higher difficulties, you’ll need passive powers that give you a board for free like Lil’ Buddies, Nature’s Revenge, and Out of the Gates. These boons will circumvent the weakness of Taliyah’s starting deck by giving you free stats to use offensively and defensively.
It’s not too uncommon for successful Taliyah runs to focus on using the support champion provided after Spiders, like Zoe, and building your items on them instead of the Stoneweaver herself.
9) Heimerdinger
Similar to Taliyah, Heimerdinger focuses less on aggressive strategies and aims to out-value opponents with his turrets after rapidly casting multiple spells in a row. The slight edge that the Revered Inventor has over Taliyah is that his starter deck is marginally better.
To find success with Heimerdinger, any passive powers that alleviate spellcasting or ramps you faster, like Sorcerery and Manaflow, will allow you to perform powerful turns at a faster rate.
While storing enough spell mana to use on the same turn as Heimerdinger is a valuable strategy, be sure to not sacrifice too much board control early to do this. Otherwise, you’ll be taking a lot more damage than needed.
8) Lulu
Straying away from value game plans, Lulu aims to get on the board quickly to claim her wins, which places her higher than Heimerdinger and Taliyah. But despite playing toward more conventional victory conditions, support as an archetype requires you to already have a board to take full advantage of it.
While this leads to a glaring weakness in the usual constructed format of LoR, Lab of Legends can help fix this due to the fact that passive powers can provide you with a board and items can reduce the cost of units, sometimes making them free if you find enough discounts.
While keeping your mana curve low will help you succeed with Lulu, picking up a few late-game threats in your card buckets will allow you to potentially avoid running out of steam as an aggressive deck.
7) Hecarim
Similar to Lulu, Hecarim also aims to win through overwhelming aggression and swarming the opponent with multiple tokens. Despite this, Hecarim still finds himself at a lower spot on this list due to being the most expensive and most difficult champion to level up compared to the others.
While Hecarim can struggle if you don’t find proper treasures, he does have automatic victory combos if you look out for them. Although it’s rare, if you land a Stark’s Fervor on Shark Chariot and attain a Nature’s Revenge, you’ll gain an infinite number of attacks.
6) Braum
Taking a short break from aggro-based champions, Braum allows you to approach the game at a slower rate thanks to his defensive bulk and poro value generation. Even though a slower playstyle can be effective, you do need to find offensive items for Braum or passive powers that allow you to do something to threaten opponents.
The best way to do this is to either equip Phages or Pickaxes to Braum or obtain the Grit power. If you can’t find either of those items or powers, Evolution and Sorcery are both fair alternatives. Evolution provides Braum with a +2/+2 boost and Sorcery guarantees enough spell mana to play Take Heart the same turn as Braum.
5) Riven
The Reforge mechanic is one that can be difficult to perform in competitive LoR due to how much tempo is needed to be sacrificed to pull out the Blade of the Exile. Thanks to the controlled and more casual environment of Lab of Legends, though, you can find more time and ways to help Riven succeed.
With Sorcery or Wild Inspiration, your Blade Fragments are effectively free (with the latter treasure making them actually cost zero mana). While this combination is fairly powerful, Riven’s deck is weak on the defensive side. If you can’t leverage your health total as a resource or find potent defensive options, you may be in danger when picking the Exile.
4) Miss Fortune
The Bounty Hunter is another solid aggressive champion that doesn’t need many specific powers to find success but will still appreciate any synergistic treasures in between rounds. Since her ability provides natural board control when attacking, finding a Domination (which gives a guaranteed attack each turn) or any defensive passive power that allows you to survive until the next attack will give you an increased chance at victory.
Since you need to be on the aggressive side with Miss Fortune, finding cheap and sticky units to guarantee something to swing into the AI will let you rack up easy wins.
3) Lucian
Lucian can allow for some potent high-roll runs if you manage to draw both Lucian and Senna during the match. While putting multiple items on both of the cards improves those odds by a wider margin, there are several ways to also get Lucian onto the board faster with Out the Gates since he’s two mana, which is the cheapest champion on this list.
Compared to the other decks on this list, Lucian’s initial cards surrounding him aren’t the worst if you get an unlucky series of draws. The deck surrounding both Lucian and Senna can hold you over until you draw your key cards.
2) Aphelios
Despite Aphelios’ constant nerfs since appearing in the first champion expansion release, he’s still a potent force in the Lab of Legends environment. Lifesteal is a premium resource since you can always heal your Nexus back to full after each fight if you choose to do so. In addition, if you find treasure combinations that help with spellcasting, it’s almost like Aphelios never received a balance update.
One reason why Aphelios is potent is because his best treasures are common, allowing you to consistently find powerful runs where you’re constantly in control. With perfect piloting and Moon Weapon management, it’s difficult to lose with Aphelios.
1) Azir
While the top four are essentially interchangeable, the newest champion added to the Lab of Legends roster takes the highest spot. This is because of all the ways he can synergize with the best powers and how he can quickly snowball a game in his favor if you can stack enough items on Azir to consistently draw him. In addition, Azir’s natural five health makes him much more difficult to remove compared to other Lab of Legends champions in the three-mana slot.
While Azir players can claim an automatic win if they manage to snag a Yipp’s Genius, there are also other serviceable powers that allow for more free attacks and summons, like Domination, Nature’s Revenge, and Lil’ Buddies.
Overall, any player looking to win a Legendary run without using many resets can look toward the Emperor of the Sands.
You can try your hand at Lab of Legends now since it’s still in the Multi-Lab rotation alongside Duo Queue and Ultra Rapid Draw.
