It’s almost been a year since League of Legends: Wild Rift’s regional open beta first launched—and a lot has changed since then.
Wild Rift has offered fans plenty of battle passes, events, skins, championships, and more to enjoy throughout that year. And now, the developers are showing fans what they can expect in the near future.
Patch 2.5 is bringing a lot of new stuff to the game, including three champions, changes to the jungle, a whole new Guild system, and more.
Here’s what you need to know about Wild Rift Patch 2.5.
New champions
Veigar, the Tiny Master of Evil
The first new champion is Veigar, coming as a mid laner and support with a lot of crowd control and burst damage. He’ll be available later this month.
Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover
Caitlyn will arrive in November, coming to the dragon lane armed with traps and the power to execute enemies with her ultimate, Ace in the Hole.
Jayce, the Defender of Tomorrow
And for the Baron lane, using the interchangeable weapons Mercury Hammer and Mercury Cannon, Jayce will join Wild Rift in November.
Guilds
The biggest feature of the patch will be the implementation of the Guild system, a new way to play with your friends and earn different kinds of rewards exclusive to Wild Rift. Once you reach level nine, you’ll be able to create a Guild and add your friends as members. To create one, a player will need to pay 400 Poro Coins or 200 Wild Cores.
A Guild is a place of communication for all members to chat with each other and react to all the news around Wild Rift. There will be a management level to the leaders of the guilds “to ensure the environment to be friendly and welcoming”, according to Riot. Once you’re in a Guild, you’ll be rewarded with extra Blue Motes and XP when playing with other Guild members. But the most exciting activity will be competing in Guild-vs-Guild battles.
Guild-vs-Guild will be a weekly event where each Guild needs to collect supplies throughout the period to be victorious. To earn them, you need to complete certain quests that require Guild members to play as a group. As part of the system, some players will have the status of “Armed,” while others will be “Unarmed.” Unarmed players must play alongside an Armed player to obtain supplies and become Armed. The more Armed players in the group, the more rewards the Guild will receive at the end of the event.
Lastly, every Friday, the Guild with the fewest supplies can sabotage their enemies by playing matches with a closed group of five people. Your rivals, in turn, will be able to defend themselves in the same way.
Gameplay updates
Riot Games will bring a second Rift Herald to Wild Rift in Patch 2.5 to draw more attention to the Baron side of the map. The devs want to achieve “an objective to take before Baron, encourage more teamfights that aren’t focused at Dragon, and increase the individual carry power of a player since Herald can be taken solo,” according to game director Alan Moore.
The Rift Herald will deal and take more damage when it headbutts turrets. With these changes, Baron’s initial spawn time will be delayed, but its respawn time will remain unchanged. Non-effect camps will also take longer to respawn. The gold received from them will be increased, though.
Battle pass
A new battle pass is coming later this month with Patch 2.5, including more rewards for the free pass track and the Hexplorer Tristana skin. Riot is also changing how rewards are displayed for a better understanding of the differences between the basic and premium pass.
Matchmaking
Patch 2.5 will improve Wild Rift’s matchmaking system, making it based entirely on the matchmaking rating of players instead of ranks. This change is intended to make matches fairer overall.
Now, players will sometimes see a wider rank gap in their games. When this happens, a new icon will be displayed on the loading screen card of the lower-ranked players to indicate that they’re playing at a skill level above their rank.
New events and skins
Later this month, the Way of the Dragonmancer event will arrive with new skins attached to the theme.
To celebrate Riot’s animated show, Arcane, launching on Nov. 6 on Netflix globally and Tencent Video in China, Wild Rift will get a themed event. More details will be revealed as the event approaches.
Patch 2.5 will also bring skins beyond events over the next few months.
Other changes
ARAM will receive a new Scryer’s Bloom spawning in the Howling Abyss to help players check the bushes.
The share screens are getting a visual upgrade and there will be a new button to start streaming on Twitch.
You can check out some of the new features when the first part of Wild Rift Patch 2.5 arrives on Oct. 13.
