/dev: Hextech Chests, Getting Champs & More

More details on our latest Dev Update about Hextech Chests, getting champs, and more!

We know that some of you are frustrated—even questioning if Riot is still the company you’ve always known. We aspire to put players first, and when our decisions don’t land the way we intended, it can damage your trust.

Recently, we’ve made a number of changes that didn’t hit the mark for everyone. We’ve been listening to your feedback, and it’s clear that there are areas where we need to adjust.

So today, we want to walk through what’s changing, why we’re making these updates, and how we’re working to ensure League is a game that feels rewarding and worth your time.

This post is intended to be paired with the Dev Update video that also came out today, so we recommend checking that out as well.

So, here’s a quick rundown of the changes we’re making, with more information down below.

TL;DR:

  • 10 Hextech Chests and Keys—8 on the free Pass, 2 additional with Honor

  • Hextech Chests will be replacing the free Battle Pass skin

  • Consolidating all Key Fragments into Keys, rounding up leftover fragments

  • The Blue Essence cost of all champions will be reduced by 50%

  • Delaying Sahn Uzal Mordekaiser Exalted skin while we make improvements

  • Increasing the quality of Battle Pass skins going forward

  • Adding 25 Mythic Essence to the paid Battle Pass to replace one paid pass skin

  • Clash is going back to a monthly cadence

  • Your Shop is coming back in Patch 25.06

  • The Blue Essence Emporium will return in Patch 25.07

Hextech Chests

It’s clear that for many of you, Hextech Chests weren’t just a way to get stuff, they were an important part of making your time in League feel rewarding. We didn’t fully grasp how much this mattered to you, and that led us to make changes that missed the mark.

As a result, Chests are coming back. Starting in patch 25.05, which is the patch next week, you’ll be able to earn up to ten Chests and Keys per Act. 

Eight of them will be spread out throughout the free Pass instead of the Seasonal skin and the Mystery Epic or Lower Skin, because you've told us you'd prefer Chests. To make room in the UI for the Chests you can earn in the Pass, we’ll also be consolidating some rewards like Blue Essence. We won’t be changing the total amount of BE you earn per Pass, just moving it around a little.

We’re bringing Chests back through the Pass instead of through Champ Mastery because we want to ensure they’re more accessible to a range of playstyles. Whether you play modes with random champion selection or free choice, whether you play a wide variety of champions or just a few, we want to support that.

The other two Chests per act will be earnable through Honor. We’re doing it that way because League is better when you’re surrounded by players who make your experience better. Every match is shaped by the players in it, and we believe the best moments come from great competition, teamwork, and respect for each other. So we want to explore ways to reward and recognize those of you who embody this. In the short term those Honor Chests will be delivered through missions while we’re working on the Honor system.

To be clear, Chests from both the Pass and from Honor will be the exact same Chests as the ones you got through Champ Mastery. The drop rates are as follows:

Content Type

% of Openings

Skin Shard

50%

Champion Shard

25%

Emote Permanent

10%

Ward Skin Shard + 

150 Bonus Orange Essence

11.5%

Summoner Icon Permanent + 

150 Bonus Orange Essence

3.5%

Bonus Drops

10 Mythic Essence

3.6%

Bonus Chest + Key

10%

Ultimately the above changes mean that the max number of chests any player can earn in a year going forward is 60 per year

Champion Acquisition

A clear problem for newer players especially is building out your champion roster. For League to continue to thrive long-term, it needs to be more accessible, and lowering champ costs is one way to help achieve that. It’s certainly not the only thing, but we think it’s an important one, and all the recent discussion about Blue Essence and champion shards has really emphasized that it’s something we should change.

So, we’re going to be lowering the Blue Essence cost for all champions by 50% as of patch 25.05.

Skins

We’re going to be delaying Exalted Mordekaiser to take more time to make sure it better delivers on its core fantasy. We’re also taking more time to improve all future Exalted skins, so you likely won’t see one in every Act this year as originally planned.

We’ve also heard that the Seasonal skins on the Paid pass aren’t hitting the mark, so we’ll be making improvements to them moving forward.

For Seasonal pass skins we’re going to be replacing one of the non Prestige ones with 25 Mythic Essence, given we’ve seen clear feedback that there’s both a lack of Mythic Essence on the paid Pass and that we’ve been doing more champions for each seasonal theme than makes sense.

Outside of this, and replacing the free Pass Seasonal skin with Chests, we’re going to lower the overall number of Season skins, even on the Paid pass. This way we can focus more on fewer skins to level up their quality, and the champions we choose weren’t always making sense.

Going forward, you can expect 3 thematic skins per pass, 2 normal skins and 1 Prestige. For Act 2, our plan is that the skins on the paid battle pass will be Prestige Darius, Sion, and Talon.

One last note on Exalted skins. We’ll be making the promotional placement of Exalted skins less intrusive within the client based on your feedback.

Clash

We mentioned in the last Dev Update we’d be running Clash less often. But after hearing your feedback, we realized what we took away was actually really important to some of you. 

For those who love Clash, it can feel like League at its purest—teams coming together, strategizing, and competing in a tournament-like setting. So, we’ll be returning Clash to a monthly schedule. March’s Clash event will be ARURF, then we’ll run a regular SR Clash in April. 

Let us know on socials what sort of mixture of regular SR, ARAM and other rotating game modes you’d like to see throughout the rest of the year.

Blue Essence Emporium and Your Shop

On a smaller note, we want to reaffirm for those of you who’ve been asking, both Your Shop and the Blue Essence Emporium will be coming back soon for their first runs this year. We’re targeting bringing back Your Shop in 25.06 and the Emporium in Patch 25.07.


Now, as we wrap up, we want to be clear: We know getting League to the right place isn’t about just one set of changes. It’s about continually refining and improving the game in ways that make it better. We think today’s updates are an important step, and we’ll keep tracking how these changes feel, talking with all of you about how things are landing, and making adjustments. 

Thank you for sticking with us and hearing us out, and we look forward to working with you to make sure League is the best game it can be. We’ll see you on the Rift.

Full Act 2 Battle Pass Before and After these Changes

TL;DR:

  • Added 8 Hextech Chests and Keys

  • Free Reward Milestones have been increased from 20 to 24

  • Paid Reward Milestones have been decreased from 30 to 26

  • Grand Reckoning Alistar and Rell have been removed (including their respective emotes and icons) to accommodate Hextech Chests

  • Removed Mystery Epic or Lower Skin

  • Added 25 Mythic Essence (paid Pass only)

  • Blue and Orange Essence amounts are unchanged

Pass Level

Old Pass

Improved Pass*

1 Free

Welcome to Noxus Icon

2 Paid

Themed Loot

3 Free

Random Icon

Hextech Chest + Key

4 Paid Free

125 Orange Essence

Mystery Emote

5 Paid

1 Ancient Spark

6 Free

1000 Blue Essence

2000 Blue Essence

7 Paid

Themed Loot

8 Paid Free

125 Orange Essence

Mystery Icon

9 Free

Mystery Emote

Mystery Emote

10 Paid

Talon Skin + Champ Permanent

11 Paid

Grand Reckoning Talon Border

12 Free

Champion Capsule

13 Paid

Themed Loot

14  Paid Free

125 Orange Essence

Mystery Icon

15 Free

Alistar Emote

Hextech Chest + Key

16 Free

1500 Blue Essence

3000 Blue Essence

17 Paid

Themed Emote

18 Free

Rell Icon

Mystery Emote

19 Paid

1 Ancient Spark

20 Free

Sion Skin + Champ Permanent

Hextech Chest + Key

21 Paid

Mystery Emote

22 Free

Champion Capsule

23 Free

Mystery Icon

Hextech Chest + Key

24 Paid

Steel Yourself Icon

25 Free

Threat Emote

26 Free

2500 Blue Essence

4000 Blue Essence

27 Paid

Themed Loot

28 Paid

125 Orange Essence

250 Orange Essence

29 Free

Champion Capsule

30 Paid

Alistar Skin + Champ Permanent

25 Mythic Essence

31  Paid Free

Grand Reckoning Alistar Border

Hextech Chest + Key

32 Free

Glorious Champion Capsule

33  Paid Free

Themed Loot

Fighter’s Mettle Icon

34  Free Paid

Fighter’s Mettle Icon

Themed Loot

35 Paid

Mystery Ward Skin

Mystery Icon

36 Free

4000 Blue Essence

Hextech Chest + Key

37 Paid

125 Orange Essence

Mystery Ward Skin

38 Free

Black Rose Initiate Title

39 Paid

125 Orange Essence

350 Orange Essence

40 Paid

Rell Skin + Champ Permanent

Sion Skin + Champ Permanent

41 Paid

Grand Reckoning Rell

Border + Icon

Grand Reckoning Sion

Border + Icon

42 Free

Mystery Emote

Hextech Chest + Key

43 Paid

250 Orange Essence

400 Orange Essence

44 Paid

Themed Loot

45 Free

Mystery Epic or Lower Skin

Hextech Chest + Key

46 Paid

Noxian Fighting Pits Icon

47 Paid

Themed Loot

48 Paid

1 Ancient Spark

49 Paid

Drink It Up Emote

50 Paid

Prestige Darius Skin + Border + Icon

51 Free (Repeating)

750 Blue Essence

52 Free (Repeating)

750 Blue Essence

53 Free (Repeating)

750 Blue Essence

54 Free (Repeating)

750 Blue Essence

55 Paid (Repeating)

25 Orange Essence

*If left blank, indicates no change made