Is League of Legends free to play?

Looking to try out League of Legends and want to know whether it is free to play? Here is what you need to know about Riot Games’ iconic MOBA.

Image Credits | Riot Games

Is League of Legends a free to play game?

To give you a short answer, yes, League of Legends is a free to play game. But while that is a great thing for most players, this is only one of the reasons why we love the game so much.

The main reason is that there are no pay-to-win mechanics. This means that you don’t have to pay any money in order to become good, and spending a lot on the game doesn’t make you any better than a player who doesn’t throw any funds into his account.

I started playing back in 2013 towards the end of season 4. By spending no money and grinding a lot of games with my friends, I ended up unlocking all of my champions by the end of season 6, a few weeks before the start of the new season. Ever since then, I’m always able to get all the new champions since I always have new Blue Essence earned by playing the game.

So why do people spend money on League of Legends?

Even though League of Legends is free to play and it doesn’t make a difference spending money when it comes to becoming strong at the game, there are still positive aspects to doing so.

The first and most important one is the time invested in grinding out all the champions. As I said before, I spent more than 3 years trying to unlock all the LoL characters in the game. And with more than 160 (and growing) different champions and more than 1500 unique skins currently in the game, it takes quite a while to get them all unlocked.

Image Credits | Riot Games

By spending money on your account, you can quickly boost up your unlocking process while also getting access to special accessories and skins to customize the champions. They don’t make you necessarily better, but having unique skins is always more enjoyable than just sitting on the classic skins.

Luckily, Riot devs have been pushing out new ways for non-paying players to get a few skins as well by adding the Hextech Crafting and special shops like the Blue Essence Emporium. The former is available to all, while the BE Emporium only lasts for a determined amount of time during the season. If you’re getting into LoL right now, you are very lucky: the BE Emporium will be available in the upcoming Patch 13.17.

How to make the most out of League of Legends without paying

If you’re short on money or just don’t want to spend that much time grinding out the game, here are some tips on how to make the most out of LoL:

Weekly free champion rotation

For new players, the weekly free champion rotation is a great way for them to try new characters each week without necessarily unlocking the champions. With the number of total champions increasing, the weekly free champion rotation now usually has at least 16 (or more) playable champions. This means that in less than 2 months’ time, you should have the chance to try out all the champions in the game. Remember, however, that the free champion rotation is only available in the Blind Pick and Draft games modes (so not ranked).

Only buy the champions you enjoy the most

This point directly links to the one above. Don’t spend your hard-earned Blue Essence (or RPs) to get the cheapest or the most expensive champions. Learn which ones you enjoy the most by trying them out on the free champion rotation before making a purchase. By doing so, you will make sure you always get to play characters you enjoy or your mains. Once that list is over, slowly unlock the rest.

Check out the missions for extra rewards

Riot devs will usually add daily and special missions, based on events that are published over the course of the season, giving players special rewards like champion shards or orbs that unlock special skins or skin shards. While it won’t speed up the process by a lot, you might get lucky and unlock a skin or a champion you particularly like.

Link your account to Prime Gaming for some RPs

If you have Amazon Prime, you can use that account to log into Prime Gaming and get access to some RPs, as well as many other accessories, by linking your accounts together. RPs are the most precious in-game currency and since Riot gives them out for free with Prime Gaming, it’s a nice way to collect a few of them.

Image Credits | Amazon

Save Orange Essence for your skins

Aside from RPs, Orange Essence is also important to unlock champion or ward skins. It can be collected by disenchanting skin shards, ward skins, or Eternals. Unless you’re not an avid collector and want everything sitting in your Hextech Tool, you can disenchant most of the things you don’t enjoy to increase your Orange Essence and then use it to unlock the skins you want, if you’re lucky enough to get the matching shard.

Only reroll the cheap skin shards

Speaking of skin shards, most of the new aspects released in the game are at least Epic or Legendary tier, which are the third and fourth-highest tiers in the game (the ultimate skin shards are the best).

There might be times, though, when you get cheaper skin shards, ranging from 390 RP (Timeworn skins) to 975 RP (Standard). While there are some cool ones, most of them have aesthetically less pleasing to watch since they are old designs that haven’t been reworked.

The Hextech Tool allows you to unlock a skin by re-rolling three different champion shards, so you can use them and hope to find one you like. My advice is to just use the cheap ones since they are not that valuable (lower disenchant values) and they won’t impact the chances of finding a high-tier skin. I still remember unlocking Spirit Guard Udyr (ultimate skin) by using two 750 RP skins. By saving the more expensive skin shards, you can decide when to disenchant them.

Learn the fundamentals of the game

As you probably have understood, money doesn’t make you stronger in League of Legends. What makes you better as a player is having strong gameplay which is achieved by being smart, strategic, and consistent as much as possible. If you are looking to learn the fundamentals of the game, here are some of the best guides we’ve created for beginners:

Best beginner champions
Ultimate Warding Guide
How to kite in League of Legends
Ultimate Jungle guide
How counters work in LoL

There are many more guides that you can find in our wiki section, and if there is anything you would like me to cover in particular, feel free to drop a comment below! I’ll make sure I can prepare the most detailed content possible.