Legends of Runeterra patch 0.8.3 might have brought three adorable new Guardians and a few other tweaks to Riot’s CCG, but patch 0.9.0 is one meaty update. The card game’s next patch brings a hefty round of balance changes, adjustments, and fixes to its beta, which should shake up and improve aspects across the game.
First up, the card changes. Riot is rolling out a just a handful of Champion changes this patch but there are plenty of Follower and Spell tweaks to check out – for example, Inspiring Mentor, Commander Ledros, and Blade of Ledros are all getting new text. The biggest change is to Commander Ledros, which Riot says “is an extremely powerful game-ending bomb that also acts as a recursive threat, and is flexible to boot”. It was “a bit too good at ‘undoing’ whatever previously happened in a game”, so the studio’s raised its cost to balance it out.
In addition, there are some changes targeting Fearsome decks, adjustments to Expeditions Archetypes, XP and Expeditions rewards, and even some minor improvements to the way in which the game’s shopkeeper picks out trades. Riot says you should expect to be offered “compelling choices” more frequently. Sweet!
Riot’s also introduced some frame rate settings just for PC players, which should you give you more choice over how your game looks. Read on to see what’s in store for Legends of Runeterra patch 0.9.0.
Legends of Runeterra Patch 0.9.0 Card Changes
Champion Card Changes
Lux (Level 1) – buffed
- Stats:
- Power increased to 4 from 3
- Health increased to 5 from 4
Lux (Level 2) – buffed
- Stats:
- Power increased to 5 from 4
- Health increased to 6 from 5
Yasuo (Level 1) – nerfed
- Level up:
- Number of units you can recall decreased to 5+ from 6+
Follower and Spell CHANGES
Back to Back – nerfed
- Cost:
- Cost increased to 6 from 5
Arena Battlecaster – buffed
- Stats:
- Health doubled to 2 from 1
Crimson Curator – buffed
- Stats:
- Health increased to 3 from 2
Deny – nerfed
- Cost:
- Cost increased to 4 from 3
Inspiring Mentor – changed
- Stats:
- Health doubled to 2 from 1
- Card text:
- Changed to ‘Play: Grant an ally in hand + 1|0’ from ‘Play: Grant an ally in hand + 1|1’
Jewelled Protector – buffed
- Stats:
- Power increased to 4 from 3
- Health increased to 4 from 3
Kinkou Lifeblade – nerfed
- Stats:
- Health decreased to 2 from 4
Commander Ledros – changed
- Cost:
- Cost increased to 9 from 8
- Stats:
- Power increased to 9 from 8
- Card text:
- Changed to ‘Play: Cut the enemy Nexus Health in half, rounded up’ from ‘Play: Cut the enemy Nexus Health in half’
Blade of Ledros – changed
- Card text:
- Changed to: ‘Cut the enemy Nexus Health in half, rounded up’ from ‘Cut the enemy Nexus Health in half’
Rhasa, the Sunderer – nerfed
- Cost:
- Cost increased to 8 from 7
Scuttlegeist – changed
- Keywords:
- Now changed to Fearsome from None
Tortured Prodigy – buffed
- Stats:
- Power increased to 4 from 3
Wraithcaller – changed
- Keywords:
- Now changed to None from Fearsome
LEGENDS OF RUNETERRA PATCH 0.9.0 Expedition Archetype CHANGES
Demacian Steel
- Chain Vest added
Battle Scars
- Might and Alpha Wildclaw added
- Blood for Blood and Bull Elnuk removed
Suit Up
- Bull Elnuk added
- Alpha Wildclaw removed
Shroom and Boom
- Assembly Bot, Statikk Shock, and Plaza Guardian added
- Academy Prodigy, Chempunk Shredder, and Get Excited! removed
LEGENDS OF RUNETERRA PATCH 0.9.0 Clarity CHANGES
Riot says it’s “heard feedback that it can be hard to tell whether units’ effects allow opponents to react or not, so we’ve added that info to tooltips.” The following changes have now been made:
- “Units with effects that allow opponent reactions now have a “Skills” icon next to ‘Play’ or ‘Attack’ in the card text.
- Hovering on the icon will bring out a tooltip explaining that the Skill allows opponent reactions before resolving.
- Units with effects that do not allow opponent reactions will not have this icon.
- Created cards now have a tooltip that tells both players what created them.”
Riot also says: “Finally, we’ve also made some minor improvements to the way the shopkeeper selects trades, so you’ll more often be offered compelling choices.”
- Shopkeeper trade logic improved.
LEGENDS OF RUNETERRA PATCH 0.9.0 XP and Expedition Rewards CHANGES
- End of trial XP reduced to the following amounts:
- 0 wins: 50 (from 100)
- 1 win: 150 (from 300)
- 2 wins: 250 (from 500)
- 3 wins: 400 (from 700)
- 4 wins: 600 (from 900)
- 5 wins: 800 (from 1200)
- 6 wins: 1000 (from 1500)
- 7 wins: 1500 (from 2000)
- Friend Challenge XP structure changed:
- Victories now grant 100 XP for the first 5 wins, and 0 XP for 6+ wins
- Losses and ties now grant 0 XP
- Matches no longer count towards daily PvP wins or losses, or bonuses for first wins of the day. However, they are still counted towards quest progress.
- Expedition rewards changed:
- Expedition rewards for six wins increased to 1500 shards from 1000
- Expedition rewards for seven wins decreased to 3000 shards from 3500
LEGENDS OF RUNETERRA PATCH
0.9.0 Miscellaneous CHANGES
Deckbuilder improvements:
- Mana curve now indicates the number of cards at each cost
- Bugfix for ‘max’ card count text not showing up
- Deck import and export now copies from/to device clipboard
- Minor visual polish and readability improvements introduced
Board visuals:
- Corrected a repeated grass texture on Summoner’s Rift board
- Cleaned up and reduced intensity of lens flare effect on Demacia board
- Corrected occasional lighting issues when resolving certain spells on faction boards
- Players on old client versions will now see a message asking them to restart the client and update, and will be unable to queue until doing so
- Master tier rankings now more fluid based on how master players are performing against each other (previously released hotfix)
- Claimable rewards on region roads now more strongly highlighted.
- Patch sizes generally decreased
- Friend Challenge stability improvements
- Store now marked with a badge when new content is available
- In-client messaging for maintenance updated for clarity
LEGENDS OF RUNETERRA PATCH
0.9.0 Bugfixes
- Players should no longer get stuck on the loading screen when signing out of League of Legends while signed into LoR
- Players logging into LoR from different devices should encounter fewer crashes
- Fixed issues with region quests not progressing as expected
- Fixed rare issues with players not receiving XP after games.
Massive nerf to high APMers: Players can no longer discard the same card to multiple Spinning Axes by quickly chaining them (previously released hotfix) - Anivia’s summoned from deck will now correctly level up if her condition has been met.
- Players should no longer get stuck on ‘Connecting’ if their opponent disconnects while loading.
LEGENDS OF RUNETERRA PATCH
0.9.0 BPC FPS Options
There are three options now found in the LoR settings menu:
- 30/60: The previous default, with 30 FPS during non-interactive moments and 60 FPS during interactive ones (grabbing and moving cards, etc.). Balances battery consumption and responsiveness while interacting with cards, so Riot recommends this setting for battery-operated devices.
- 60: Locks framerate at 60 FPS. Roughly doubles battery consumption compared to 30/60.
- 60+: The game will try to run as fast as possible, up to 240 FPS. Will drain batteries very quickly. Some animations may run faster than intended, which can lead to rare crashes when rapidly navigating through the client.
That’s all we’ve got for Legends of Runeterra patch 0.9.0. If you’re keen to see the latest changes added to the game, be sure to take a look at LoR patch 0.8.3. You can also see our guides to Legends of Runeterra cards, Legends of Runeterra champions, and Legends of Runeterra decks, as well as how to play Legends of Runeterra, which you might find handy for the next time you dive in.