Legends of Runeterra Patch 2.1 Breakdown — Aphelios Joins the Fray!

Legends of Runeterra patch 2.1 is finally here and, as far as patches go, it’s quite an exciting one! This is especially true if you’ve been itching to test out the latest addition to LoR’s ever-growing champion roster: Aphelios! But we’re not just getting this gun-wielding Targonian — there’s a host of other exciting cards as well! We’ve already covered them in a recent post, so this time around, we’ll just go over the patch itself.

There’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s begin!

Legends of Runeterra | Patch 2.1 Breakdown

Lunar Celebration — There’s an in-game Lunar Celebration event happening, and you’ll be able to claim a bevy of different rewards just for logging in! To start things off, you’ll get a free copy of Aphelios! There’s a brand-new quest each day, so make sure to log in and collect what’s up for grabs! If you manage to complete all seven Lunar Celebration quests, you’ll be rewarded handily for your efforts with eight brand-new spells and an exclusive Year of the Ox card back!

New Single-Player Legends Lab: Lab of Legends — This brand-new Lab will give players a choice between eight different champions, each with their own premade deck and then pit them against a series of “increasingly difficult encounters.” As you progress further and further, you’ll earn new cards, passives, and even items that’ll empower your existing cards in distinct ways.

Card Updates

The Cosmic Creation set brought Zoe, Viktor, and Riven to the game. Now that Riot had enough time to see them in action, they’ve decided to ship a couple of adjustments. Zoe is already pretty darn strong, but Viktor and Riven, on the other hand, need a bit of attention.

• Miss Fortune will no longer attain Overwhelm upon leveling up. A hard-hitting nerf for sure, but a well-deserved one that shouldn’t take too much of her power away. She’ll just be a bit less deadly early on.
• Leveling up Viktor will be a bit easier going forward as you’ll only need to play 7+ created cards instead of 8+. You’ll also gain a Hex Core Upgrade on both Play and Round Start once you manage to level him up. A nifty change, for sure! That last effect will carry over to his second level as well.
• The Grand Plaza is a bit too profitable at the moment, which is why it’ll provide summoned allies with +1 | 0 instead of +1 | +1. This will give players a bit more room to manoeuvre. It’s still a potent landmark, but just a slightly less OP one.
• War Chefs will now have 2 | 2 instead of 1 | 3.
• Homecoming will now cost 4 mana instead of 5.
• Greenglade Elder now has 3 | 1 instead of 1 | 1. This should provide Ionian decks with a bit more board presence and potential in the early stages of the game.
• Captain Farron will now create two Decimates in your hand instead of three. This nerf has been a long time coming although it won’t change much meta-wise.
• Blade of the Exile will now cost just 1 mana instead of 3. Talk about a potent buff! This is exactly what Riven-based decks needed, although it still remains to be seen whether it’ll be enough to push her into viability.
• Blade Squire now has 2 | 1 instead of 1 | 2.
• Hush will now cost 3 mana instead of just 2. A simple, flat nerf that’s much obliged.
• Pale Cascade will now provide an ally with +1 | +1 instead of +2 | +1. You’ll still get to draw a card if you happen to proc its Nightfall effect. A good change that’ll lower the effectiveness of Targon decks ever so slightly.

Cosmetic Items

What would a LoR patch be without a bevy of mind-blowing cosmetics?

The bundle comes with the Club Ox board, Lunar Beast Guardian, The Beast Card Back, and the exclusive Firecracker T-Hex Guardian variant! It doesn’t come cheap, though.

If grinding isn’t your forte, you can purchase an Aphelios-based bundle (Targon & Shadow Isles) for 1998 Coins instead! The bundle is prorated for any excess copies you might have.

Closing Remarks

Overall, this is quite an exciting patch, primarily because of Aphelios and a bunch of brand-new spells that will surely affect the game in a myriad of ways! It’s still too early to predict anything with confidence, so we’ll log in, queue up, and start experimenting! As always, expect more coverage in the days and weeks ahead!