Riftbound Rules & How To Play

Riftbound is the League of Legends trading card game where 2–4 players pick a champion, rally units and cast spells to fight over key battlefields in Runeterra. Each game feels like a tactical tug-of-war: you’re building a deck, managing resources and jockeying for control of the board. (riftbound.leagueoflegends.com)

This guide walks through the core rules, turn structure, combat and keywords, plus some beginner strategy so you can sit down with a starter deck and start winning games.

If you’re ready to build a collection, you can grab sealed product and singles here:

• Riftbound sealed & starters

• Riftbound singles

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Core Concepts You Need to Know Before Playing Riftbound

Before you worry about fancy combos, it helps to understand what the game is actually asking you to do each turn.

Objective / Win Condition

Riftbound is all about conquering battlefields and scoring points.

• Each battlefield is a location players can fight over.

• When your units take control of a battlefield, you score 1 point immediately.

• At the start of each of your turns, you score 1 more point for every battlefield you still control.

• In standard 1v1 play, the first player to 8 points wins the game (11 points in team modes). (riftbound.leagueoflegends.com)

So you’re not just trading blows—you’re trying to occupy the right places for as long as possible.

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Cards & Deck Construction Basics

A Riftbound setup uses a few distinct components: (Scribd)

• 1 Champion Legend – the face of your deck and your “commander.”

• 1 Chosen Champion – a champion unit that matches your legend.

• 40-card Main Deck – units, spells and gear you’ll actually play during the game.

• 12-card Rune Deck – your resource deck.

• Battlefields – horizontal location cards that everyone fights over.

Deck-building basics:

• Your Main Deck is 40 cards with up to 3 copies of any one card.

• Every Main Deck card must match one of the two domains (colours) on your Champion Legend. (Scribd)

Key card types:

• Units – your creatures and champions that move, fight and hold battlefields.

• Spells – one-shot effects that go to the trash after resolving.

• Gear – ongoing upgrades that sit in your base and grant abilities.

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Champions (or Key Leaders)

Your Champion Legend + Chosen Champion define your deck’s identity:

• The Legend lives in the Legend Zone, is always visible, and often has an ability you can activate each turn.

• The Chosen Champion is a special unit that starts in play at your base before the game begins. (Scribd)

Together they push you toward a plan—maybe a swarm deck that floods multiple battlefields, a control strategy that grinds out long games, or a mobile champion who dashes between lanes picking perfect fights.

When you’re learning, build your early decks to do one clear thing your legend is good at rather than trying to cover every possibility.

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Lanes / Zones / Board Layout

The Riftbound board is made up of:

• Battlefields – the main lanes you’re fighting over (usually 3 in 1v1).

• Your Base – where units sit when they’re not at a battlefield.

• Zones for:

  • Champion Legend

  • Chosen Champion

  • Runes

  • Trash (discard pile) (Scribd)

You’ll move units between your base and the battlefields. Positioning matters: over-committing to one battlefield might win you short-term points but leave the others wide open.

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Resources & Costs

Riftbound uses Runes as its resource system:

• At the start of each of your turns, you channel 2 runes from your Rune Deck onto the board, ready to use. (riftbound.leagueoflegends.com)

• Cards have two kinds of costs:

  • Energy – exhaust (turn sideways) a number of runes.

  • Power – recycle runes by putting them on the bottom of your Rune Deck.

You can exhaust and recycle the same rune in one payment sequence, and runes refresh (stand back up) at the start of your turn. Managing when to exhaust vs fully recycle is a big part of the strategy.

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Turn Structure

A typical turn flows like this: (Scribd)

1. Awaken Phase – Ready all your exhausted cards (units, legend, runes).

2. Beginning Phase

   • Resolve any “start of turn” triggers.

   • Score 1 point for each battlefield you control.

3. Channel Phase – Channel 2 runes from your Rune Deck.

4. Draw Phase – Draw 1 card (no max hand size).

5. Action Phase – In any order, as often as you can:

   • Play cards (units, spells, gear).

   • Activate abilities.

   • Move units between your base and battlefields (moving into an occupied battlefield starts a combat).

6. End of Turn – Resolve “end of turn” effects, then all units heal back to full.

Then the next player takes their turn.

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Actions & Priority

By default:

• You can play cards and activate most abilities only on your own turn when no combat is happening.

• Some cards have ACTIONS and REACTIONS:

  • ACTIONS – can be played in your Action Phase or during combat/showdowns.

  • REACTIONS – can also be played in response to spells or abilities, resolving before the thing they’re reacting to. (Scribd)

The simple way to remember it:

If it’s a Reaction, it can “jump the queue” and resolve first.

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Combat Rules

Combat happens whenever your units move onto a battlefield that already has enemy units there. (Scribd)

In a fight:

1. “When I defend” abilities trigger first, then “When I attack” abilities.

2. Players in the combat can play ACTIONS and REACTIONS.

3. Once everyone passes, units deal damage equal to their Might.

4. Any unit with damage ≥ its Might is killed and goes to the trash.

5. If you’re the only player with units left standing on that battlefield, you conquer it and take control, scoring 1 point.

Combat is lane-specific—only units at that battlefield are involved.

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Keywords & Status Effects

Riftbound uses evergreen keywords to bend the base rules. A few examples you might see:

• Rush/Ganking – allows units to move in ways they usually couldn’t or attack more quickly.

• Shielded – prevents or reduces damage once.

• Stun / Root – stops a unit from moving or acting normally.

Whenever you see a bold keyword, double-check the rules insert or the official FAQ—it might change timing or who’s allowed to respond. (riftbound.leagueoflegends.com)

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Interactions: Real vs Misread Rules (Common Pitfalls)

New players often stumble over the same things:

1. Forgetting to score at the start of the turn – Points are checked in the Beginning Phase, not when you move units.

2. Over-committing to one battlefield – It feels great to win a huge fight, but losing the other lanes can quietly hand your opponent more points.

3. Misusing Runes – Recycling too aggressively can leave you short on Energy next turn; never recycling means you can’t cast your biggest spells.

4. Playing Reactions at the wrong time – Remember that Reactions must respond to a spell or ability on the stack; once it’s resolved, it’s too late.

5. Ignoring keywords – Many “rules disputes” vanish once both players re-read the keyword line carefully.

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How a Game of Riftbound Plays Out (Beginner Walkthrough)

Here’s a simplified look at your first three turns in a 1v1 game:

• Setup

  • Place your Champion Legend and Chosen Champion in their zones.

  • Shuffle your 40-card Main Deck and 12-card Rune Deck.

  • Put 1 battlefield per player into the Battlefield Zone.

  • Draw 4 cards and optionally take a mulligan by recycling up to 2 and drawing that many. (Scribd)

Turn 1

• Awaken, Beginning (no points yet), Channel 2 runes, Draw 1 card.

• Play a cheap unit to your base and maybe a gear card.

• You might send your Chosen Champion to an empty battlefield to score your first point.

Turn 2

• You now score for any battlefield you control.

• Channel 2 more runes (you’ll have 4 in play), draw a card.

• Maybe you:

  • Move your first unit to back up your champion, and

  • Play a new unit to hold your base for later turns.

Turn 3

• If your opponent contests a battlefield, your move there will start a combat.

• You’ll play ACTIONS and REACTIONS, trade units, and whoever’s left standing will control that battlefield going into the next scoring step.

After a few turns like this, both decks are online and the game becomes about timing big pushes and protecting your lead.

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Key Strategy Principles for New Players

• Fight for points, not just kills – Sometimes the correct play is to abandon a losing battlefield and reinforce another you can actually score on.

• Develop before you brawl – In early turns, getting a board and rune base established is more important than forcing awkward fights.

• Sequence your champion first – Many decks want their Chosen Champion and core synergies online before they start spending resources on niche spells.

• Keep answers in hand – Don’t burn every spell the moment you can cast it; having a Reaction ready can swing combat or protect a battlefield.

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How to Quickly Learn Card Text & Timing

When you pick up a Riftbound card, read it in this order:

1. Cost – Energy and Power symbols in the top-left.

2. Type & tags – Unit, Spell, Gear, Champion, plus any subtype (e.g. Noxian, Demacian).

3. Keywords – Bold words like Rush, Shielded, etc.

4. Rules text – What it actually does, including timing phrases like “When I attack” or “At the start of your turn.”

5. Might/health (for units) – So you know how it lines up in combat. (Scribd)

If you practise this order, you’ll start spotting when abilities can be played and what they’re best used for.

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Where to Find Official Riftbound Rules & Updates

Because Riftbound is new, the rules have already seen a few updates and clarifications. For the most accurate wording:

• Check the “How to Play: Get Started Now” article and linked PDFs on the official Riftbound site. (riftbound.leagueoflegends.com)

• Review the Core Rules, Patch Notes, and Origins FAQ for deeper edge-case rulings and timing minutiae. (riftbound.leagueoflegends.com)

Community guides (like this one) are great for learning, but in a rules dispute, the official documents always win.

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Get Started with Riftbound

The best way to learn Riftbound is:

1. Pick up a starter deck (or two if you want an in-house rival).

2. Play a couple of slow, open-hand games where both players talk through their turns.

3. Re-read this guide and the official quick-start when a rules question comes up.

When you’re ready to expand:

• Build new decks and upgrade your favourites with Riftbound singles.

• Try different champions and domains to find the playstyle that feels like “you.”

You can start or grow your collection right now with our full range of Riftbound sealed product and singles at Cherry—then hit the table and start conquering those battlefields.