How many packs does it take to find an overnumbered card?

An overnumbered card is a collector's printing with a number past the end of its set, such as the Jinx Legend Loose Cannon at 301/298. In Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game, these printings are among the rarest cards a booster pack can hold, and most packs hold none. This article turns Riot's pull rates into the number of packs and booster displays a chase is likely to take, first for any overnumbered card and then for one particular card.

Every figure below starts from the one rate Riot has published for overnumbered cards. In its article on collecting Origins, the first Riftbound set, Riot said that overnumbered cards turn up roughly once per three boxes, a box being a booster display of 24 packs. Riot gives its rates as averages over the whole print run and not as a promise for any one pack or display, so the numbers here hold only over many packs.

How many packs does one overnumbered card take on average?

By Riot's rate for Origins, an overnumbered card takes about 72 booster packs on average, which is three displays of 24 packs. A booster pack has a launch price of $4.99 and a display a launch price of $119.99, so the average wait for one overnumbered card costs about $360 at launch prices.

The average hides a wide spread. If many collectors each opened Origins packs until they found an overnumbered card, half of them would find one within about 50 packs, while about one in ten would still be waiting after 165 packs, almost seven displays. Riot says in its overview of Unleashed that pack contents are randomized during manufacturing, so a long run of packs without an overnumbered card does not make the next pack any more likely to hold one.

What are the chances in one display or in several?

One display holds an overnumbered card less than a third of the time. By Riot's Origins rate, the chance of at least one overnumbered card in 24 packs is about 29 percent, so most displays hold none. Even three displays, the average wait, leave about one collector in three without one. The table gives the chances for any overnumbered card and for one particular card of the twelve in Origins.

How long does one particular overnumbered card take?

One particular overnumbered card takes far longer, because every overnumbered card of a set shares the same rate. Origins has 12 overnumbered cards, one for each of its Legends. If all twelve are printed equally often, which Riot has not said, the overnumbered Loose Cannon turns up about once in 864 packs. That is 36 displays, with a combined launch price of about $4,320, and even 36 displays give only about a 63 percent chance of finding it.

Signed cards take ten times as long again. Riot said that roughly one Origins overnumbered card in ten is a signed printing, with the artist's signature in foil across the art and a star after the number. Any signed Origins card turns up about once in 720 packs, or 30 displays. One particular signed card, such as the signed Loose Cannon at 301*/298, comes to about one pack in 8,640, or 360 displays. The row below shows the three printings of the Jinx Legend: the standard Loose Cannon, the overnumbered Loose Cannon and the signed Loose Cannon.

Are overnumbered cards harder to find in the newer sets?

Riot has not said, because it has published no rate for overnumbered cards since Origins. The newer sets do hold many more of them.

• Spiritforged has 30 overnumbered cards: its 12 Legends, 12 champion units such as Ahri, Inquisitive and six Seal gear cards.
• Unleashed has 18 besides its Ultimate Rare: its 12 Legends and six poro units such as Pouty Poro.
• Vendetta has 31: its nine Legends and 22 champion units drawn in pairs of rivals, such as Zed, From the Shadows and Shen, Scourge of Shadows.
• Radiance, with its release on 23 October 2026, has 16: its nine Legends and seven champion units such as Ezreal, Dashing.

Riot has not said whether the share of packs that hold an overnumbered card grew with the number of cards. If it stayed at about one pack in 72, any overnumbered card would take as long to find as in Origins, but each particular card would take much longer. With 31 cards sharing the rate, one particular Vendetta overnumbered card would take about two and a half times as many packs as one from Origins. Riot's overview of Radiance describes one more change: a Radiance pack will have only one of its two rare slots able to hold a showcase printing, and Riot has not said how that affects the odds of an overnumbered card.

How many packs does an Ultimate Rare take?

An Ultimate Rare takes far longer still. In its overview of Unleashed, Riot calls Baron Nashor, the Ultimate Rare of Unleashed, a unique overnumbered card and puts the Baron in fewer than one pack in 1,000. Finding one therefore takes more than 1,000 packs, over 40 displays, on average. In its overview of Radiance, Riot puts Packed Amphitheater, the Ultimate Rare of Radiance, in about 0.025 percent of packs, which is one pack in 4,000 or about 167 displays, with a combined launch price of about $20,000. Riot says that no pack, box or case is sure to hold one.

Is it cheaper to get the card on its own?

For one particular overnumbered card, the single card is the cheaper way to get it whenever its price is lower than the packs the chase takes. At launch prices, the average chase for one particular Origins overnumbered card costs about $4,320 in displays, and the chase for one particular signed card about $43,000. Set against those figures, the overnumbered Loose Cannon sells for $150.70 today and the signed Loose Cannon for $1,355.35. That is the general case for getting single cards instead of opening boosters when you want one named card.

Single overnumbered cards come from local game stores and from online marketplaces: Cardmarket in Europe, TCGplayer in the United States and CardTrader on both sides of the Atlantic.

The packs are not wasted, since every pack holds other cards that are worth something, as the article on what a booster pack is worth on average shows. Opening packs in the hope of any overnumbered card is a different matter. It is a fine way to spend an evening, as long as the budget is one you are happy to spend without finding one.

The overnumbered cards page lists every overnumbered card by set, and the rarity guide sets them beside the other showcase printings with Riot's odds. The pack opener shows how rarely one turns up without costing anything. The odds of Epics and alternate art are set out per pack and per display in the pull rates of a booster pack, and how an overnumbered card looks, how it plays and which cards get one is covered in what overnumbered cards are.