What does Accelerate do?

Units in Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game are slow to arrive. A unit you play enters the board exhausted, and since a unit moves by exhausting, a new unit usually waits where you played it until your next turn. Accelerate is the keyword that removes that wait for a price: you pay a little more as you play the unit, and it comes in ready to act.

Only units have Accelerate, and every unit printed with it carries the same reminder: you may pay 1 Energy and one Power of the unit's domain as an additional cost to have it enter ready.

What happens when you pay for Accelerate?

The unit enters the board ready instead of exhausted. A unit's own move, from your base to a battlefield or back, costs it an exhaust, so a ready unit can move in the same Main Phase in which you play it. A unit that enters exhausted has to wait for your next Awaken Phase, when all your cards ready.

Legion Rearguard shows the keyword at its simplest. It is a 2 Might Fury unit that costs 2 Energy. Played for 2 Energy, it enters exhausted and waits a turn. Played for 3 Energy and one Fury Power, it can move to a battlefield at once. Jinx, Demolitionist and Rengar, Unseen carry Accelerate in the same way, and so does War Scout from Radiance, the fifth set, with its release on 23 October 2026.

How much does Accelerate cost?

Accelerate always costs 1 Energy and one Power on top of the unit's own cost. The Power has to match a domain of the unit: a Fury unit needs Fury Power and a Body unit needs Body Power. A unit with two domains accepts Power of either one, and a unit with no domain accepts Power of any domain.

Kai'Sa, Survivor costs 4 Energy, so with Accelerate she costs 5 Energy and one Fury Power. Paid with runes, that means exhausting five runes and then recycling a Fury Rune, which may be one of the five. Like every Power cost, this takes a rune off your board until you channel it again.

Cards that change costs work on Accelerate as well. Ezreal, Prodigy makes the optional additional costs you pay cost 1 Energy or one Power less, so while he is on the board, Accelerate costs either just the Energy or just the Power.

When do you choose to pay it?

You choose as you play the unit, in the same step in which you choose where it enters. The Core Rules call Accelerate an optional additional cost, so if you do not pay it, the unit enters exhausted as usual. Once the unit is on the board, the chance has passed: you cannot pay for Accelerate later in the turn to ready the unit.

A card that lets you play a unit while ignoring its cost does not pay for Accelerate. The Harrowing plays a unit from your trash ignoring its Energy cost. If that unit is Legion Rearguard and you want it to enter ready, you still pay 1 Energy and one Fury Power.

What can a unit do on the turn it enters ready?

Above all, it can move. In your Main Phase a ready unit in your base can move to a battlefield, where it opens a showdown if the battlefield is empty or starts a combat if enemy units stand there. You may also play a unit straight to a battlefield you control. If you paid for Accelerate, it enters ready there, so it can go back to your base or, with Ganking, on to another battlefield.

Accelerate matters most on units whose abilities trigger when they move, attack or conquer, because those abilities can then work on the turn you play the unit.

• Kai'Sa, Survivor draws you a card when she conquers, so with Accelerate she can take an empty battlefield and draw on the turn she arrives.
• Sharkling is a 1 Might unit with Assault 4, so it attacks with 5 Might. With Accelerate it costs 4 Energy and one Fury Power and can attack at once.
• Miss Fortune, Captain has Ganking, and the first time she moves each turn, you may ready something else that is exhausted. With Accelerate she can move on the turn you play her and ready a unit that has already moved.

Being ready does not make a unit stronger in a fight. Combat adds up the Might of every unit on each side, ready or exhausted, so Accelerate adds nothing to a unit you only want to defend with.

Is entering ready the same as becoming ready?

No. Accelerate changes how the unit enters the board: it enters ready, and it never enters exhausted and becomes ready afterward. Abilities that trigger when a unit becomes ready therefore do not trigger. Fretful Feline gets +2 Might for the turn when it becomes ready, so if another card gives it Accelerate and you pay, it enters ready without that bonus.

Which cards have or give Accelerate?

Every main set has units with Accelerate, and Fury has the most of them. Origins has ten, Spiritforged eight, Unleashed six and Vendetta two. The Proving Grounds starter box has none, but two of its units, Master Yi, Honed and Vanguard Attendant, enter ready on their own at no extra cost. Many of these units are champion units, and when one of them is your chosen champion, you can pay for Accelerate as you play it from the Champion Zone.

Radiance, with its release on 23 October 2026, adds more units with Accelerate, among them Mordekaiser, Twice Slain and K'Sante, Courageous. Some cards give Accelerate to units that lack it. Rek'Sai, Breacher gives it to every friendly unit played from anywhere other than a hand, such as a unit played from your trash. When you conquer Firelights' Hideout, a battlefield from Radiance, the next unit you play that turn has Accelerate.

When is Accelerate worth paying?

Pay for Accelerate when the unit can do something with the turn it gains. The clearest case is an empty battlefield: a ready unit can move there and, if your opponent has no answer, conquer it for a point on the same turn. It is also worth paying for a unit whose move, attack or conquer ability you want now, or to add one more attacker to a fight you are about to start. Going second helps here, because the second player channels an extra rune on their first turn: with three runes, one of them a Fury Rune, they can play Legion Rearguard ready.

Skip it when the extra Energy and Power would pay for another card you need this turn, when the unit has nowhere useful to go, or when it is meant to defend.

Every unit is on the units page. Once a unit is ready, how units move decides where it can go: from your base to a battlefield and, only with Ganking, from one battlefield to another. The full wording of Accelerate is rule 805 of the Core Rules on Riot's Rules Hub.