How do battlefields work in a game?

Battlefields are the cards laid out sideways in the middle of the table in a game of Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game. They are never shuffled into a deck, drawn or played like units and spells. They start the game on the board, the Core Rules allow nothing to kill or move them, and they normally stay in place until the game is over. Both players spend that game sending units to them, because almost every point is scored at a battlefield.

In the rules a battlefield is two things at once: a card with an ability of its own, and a location where any number of units can stand.

How many battlefields are in a game?

A one-on-one Duel is played over two battlefields. Every deck brings three battlefields with different names, and during setup each player picks one of their three at random, so one battlefield from each side ends up in the middle. In a Match, the best of three games, each player chooses their battlefield instead. Skirmish, War and Magma Chamber, the modes for three and four players, are played over three battlefields.

The player who brought a battlefield is its owner, but owning it gives no claim to it in play. Any player can take it, and its ability works for whoever controls it.

Who controls a battlefield?

A battlefield is controlled by one player or by nobody, and nobody controls the battlefields when the game begins. Once you control a battlefield, you keep it for as long as at least one of your units is there. When your last unit there leaves or dies, you lose control of it, unless a showdown or combat is still going on there. Card text calls a battlefield with no units and no controller "open".

Control changes hands through a showdown or a combat. When a unit arrives at a battlefield that its controller does not control, the battlefield becomes contested. If no enemy units are there, a showdown opens: the players take turns to play cards with Action or Reaction, and if the newcomer's units are still the only ones there when it closes, that player takes control. If enemy units are there, a combat starts instead. When the attackers are the only units left after combat damage, the attacking player takes control. When a defender survives, the surviving attackers go back to their base. When every unit there dies, nobody controls the battlefield.

Control also decides who may hide a card at a battlefield. Each battlefield has room for one facedown card with Hidden, and only the player who controls the battlefield may hide a card there. If that player loses control, the hidden card goes to its owner's trash.

How do units get to a battlefield?

Units usually reach a battlefield by moving. In your Main Phase you can exhaust a unit to move it from your base to a battlefield or back, but not during a showdown or combat. With its own move, only a unit with Ganking can go straight from one battlefield to another. You can also play a unit directly to a battlefield you already control, and spells and abilities can move units too.

Some battlefields bend these rules. Windswept Hillock gives Ganking to every unit there, units cannot move from Vilemaw's Lair to their base, and no unit can be played to Rockfall Path.

Whose side is a battlefield's ability on?

A battlefield's ability works for the player who controls it, whoever brought it to the game. When the ability says "you", it means the controller, and while nobody controls the battlefield, an instruction for "you" does nothing. Grove of the God-Willow draws a card for the player who holds it, so a copy that your opponent brought is one more reason to go and take that battlefield.

Most of these abilities belong to one of a few kinds. A hold ability, like that of Grove of the God-Willow, works when its controller scores the battlefield at the start of their turn. A conquer ability works when a player conquers the battlefield: Treasure Hoard lets the conqueror pay 1 Energy to play a Gold gear token. A defend ability helps the player whose units are attacked there. Durand Memorial, a battlefield from Radiance, the fifth set, with its release on 23 October 2026, gives one of the defenders Tank. Other abilities last for as long as you control the battlefield: Ornn's Forge makes the first non-token gear you play each turn cost 1 Energy less.

Some abilities ignore control altogether and touch every player or every unit there.

• Trifarian War Camp gives every unit there +1 Might, attackers included.
• Frozen Fortress deals 1 damage to each unit there at the start of each player's Beginning Phase, before scoring.
• Black Market, a second battlefield from Radiance, lets each player pay two Power of any domain to draw a card, once on their own turn, even without controlling it.

How do battlefields give you points?

A battlefield scores you a point in two ways. You conquer it when you take control of it, and you hold it when it is still yours at the start of your turn. Each player can score each battlefield only once per turn, so in a Duel with two battlefields, scoring brings in at most two points a turn. The winning point is harder because of the final point rule: when a conquer would bring you to the Victory Score, you get the point only if you have scored every battlefield that turn, and otherwise you draw a card.

Can the battlefields change during a game?

Usually they cannot, but a few cards add a battlefield or swap one for a battlefield token, a kind of battlefield that can never start a game. Baron Nashor, a 12 Might unit from Unleashed, adds the Baron Pit battlefield token to the board as he is played, if it is not there already, and enters there. Units can move to Baron Pit from anywhere, so once Baron Nashor is played, a Duel has a third battlefield to fight over.

Green Father, the Legend of Ivern, can exhaust to replace a battlefield you conquer or hold with the Brush battlefield token. Brush gives Bird, Cat, Dog, Poro and Ivern units there +1 Might, and it can be swapped back for the original battlefield when it is scored.

What should you keep in mind when you play?

Treat every battlefield as a prize rather than as home ground. A battlefield with a strong ability is worth taking whoever brought it, and it stays yours only while a unit of yours stands there, so think twice before you move your last unit away. Before you attack, read the battlefield as well as the units on it, since a defend ability, or a bonus such as the +1 Might of Trifarian War Camp, can decide the fight.

Every battlefield of every set is on the battlefields page, and the token battlefields are on the tokens page. A battlefield card is never drawn or played, and a deck brings three of them but uses only one in each game, so choosing the battlefields of a deck comes down to which ability you want in the middle of the table and which one you can live with when your opponent takes it.