Which rules do new Riftbound players often get wrong?

Most rules mistakes in a first game of Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game come from habits that other card games teach. New players expect one conquer to be enough for the winning point, the weaker side of a fight to deal no damage, and a unit that is exhausted to sit out a fight. Riftbound works differently on all three.

Each mistake below comes with the number of its rule in the Core Rules of 9 October 2026, the version that takes effect on 16 October 2026 according to Riot's patch notes, so that a question at the table can be settled quickly.

Which scoring rules do new players get wrong?

The scoring rules cause the costliest mistakes, because a wrong point can end a game early.

• One conquer does not win the game. Under the final point rule, a conquer with one point to go gives you the last point only if you have scored every battlefield in play that turn. Otherwise you draw a card instead (rule 473). In a Duel, hold a battlefield for the last point, or score both battlefields in one turn.
• Holding scores at the start of your turn. A battlefield you control gives its point when you hold it in the Beginning Phase of your next turn (rule 315.2.b), not at the end of the turn in which you took it. Beating an attacker on defense scores nothing at that moment, because the battlefield was already yours.
• A battlefield works for whoever controls it. Its abilities belong to the player who controls it, not to the player who brought it (rule 190.6). When your opponent holds your Grove of the God-Willow, your opponent draws 1 card and you draw none.

What do new players get wrong when they play and move units?

Three rules about units surprise new players.

• Units enter play exhausted. Moving a unit costs exhausting it, so a unit you play usually waits a turn before it can move (rules 143.4 and 144.2). With Accelerate, a unit such as Kai'Sa, Survivor enters ready for 1 Energy and one Power of its domain on top of its cost (rule 805). A few units, such as Vanguard Attendant, simply enter ready.
• Units are played to your base or to a battlefield you control. You cannot play a unit straight onto an empty battlefield or onto one your opponent holds (rule 355.2.a). Action and Reaction change when a unit can be played, never where.
• Units move between your base and a battlefield. Only a unit with Ganking, such as Vi, Destructive or Nilah, Joyful Ascetic, may move from one battlefield to another (rule 144.4).

Units that should fight together must make one move together, since no unit can make its normal move once a showdown or combat has started (rules 144.3 and 144.1.c). A unit that moves to an empty battlefield does not take it at once either. A showdown opens first, in which your opponent may answer with Action and Reaction cards, and you conquer only if your units are still alone there when it ends (rule 348.2).

What do new players get wrong about combat?

Most combat mistakes come from forgetting that both sides hit, and that every unit at the battlefield takes part.

• Damage is dealt at the same time. Each side deals damage equal to the total Might of its units there, all at once (rule 467.2). A unit with 4 Might that attacks a unit with 3 Might kills it but takes 3 damage, and two units with the same Might kill each other.
• Exhausted units still fight. An exhausted unit at the battlefield defends and deals its full damage like a ready one (rule 466.2.c.3).
• Damage goes to one unit at a time. A player must give one unit lethal damage before any goes to the next, and a unit with Tank, such as Sunlit Guardian, gets it first (rules 467.2.c and 815).
• The attacker needs every defender gone. If any defender survives, the surviving attackers go back to their base and nobody scores (rule 468.1).
• Damage does not last. Every unit heals after each combat and at the end of every turn (rule 143.3.b).

Which mistakes do new players make with runes, Energy and Power?

Three rune rules trip up new players.

• One rune can give Energy and Power. Every basic rune can be exhausted to add 1 Energy or recycled to add 1 Power of its domain (rule 164.2). Recycling has no exhaust cost, so a rune you already exhausted for Energy can still be recycled for Power.
• Power costs you a rune for a while. A recycled rune waits at the bottom of your Rune Deck until you channel it again (rule 161.2.b).
• Energy and Power do not keep. Your Rune Pool empties at the start of each Main Phase and at the end of each turn, and whatever is left in it is lost (rule 167).

When can you play a card on your opponent's turn?

A card or ability can be used on your opponent's turn only if it has Action or Reaction, and only at certain moments. Anything without them, such as the spell Vengeance or an ability written as a cost, a colon and an effect, waits for your own Main Phase, when no showdown is going on and nothing waits on the Chain (rule 310.1.a).

• Action lets a card be played during a showdown as well, on either player's turn (rule 806). Hextech Ray can hit a unit in the middle of a fight, but it cannot answer a spell that waits on the Chain.
• Reaction lets a card be played while something waits on the Chain as well (rule 813). On your opponent's turn, Discipline still waits until they play something, an ability triggers or it is your turn to act in a showdown, so it cannot be played at the end of their turn (rule 312.2).
• Legend abilities follow the same timing. Bounty Hunter, the Legend of Miss Fortune, gives a unit Ganking only in your Main Phase (rule 381.1). Eye of Twilight, the Legend of Shen, has Action, so it can give a unit Tank during a fight.

Hidden brings mistakes of its own. Hiding a card costs one Power of any domain and needs a battlefield you control. The card cannot be played on the turn you hide it, and it goes to the trash if you lose that battlefield (rules 811 and 323.6.a). Hiding is not playing, so it does not count for Legion.

Which setup and deck rules are easy to miss?

These rules come up once a game and are easy to forget.

• The opening hand is 4 cards. Each player draws 4, and the mulligan lets them set aside up to two, draw as many and put the set aside cards at the bottom of the Main Deck (rules 116 and 117).
• The first player still draws in a Duel. In a one-on-one game, the player who goes second channels three runes instead of two in their first Channel Phase (rule 487.7). Skipping the first draw is a rule of the three-player mode, Skirmish, and of the four-player modes, War and 2v2 (Magma Chamber), only.
• The chosen champion does not come back. Once played, the chosen champion does not return to the Champion Zone, and when it dies it goes to the trash (rule 108.3.c). It also counts toward the limit of three copies of a card with the same name in a deck (rule 103.3.b).
• Running out of cards does not lose the game. A player who has to draw from an empty Main Deck burns out: their trash is recycled into the deck, an opponent of their choice gains 1 point, and then they draw (rule 432).

When a card seems to break one of these rules, follow the card: rule 002 of the Core Rules says that card text wins over rules text. The full text of the official rules is on Riot's Rules Hub. A new player who wants to see these rules work together can follow one whole Duel in how a game of Riftbound works, and every card named above is in the lists of Legends, units, spells and battlefields on this site.