What happens at the end of a turn?

A turn of Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game closes with the Ending Phase, the last of its six phases. The Ending Phase has two steps. In the Ending Step, every ability that waits for the end of the turn takes place. In the Expiration Step, the game cleans up: units heal, effects that lasted "this turn" wear off and the rune pools empty. Then the next player in turn order takes over.

The Ending Phase asks few choices of you, but its order matters: damage dealt at the end of the turn can still kill, and a Might boost lasts until the cleanup and no longer.

When does the Ending Phase begin?

The Ending Phase begins when the turn player says they are ending their turn. You can do this once there is nothing more you want to do in your Main Phase, nothing is waiting on the Chain and no showdown or combat is still going on. Ending the turn is always your choice, and you may end it with cards in your hand and runes still ready.

What happens first, in the Ending Step?

In the Ending Step, every ability that happens "at the end of your turn", "at end of turn" or "at the end of this turn" takes place. The Core Rules treat the last two wordings as the same thing. An ability that says "your turn" works only at the end of its controller's own turn. Four cards show what these abilities do.

• Dark Child, the Legend of Annie from Proving Grounds, readies up to two of your runes at the end of your turn. You can spend every rune in your Main Phase and still keep two ready for your opponent's turn.
• Dazzling Aurora, a gear from Origins, reveals cards from the top of your Main Deck at the end of your turn until it finds a unit, which you banish and then play without paying its cost.
• Hostile Takeover, a spell from Spiritforged, takes control of an enemy unit at a battlefield. At the end of the turn, you lose control of that unit again and it is recalled to its owner's base.
• Glowstone, a gear from Vendetta, kills itself at the end of its controller's turn and deals 5 to every unit that player controls. Another ability of Glowstone hands it to a player you choose, and then it goes off at the end of that player's turn and hits their units instead of yours.

Each of these abilities goes on the Chain, where players may answer it with Reactions. When several trigger at once, each player puts their own on the Chain in the order they choose, starting with the turn player.

What does the cleanup at the end of the turn do?

After the Ending Step comes the Expiration Step, a cleanup that the Core Rules carry out in a fixed order.

1. Every unit on the board heals, so all damage marked on units is removed.
2. Every effect that lasted "this turn" ends, all at the same moment. Stunned units stop being stunned here too.
3. Each player's rune pool empties, and any Energy and Power that was added but not spent is lost. The runes themselves stay as they are, so a rune you did not exhaust stays ready.

Because the Ending Step comes first, damage dealt by an end of turn ability counts in full. The 5 damage of Glowstone kills each of its controller's units with 5 Might or less, and only units with more Might survive to be healed.

The order inside the cleanup matters for Might boosts. Discipline gives a unit +2 Might this turn. If that boost keeps a damaged unit alive, the unit does not die when the boost ends, because its damage is healed first. Rune Prison stuns a unit so that it deals no combat damage, and the stun wears off in the cleanup of the same turn. Last Stand doubles a friendly unit's Might this turn and gives it Temporary: the doubled Might ends in the cleanup, but the unit is killed only at the start of its controller's next Beginning Phase.

Units also heal at the end of every combat, so the healing at the end of the turn mostly removes damage that spells and abilities dealt outside combat. A unit with 4 Might that took 3 damage from a spell stays one damage away from dying until the next combat or the end of the turn.

Can you still play cards during the Ending Phase?

You can play cards during the Ending Phase only in answer to something. Nobody can start playing cards on their own there, the way the turn player does in the Main Phase, but while an end of turn ability waits on the Chain, players may play cards with Reaction. A hidden card counts too if you hid it on an earlier turn, because it gains Reaction from the turn after it was hidden.

A card played this late comes too late for the end of this turn. The Core Rules give two examples. If Hostile Takeover is played during the Ending Phase, its instruction to give the unit back at end of turn never takes effect, so the unit stays with the player who took it. If you conquer the battlefield Targon's Peak during the Ending Phase, after the Ending Step has begun, for example with the Reaction spell Thrill of the Hunt, the runes it would ready at the end of this turn are not readied.

What does not happen at the end of a turn?

Some things that players of other card games expect at the end of a turn happen at another moment in Riftbound, or not at all.

• Your cards do not ready on their own. Exhausted units, runes, gear and your Legend stay exhausted until your own Awaken Phase, unless a card such as Dark Child readies them.
• Holding does not score yet. A battlefield is held at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, so a battlefield you control when you end your turn scores only if it is still yours when your next turn begins.
• Nobody discards down to a hand size. Riftbound has no maximum hand size.
• Temporary units stay. A unit with Temporary is killed at the start of its controller's Beginning Phase, before scoring.

Who takes the next turn?

When the Ending Phase is over, the next player in turn order starts their turn with their Awaken Phase. In a one-on-one Duel that is your opponent. With three or four players, turn order goes clockwise from the first player unless the game mode says otherwise. A few cards change who goes next: Time Warp, a 10 Energy spell from Origins, gives you an extra turn right after the current one, and then the turn order carries on as before.

What you leave ready when you end your turn still matters, because a ready rune can pay for a Reaction on your opponent's turn, and your cards stand up again only when your own turn begins with the Awaken Phase. The spells page lists more effects that last for one turn, the gear page shows more gear like Glowstone, and the full wording is in the Core Rules on Riot's Rules Hub.