Who gets to act during a showdown?

In a showdown of Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game, the players do not throw cards on the table at the same time. They act one at a time, and the rules call the turn to act Focus. Only the player with Focus may start something new, and the other players either wait until Focus reaches them or answer with a Reaction.

Focus exists only during showdowns, which open when units arrive at a battlefield their player does not control, and every combat begins with one. In the rest of a turn nobody has Focus, and only the turn player may start playing cards in their Main Phase. Focus is a term of the rules and is printed on no card. Seal of Focus and Decree of Focus only carry the word in their names.

Who has Focus when a showdown begins?

The player whose units started the showdown gets Focus first. In a combat, that player is the attacker, and it is almost always the player whose turn it is.

Abilities that trigger as the showdown begins go on the Chain before the first player acts, and they do not move Focus. The "When I attack" and "When I defend" abilities of a combat work this way, and so does the ability of Diana, Lunari that triggers when a showdown begins at her battlefield. Once these abilities have resolved, the player who started the showdown still has Focus.

What can the player with Focus do?

The player with Focus may do one of two things: play one card or use one ability with Action or Reaction, or pass. Either way, Focus then moves to the next player in turn order. After a pass it moves at once. After a play it moves once the Chain that the card or ability started has resolved. Every player gets Focus in turn, including a player who has no units at the battlefield.

Paying for a card does not cost you Focus. Exhausting a rune for Energy and recycling it for Power are abilities that add resources, and such abilities resolve at once without moving Focus.

How can you act when you do not have Focus?

Without Focus, you can act only with a Reaction, and only while something waits on the Chain. While the Chain is empty, even a Reaction has to wait for Focus. Once a card or ability is on the Chain, the right to act at that moment, which the rules call Priority, goes around the table in turn order, and each player may add a Reaction or pass. When every player has passed in a row, the newest item on the Chain resolves first, so a Reaction resolves before the card it answers. The player with Focus keeps it while Priority goes around.

Smoke Screen gives a unit -4 Might for the turn, to a minimum of 1, and Wind Wall counters a spell outright. A card hidden facedown at a battlefield is another way in, because it has Reaction from the turn after it was hidden. A defender can turn over Back Off at the attacked battlefield and stun an attacker in reply to the attacker's spell, without waiting for Focus.

What does a showdown look like, turn by turn?

Say you move Baccai Reaper, a Fury unit with 4 Might from Vendetta, to a battlefield your opponent holds with one unit. You hold Cleave, a Fury spell, in your hand. Your opponent plays a Calm and Mind deck, with Rune Prison and Smoke Screen in hand.

1. The combat opens with a showdown, and you have Focus as the attacker. The Reaper's "When I attack" ability goes on the Chain first, and you pay one Fury Power to give it Assault 2. The ability was triggered, so you still have Focus once it has resolved.
2. You play Cleave, which gives the Reaper Assault 3 this turn. While it waits on the Chain, your opponent could answer with Smoke Screen, but they let it resolve.
3. The Chain is empty, so Focus moves to your opponent. They play Rune Prison to stun the Reaper, so it deals no combat damage this turn. While the spell waits on the Chain, you could answer it with a Reaction of your own.
4. Rune Prison has resolved, so Focus comes back to you. You may play another card with Action or Reaction, or pass. If you pass and your opponent passes after you, the showdown is over and the units deal their combat damage.

Your opponent saw Cleave before choosing Rune Prison. That is the price of acting first: every card you play shows your plan, and your opponent then gets Focus to answer it.

When does a showdown end?

A showdown ends when every player has passed once in a row without playing anything. Each card played hands Focus to the next player, so nobody gets the last word for free: the other players always get a chance to answer the last card of a showdown.

After the showdown of a combat, the units deal their combat damage. After a showdown at an empty battlefield, you take control of the battlefield if your units are the only ones still there, and that counts as a conquer if you have not scored the battlefield yet this turn.

In games with three or four players, such as Skirmish, War and 2v2, Focus goes around the whole table in turn order, and the showdown ends only when every player has passed in a row. The How to Play booklet of Proving Grounds lets only the two players in a combat act unless they invite the others, but the Core Rules set no such limit, and the Core Rules count.

Should you act first or pass?

Pass when the fight already goes your way, and act when it does not. If the units at the battlefield would win the fight for you as things stand, passing hands the decision to your opponent. They must spend a card to change the result, and you get Focus back afterwards to answer it. If you are behind, passing is a risk, because your opponent can pass as well and end the showdown before your card is ever played.

Count your opponent's ready runes before you decide. A player whose runes are all exhausted can rarely pay for anything when Focus reaches them, while a few runes left ready at the end of their turn often mean a trick is waiting.

How do players keep track of Focus at the table?

The simplest way is to say it out loud: say "pass" when you pass, and name the card when you play one. At tournaments, the Riftbound Tournament Rules count who has Priority and who has Focus as public information, so a player must answer honestly when an opponent asks. A player who puts a spell or ability on the Chain is taken to pass Priority unless they say they keep it (Tournament Rules of 9 October 2026, rules 502.4, 502.7 and 503.9).

The spells page lists the Action and Reaction spells that decide showdowns. Which of those spells you can play at a given moment depends on its timing word, as the article on Action and Reaction sets out, and on whether the Chain is empty, as the article on the Chain sets out. Focus itself is set out in rules 311 to 313 and 341 to 348 of the Core Rules of 9 October 2026 on Riot's Rules Hub.