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What does Ganking do?

Ganking is a Riftbound keyword that lets a unit use its own move to go straight from one battlefield to another, not only between your base and a battlefield. The unit still exhausts to move, so Ganking adds a route, not an extra move.

  • 6 min read
  • Updated Oct 13, 2026

Ganking is one of the keywords printed on units in Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game. A unit with Ganking can move itself from one battlefield straight to another, while every other unit that moves on its own has to go back to its base first. The name comes from League of Legends, where a gank is a surprise attack on a lane by a player who arrives from another part of the map, most often the jungler.

Ganking has no cost and gives the unit no extra move, but in a game played for battlefields, the extra route is often worth a point.

What does Ganking let a unit do?

Ganking lets a unit use its standard move between two battlefields. Every unit has a standard move: in your Main Phase, outside a showdown or combat, you exhaust the unit to move it from your base to a battlefield or from a battlefield back to your base. A unit with Ganking keeps both routes and gains a third, as its reminder text says: "I can move from battlefield to battlefield."

Everything else about the move stays the same, as rule 810 of the Core Rules on Riot's Rules Hub sets out. The unit still exhausts to move, it moves only in your own Main Phase, and it cannot move while a showdown or a combat is going on, which rule 144 requires of every standard move. A unit that gets Ganking twice, from its own text and from a battlefield for example, gains nothing from the second one.

Why is Ganking worth having?

Ganking saves a turn. A unit without Ganking that stands at one battlefield and wants to attack the other has to move back to your base first, and because each move exhausts it, it usually arrives a turn later. A unit with Ganking makes the trip in one move.

That turn is often worth a point. Say Vi, Destructive stands at a battlefield when your turn begins. She is readied with the rest of your cards, and you score her battlefield for holding it. In your Main Phase you exhaust Vi and move her straight to the other battlefield. If it is empty, you conquer it when the showdown there ends with Vi still alone. If your opponent has units there, a combat starts, and you conquer it if Vi wins. Either way, one unit has scored two battlefields in one turn.

The same move can win a game. With 6 points in a Duel, holding one battlefield takes you to 7, and conquering the other later in the turn gives you the final point, because by then you have scored every battlefield that turn. A conquer alone would not win at 7 points: under the final point rule, a conquer gives the last point only when you have scored every battlefield that turn, and otherwise you draw a card instead.

A unit with Ganking can also move in the same action as units from your base, as long as they all go to the same battlefield, so they arrive and fight together. And a unit with Ganking at one battlefield threatens both, so your opponent has to plan a defense for each.

What do you give up when a unit moves between battlefields?

You give up the battlefield the unit leaves, unless other units of yours stay there. A player keeps control of a battlefield only while they have units at it, so a battlefield you leave empty stops being yours in the next cleanup. If you held it at the start of the turn, it still counts as scored, but on their own turn your opponent can move a unit there and conquer it without a combat.

The unit is also exhausted after the move, so it cannot move again that turn unless a card readies it. Count the points on both sides first: two points for you can be a poor trade if the empty battlefield hands your opponent an easy point.

Can a unit with Ganking move twice in a turn?

Not on its own. Ganking gives a unit more places to go but no extra move, so the unit needs a card that readies it before it can move again. Several cards are built for it.

  • Miss Fortune, Captain has Ganking, and the first time she moves each turn you may ready something else that is exhausted.
  • Yasuo, Windrider has Ganking and scores you 1 point the third time he moves in a turn, so he wants cards that move him or ready him.
  • Kayn, Unleashed has Ganking and takes no damage once he has moved twice in a turn.
  • Ride the Wind, an Action spell, moves a friendly unit and readies it, so a unit with Ganking can move itself again later in the turn, to the other battlefield if you like.

Does Ganking matter when a spell moves the unit?

No. Ganking only changes the standard move, the one a unit makes by exhausting. A spell or ability that moves a unit follows its own text, and it can take a unit from one battlefield to another whether the unit has Ganking or not.

Cards that limit movement still apply to a unit with Ganking, and when a card says a unit can't do something, it wins over any card that says it can. Vilemaw's Lair stops units there from moving to base, but a unit with Ganking can still leave it for another battlefield. Gravity Field is a gear from Radiance, the fifth set, with its release on 23 October 2026. It makes your opponents pay extra to move units to its battlefield, and the cost applies just the same to a unit moving in with Ganking.

Which cards have Ganking?

Dozens of cards across the sets have Ganking or give it to other units. They come in three kinds.

Every unit in the game is on the units page, and a search of the card list for Ganking shows every card that has the keyword or gives it. Ganking decides only where a unit can go, not how it fights when it gets there, so a unit that arrives by Ganking still relies on keywords such as Assault, which adds Might while the unit attacks, and Shield, which adds Might while it defends.

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