How do you win a game of Riftbound?

A game of Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game is a race for points. You do not win by bringing your opponent's health down to zero, because there is no health to bring down. You win by taking the battlefields in the middle of the table and keeping them, turn after turn, until your score reaches the number the game is played to.

How many points do you need to win?

The number of points you need is called the Victory Score. In a one-on-one game it is 8 points, and Skirmish, the three-player mode, and War, the four-player mode, are played to 8 as well. In Magma Chamber, the two-versus-two mode, each team shares one score and plays to 11.

The game checks the score whenever things settle, and you win as soon as your score is at or above the Victory Score and higher than every opponent's. A card can also change the target: the battlefield Aspirant's Climb raises the points needed to win by one for as long as it is in play. Riot has banned Aspirant's Climb in Constructed play.

Where do the points come from?

Almost every point in Riftbound comes from a battlefield. In a one-on-one Duel each player brings three battlefields to the game and one of each player's is picked at random, so two battlefields stand between you. There are two ways to score a battlefield, conquer and hold, and they pay out at different moments.

• Conquer. When you gain control of a battlefield, usually by moving units there and winning the combat, you score one point.
• Hold. When a battlefield is still yours at the start of your turn, in your Beginning Phase, you score one point for it.

A battlefield can be scored only once per turn, whichever way you scored it. So a battlefield you take on your turn gives you a point at once, and if your units survive your opponent's turn, it gives you another point when your next turn begins.

Many battlefields add a reward to one of the two ways. Altar to Unity plays a 1 Might Recruit token in your base and Grove of the God-Willow draws you a card when you hold it. Other battlefields reward other things: Fortified Position gives a unit Shield 2 for the combat when you defend there, which makes it harder for your opponent to take it from you, and Back-Alley Bar gives +1 Might for the turn to a unit that moves away from it.

Why can you not always win by conquering?

The last point is harder to score than the others. Under the final point rule, when you are one point away from the Victory Score and you would score that point by conquering, you only get it if you have scored every battlefield in play that turn. If you have not, you draw a card instead of gaining the point.

In a Duel this means that a single conquest cannot end the game on its own. You win either by scoring both battlefields in the same turn or by holding a battlefield at the start of your turn, since the final point rule does not limit points from holding. Scoring both can mean conquering both, or holding one at the start of your turn and then conquering the other. This is why a game of Riftbound often ends with one player defending a single battlefield for a full turn while the other throws everything they have at it.

Can you lose by running out of cards?

Not straight away, but it costs you. When you have to draw a card and your main deck is empty, you burn out: your trash is shuffled back into your deck, and an opponent of your choice gains one point. A deck that runs out late in a close game can hand the opponent their winning point this way.

What does this mean for how you play?

Because points come from battlefields, a unit is worth what it can take and keep, not what it can destroy. A small unit that sits on an empty battlefield for a turn scores as well as a big one. Good players count the points on both sides every turn: how many their opponent can score at the start of their next turn, and whether they can stop it. When you are close to 8, plan for the last two points rather than the last one, since the final point rule means you will often need to hold for it.

The battlefields of every set are on the battlefields page, and the units page lists the cards that do the conquering and holding.