How do units move?

In Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game, units are the cards that travel across the board, and moving them is how you fight for points. A unit stands either in your base or at one of the battlefields in the middle of the table, and almost every battlefield you conquer starts with a unit moving there.

A unit can move in two ways. It can move itself by exhausting in your Main Phase, which the Core Rules call the standard move, or a spell or ability can move it, at other times and along other routes.

How does a unit move on its own?

A unit moves on its own by exhausting. In your Main Phase you turn it sideways and move it from your base to a battlefield, or from a battlefield back to your base. The exhaust pays for the move, so a unit moves itself once a turn unless something readies it, and never while a showdown or a combat is going on. Because units move themselves only on your turn, the units you leave at a battlefield when you end your turn are usually the ones that will defend it.

Units enter play exhausted, so a unit you play this turn usually moves on your next turn. Legion Rearguard enters ready if you pay its Accelerate cost, and Master Yi, Honed always enters ready, so both can move at once. Playing a unit straight to a battlefield you control is not a move at all, because the card changes zones instead of moving.

Several units can move in one action if they all go to the same place, even from different places: two units at two battlefields can go back to your base together.

Can a unit move from one battlefield to another?

Only a unit with Ganking can move itself straight from one battlefield to another. Any other unit at a battlefield has to go back to your base first, which usually takes a second turn. Ganking adds that route but no extra move, so the unit still exhausts and moves once.

Vi, Destructive and Kayn, Unleashed have Ganking printed on them. The battlefield Windswept Hillock gives Ganking to every unit there, yours and your opponent's. Portable Portal, a gear from Radiance, the fifth set, with its release on 23 October 2026, gives it to your units at its battlefield.

What happens when your units arrive at a battlefield?

A move happens at once and does not use the Chain, so your opponent cannot respond to the move itself. What follows depends on the battlefield.

• At a battlefield you already control, nothing more happens.
• At a battlefield with no units, a showdown opens and you get the first chance to play a card. If your units are still alone there when every player has passed, you take control and conquer it, unless you have already scored it this turn.
• At a battlefield with enemy units, a combat starts, and you are the attacker.

Since a unit cannot move itself during a showdown or a combat, every unit you want in a fight should move in the same action. In Skirmish and War, the modes for three and four players, a unit cannot move to a battlefield where units of two other players already stand, and in Magma Chamber, the two-versus-two mode, it cannot move to a battlefield where a teammate has units.

How do spells and abilities move units?

A spell or ability moves a unit the way its text says, and the move costs the unit nothing: it does not have to be ready, and it is not exhausted by the move. So cards can move an exhausted unit, take a unit along a route the standard move does not allow, or move an enemy unit.

• Ride the Wind, an Action spell, moves a friendly unit and readies it, so the unit can move again later in the turn.
• Unforgiven, the Legend of Yasuo, moves a friendly unit to or from its base for 2 Energy and an exhaust of the Legend.
• Charm moves an enemy unit, so you can send a defender back to its base before you attack its battlefield.
• Flash, a Reaction spell, moves up to two of your units to your base, even during your opponent's turn.

The card decides the timing: Charm is played only in your Main Phase outside a showdown, while Action and Reaction cards can move units in the middle of a fight. A move can also save a unit: when your opponent plays Void Seeker to deal 4 damage to your unit at a battlefield, you can answer with Flash and move the unit to your base first. It is no longer at a battlefield, so Void Seeker deals it no damage, although your opponent still draws a card.

Does a unit sent to its base always count as moving?

No. When a card or a rule sends a unit to its base without moving it, the Core Rules call it a recall, and a recall is not a move. Cards that recall a unit say so in their reminder text: "This isn't a move."

A recall does not trigger the abilities that happen when a unit moves, and cards that stop units from moving cannot stop it. The most common recall comes in combat: when a defender survives the combat damage, the attackers still standing are recalled to their base. Zhonya's Hourglass recalls a friendly unit that would die and is killed in its place.

Which cards care about moving?

Many units have an ability that triggers when they move. Traveling Merchant makes you discard a card and draw one each time it moves. Treasure Hunter plays a Gold gear token when it moves, and you can later kill that token to add one Power of any domain. Yasuo, Windrider has Ganking and scores you 1 point the third time he moves in a turn, so he wants cards such as Ride the Wind or Unforgiven to move him again.

Other cards limit movement, and when a card says a unit can't move, it wins over any card that says it can. Vilemaw's Lair stops every unit there from moving to base, and a spell that tries it can still be played, but that move does not happen. Minotaur Reckoner stops every unit from moving to base, yours included, while it is on the board. Mageseeker Investigator makes your opponent pay 1 Power of any domain for each unit beyond the first when they move several units at once to the battlefield where it stands, and Gravity Field, another gear from Radiance, makes them pay 1 Energy and 1 Power of any domain to move one or more units to its battlefield.

The units page lists every unit, and the battlefields page shows the battlefields that change how units move. Every standard move costs an exhaust, so how exhaust and ready work decides how many moves your units can make in a turn. A move to a battlefield is made to win a point, and conquering and holding are the two ways a battlefield gives it. The standard move is rule 144 of the Core Rules, moves in general are rules 447 to 455, recalls are rules 456 to 460, and the rule that "can't beats can" is rule 054, all on Riot's Rules Hub.