How do you pay for a card in Riftbound?

Every unit, spell and gear in Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game is paid for with runes. Your runes come from a rune deck of 12 cards. In the Channel Phase of each of your turns you channel two of them onto the board, or three in your first turn if you go last. Every rune on the board can pay in two ways: you exhaust a rune to add 1 Energy, or you recycle it to add 1 Power of its domain. Energy and Power pay different parts of a cost, and paying well is a matter of using the two ways in the right order.

What does the cost of a card ask for?

The cost sits in the top left corner of a card and has two parts. The number is the Energy cost, and each point of it is paid with 1 Energy, which a rune of any domain can make. The domain symbols stacked under the number are the Power cost, and each symbol is paid with 1 Power of that domain, which a rune makes only for its own domain. Many cards have no Power cost at all.

Noxus Hopeful costs 4 Energy and no Power. Kraken Hunter costs 3 Energy and 2 Body Power. Rhasa the Sunderer costs 10 Energy and 1 Chaos Power, and Time Warp costs 10 Energy and 4 Mind Power.

In what order is a card played and paid for?

The Core Rules play every card in the same six steps, and the payment comes near the end.

1. You put the card on the Chain, where cards wait while they are being played.
2. You make its choices: where a unit will enter, what a spell will affect, and whether to pay an optional extra cost such as Accelerate.
3. You work out the total cost. Extra costs are added, cost increases are applied and discounts are taken off.
4. You pay the total cost by exhausting and recycling runes.
5. The game checks that everything is legal, the payment included.
6. The card is played: a unit or gear enters the board, and a spell stays on the Chain until it resolves.

If the cost was not paid in full, the check fails and everything done while playing the card is undone. Because the total is worked out first, you know exactly what you owe before you touch a single rune.

How do you spend your runes on a cost?

The best order is nearly always the same: exhaust runes for the Energy first, then recycle runes you have already exhausted for the Power. Recycling does not need a ready rune, so one rune can give 1 Energy and then 1 Power. Say your deck plays Body and Order, you control three Body Runes and two Order Runes, and you want to play Kraken Hunter.

1. You exhaust two Body Runes and one Order Rune, which adds 3 Energy.
2. You recycle the two Body Runes you just exhausted, which adds 2 Body Power. Both go to the bottom of your rune deck.
3. You spend the 3 Energy and the 2 Body Power, and Kraken Hunter enters play.

You are left with three runes: the exhausted Order Rune, and a Body Rune and an Order Rune that are still ready to pay 2 more Energy this turn. Had you recycled the two ready Body Runes instead, all three runes left would be exhausted. A recycled rune waits at the bottom of your rune deck until the runes above it are gone and you channel it again.

How do discounts and extra costs change what you pay?

Discounts and extra costs are part of the total cost, so they change the price before any rune is used. Each one says which part it changes: a number in a circle changes the Energy, a domain symbol changes the Power, and no cost drops below 0.

• Energy discounts. Rhasa the Sunderer costs 1 less for each card in your trash. With ten or more cards there it costs no Energy at all, but you still recycle a Chaos Rune for its Chaos Power.
• Power discounts. Kraken Hunter lets you spend buffs from units you control as an extra cost, and each buff takes one Body symbol off its cost. With two buffs spent it costs 3 Energy and no Power.
• Extra costs. Accelerate is an optional extra cost of 1 Energy and 1 Power of the unit's domain that makes the unit enter ready. Kraken Hunter with Accelerate costs 4 Energy and 3 Body Power: you exhaust four runes, three of them Body Runes, and recycle those three.

Can you pay on your opponent's turn?

Yes. The two abilities of a rune are Reactions, so you can use them whenever something has to be paid for, on your opponent's turn and during a showdown as well. Adding Energy or Power happens at once, and your opponent cannot answer it.

What limits you is how many runes are still ready. Your runes ready again only in your own Awaken Phase unless a card readies them, so on your opponent's turn only the runes you left ready can be exhausted for Energy. Any rune on your board can still be recycled for Power, ready or exhausted. To keep Not So Fast, a Reaction spell for 2 Energy and 1 Calm Power, available for your opponent's turn, you need two ready runes and one Calm Rune, which may be one of the two or an exhausted one.

Runes pay for abilities in the same way, such as the 1 Energy that gives Renekton, Brute +1 Might this turn. Add Energy and Power only when you pay, because your rune pool empties at the start of each Main Phase and at the end of every turn, and whatever is left in it is lost.

What are the rules for paying at a tournament?

The Tournament Rules of 9 October 2026, which apply from 16 October 2026, set three habits for paying with runes, all worth keeping at home as well.

• A recycled rune goes to the bottom of the rune deck straight away. Leaving it face down on the board as a reminder of the Energy you have left is not allowed.
• Energy or Power you have added but not spent must be shown in a way both players can follow, such as with dice or counters.
• You may ready the runes you just exhausted, or take back the runes you just recycled, as long as no new action has been taken and focus has not been passed.

The runes page shows the basic rune of each domain, and the gear page lists gear that adds Energy or Power without using up a rune, such as Seal of Rage, which adds 1 Fury Power when you exhaust it, and Energy Conduit, which adds 1 Energy the same way. Because a deck gets Power only from recycling runes of the matching domain, the mix of domains among its 12 runes decides how often it can pay its Power costs, which is the question behind how many runes of each domain a deck should bring.