What is a showdown?

In Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game, a battlefield does not change hands the moment a unit walks onto it. First comes a showdown, a short window at that battlefield in which the players take turns to play spells and use abilities. Only when every player has had the chance to act does the game decide what happens to the battlefield.

Showdowns are where most of the back and forth of a game happens. Outside a showdown, your opponent can only answer what you play on your turn, but inside one they get turns of their own to play cards instead of only answering you.

When does a showdown start?

A showdown starts when a unit arrives at a battlefield that its player does not control, which almost always means the unit has just moved there. Moving units to a battlefield you already control does not start one. The showdown opens as soon as the move is over and nothing is left to resolve.

There are two kinds of showdown, and the battlefield decides which one you get.

• At an empty battlefield, the showdown stands on its own. The rules call it a non-combat showdown: nobody fights, and the only question is whether your units are still there when it ends.
• At a battlefield with enemy units, a combat begins, and its first step is a showdown. The units fight only after that showdown has closed.

So every combat holds a showdown, but not every showdown leads to a combat. Once a showdown has begun, units cannot use their normal move, so units you want at the same battlefield should move there together, in a single move.

The How to Play booklet in the Proving Grounds box skips this step and says that all you have to do to conquer an empty battlefield is to move a unit there. The full Core Rules put a showdown in between, and the Core Rules count where the two differ.

What can you play during a showdown?

During a showdown, only cards and abilities with Action or Reaction can be played. Everything else waits until the showdown is over: spells, units and gear without either keyword, the abilities of units and gear that lack them, and the normal move of a unit. The abilities of runes have Reaction, so you can always pay for the cards you are allowed to play.

Action lets a card be played during any showdown, on your own turn or on your opponent's. Reaction allows everything Action does and also lets a card answer a spell or ability that is waiting on the Chain.

Most cards with Action are spells that change a fight, or the battlefield it is about. Hextech Ray deals 3 to a unit at a battlefield, Rebuke returns a unit at a battlefield to its owner's hand, Block gives a unit Shield 3 and Tank for the turn, and Punch First gives a unit +5 Might for the turn.

Hidden cards can be played in showdowns as well. A card hidden facedown at a battlefield gains Reaction from the turn after it was hidden, so a showdown at its battlefield is the usual moment to turn it over.

Who acts first, and when does a showdown end?

The player whose units started the showdown acts first. In the rules this is called having Focus: the player with Focus may play one card or ability with Action or Reaction, or pass. A card played this way goes on the Chain as usual, and once that Chain has resolved, Focus moves to the next player in turn order. When a player passes, Focus moves on as well.

The showdown ends when every player has passed once in a row without playing anything. In games with three or four players, Focus goes around the table in turn order, so every player can act in every showdown.

What happens when a showdown ends?

What happens next depends on the kind of showdown.

• After a showdown at an empty battlefield, you take control of the battlefield if your units are the only ones there. If you have not scored that battlefield yet this turn, taking it counts as a conquer, which normally scores you a point.
• After the showdown that opens a combat, the units at the battlefield deal their damage, and the combat decides who controls the battlefield.

Control of a battlefield cannot change while a showdown is going on there, and a lot can happen before the end. If your opponent kills your only unit there with Hextech Ray or sends it back to your hand with Rebuke, nobody takes the battlefield. If your opponent moves a unit of their own there, the showdown turns into a combat, with you as the attacker. Zenith Blade, a signature spell of Leona, does exactly that: it stuns an enemy unit at a battlefield and may move a friendly unit to the same battlefield.

Once the showdown, or the combat it led to, is over, your Main Phase carries on. You can move other units, play more cards, start another showdown at a different battlefield or end your turn.

Which cards care about showdowns?

Some cards are built around showdowns and do something only while one is going on.

• Diana, Lunari, a Mind unit from Unleashed, lets you pay 1 Energy when a showdown begins at her battlefield. If you do, you look at the top card of your Main Deck and may recycle it, then reveal the top card and draw it if it is a spell.
• Scorn of the Moon, the Legend of Diana in Mind and Chaos, exhausts to add 1 Energy that can be spent only during showdowns.
• Kai'Sa, Rebel is a Mind unit from Radiance, the fifth set, with its release on 23 October 2026. While she is in a showdown, your spells have Reaction, so even spells without Action can be played there.
• Mystic Vortex, a battlefield from Vendetta, makes cards with Reaction cost one more Power during showdowns there, and hidden cards have Reaction.

Is a showdown the same as Showdown Decks or the Showdown Series?

No. The word has two other uses in Riftbound that have nothing to do with the rule. Showdown Decks are boxes of two ready-made decks built to play against each other, such as the Vendetta Showdown Decks with Zed and Shen. The Showdown Series is a run of official tournaments hosted by event organizers in several countries, listed with the other major events.

Most cards you will play in showdowns are on the spells page, and the battlefields page shows the battlefields that showdowns are fought over. The full rule is set out in rules 341 to 348 of the Core Rules on Riot's Rules Hub. When enemy units meet at a battlefield, the showdown is only the opening of a combat, in which the units deal damage to each other and the survivors decide who keeps the battlefield.