What does Tank do?

Tank is a keyword in Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game that decides which unit is hit first in a fight. When combat damage is handed out at a battlefield, a unit with Tank has to be given enough damage to kill it before the units on its side without Tank take any. A Tank stands in front of the units beside it, whether its side is attacking or defending.

Tank is printed on units with the reminder "I must be assigned combat damage first." It appears in Origins, Spiritforged, Unleashed and Vendetta, most often in Calm and Order, and Radiance, the fifth set, with its release on 23 October 2026, brings more cards with Tank. A few cards give Tank to a unit for a turn.

How does Tank work in combat?

Tank changes the order in which combat damage is handed out, and nothing else. When a combat reaches its damage, each player splits damage equal to the total Might of their units among the enemy units, and a unit must be given lethal damage, enough to kill it, before any goes to the next one. Tank adds one rule on top: every enemy unit with Tank must be given lethal damage before any enemy unit without Tank can be given any.

Lethal damage is counted from the unit's Might at that moment, and damage already on it counts. Sunlit Guardian, a Calm unit from Origins with 3 Might, Shield and Tank, defends with 4 Might, so an attacker has to put 4 damage on it before anything else. If Hextech Ray dealt it 3 earlier in the showdown, 1 more is enough. When a player has less damage than the Tank needs, all of it goes into the Tank.

What does Tank change in a fight?

Tank decides which units fall when the damage runs short. Say you hold a battlefield with Sunlit Guardian and Clockwork Keeper, a unit with 2 Might, and your opponent attacks with 3 Might in total. All 3 damage must go to the Guardian, which defends with 4 Might, so it survives, the Keeper takes nothing and the battlefield stays yours. Without Tank, your opponent would give 2 damage to the Keeper to kill it and the last 1 to the Guardian.

Tank does not change how much damage it takes to kill a whole side. Had your opponent attacked with 6 Might, both units would die, with or without Tank. So Tank pays off most on a unit with a lot of Might, which soaks more damage before the units behind it are touched. Volibear, Imposing, a Body champion unit from Origins, has 10 Might and Shield 3, so he defends with 13.

Tank works for attackers too. Sunlit Guardian and Volibear, Imposing use it to defend, and Jarvan IV, Royal Heir, an Order champion unit from Radiance, uses it to attack. He has 7 Might, Assault and Tank, so he attacks with 8. When he attacks, you may move a unit you control to his battlefield, and a defender with less than 8 Might in total cannot touch that unit.

What happens when several units have Tank?

When two or more units on the same side have Tank, the player assigning damage chooses the order among them, but every one of them must be given lethal damage before any unit without Tank gets any. A second Tank on the same unit does nothing. Block, a Calm spell from Origins, gives a unit Shield 3 and Tank for the turn. On Sunlit Guardian the two Shields add up to Shield 4, so it defends with 7 Might, but the extra Tank changes nothing.

Tank has an opposite in Backline, the keyword of a unit that must be given lethal damage last. When a side has a Tank, a Backline unit and a plain unit, the damage goes to the Tank first, then the plain unit, then the Backline unit. Caitlyn, Patrolling must be assigned combat damage last by her own text. If a card gives her Tank, the player assigning damage gives her damage either first or last, as they choose.

Does Tank protect a unit from spells?

No. Tank works only in the combat damage step, when the Might of each side is turned into damage. Spells and abilities can still choose any unit, so Hextech Ray can hit a unit standing behind a Tank. Stunning a Tank with Rune Prison stops it from dealing combat damage that turn, but it keeps Tank and still has to be given lethal damage first.

Galio, Indefatigable, an Order champion unit from Unleashed, is built on that idea. He has 6 Might for 3 Energy and Tank but deals no combat damage, so he soaks 6 damage before your other units take any. Deflect makes opponents pay one Power of any domain to choose him with a spell or ability, such as Hextech Ray or Rune Prison.

Which cards give Tank or reward it?

Besides Block, several cards give Tank to a unit that lacks it, and two battlefields build on it.

• Yuumi, Magical Cat, a Calm champion unit from Unleashed, gives one of your other units there +3 Might and Tank for the turn when she attacks or defends. She has only 1 Might herself, so the unit with Tank is hit first and covers her.
• Eye of Twilight, the Legend of Shen in Calm and Order from Vendetta, can be exhausted to give a friendly unit Tank for the turn. The ability has Action, so it can be used in a showdown after the opponent has moved in.
• Lillia, Protector of Dreams, a Calm champion unit from Unleashed, gives all your token units Tank, so in a fight your tokens have to be killed before your units without Tank.
• Kinkou Temple, a battlefield from Vendetta, gives units there with Tank +1 Might.
• Durand Memorial, a battlefield from Radiance, has you choose a unit you control there when you defend it, and that unit has Tank for the combat.

How do you get past a Tank?

• Bring enough Might. Count the Tank's Might with its Shield, then the units behind it. Damage beyond what the Tank needs goes on to the next unit.
• Remove it before the damage. Kill the Tank with a spell or move it away during the showdown, since Tank does nothing against spells.
• Ignore it. Dune Surfer, a Fury unit from Vendetta, lets you ignore Tank while you assign combat damage at its battlefield. Only you ignore it, so Tank on your own units still binds your opponent.

Units with Tank are on the units page, and spells like Block are on the spells page. Tank only sets the order in which damage is given, so the rest of a fight is decided as in any other combat, and the Might that a Tank soaks grows with Assault and Shield, by Shield when it defends and by Assault when it attacks. The full wording of Tank is rule 815 of the Core Rules on Riot's Rules Hub.