How does War, the four-player mode, work?

Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game has a mode for four players at one table, called War. Every player plays for themselves against the other three, with no teams, and three battlefields stand in the middle of the table. The Core Rules call the mode FFA4, short for a free-for-all of four players, and set it out in rule 490.

Each player brings a normal deck with three battlefields, as for a one-on-one Duel, and most of the game plays exactly like a Duel. The differences are in the setup, the first round of turns and a few rules that keep every fight between two players.

How do you set up a game of War?

You set up a game of War like a Duel, except that the first player is chosen before the battlefields. The players pick the first player with any fair random method they agree on, such as a roll of a die, and turns then go clockwise from that player.

The first player's battlefields are not used. Each of the other three players picks one of their three battlefields at random, and those three go into the middle. The first player's deck therefore brings no battlefield to the game, and all three battlefields in play come from the decks of the other players. Every player then draws four cards, and the players take their mulligan in turn order.

With the Proving Grounds box, which holds four decks that bring one battlefield each, the three players who do not go first simply use the battlefield their deck came with.

What changes in the first round of turns?

Two rules make up for the order in which the four players start. The player who goes first does not draw a card in their first Draw Phase, and the player who goes last channels three runes instead of two in their first Channel Phase. The second and third players take their first turn as normal.

In a Duel, by comparison, the first player draws as normal and the extra rune goes to the second player.

Can more than two players fight at one battlefield?

No. A combat in Riftbound is always between exactly two players, and the Core Rules keep a third player out in three ways.

• A unit cannot move to a battlefield where units of two other players already stand.
• While a combat between two other players is waiting to start or going on at a battlefield, a player with no units there can neither move units to it nor play units to it.
• Any choice that would make three players fight at the same time is not allowed.

A battlefield where two of your opponents are fighting is therefore closed to you until the fight is over. Afterwards the winner usually controls it, often with fewer units than before, and you can attack it on your own turn. The fight itself works as in a Duel: each side adds up the Might of its units and assigns that much damage to the units of the other side.

Can the other two players act during a fight?

Yes. Every fight opens with a showdown, and in a showdown Focus, the right to play the next card, passes around the whole table in turn order. The two players who are not in the fight may use their Focus to play spells and abilities with Action or Reaction, to help either side or to weaken both, although they cannot play units into the fight. The showdown ends only when all four players have passed in a row.

The How to Play booklet of Proving Grounds still lets only the two fighting players act unless one of them invites the others, but Riot removed that rule from the Core Rules in its patch of 24 October 2025 because it left players unable to defend themselves.

How do you win a game of War?

You win when you have 8 points or more and more points than each of your three opponents. If two players have 8 or more with the same score, play goes on until one of them is ahead. Points come from the battlefields, as in a Duel: one when you conquer a battlefield and one for each battlefield you hold at the start of your turn.

Holding is harder with four players, because a battlefield you take has to last through the turns of all three opponents before you can hold it for a point. The last point is harder still. With 7 points, a conquer gives you the final point only if you have scored all three battlefields that turn, and otherwise you draw a card instead. Plan to win with a hold, or with a card that gives points directly, since the final point rule does not limit those. A player who burns out chooses which opponent gains the point, and with three opponents that choice can decide the game.

A player may also concede at any time, and the game goes on without them. Every card they own leaves the game, and if the battlefield they brought is in play, a token battlefield with no abilities takes its place, while the other players' units there stay where they are. When only one player is left, that player wins.

Which cards and plans work best in War?

Cards that count your opponents, or every other player, do more in War, because there are three of them instead of one.

• Party Favors, a Calm spell from Origins, has each other player choose Cards or Runes, and you and that player then each draw a card or each channel an exhausted rune. With three other players, you get three and each of them gets one.
• Card Sharp, a Mind unit from Spiritforged, lets you and each opponent play an exhausted Gold gear token, and you play one more Gold for each opponent who did.
• Blind Fury, a Fury spell from Origins, reveals the top card of each opponent's Main Deck and lets you play one of them without paying its cost, so you pick from three cards instead of one. Drakehound Packmaster is a Fury unit of Radiance, the set with its release on 23 October 2026, and does the same when you play it.
• Tianna Crownguard, a Calm unit from Spiritforged, stops all three opponents from gaining points while she is at a battlefield.

Beyond the cards, watch the score of every opponent. A player close to 8 points is a problem for the whole table, so the others will often attack the leader for you, and an early lead of your own tends to draw attacks from all sides. When a card makes you give a point away, as Draven, Audacious does when he dies in combat, give it to the player furthest from winning. Expect the game to take longer than a Duel, since three other turns pass before yours comes around again.

Where can you play War?

War suits a games night at home and casual store events. Riot's description of organized play says that events can be played one on one, two versus two or as free-for-all games for three or four players, and the store that runs a Nexus Night chooses its format. The event finder lists the stores near you. War is one of five modes of play, next to the Duel and the Match for two players, Skirmish for three players and Magma Chamber for two teams of two.