How do XP and Level work?

Riftbound: the League of Legends trading card game gave players a new resource with Unleashed, the third set, which came out in English on 8 May 2026. That resource is XP, a number each player builds up during a game. Level is the keyword that reads it: a card with Level carries extra text that works only once your XP is high enough.

In League of Legends, a champion earns experience and levels up during a match. In Riftbound the XP belongs to you as a player rather than to one unit, and one total powers all your Level cards.

What is XP in Riftbound?

XP is a resource that each player gains and spends during a game, and the Core Rules set no upper limit on how much you can collect (rule 733). XP stays with you from turn to turn until a card spends it. Unlike Energy and Power, which empty from your Rune Pool at the end of every turn (rule 167), XP is not part of the Rune Pool. It is not a card or a unit either, so nothing can target it, exhaust it or ready it (rule 731).

Your XP has to be marked clearly, and it is public information, so your opponent may know your total at any time (rule 729). A die, counters or a note does the job, and Unleashed also has an XP Tracker token card made for it. In Magma Chamber, the two-versus-two mode, teammates do not share XP: each player keeps their own total (rule 732).

How do you gain XP?

You gain XP whenever a card tells you to. Cards do it in several ways, and the best known is Hunt.

• From Hunt. Hunt is a keyword on units: when a unit with Hunt conquers or holds a battlefield, you gain as much XP as its Hunt number, and Hunt without a number gives 1. Mosstomper has Hunt 2 and Voracious Gromp has Hunt 3.
• When you play them. Demacian Diplomat gives you 1 XP when you play it, and Herald of Spring gives you 2.
• From your Legend. Keeper of the Hammer, the Legend of Poppy, gives you 1 XP when you hold a battlefield. Voidreaver, the Legend of Kha'Zix, gives you 1 XP when you win a combat.
• From a battlefield. Gardens of Becoming lets every unit there exhaust to give its controller 1 XP, so it works for both players.
• From spells. Stare Down moves every enemy unit at a battlefield that has less Might than one of your units to its base and gives you 1 XP as well.

What does Level do?

Level switches on a piece of text once you have enough XP. A card that reads Level 6 followed by text has that text only while you have 6 XP or more (rule 824). The text works the moment you reach the number and stops the moment you drop below it. There is no separate level to keep track of: your XP total is your Level.

The Level steps printed on Unleashed cards are 3, 6, 11 and 16, and a card can have several of them. Four cards show how different Level text can be.

• Scorchclaw shows both halves of the system on one card. It has Hunt 2, and its Level 3 text gives it +1 Might and lets it enter ready.
• Wuju Master, the Legend of Master Yi, gives your units +1 Might at Level 6 and makes them enter ready at Level 11.
• Master Yi, Unstoppable costs 12 Energy and 3 Calm Power, but he gets cheaper at Level 3, 6 and 11, until he costs 6 Energy and no Power at all. At Level 16, enemy spells and abilities cannot choose him.
• Spells can have Level too: Combat Experience gives a unit +1 Might this turn, or +3 Might if you have 6 XP or more.

Timing matters for Level text that does something as a card is played. Wuju Apprentice draws you a card when you play it at Level 6, so you need the 6 XP before you play it. Gaining XP a moment later does not draw the card, and in the same way Scorchclaw only enters ready if you already have 3 XP.

How do you spend XP?

Some cards ask you to spend XP as a cost. Spending lowers your total by that amount, and you cannot spend XP you do not have. Four of them show the range.

• Crowd Favorite can spend 2 XP to buff itself, which gives it a +1 Might buff if it has none.
• Keeper of the Hammer spends 3 XP and exhausts to draw a card. Voidreaver spends 1 XP and exhausts to buff a unit.
• Kha'Zix, Evolving Hunter lets you spend 3 XP when he attacks to deal damage equal to his Might to an enemy unit at his battlefield.
• Conscription takes control of an enemy unit at a battlefield with 3 Might or less. If you spend 5 XP as an additional cost, it can take any enemy unit at a battlefield.

Should you spend XP or save it for Level?

Spending XP can switch your Level text off, so a deck with both kinds of card has to choose. Take a deck with Keeper of the Hammer as its Legend and Gemhand Hunter, a unit with +1 Might at Level 6. With 6 XP, that unit has its extra Might. If you then spend 3 XP to draw a card with Keeper of the Hammer, you drop to 3 XP, and Gemhand Hunter loses its +1 Might until you are back at 6.

The safe habit is to count before you spend. Spend XP when you stay at or above every Level step that matters to your board, or when the effect wins you the turn, and hold on to it when you are just short of a step. Since XP does not run out at the end of a turn, saving it costs you nothing but the effect you passed up.

Whose XP does a Level card count?

A Level card always counts the XP of the player who controls it. Your opponent's XP never switches on your cards. When a card changes hands, it counts its new controller's XP from then on (rule 824.1.c.1). If you take an enemy unit with Level using Conscription, its Level text works at your total, not your opponent's.

Every card that gains, spends or counts XP in Unleashed is in the Unleashed card list, and the champion pages of Master Yi, Kha'Zix and Poppy show the Legends and champion units that build or use it. Because a unit with Hunt pays you XP once when it conquers a battlefield and again when it holds it, decks built around Level cards tend to include units with Hunt.