Due to a new Chinese law, the drop rates of the loot boxes (Hextech) in League of Legends had to be disclosed.
In League of Legends, there is a chest system that can reward you, similar to Overwatch, CS:GO, or HotS with cosmetic items or champions. Various contents may await players in the chests, some of which are more and some less useful. The chance in China to get a permanent skin or other contents from a Hextech chest has now been disclosed.
Law Forces Disclosure of Drop Rates
On May 1st, a new law comes into effect in China that forces publishers to disclose the drop rates of loot box-like systems. It is likely that games like League of Legends, Overwatch, or CS:GO were not the targets of this law at all. It is assumed that Gacha games, which are very popular in China, were the actual targets, and the law is now also affecting other games with similar systems.
Gacha-what? In simple terms, Gacha is a monetization method used in many successful F2P games in China and Japan. A Gacha is essentially a toy vending machine where users have to insert money to receive a plastic egg. Inside this egg is a prize (in most cases, a toy collectible).
Anyone looking to complete their toy collection must invest a lot of luck (and money) because some figures are rarer than others. Those who get duplicate figures can trade them with friends or other players. The comparison to loot box systems in which players collect skins or champions becomes quite clear.
The following drop rates for Hextech chests have now been disclosed on the Chinese League of Legends website:
According to the translation by Reddit user NeoThermic, the following loot chances exist:
- Champion Shards: 14.61%
- Skin Shards: 45.135%
- Permanently Available Champions: 7%
- Permanently Available Skin: 29.255%
- Summoner Icons: 2%
- Ward Skins: 2%
- Gem Stones are sadly not listed here.
An important note regarding these drop rates: Permanently available champions or skins can only be obtained from special event boxes. The mentioned numbers are likely related to event Hextech chests. It is impossible to directly get champions like Graves from a normal Hextech chest, which is called “Portals” in China, without using resources for the activation.
Keep in mind that there may be different drop rates for these items in China than on our servers. An ultimate skin costs about 3250 RP with us and around 20,000 RP in China. Hextech-Annie costs 10 gems with us and 40 gems in China. As a comparison, you see the Chinese RP prices for some skins in the following image (screenshot from user QDP2):
It is therefore possible that the drop chances on our servers are only similar or different compared to the drop rates shown above from the Chinese LoL website.
While the low percentages for ward skins are quite realistic from my own experience. I have only found one in my many opened chests.
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