Developer Riot Games has added a new system to its MOBA League of Legends (LoL) that allows players to receive skins and champions as gifts. But how does it work?
As of today, the so-called Hextech Crafting is also available on the EU-West servers of League of Legends. Hextech Crafting is a system that rewards you for good games by giving you a chest. This is similar to other games like CS:GO or Team Fortress, where you need to buy keys with real money to open these chests. In League of Legends, that is not the case, as you can also receive these keys as rewards.
This is how Hextech Crafting works in LoL
The system is based, as mentioned, on chests and keys. With a key, you can open a chest and receive the loot contained within it. So let’s first look at how you can obtain such a chest.
Chests: How to get chests in LoL
- Hextech chests are connected to the mastery system for the various champions in LoL.
- You receive a chest if a member of your (premade) group or you yourself achieve a score of “S-” or higher after a game. It does not matter whether the game was a victory or a loss. Currently, this does not count for ARAM or 3v3 games, but only for matchmaking games in the Summoner’s Rift (5v5).
- You can earn up to 4 chests per month, but only 1 per champion per season. This means that if you have received a chest while playing Draven in that game, you can only earn another chest with Draven next season. If Teemo has achieved the S rating in your team and you received the chest because of that, it still counts for the champion you played (Draven). To keep track, you can see in the champion overview on your profile which champion has already received a chest.
- You have 4 opportunities to receive a free chest in a month. When you receive a chest, one of the 4 stacks is consumed – meaning you only have 3 stacks left. These stacks regenerate individually after 7 days.
- If you enjoy opening chests so much that it’s worth money to you, you can also purchase chests and keys in the LoL shop with Riot Points.
Keys – How to obtain keys in LoL
- Unlike chests, any queue can grant you a key – including ARAM and games in the twisted forest (3v3).
- The chance of receiving a key exists only with a victory. However, this chance increases again, the larger your premade group is.
- Keys come in the form of fragments. If you combine 3 of these fragments, you get a Hextech key.
Possible loot:
From the chests, you can receive the following loot:
- Champion Shards
- Cosmetic Shards – these include champion skins and ward skins
- Permanent summoner icons, which are also combined with 150 cosmetic essences (needed for crafting)
- All these rewards can come in combination with a rare gemstone, which gives you another package consisting of chest + key.
How to use shards?
I was lucky when opening my chest and received a shard for the skin “Master Chef Tahm Kench”. There are now various ways in which I can use this shard.
- Re-rolling the shard: Combined with 2 other shards, you can re-roll them and receive a new, permanent skin – this skin is determined randomly. However, the newly rolled skin is independent of how much the 3 combined shards are worth. So I would rather advise against this.
- Activating the shard: This gives me access to this skin for 7 days – the shard is consumed in the process.
- Disenchanting the shard: By disenchanting the shard, you receive crafting material in the form of essences. The higher the RP cost of the skin, the more essences you receive.
- Using essences to permanently unlock this skin for the account. The costs of the essences also depend on how much RP the skin would actually cost.
2 Different types of shards and essences
On one side, there are shards and essences for champions, and on the other side, there are shards and essences for cosmetic items. Both types have the same 4 options for how to use them, but they cannot interact with each other. So, for example, you cannot use 2 champion shards and 1 cosmetic shard together to re-roll a cosmetic shard.
If you already own all champions and therefore have no use for champion shards in LoL, Riot already has plans to provide a solution for that in the future.
Types of Chests
- Hextech Chest: The standard chest – contains a random type of loot.
- Premium Chest: This chest includes a shard for a champion you own, a random shard for a ward, and additionally 800 essences.
- Chest for new players: At summoner level 5, you receive this chest. It contains a shard for Garen and Ashe, as well as a (relatively) random skin for one of these two champions. Additionally, you get some essences from the chest.
Summary
- You receive chests by achieving an S rating in a game, either by you or someone in your group. Maximum 4 per month, 1x per champion in a season.
- If you win games, you earn keys.
- Use the shards to: Combine 3 into a new permanent skin, gain access to the loot for 7 days, disenchant to receive crafting material essences, or use essences to permanently bind the loot to your account.
And now: Have fun opening your chests. I can’t wait to see what loot you had in your first chests!
