In December, we will begin the beta for Wild Rift, the mobile version of League of Legends. We at MeinMMO were invited by Riot Games in advance to test the game, and our editor Alexander Leitsch is very excited. As a LoL player, he felt at home from the very beginning.

What is behind the game? Wild Rift is the mobile version of League of Legends. It is a standalone game that was announced in October 2019 and has been in development for 3 years. Currently, it is in a beta phase, which begins for players from Europe on December 10. Then everyone can try Wild Rift.

The mobile version is expected to differ from the PC version in several ways:

• The controls have been adapted so that characters can be played via touchscreen
• A match is expected to be significantly shorter than in LoL
• There is an adjusted champion pool

But does League of Legends even work on a smartphone? And does it still have that classic LoL feel? We tried it out and made comparisons to the PC game.

Where did the information come from? On December 6 and 7, we from MeinMMO were able to access the beta servers and try out Wild Rift. The played version was patch 1.0, and a Xiaomi Pro 9 was used with Android 10. 

For our preview report, I completed the tutorial, several bot games, and 13 matches against other players. I have been playing LoL since 2012. At times I played at Platinum level, but in recent years, I have mainly been a casual player and a fan of the e-sports scene.

This is what a round of Wild Rift plays like

In Wild Rift, there is not as much lead time as on PC. Even before reaching the outermost turret on Summoner’s Rift, the minions have already appeared and march along the significantly shorter lane. The reduced waiting times and shorter running paths ensure that the mobile version plays extremely fast-paced and action-packed.

There are more frequent ganks and fights, faster first bloods, and shorter waiting times after a death. Of the 13 matches against other players, most ended within 7 to 15 minutes. Only one went until the 28th minute, and that was a very close match throughout.

In doing so, Wild Rift relies on everything you know from LoL:

• You take on the familiar 5 roles: AD Carry, Support, Jungler, Midlaner, and Top Laner. 
• There are various items that can be purchased with gold. You receive gold for kills and last hits
• Each champion has 4 abilities that are unlocked and improved as you level up 
• The goal is to eliminate the enemy Nexus or to kill the opponents often enough that they eventually give up.

Does Wild Rift work for complete beginners? Yes, those who experience their first LoL moments with Wild Rift will be gently guided. There are: 

• numerous tutorials
• many free champions and a trial mode
• Some simplified mechanics, especially regarding items and last hits (we will discuss this later)
• Tool tips that still provide assistance during matches

According to the developers, Wild Rift is supposed to be more beginner-friendly than the PC version. In fact, it can even be advantageous to start completely anew with Wild Rift. There are some differences compared to LoL, especially in terms of controls and mechanics. We will now present these in detail.

This is what makes Wild Rift special

More action in less time: At the preview event, I played several rounds against other players, including Ahri in the mid lane, Graves in the jungle, Braum as support, and Ashe as AD Carry. It immediately stood out positively that each character plays uniquely as they do in LoL and that the assigned roles take on the known tasks from LoL.

I found my matches with Ahri particularly enjoyable. I throw skill shots around, fly across the map, and am always right in the action. It just feels incredibly good to hit enemies with a skill shot that they didn’t see coming. Action is the big plus point for Wild Rift.

I move faster across a smaller map and therefore find myself in combat situations much more often. The distances between top, mid, and bot feel tiny, ganks are a constant danger or a chance for me. Numerous times I have taken the path to one of the other lanes to quickly grab a kill there. And if I do get taken down, then respawn times are also low.

Additionally, Wild Rift reduces all the “pauses” known from LoL. The first 90 seconds at the start of the match, the waiting for minions to appear, the appearance of jungle creatures, or long farming phases. I never really got to focus on farming in any of my matches. So much happened on my lane. 

So for someone like me, who has little time and prefers quick action, Wild Rift may even be more interesting than LoL itself.

Flexible gameplay location: Another positive aspect of Wild Rift is that I am not bound to a specific location. Instead of being at my desk on PC, I’ve already played on the couch, secretly in bed while my partner was sleeping, and outside in a Wi-Fi hotspot. 

Independence from settings: Although LoL itself is not a game that has great hardware requirements, you still need a PC and a screen. Not everyone has that. Some players only use consoles or play only on smartphones. Here too, Wild Rift scores because the requirements are quite low:

For Android, you need at least:

• 1.5 GB RAM
• A Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor
• An Adreno 306 GPU

For iOS, you need:

• An iPhone 6 or higher

The controls of Wild Rift

How do you control the hero? The mobile game uses twin-stick controls. This means you perform actions on the left and right edges of your smartphone. On the left side is a simulated controller stick that allows you to move your character in different directions.

On the right, you have various skills and the auto-attack. You activate this by pressing the corresponding button. The skills can also be activated by pressing, although many of them need to be aimed precisely. Almost every champion has these so-called skill shots.

After pressing the skill button, a telegraph appears, and by moving your finger, you can determine the direction in which the skill travels. The skill button acts as the center, and you don’t need to swipe across the entire touchscreen to aim up or down.

In addition, several mechanics simplify controls on smartphones. You can set a target by holding down the auto-attack, which will be continuously attacked. The attack will occur automatically once the target is in range. Additionally, if you press the attack button again, your character will automatically move toward the target as well. 

How does a LoL player handle with the controls? My biggest concern as a PC player was the issue of precision. Can I land skill shots on a smartphone accurately? Am I quick enough in movement to dodge enemy attacks? 

But I can reassure you. The stick controls work flawlessly, and skill shots can be directed precisely to the desired position, at least with some practice. 

The buttons are large enough and spaced apart enough so that you don’t accidentally press the wrong one in hectic fights. However, the controls do require some adjustment. My first rounds in bot games were a bit clunky, and many skills went awry. I tested this with the champion Ahri, who brings a lot of skill shots, especially when including the ultimate. 

However, I still had issues in later matches with my summoner spells. They are placed too far towards the center for my taste and are thus hard to reach. 

Especially when I wanted to use an emergency flash, I had to slightly adjust the position of my hand. This once led to me not being able to reach my skills in time, causing me to miss two kills.

The differences in gameplay and mechanics

To make League of Legends playable on smartphones, some aspects of gameplay and game mechanics have been adjusted. Much of this felt sensible, but there were also points that personally bothered me.

The map: Wild Rift uses an adapted version of Summoner’s Rift. The map is overall smaller but features the same creatures in the jungle and is identical in structure. However, the inhibitors have been removed. They are automatically integrated into the 3rd turret. The Nexus towers have been completely removed, but the Nexus itself can attack. 

The biggest difference lies in how you move on the map. You always start from the bottom left and fight towards the top right. The developers explained to us that it could be a disadvantage to play with the stick controls from top to bottom, which is why the direction remains consistent.

For you, the map rotates completely, so it can happen that Dragon and Baron suddenly appear on opposite sides. In the first two rounds, this was still confusing, but overall I find this design decision really good and would even wish for such a feature in LoL itself.

Last Hits: A very important mechanic in LoL is the so-called Last Hits. Here, you try to deal the final blow to a minion, the last hit, which provides you with gold and thus allows you to obtain new items that make you stronger.

In Wild Rift, however, there is always gold when a minion dies near you. However, you get more gold when you make the last hit. This feels even easier than in LoL itself.

Your character automatically targets the minion with the lowest health points if you do not manually select another target. You only need to keep moving until the minion has low health to use an attack or ability and claim the additional gold.

In fact, the gold adjustments lead to faster matches and provide a kind of “noob protection.” Even if you do not kill any minions in your lane, you won’t fall too far behind in items. This is a known problem in LoL itself, where players who dominate a lane usually run away from their opponent.

This adjustment is a great advantage for newcomers, but veterans will continue to focus heavily on last hits.

That is different with the items: Besides controls, the biggest differences compared to the PC version are probably with the items. They play an important role in making your character stronger.

Numerous adjustments have been made here:

• There are no potions and no “Doran’s items” with which you would normally start in LoL. You often start with items like the Amplifying Tome (additional ability power) or the Longsword (additional attack damage)
• You only have one item available that can be actively used. This is your shoes, which also provide a brief speed bonus when activated. These shoes can also be enchanted to grant a shield (Locket of the Iron Solari), make you invulnerable (Zhonyas Hourglass), or break you out of stuns (Quicksilver)
• There are no support items, which makes the role of the supporter somewhat more difficult in my opinion
• There are no jungle items
• There are no Mythic items
• Although known items from LoL are used, some have slightly adjusted characteristics or stats. Here, you need to be more careful when purchasing.

Overall, I do not like the item system as much as in the PC version. It offers less diversity, lacks the recently introduced mythic items, and especially supporters have a harder time being present during the laning phase with this system. Also, I find just one active item too few, although I can understand that too many items might pose a problem for smartphone UI.

However, since this is still a beta, adjustments can still be made before the release.

That is different with the champions: Lastly, Wild Rift also features an adjusted champion pool. Only 47 of the 152 champions available on PC are selectable. However, the developers have already promised that more champions will gradually be released. The Noxian brothers Darius and Draven have already been announced for an upcoming update.

Some champions have adjusted skills so they function better on smartphones. I therefore recommend trying familiar faces first in a bot match or in practice mode.

The following champions are available to you:

When we asked, the developers did not rule out that Wild Rift might receive champions that LoL itself does not have in the future. Although it is “unlikely, but not impossible.”

Passive abilities: While in the PC version some champions have passive abilities on “Q”, “W”, “E”, or “R”, the developers at Wild Rift completely refrained from this. Each button is supposed to have an active ability to avoid confusing players. Usually, old passive effects have also been given new active ones.

That is different in the jungle: The overall setup in the jungle is identical, but there are faster respawn times. Additionally, only one dragon of each element appears and Baron appears significantly earlier in the match.

Picture in Picture: A really cool feature is also available for skills that act at great range, such as Ashe’s ultimate.

If you fire it toward the top lane and hit there, a small window appears at the right side that shows the champion hit. This looks cool and gives a really good feeling, especially when you shoot blind.

Game modes, controllers, and payment model

What game modes are there? Wild Rift relies completely on Summoner’s Rift. The ARAM mode, where there is only one lane and 5 players are basically in constant combat, is currently not available. However, you have various modes available for your rounds on the map:

• Training (for trying out champions)
• Co-op vs. AI
• Normal matches
• Ranked matches, where you can compete alone or with 2, 3, or 5 players
• Custom matches for tournaments and fun rounds with friends

Wild Rift can also be linked to your normal LoL account. While you don’t share champions or currencies, at least your friend list is identical. Additionally, there are rewards for active LoL players in Wild Rift, including champions, icons, and more. Specific details will be released by Riot Games later.

Can you play Wild Rift with a controller? In principle, it should be possible to use a controller. In our test, however, the Razer Kishi, which we previously used for ESO, did not work.

How is the game funded? Wild Rift is free to play and uses the same payment model as LoL. You can purchase champions for in-game currency or real money. Additionally, there is a number of champions that are temporarily free to play. 

Skins, emotes, and other cosmetic content are also available for real money. There is no pay-to-win or waiting times like in some mobile games that can only be bridged with money.

However, there is a nice system of missions and level-up rewards through which you can quickly receive rewards. For each level-up, you get, for example, a champion. For level 6 I got Ashe, for level 7 Vi. 

How similar are LoL on PC and Wild Rift really?

Assessment: An extremely successful mobile version of LoL

Wild Rift really surprised me positively during this test. Initially, I was critical of whether I would enjoy a LoL on my smartphone or if I would end up switching back to PC due to lack of precision. But the game took away this concern early on in the tutorial.

It does take an adjustment period to get familiar with the movement and abilities. But you had that before in LoL itself. Once you get used to the controls, you can fully focus on the action-packed fights. Unlike in LoL, there are rarely long “farming phases,” but constantly skirmishes between players, ganks, and large team battles. Wild Rift avoids rest periods, which makes it even more enjoyable for me than the PC version.

With the short rounds, you can also play a match in between, whether on the couch or when you’re on the go – assuming, of course, you have mobile internet or Wi-Fi. Because all content, including testing champions, takes place online.

Wild Rift certainly does not completely reinvent the mobile MOBA. However, the small adjustments to mechanics provide smooth gameplay and support by auto-targeting minions where it is genuinely beneficial. The only downside is the item system, where I miss diversity and especially usefulness for supporters. I hope that Riot will improve this. Otherwise, I am already looking forward to the start of the beta and maybe we will meet in Wild Rift.

Alexander Leitsch

Editor at MeinMMO

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