League of Legends Designers Defend Blue Essence Earn Rate

The preseason patch is now live in League of Legends, and while everyone's started earning their Blue Essence after each game as opposed to IP, some have expressed concerns that the earn rate of the new currency is too low.

Blue Essence isn't awarded after each game; you'll earn XP instead that'll allow you to level up in the uncapped leveling system, and each time you reach a new level, you'll get a ready-to-open chest that contain champ shards and Blue Essence. The amount of Blue Essence that you'll receive from the chests ranges from 720 – 1240, but some players haven't been too happy about the amount of games it takes to level up and earn your Blue Essence. Riot Mortdog, a game designer for League of Legends created a breakdown on the League boards concerning the Blue Essence earn rates to address questions about earn rates such as the one linked above.

To get started, Riot Mortdog established a couple of baseline factors that are important for understanding the breakdown:

• A Leveling Capsule contains champ shards with a BE value of either 720, 900, 960, or 1,240. (The average value is 910 based on drop rates)
• A Milestone Capsule (every 10 levels) contains champ shards valued at 1,980, 2,160, or 2,220. (The average value is 2,120 based on drop rates)
• First win of the Day was worth 150 IP, and is now worth 575 XP.
• A 37 Minute Game of PVP SR you WON was worth ~100 IP, and is now worth 251 XP.
• A 37 Minute Game of PVP SR you LOST was worth ~67 IP, and is now worth 205 XP.

With that in mind, Riot Mortdog compared two different scenarios – one for a casual gamer and the other for someone who plays quite upwards of 12 games a night – and detailed the results. In the scenarios, it shows that when Riot said that "most players" would benefit from the new Blue Essence system, it seems to benefit those who don't have as much time to play every day. You can check out the full breakdown from the link included that shows how much you can potentially receive whether you find yourself being a Casual Carl or Hardcore Henrietta.

From listening to feedback on the earn rates, Riot has already decided that they'll be upping the minimum Blue Essence drop from chests to 810 instead of 720, so player feedback is certainly being taken into consideration with the future changes.