Riot Games’ new card game called Legends of Runeterra is poised to return this week for yet another preview patch that’s scheduled to release on November 14th. Even though the game hasn’t released yet and has only been playable for a short time before the first preview ended, this second trial will play host to another interesting game mode. It’s a new draft mode called “Expeditions” and it calls on players to adapt their strategies as the play while picking from evolving sets of cards that can be picked or traded.
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The new Expeditions mode was revealed by Riot in a post on the Legends of Runeterra site to cover the latest announcement. The trailer above shows an overview of the Expeditions draft mode and is probably the best method of explaining how it works, especially if you never got to play the card game before but are now interested.
The gist of this game mode is that players can’t use the cards they’ve accumulated through the normal deck-building means. Instead, you’ll be met with bundles of cards that are organized based on archetypes. A “Scrapheap” bundle led by Jinx and an “Ancient Evil” bundle led by Kalista were two examples given with supporting cards to match those themes. Decisions you make will influence what bundles show up as the draft phase continues. “Synergy Picks” are bundles that’ll work well with archetypes you’ve chosen before while “Wild Picks” may not line up with your archetypes but could still prove to be useful wildcards.
As players advance in the Expeditions matches, they’ll choose more champions and supporting cards after rounds. They’ll also have the chance to trade cards with a shopkeeper to adapt their deck further until they end up with a seemingly random pile of cards that’s been turned into a powerful deck through flexibility and creativity.
Expeditions come with two trials to give players another chance to make it to the seventh win where their rewards await them. Players always get a champion for their efforts, but you’ll get enough resources to embark on another Expedition if you do well enough.
These Expeditions won’t be totally free all the time, though players will be able to try them for free in the upcoming preview patch. Three new Expeditions can be attempted each week and can be played by using Shards, Coins, or Expedition Tokens, and for this preview patch, players will get an Expedition Token and 8,000 Shards to try out all three Expeditions.
Legends of Runeterra’s preview patch is scheduled to begin on November 14th at 8 a.m. PT and will run until November 19th.
