Legends of Runeterra Is Adding a New Type of Champion

Riot Games shared a look at what's coming to Legends of Runeterra throughout 2022 this week, and part of those additions include Jhin, the masked marksmen who's well known from League of Legends. Jhin needs little introduction, but even within Legends of Runeterra's ruleset, he'll function a bit differently than players might've expected. He's considered a "Runeterra Champion," a new type of champion that either doesn't belong to one specific region or has affiliations with multiple regions.

Jhin's big debut in Legends of Runeterra can be seen in the video below featuring the game's developers talking about the game's future and what's coming early this year. The video itself therefor covers quite a bit of content and is nearly 8 minutes long, but you can hear about Jhin starting around the 4-minute mark.

Over on the Legends of Runeterra site, Jon "More Synergy" Stebel shared more information about Jhin and howe the Runeterra champions will affect people's decks in Legends of Runeterra as they're added. Given that these champions who don't call one particular region home, they're able to utilize skills from other regions once they're added to a deck.

"Speaking of Runeterra, you just got a sneak peek at Jhin, our first Runeterra champion," Stebel said. "Rather than being tied to a single region, Runeterra champions tend to wander around the world, or have conflicting allegiances across several regions. Adding one to your deck completely alters your deck-building rules. For example, adding Jhin to your deck allows you to add cards with skills from all other regions. Runeterra champions bring a ton of potential for creative decks that have never been seen before, and we're excited to see what players do with them!"

Jhin will arrive in May, according to the Legends of Runeterra roadmap shared so far for early 2022, but an exact release date hasn't yet been set.

Prior to Jhin's arrival, the developers also said that they plan on adjusting a couple of champions to make them more competitive alongside "major balance updates," but we of course don't yet know what all those things consist of.

"While we're excited for our next expansions, we haven't forgotten about our existing roster," Stebel added. "We're taking a look at some champions who could use some attention to make their game plans smoother to execute and bring them up to a more competitive level."

Legends of Runeterra's first Runeterra champion will arrive in May, so expect Jhin to be added then with more to come afterwards.