The League of Legends card game Legends of Runeterra offers two different games modes: a constructed mode where players build their decks with their own card collections, and a “draft” mode called Expeditions where players create a new deck on the fly.
In this guide, we’ll go over how the Expedition game mode works in Legends of Runeterra, how to win and what rewards you can get.
What is Expedition in Legends of Runeterra?
Expedition is a draft game mode in Legends of Runeterra where players build their decks on the spot from a pool of random card packs.
Players then battle against other opponents to try and win 7 wins with the deck. However, if you lose two times in a row, your Expedition run is over!
For each Expedition run, you get two trials. After completing the two trials, you’ll get rewards based on the better performance.
How to start an Expedition in Runeterra
To start an Expedition run for free, you will need an Expedition Token. These can be obtained if you reach at least Level 2 of your Weekly Vault. (Related Guide: How to Level Up your Weekly Vault)
If you run out of Expedition Tokens, you can also pay 2,000 Shards or 200 Coins to start an Expedition. However, we don’t really recommend this, as we’ll explain in the section below. But first, let’s see how Expeditions work!
How do Expeditions work in Runeterra?
Once you embark on an Expedition run, you’ll start drafting your deck for your first trial.
Expedition Drafting
At the start of each trial, players will get 15 rounds of drafting. Each round, you’ll be presented with three card packs which may contain 2–3 cards.
The first 2 rounds will be for Champion picks. It is also crucial to decide which Regions you want to go with at this point, since your deck will be limited to three Regions in an Expedition.
The next draft rounds will alternate between Synergy Picks and Wild Picks. Synergy picks will offer you card packs that try to synergize with your current selections, while Wild Picks are basically any random packs within your selected regions.
Finally, round 15 is the Trade Pick, where you can trade one of your cards for another card.
Also, whereas in constructed game modes you can only add a maximum of three copies of a card, you can have unlimited copies of a card in your Expedition deck.
Expedition Archetypes
You’ll also notice that card packs offered during drafting have a “theme” in them. These are called Archetypes, and cards in each archetype have effects that synergize with each other.
For example, the Arachnophilia archetype features cards that lets you swarm with Spider units, while Afterlife offers units from Shadow Isles region with Last Breath or allied death related effects.
This mechanic is what separates Runeterra’s draft mode from other card games—although your deck is built from random packs, you can still build around a specific theme or synergy!
Battle with other Players
Once you’ve finished building your deck, it’s time to put it to the test! You’ll be matched with other players who also built their own Expedition decks.
Along your Expedition journey, you’ll also get several more Champion and Trade Picks after matches.
How to win Expeditions in Legends of Runeterra
Your Expedition ends when you either reach 7 wins, or lose 2 matches in a row. It’s actually possible to reach your 7th win even if you alternate between 6 wins and 6 losses!
Once you reach your 6th win however, you only get one chance to get your 7th win—if you lose the match, the Expedition ends with a total of 6 wins.
Starting your 2nd Trial
Once you finish your first trial, you’ll get a chance to start your 2nd trial or retire the Expedition and claim your rewards.
The rewards you get from the Expedition depends on which of the two trials has the better performance (i.e. more wins).
What rewards do I get from Expeditions?
Once you finish the Expedition either from winning 7 games or losing 2 games in a row, you’ll be able to claim your rewards based on which of the 2 trials had more wins.
Here’s the complete list of rewards you can get from Expeditions:
- 0 wins: Epic Capsule
- Epic Capsules contain: an Epic, 2x Rares and 2x Commons, all with a random chance to upgrade (including the capsule itself)
- 1 win: Epic Capsule, 100 Shards
- 2 wins: Epic Capsule, 200 Shards
- 3 wins: Epic Capsule, 200 Shards, Common Wildcard
- 4 wins: Epic Capsule, 300 Shards, 2x Common Wildcards
- 5 wins: Epic Capsule, 500 Shards, Rare wildcard, Common Wildcard
- 6 wins: Epic Capsule, 1000 Shards, Rare Wildcard, Common Wildcard
- 7 wins: Epic Capsule, 2000 Shards, 2x Rare Wildcards
As you see, Expedition rewards are pretty decent and you should always use your free Expedition tokens when you can.
However, is it really worth spending 2,000 Shards or 200 Coins for?
Is it worth it to spend Shards or Coins for Expeditions?
The answer is yes and no.
If you just enjoy the game mode, want to gain game experience and knowledge, want to just farm random cards, or you consistently get 6-7 wins, then sure! Go for it.
Otherwise, you’d be better off directly spending your Shards on Wildcards.
Expeditions guarantee you a minimum of 1 Epic (worth 1200 Shards), 2 Rares (300 Shards each) and 2 Commons (100 Shards each) regardless of your number of wins. So you get a total of 1200 + 600 + 200 = 2,000 Shards worth of Wildcards. (Related Guide: How to Get Cards in Runeterra)
Since Expeditions cost 2,000 Shards, that means you breakeven at every single Expedition no matter what, and each additional win is just profit, right?
Well technically yes, but since the cards are random, you might as well spend your shards on Wildcards so you get to choose the actual cards you want to obtain, especially Champions which clock in at 3,000 Shards per copy.
Conclusion
Expedition is a fun game mode that can possibly yield you a lot of cards to add to your collection.
We hope this guide has helped you understand how the draft game mode in Legends of Runeterra works!
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to drop them below! We’ll also have more Runeterra guides in the future, stay tuned and follow us on Twitter!
