After the huge community backlash because Riot Games has removed Hextech Chests from the game, Riot Meddler and Riot Palbro has announced in a video – accompanied by a DevBlog, that the Chests are returning alongside other changes, like the cutback and improvement on Exalted skins. The other changes affect champion acquisition, skins, Clash, and in-game stores.
Contents
Hextech Chests Return
After players have been constantly spamming Riot Games to bring back Hextech chests, they have listened to the feedback and will include them in the new Battle Pass system. Eight Chests will be included in the free Battle Pass, replacing the seasonal skin and the Mystery Epic or Lower Skin. Two additional Chests can be earned through the Honor system, reinforcing positive behavior. To accommodate these changes, Riot is consolidating rewards like Blue Essence within the Pass without reducing total earnings.
Hextech Chests will contain the same rewards as before, with drop rates including:
- 50% Skin Shards
- 25% Champion Shards
- 10% Emote Permanents
- 11.5% Ward Skin Shards + 150 Bonus Orange Essence
- 3.5% Summoner Icon Permanents + 150 Bonus Orange Essence
- 3.6% chance of 10 Mythic Essence
- 10% chance of a Bonus Chest and Key
With these adjustments, the maximum number of chests a player can earn annually is now 60.
Champion Acquisition – Blue Essence Cost Reduction
To make champion collection more accessible – especially for new players – Riot is reducing the Blue Essence cost of all champions by 50% starting in Patch 25.05. This aims to simplify the process of building a champion roster, ensuring the game remains welcoming for newer players, as well as making it easier for intermediate players to complete their roster of characters.
Skins
Exalted Mordekaiser is delayed after Riot heard feedback from the community. The story skin of the Lord of Death felt lackluster to a lot of players. Additionally, the release of Exalted skins will slow down.
Riot is also improving Seasonal pass skins by replacing one non-Prestige skin with 25 Mythic Essence to address feedback about its scarcity. They are also reducing the total number of seasonal skins, even on the Paid pass, in order to improve quality and select champions with a better method. Moving forward, each pass will feature three thematic skins (two regular and one Prestige). For Act 2, the featured skins will be Prestige Darius, Sion, and Talon.
Riot is also making Exalted skin promotions less intrusive within the client.
Clash Returns to Monthly Schedule
Riot also backtracks on the fact that they made Clash less frequent for 2025. Meddler and Palbro mentioned that Clash is returning, with the March Clash being featuring ARURF (All Random Ultra Rapid Fire mode) and the April Clash featuring standard Summoner’s Rift gameplay. Riot will also seek further input on the preferred rotation of Clash game modes throughout the year.
Your Shop and Blue Essence Emporium Return
While the deletion of Your Shop and the Blue Essence Emporium wasn’t stated outright, players have already started to speculate that to be the next step. However, they will return with Patch 25.06 and 25.07 respectively.
Battle Pass Adjustments Summary
With these updates, the Battle Pass structure is evolving:
- Added: 8 Hextech Chests and Keys
- Free Reward Milestones increased from 20 to 24
- Paid Reward Milestones decreased from 30 to 26
- Removed: Grand Reckoning Alistar and Rell (including emotes and icons), Mystery Epic or Lower Skin
- Added: 25 Mythic Essence to the paid Battle Pass
- No changes to the total Blue and Orange Essence earned
Even though it took a lot of time, Riot Games have acknowledged their mistakes. With players starting to say that the game was doomed as without the sense of progress and rewards, the core gameplay would feel stale for many, the developers are taking action to improve the game – so now we can put down our pitchforks and at least pause the petitions to remove the upper management from the company.
The updates mentioned above will take effect with Patch 25.05, as well as the updates after that – hopefully, Riot Games will keep in mind that the player should be first with a game like League of Legends.
