Legends of Runeterra Patch 2.1.0 added the game’s second single-player experience to the Lab mode. The 13th experiment, Lab of Legends, includes a roguelike PvE experience where players try to go through nine encounters for exclusive player icons. As the single-player experiment following Journey to the Peak, Lab of Legends is much vaster in terms of the amount of content that a player can experience.
Players pick between one of eight champions, all starting with a premade deck. In addition, between each encounter, players select cards and powers to accumulate that will enhance their strength by a wide margin. Aside from adding on to their premade and Lab-exclusive powers, players can also add items to their cards that augment their effectiveness for the better.
Here’s the list of champions that you can pick from:
- Aphelios
- Heimerdinger
- Lulu
- Lucian
- Riven
- Braum
- Miss Fortune
- Hecarim
After selecting your champion, picking a power occurs right away. Every power and item that can be added to your cards are ordered earlier in their list based on their general usefulness and flexible power level. But due to how expansive this Lab is, some fringe options may be absurdly strong if you find the right circumstance for them.
Here’s a list of every power and item that players can find.
Every known Passive Power
Common
- Sorcery: Round Start: Refill your spell mana.
- Flexible Game Plan: Start of Game: Draw one.
- Wild Inspiration: Your created spells cost one less.
- Dragon’s Rage: When you summon a unit, grant it Fury. It is a Dragon.
- Enfeebling Strike: When you damage an enemy, reduce its Power by the damage dealt.
- Higher Education: When you draw a card, give allies +1/+0 this round.
- Fast Deal: Round Start: Draw a card and give it Fleeting. When you discard a card, shuffle a copy of it into your deck.
- Duelist: When you summon an ally, give it Challenger this round.
- Immortality: Start of Game: Heal your Nexus 10.
- Empty Mind: When your hand is empty, draw one.
Rare
- Domination: Round start: Rally.
- Can’t Stop; Won’t Stop: Allied buffs (except Barrier) are permanent.
- Manaflow: Start of Game: Get an empty mana gem.
- Out the Gates: Start of the Game: Summon a two-cost unit from your deck.
- Best Defense: Allies have “Attack: Raise my Health to match my Power.”
- Grit: Allies have “Attack: Raise my Power to match my Health.”
- Spellslinger: Your spells cost one less.
Epic
- Black Market Discount: Round End: Reduce the cost of your most expensive card in your hand by one.
- Evolution: Allies have +1/+1 for each keyword they have.
- Lil’ Buddies: Round Start: Summon a random one-cost Poro.
- Nature’s Revenge: When you gain an attack token, summon a Sapling.
- Trifarian Might: When you summon a 5+ power unit, it strikes the Weakest enemy.
- Share the Bounty: When you target an ally with a single-target spell, copy it on your weakest ally.
- Yipp’s Genius: When you summon a one-cost unit, grant it +2/+2.
Every known item for units
Common
- Banshee’s Veil: SpellShield.
- Doran’s Blade: +1/+1.
- Giant’s Belt: +0/+2.
- Pickaxe: +2/+0.
- Philosopher’s Stone: When I’m summoned, draw one.
- Phantom Dancer: Quick Attack.
- Chain Vest: Tough.
- Locket of the Iron Solari: Barrier.
- Sterak’s Gage: Fury.
- The Brutalizer: Overwhelm.
Rare
- Avarice Blade: Attack: Nab one.
- Archangel’s Staff: When I’m summoned, refill your mana equal to my cost.
- Phage: +2/+2.
- Ancient Coin: -1 Cost.
- Twin Shadows: When I’m summoned, summon an Ephemeral copy of me.
- Warmog’s Armor: Regeneration.
- Frozen Mallet: +4/+4, costs two more.
- Spirit of the Spectral Wraith: +3/+3, but Epehmeral.
Epic
- Hunter’s Machete: Scout.
- Ninja Tabi: Elusive
- Nomad’s Medallion -2 cost
- Lichbane: When you cast a spell, grant me +1/+1.
- Stark’s Fervor: Last Breath: Rally.
- Spirit Stone: When I’m summoned, create a Fleeting copy of me in hand.
Every known item for spells
Common
- Mana Potion: -1 cost
- Elixir of Skill: When cast, draw one.
- Health Potion: When cast, heal your Nexus three.
- Poro Snax: When cast, summon a random one-cost Poro.
Rare
- Elixir of Sorcery: When cast, cast me again onto the same targets.
- Tear of the Goddess: -2 cost
- Wooglet’s Witchcap: When cast, shuffle two copies of me into your deck. They cost one.
Epic
- Spellbinder: When you cast a spell, reduce my cost by one.
- Chalice of Harmony: -3 cost.
Card selection and fight order
- Passive Power
- Spider Fight
- Support Champion (pick one of three packs of that have two copies of each card in it)
- Mistwraith Fight
- Champion Item, select an item to add to one of your champions and get an extra copy of that champion
- Thresh Fight
- Passive Power
- Reinforcements (select a spell and add two copies to deck)
- Hunters Fight
- Reinforcements select a card with an item and add two copies to your deck (but do this twice)
- Scars Fight
- Spell Reinforcements (select a spell with an item to add two copies to your deck)
- Reinforcements select a card in your deck, add an item, and add an additional copy to your deck
- Sejuani fight
- Passive Power
- Champion Item, select an item to add to one of your champions and get an extra copy of that champion
- Foundry fight
- Reinforcements; select a card in your deck add an item and an additional copy to your deck
- Guard Bots fight
- Reinforcements; select a card in your deck, add an item and an additional copy to your deck
- Viktor fight
General tips
The 30 Nexus health you start off with is carried over between your matches. This means that if you have the means to heal in the middle of your combat, it may be worth avoiding winning in certain moments so you can find your restorative or Lifesteal cards to reach a higher health total before claiming victory. You don’t need to do this for every fight, though, since the game will restore your health to full after defeating the Thresh and Sejuani boss.
When it comes to picking items for your units and spells, you can always stack multiple items onto the same card, so it may be best to go for that when given the opportunity. This is due to the fact that having one card boosted to absurd heights of power can be better than having multiple cards at a slightly elevated level of strength, in addition to improving your odds of finding it.
Much like Journey to the Peak, this Lab is still considered an AI fight. That means you have infinite time each turn to consider the best play, so don’t feel too pressured when trying to find a specific line of victory. This is also enforced by Labs being a casual environment in general.
Tips for each fight
Spiders: As the first fight, it’s pretty easy to claim board control despite the free 1/1 Spider added to the AI’s hand each turn. Due to being within the first three encounters, this battle only has 10 Nexus health to defeat, allowing you to find lethal opportunities fairly quickly.
Mistwraith: As the name of this encounter implies, the enemy deck is filled with Mistwraiths that scale in power as the fight goes on. Try your best to defeat Mistwraiths that have low attack since any left alive will increase in power once a new copy is summoned.
Thresh: Even though he’s the first boss, Thresh still only has 10 Nexus health, making him vulnerable to getting burned. Since he starts with Vaults of Helia, trying to remove his threats before they die and get replaced by a higher mana cost unit will be paramount to victory. The most expensive unit in his deck is five, so once Thresh or Tortured Prodigy reach the board, the Vaults are effectively worthless.
Since Thresh is a champion, he always has a copy of himself in hand, so you should be ready to play around his champion spell, The Box, if you’re trying to develop your field. As long as you can clear the board and prevent Thresh from leveling up, you should be able to claim victory and then restore your Nexus to full health.
Hunters: As the second act of encounters, the enemy Nexus will now have 20 health. Since your weakest unit will be given Vulnerable each round, only play what you’re willing to lose if you can’t immediately protect it. Outside of that, there’s nothing too special about this encounter.
Scars: Since the enemy is starting with a free Scargrounds, you’ll need to try to avoid blocking enemy units with your weaklings. Otherwise, the enemy cards will be more difficult to remove later. While this might mean taking a little more damage, it may be worth it to help guarantee victory.
Sejuani: Similar to Thresh, you should expect to play around a Sejuani as soon as turn six and Fury of the North if she has four spare mana active. Since this is a boss fight, you won’t need to worry about healing to full in the middle of combat since winning will bring you back to full.
Foundry: As the final act of encounters, the enemy Nexus now matches your health and starts with 30. Since this enemy begins with Hexcore Foundry, you can mulligan your hand more aggressively because you’ll draw more cards than usual when compared to regular games of LoR.
This is one of the more difficult encounters within the Lab due to the free mana discount the Foundry has. Despite this, as long as you maintain board control, you should be able to claim victory since they don’t have many options for the late game.
Guard Bots: Every turn, this AI will summon a free Heimerdinger turret, which will give them a ton of free value and immediate tempo. While this will be difficult to overcome initially, all of the turrets are one health, making them susceptible to getting pinged off by one-damage abilities.
Outside of the AI’s power, their deck has a ton of weak Piltover and Zaun units and removal-based spells to try to halt your board development. Once the Elusive turret has been summoned, the Guard Bots will only summon 8/8 dinosaurs each turn.
Viktor: As the final encounter, Viktor has the greatest synergy between his power when compared to the other bosses. Since most of his followers start with multiple keywords, it’s easy for them to accrue many bonus stats that will quickly overwhelm you as you develop your board.
One major aspect to consider when tackling this encounter is that anytime Viktor adds a keyword to his units (through means like his Hex Core Upgrade or Mechanized Mimic), they’ll gain an extra +1/+1 in bonus stats. This means you need to look out for potential stat increases and play around those opportunities when they’re presented.
Players have until Feb. 24 to try out this roguelike Lab experience and claim their eight icons before it has a chance of rotating out.
Published: Feb 12, 2021 10:02 pm