LoL players discover game-breaking jungle item bug that stunts XP growth

There have always been troublesome bugs in League of Legends, but only a few are as difficult to deal with as ones that affect experience points.

Summoners have supposedly discovered a new glitch that occurs after a player accidentally buys the jungle item as the game starts up. The League player can refund the item without leaving the fountain, but it will be too late because they’ll now receive reduced experience point gains for the rest of the match due to the bug. This does, however, only affect those who take Smite and are using it in a non-jungling role.

In the complaint on the League subreddit, for example, the player was supposed to be playing top lane but accidentally took Smite as their secondary summoner spell. They bought the jungling item out of pure habit, but when they refunded the item, the rest of their game was ruined. Some players also take Smite as part of a unique strategy in other lanes, which means this could become a larger problem.

This bug can also be easily reproduced by simply taking Smite into a game, buying the jungle item, and refunding it. Luckily enough for players, however, Riot Games has already taken notice of the bug in the same League subreddit thread, which means there could be a fix for the glitch in an upcoming patch.

In the meantime, players will need to avoid refunding any jungling items at the beginning of the game since it could stunt their XP growth—especially when using Smite in a different role.

The refund glitch shouldn’t affect players who continue to buy another jungling item and are actually playing the jungle role, but it’s better to be safe than sorry during your solo queue matches until at least Patch 14.8 rolls around on Wednesday, April 17. This update should also include a plethora of different changes to other champions and items in time for the 2024 Mid-Season Invitational. Based on the patch notes, however, it’s unclear exactly when this bug will be addressed or fixed.