Riot promises to improve LoL battle pass experience, but Hextech chests aren’t coming back

Player dissatisfaction seems to be at an all-time high in the League of Legends community, driven primarily by Riot Games’ decision to remove Hextech Chests and other rewards from the game. In a recent dev blog, however, the dev promised changes—but Hextech Chests won’t be part of them.

Riot devs spoke on this and more in a Feb. 7 developer blog, claiming that the changes made to Hextech Chests and the broader League of Legends ecosystem were supposed to make the game more sustainable but have become unpopular with players. Even so, Riot remains committed to keeping League free and plans to improve the way its ecosystem functions by re-shaping some of its aspects, chiefly in the battle pass department, which should now provide more rewards, higher quality skins, and be much easier to progress through.

One of the major aspects of Riot’s new battle pass policy will be better battle pass-specific skins. The developer aims to improve them “with more distinct visual effects and model updates” and even have them unlock the champion for you if you don’t own it, hopefully offsetting some of the reductions in Blue Essence income players might have been experiencing in Season 2025. Battle pass skins can also deviate from the current seasonal theme to “allow for more variety” and ensure players are getting actually unique cosmetic pieces (some have previously said how the current battle pass skins in League are not worth the effort given their quality).

Earning experience in the battle pass itself should also be much quicker and easier after these changes take effect. “Certain unpopular or difficult battle pass missions will be removed or reworked,” Riot said, adding that Teamfight Tactics should also contribute more to the overall XP gain in the battle pass, allowing avid enjoyers of League‘s alternative mode to progress through the battle pass at a much faster and less frustrating rate.

Riot also announced the return of the Blue Essence Emporium in April this year. For the uninitiated, the Essence Emporium is a timed event in League that lets players purchase exclusive items, rare skins, and other cosmetics for “free,” using Blue Essence rather than paid currencies. We last saw it in June 2024, so here’s hoping Riot does something great with it this time around and makes it tied to champions and other issues that players have reported on over the current season.