Now we all now Hextech is a fusion of technology and downright wizardry, but what does it mean for you, the player? Tl;dr: it means you get some really neat stuff. But we understand that this high leveled magic can be pretty complex. Below you'll find a glossary to explain the different elements of Hextech Crafting. Want to learn more? Check out the Hextech Crafting FAQ.
Hextech Crafting Glossary
Earn these through achieving a Mastery rank of S- or higher, or purchase them in the store for RP. A chest requires a key to open, and will contain a piece of content and possibly a certain amount of essence. Some details:
- You have four chest slots in your profile; once you’ve earned four chests, you won’t be able to earn more until a chest slot unlocks. Chest slots unlock seven days from when you first locked the slot, but only one slot unlocks at a time. Purchasing chests doesn’t contribute to this limit, so even after locking all four slots, you can purchase another. You can purchase up to 40 chests per day.
- Once you earn a chest from achieving S rank on a champion, you won’t be able to earn another with that champion until the beginning of the next season. You can see which champions you’ve earned chests with in your profile’s Champions tab. This chest cap resets each season.
- If someone in your premade group earns an S rank, you’ll receive a chest as well! The chest you receive is tied to the champion you’re playing, so that champion will be unable to earn more chests for this season. If multiple players in your premade receive an S- or higher in a single game, only one chest will be granted for that game.
- You can only earn chests if you're playing a champion you own. So, if you rent a champion or play an unowned champion on the free rotation, you won't be able to earn a chest with them. However, if your premade partner earns an S rank on a champion they don't own, you can still earn a chest from their S rank as long as you own the champion you're playing.
- Eligibility to earn Hextech Chests is linked to honor and is affected by playing games and avoiding penalties like chat restrictions and bans. For more information, visit the following: Honor and Hextech Crafting Restrictions
Keys, perhaps unsurprisingly, open chests. Key fragments are now linked to Honor and will drop by playing games and avoiding penalties like chat restrictions and bans. Fragments will not drop immediately after games but rather while browsing the client or upon logging in sometime after you’ve played some games.
Each player's key fragment drop rate is unique. You can earn up to 12 key fragments in a 4 week period, and the drops should feel evenly spread out through the month. After four weeks, the timer is reset.
Use essence to forge shards into permanent content. There are two types of essence, each unique to the corresponding shard type. Disenchanting a champion shard provides Blue Essence, which can only be used for unlocking champions. Disenchanting a skin shard provides cosmetic essence, which can only be used for unlocking skins. The essence cost of unlocking a piece of content scales with its RP cost.
You can use Blue Essence, along with Mastery tokens, to unlock Mastery Levels 6 and 7.
A completed piece of content in your Hextech inventory. As with shards, you can disenchant a permanent, or combine three permanents to receive a random new permanent. Of course, you can redeem it to add it to your account...permanently. Once activated, permanents disappear from your Hextech inventory and are available for use immediately.
You can use a champion permanent, along with Mastery tokens of the same champion, to unlock Mastery levels 6 and 7.
When you choose the "re-roll" option you select 3 permanent shards to use - the 3 permanent shards are burned and the result is automatically added to your champion or skin pool. Think about this carefully before you shout YOLO and slam dunk the re-roll button!
Forge Mythic Essence (ME) into a key-and-chest bundle, or use them to unlock other content. You’ll sometimes find ME in chests alongside another reward.
- 10 Mythic Essence: Chest and Key
- 50 Mythic Essence: Hextech Ward
- 100 Mythic Essence: Hextech Annie or Soulstealer Vayne
Used to unlock champions. You can do the following with a champion shard:
- Upgrade a shard to add the champion to your collection. You’ll need a certain amount of the right kind of essence (explained below) to upgrade a shard.
- Activate a shard to “rent” a champion for 7 days. This does consume the shard, so you won't be able to use it again until you find another.
- Disenchant a shard to turn it into Blue Essence. Shards are worth an increasing amount of essence based on their RP cost.
You can also use champion shards, along with Mastery tokens of the same champion, to unlock Mastery Levels 6 and 7.
Similar to champion shards, skin shards unlock skins. You can discover cosmetic shards for champions you don’t own, but to redeem them permanently you must first purchase the champion. Cosmetic shards can be any non-limited skin. This means you might find DJ Sona, but you won’t find Victorious Jarvan IV. You can find a list of excluded content here. You can reroll three skin shards to get a random skin permanent. The rarity of the rerolled skins doesn't have any bearing on the skin permanent that comes out!
Be aware that using a shard to rent a skin ('activating' it) will consume the shard. Rent with caution!
You can upgrade, activate, reroll, and disenchant these shards, same as with skin shards. Rerolled ward shards will not award limited ward skins,such as Championship ward skins.
Mastery Tokens are combined with champion shards, permanents, or essence at the crafting table to unlock Champion Mastery levels 6 and 7. Mastery tokens are unique to the champion you earn them on, and each tier has its own requirements:
- Mastery 6 tokens require an S-, S, or S+ score on a champion with whom you’ve already earned Mastery level 5. Two Mastery 6 tokens plus that champion’s Shard, Permanent, or 2450 Blue Essence will unlock Mastery Level 6 for that champion.
- Mastery 7 tokens require an S or S+ score on a champion with whom you’ve already earned Mastery level 6. Three Mastery 7 tokens plus that champion’s Shard, Permanent, or 2950 Blue Essence will unlock Mastery Level 7 for that champion.