Coming into 2025, Riot has completely shaken up League of Legends‘ reward and crafting systems. Gone are Hextech Chests and keys, replaced instead by a seasonal battle pass system that aims to streamline loot drops and remove randomization. But Riot has also done away with level up rewards, which in turn confines the once abundant Blue Essence to the new battle pass system. A viral Reddit post has since claimed that you’ll need to grind for 882 hours in order to unlock a brand new champion, and as questions swirl, senior design lead Jordan ‘BarackProbama’ Checkman has attempted to iron things out.
According to a recent Reddit post, one player has claimed that it’ll take 882 hours to “get a new hero for free.” They confirm their findings using an official post from League of Legends‘ Chinese website, which states that “the summoner level upgrade reward [Hero Magic Engine] will be removed globally,” in turn making BE a battle pass-only reward. After glancing through Riot’s English correspondence on the MOBA‘s official website, the removal of level up rewards doesn’t appear to be mentioned.
Riot claims that players will earn 4750 Blue Essence using the battle pass, alongside four champion shards. When new champions release, they cost 7,800 BE for their first week, then are reduced to 6,300. By my count, that means you’ll need to complete the battle pass in its entirety, then heavy grind the repeatable BE at the end of the pass (four lots of 50). All of this BE can be earned via the battle pass’ free track.
While I’m not quite sure where the 882 hour figure comes from, what I can say is that this does, on paper, feel like a reduction in BE. Where it was once pretty freely available, it does feel pretty quantified in Season 1. Sure, most long-time League players have the entire champion roster already, but many critics have claimed that the change is going to heavily punish new players, who won’t be able to unlock champions at the same rate.
Riot has since attempted to calm concerns, with Checkman noting that earning BE doesn’t “require a purchase of any kind.” In his initial post, he concludes that players will receive 24 champion capsules per year and 28,500 BE, noting that “it doesn’t feel to me like someone who is new to the game is going to have trouble acquiring both a set of randomized champions or champions they have a particular affinity for and want to acquire for free.” At the time of writing, the comment has 125 downvotes.
“Most champions are not 6,300. Average BE cost of a champion is 3000, so this represents [around six champions that] you get to choose (if you don’t disenchant permanents) and 24 you do not, which is 30 per year.”
A second Rioter, simply known as ‘Rovient,’ goes on to note that “There’s more BE per hour from the battle pass than from leveling up and getting champion capsules post ‘new player experience.’ The [Reddit] post everyone’s referencing was talking about ‘post-level-50’ on the battle pass, while completely ignoring the 1-50 of the Battlepass being better for new players than any previous source of BE.”
As someone who plays a lot of League, I’ve certainly felt these changes. I dropped a wad of BE on the Blue Essence Emporium at the tail end of 2024, and probably wouldn’t have if I’d known that it’d be in such short supply in the battle pass. Similarly, while getting champion capsules every few levels only to disenchant them felt somewhat reductive, they’re also the reason I picked up several of my core champions – they allowed me to pick outside of my comfort zone without feeling like I’d wasted meaningful currency. Now, I’m reluctant to spend BE because I’ve actively had to pay for it, and capsules will be even more disappointing if I don’t get what I want.
As Riot continues its attempts to ease tensions, I’m interested to see how all of this ends. Bringing back level up rewards feels like the easiest path to victory, but we’ll have to wait and see.
If you’re diving into the new season and hoping to ascend through the League of Legends ranks, check out our LoL tier list to ensure you’re locking in the best champs for the job.
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