Fastest Way to Unlock Champions in LoL (2023)

There are millions upon millions of players who log in to their League of Legends account every day, and the number keeps on increasing. However, the one thing that attracts every player is the amount of unique and diverse characters, or champions, they can play as.

Unfortunately, it isn’t like, say, Overwatch 2, where all the characters are unlocked from the get go. Instead, players have to unlock every champion by themselves. Because of this, weighing the pros and cons becomes extremely important.

Luckily, Riot has added multiple ways to unlock champions in LoL, out of which we’ll be going through the fastest ones so you’re able to play as whatever character you like without having to spend weeks grinding.

Method #1: Using Riot Points

We know a lot of players don’t like using actual money to unlock in game features, but we felt like we couldn’t make a list of the fastest ways to unlock champions in LoL without mentioning the fastest way possible.

Riot Points, or RP, is League of Legends’ premium currency, which can be used in a variety of ways. These ‘ways’ include purchasing skins, chests, and, wouldn’t you know it, champions.

Any champion purchased using Riot Points is instantly unlocked by the player and can be played without any restrictions set on them. Of course, that doesn’t mean purchasing a champion will be cheap. The cheapest champions can go for as little as 585 RP, while the newer champions can be found in the shop for up to 975 RP.

Method #2: Linking Your Xbox Gamepass Account

Here’s a method you probably won’t see in lists like this, but we had to include it because of technicality. See, if someone has an Xbox Gamepass subscription, then they can link their Riot account to their Xbox profile to instantly get access to all current and future champions for free. Well, we see free but the better term might be ‘with no additional cost’.

Now, yes, while you’ll be able to use all these champions as the game will act like you own all of them, you won’t actually own them. Instead, they’ll only be ‘unlocked’ to use. See what we meant by a technicality?

What this means is that you won’t be able to purchase skins for the champions, as you won’t have the legitimate ownership players get by unlocking a champion the ‘right’ way. Additionally, if the deal between Riot Games and Microsoft was to be called off, then you’ll lose access to these champions.

Regardless, if you’re someone who’s only interested in playing as whatever champion you want without having to pick between a selected few, and you want to save over $1000 in the process, then this is definitely the method for you.

Method #3: Using Blue Essence

If Riot Points are the premium currency of this game that can only be bought by using actual money, then blue essence is the cheaper version. Getting blue essence is as easy as it gets, as it seems like anything you do will get you some amount of it.

Did you level up your summoner level? Here’s some blue essence. Did you complete a daily mission? How about some blue essence for your troubles? Oh, you won your first match of the day? How does some blue essence sound?

Most players use this method because of it being the easiest and most convenient one. When you have enough blue essence, all you have to do is go to the store and purchase whatever champion you want.

Of course, just because blue essence is easy to come by, that doesn’t mean the champions will be cheap. The cheapest champion costs as low as 1360 blue essence, while the most expensive champions can go for as much as 6300 blue essence.

Method #4: Using Champion Shards

Champion shards are shards of champions that can be used in one of three ways. You could either

• Unlock the champion permanently by paying some blue essence.
• Unlock the champion for 7 days, which will make that specific shard disappear. Of course, this is completely free of cost.
• Disenchant the shard to get some blue essence.

Fortunately, there are several ways to get your hands on these majestic shards. 

Hextech Chests

The first way of potentially getting some champion shards is by opening hextech chests. Now, hextech chests are EXTREMELY valuable because of the chance of them dropping skin shards, blue essence, and, of course, champion shards.

Getting a hextech chest can get a little tricky however, The most convenient way of getting one would be by simply purchasing one from the store for Riot Points, but that isn’t the only way. 

If you or a teammate gets an S in a match and you were playing with a champion you own and haven’t already gotten a chest with, then you’ll be rewarded with one at the end of the day. S-, S, and S+ all count toward this.

When you do get your hands on a hextech chest, you can’t instantly open it. Instead, you need to use a hextech key, and to craft a hextech key, you need three hextech key shards. These shards can either be given through the honour system when you play exceptionally well, and your teammates decide to give you some honour at the end of a match. Alternatively, some event missions also give these out as rewards, so keep an eye out for those.

Champion Capsules

The second way of getting some champion shards is by opening champion capsules. Seeing as how ‘champions’ is in the name, you can imagine that the chances of getting champion shards from this are high.

You get a champion capsule every time you level up after level 30, and opening the champion capsule then gives you champion shards. Every time you level up to a level in the tens, however, then you’re rewarded with a glorious champion capsule.

The glorious thing about these champion capsules (hehe, get it?) is that you get around 2k blue essence worth of champion shards by opening even just one of them.

Honor System

Players can also get champion shards by opening honor capsules and orbs. As you know, there is an honor system in the game, where players can honor a player after every match. Get enough honors, and you’ll hit a new level.

From level 3 and above, you get a new capsule and an orb when hitting a “checkpoint” in that same level, and you can then open your earnings for a chance to get, you guessed it, champion shards.

Through Prime Gaming

If you have an Amazon Prime Gaming subscription, then you can link your Riot account with your Amazon Prime account to get monthly special loot. In addition to orange essence, some RP, and more, you also get a grand total of five champion shards instantly.