Legends of Runeterra Turn Order

Legends of Runeterra turn orders.

This is a guide for how rounds in the game flow, turn order, priority and stacking.

First we will discuss turn order and responding in general, and then get into what specific actions can be taken on a turn for a more detailed look at turns and priority passing.

A) Rounds and Turn Order:

At the beginning of a round, one player is designated the attacker and the other is the defender. The attacker gets to take a turn first. Assuming they do not pass their turn, most actions can be responded to. We will get into the specifics later. If it is an action that can be responded to, priority will pass to the enemy. This is different than it being their turn. They are limited in what they can do to things that can be done as a response such as fast spells.

If they pass, the turn finishes, anything that needs to resolve will resolve and then the turn will pass to the opponent.

If they respond, priority will pass back to you, and you will be limited in what you can do to possible responses. This will continue until one player with priority passes. Once one player passes, everything will be resolved, the turn will end, and the next turn will start for whoever did not start the last turn. Meaning it will always be attacker starting a turn, then defender, then attacker, defender, etc. This will continue until both players pass their turn in succession.

For example, if I have a turn, and the opponent passes their turn (different from priority during a response), I can act again. If I do, the defender gets another full turn, even though they previously passed their turn. Only after we both pass our full turn will the round end. Even burst spells which do not pass priority for response count as having done something on your turn, so you will have to pass another turn before the round ends.

The next round will then start and the attacker and defender will switch, with the attacker having a turn first.

One last note before moving on to specifics, a lot of confusion may come from the fact that the game has an auto pass option that is turned on by default. This means even if you would normally have priority, if you cannot do anything due to lack of options or mana, the game passes priority back for you. To better understance how turns and priority work, I recommend turning this feature off. Be polite, though, and don't use the full timer with an empty hand. Or do if they are playing a deck you don't like.

B) Playing a Turn

Moving on to specific actions that can be taken on a turn, it is important to note that the other difference between the attacker and defender is that the attacker starts the round with their attack "ready". This is indicated by the following sword on the right hand side of the board. It means that when starting their turn, they have an additional action they can take: declaring units top initiate an attack. This is the most complex action that you can take, so I'll discuss it after the other two options (other than passing) first.

1) Playing a unit

So long as you have the mana and meet any other requirements, you can play a unit. An example of a requirement is the piltover units that require you to discard a card to play. If you have no other cards in hand, you cannot play it even if you have the mana. The discard spells are the same just so you know.

Many units when played have an on play effect. This isn't written anywhere, but there seems to be two types of on play effects: those that happen instantly, and those that wait for your opponent to respond before resolving. For the former, that's it, the turn is over and it is now your opponents turn. The latter are referred to as "skills". You can know an on play effect is a skill if, when examining the card scrolling write reveals the on play effect as its own art bubble.

In my experience, as a general rule, if the on play action affects the opponent, such as damaging a minion, it will be a "skill" and can be responded to before it takes effect. Units that only affect their own side, such as card draw or unit buffs, tend to be intant. As a corner case, Shady Character, a 4 mana 1/1 Piltover & Zaun unit that on play, you pick a follower and it transforms into an exact copy of it, does allow for a response. Its on play ability is the skill called impersonate. If in response, the unit it is going to impersonate is killed, the shady character stays a 1/1 shady character.

There are some very powerful on play abilities that are instant and cannot be countered.

After you play a unit, you immediately lose priority. It will either be the beginning of your opponent's next turn (if there was no on play effect or if it was an instant), or your opponent's opportunity to respond to the "skill" on play effect of your unit. Either way, after you play a unit, you cannot then play any spells (even burst spells) or play another unit.

2) Playing a spell

On your turn you can play a spell. There are 3 speeds of spells.

Both burst and fast spells can be played any time you have priority. This means on your turn, in the middle of combat, or in response to an opponent unit's skill or spell (fast or slow). The difference between them is that a burst spell has an instantaneous effect and does not pass priority to the opponent. Fast spells pass priority to the opponent to respond to before it resolves. Priority is not immediately passed, allowing you to cast multiple fast spells in a single turn. You can even put units up for an attack while you have a fast spell waiting for the opponent's response to resolve (assuming this is the beginning of your turn. This will be discussed more in the attacking section).

Slow spells can only be played if it is the start of your turn. This means it cannot be cast in combat, or in response to a unit with a skill being played or another spell. Due to this limitation, they are usually quite powerful. All slow spells can be responded to by the opponent with their own spell (fast or burst).

--Responses
	While talking about spells, its time to discuss responses and the spell stack. If the opponent passes priority to you (either by playing a unit with an on play skill or playing a fast or slow spell; we will discuss responses to attacks at the end of the next section), you have the opportunity to respond with either burst or fast spells.
	If you pass without playing anything, the spell/skill stack will resolve as described at the end of this section.
	If you play a burst spell, the effect is immediate, while any fast spells are placed on the stack and wait to resolve. You can play any number of burst and fast spells before you pass priority back to the opponent. If you play any spells, the opponent will have the opportunity to respond just like you did. If they pass, the stack will resolve. If they play any burst or fast spells, you will get another opportunity to respond.
	Once either player passes without playing anything the stack will resolve with the last played resolving first followed by the next last, etc. If a spell or skill has a requirement, but spells cast in response make it so that the requirement is no longer met when it comes to its turn to resolve, the spell or skill will instead fizzle, and not cast (Leveled up Ezreal will not damage the enemy nexus, Heimerdinger will not make a turret, et cetera).

3) Declaring an attack

You can only do this on your turn if you have an attack "ready", indicated by the glowing sword on the right hand side of the board. You also need units. Even a 0 attack unit can declare an attack (such as Braum).

You declare an attack by dragging your units onto the battlefield from the bench below. At this time, you can also stack any number of fast attacks. They will remain stacked until combat is ready to resolve. At this time, if you have any attacking units with challenger, you can pull any enemy from their bench to defend against them.

There are on attack effects. Similar to on play effects, there are those that are skills, added to the stack to be resolved at the same time as the combat, and there are others that resolve after the attackers have been declared, but before the defender gets to respond. These tend to follow the same rule as above with damage being skills, and same side buffs taking effect on attack declaration.

Once the attacker finished declaring the attack and casting any spells, the defender will have the opportunity to respond. The defender can respond with any burst or fast spells, and by delcaring blockers. This first time that a defender gets priority after an attack is declared is the only time that a unit can be placed as a blocker.

If the defender passes without blocking or casting any spells, the attack resolves. If any blocks are declared or spells cast, the attacker will have a chance to respond. Now, the responses are similar to those above. Neither attackers nor blockers can be moved, so any responses are either burst or fast spells. There are some spells that can only be played in combat, such as judgement. These can be cast so long as at least one attacker and blocker are declared.

Any fast spells cast are added to the skill/spell stack. Priority passes back an forth until one player passes without casting anything.

Once that happens, the spell/skill stack resolves first before combat. Same as before the last played resolves first, and order goes backwards from there. Skills are considered to have been played first, so they resolve last. Once the stack is resolved, combat begins starting left to right. Order here can matter.