Do you want to learn how to play League of Legends?
I’ll warn you: This is not easy.
You may start to get the basic idea after the first 5-10 games, but the full depth of League of Legends can only be grasped over many months.
This ultimate guide on how to play League of Legends will take you through the basics and bring you up to speed.
How to Play League of Legends
League of Legends is a team-based game. It is played in a 5 vs. 5 format, on a two-sided map split by a river. Both sides are more or less symmetrical and they contain three lanes.
On each of these lanes there are three Towers, with some distance between them. On each lane there are minions that spawn every 30 seconds and move forward until they encounter enemy units or buildings.
Structures
On each side of the map there’s a base made up of Inhibitors, Towers (3rd round of them on each lane), and a Nexus, which is the main structure that needs to be protected at all costs.
If the Nexus is destroyed, the game ends. Naturally, the two teams have the goal of destroying their opponent’s Nexus.
To do that, they need to achieve smaller goals along the way, because the Nexus cannot be attacked while all the tier 3 Towers are still standing.
And a tier 2 Tower cannot be attacked while there’s a tier 1 Tower in front of it.
Furthermore, buildings in LoL are quite strong, so it takes quite a bit of time for champions to become strong enough to start dealing significant structural damage to the other team.
Champions
In LoL, champions grow in an RPG-like manner.
They start at level 1 with just one active ability and then get stronger and stronger, accumulating experience and gold while slaying minions, monsters, and enemy champions.
The maximum level they can reach is 18. Each of their first three abilities can be accessed starting from level 1 and can be upgraded until it reaches level 5.
The fourth ability becomes available only at level 6 and can be upgraded until it reaches level 3.
Champions also receive gold as they take the last hit on a minion, monster, or enemy champion.
The more gold they have, the better items they can buy from the shop that’s located inside their own base.
There are many items to choose from and this results in a wide variety of item-builds, even though, as you play more and more, you start to notice that some of them are considerably better than the others.
Objectives
League of Legends is a game played around objectives. Your first objective is to stay alive in your lane and take as many last hits as possible if you’re a core hero.
If you’re a support, then your goal is to help your carry and make sure that he can farm properly.
If you’re a jungler, your goal is to kill as many monsters as possible and help all of the three lanes from time to time.
As the game progresses, the two teams start to put pressure on each other and aim for objectives. The game has a place where a dragon spawns. Whoever kills this dragon receives a number of buffs.
The game also has a place where another a powerful creature spawns, called Barron Nashor. Who kills him gets a temporary buff that usually gives the team some chance to go on the offensive.
Since these two objectives offer important advantages to the team that achieves them, these are the points that often generate the most battles.
Battles also occur whenever a team goes on the offensive and knocks on the other’s door by taking down Towers.
The key thing to remember when learning how to play League of Legends is that the game is decided during team fights.
Everything is done in preparation for those moments.
Both teams are trying to make sure that their strongest champions get ahead of the opposition’s strongest champions.
These champions are usually the carry, the midlaner, and the top laner (or offlaner). The higher they get in level and the better items they buy, the easier the fights will be for them to win.
When champions die, they need time to respawn. The longer the game goes and the higher they get in level, the longer the death timer becomes.
When a team’s champions are dead, the opposing team can do as they please because there’s no one to stop them. That’s how games are won.
