Wild Rift patch 2.0 notes: Season 1 start, five new champions, more

Wild Rift is about to really kick off in patch 2.0. With the Open Beta slowly winding down, Riot are ready to start Season 1 and give players the chance to grind ranked properly. They’ll be able to do so with five new Yordle champions, including Lulu and Corki.

The training wheels are coming off for Wild Rift. While not officially coming out of Open Beta just yet, patch 2.0 is a hallmark update for the game. It marks the start of Season 1, as well as the release of more champions from the League of Legends roster.

There were also a smattering of balance changes with buffs to the newly-released Wukong and nerfs to Master Yi and Zed.

Wild Rift patch 2.0 new champions: Lulu, Corki, Kennen, Teemo, Tristana

Yordle City is taking over Wild Rift. Five of the cute little creatures of Runeterra have landed in the mobile universe.

Lulu, Corki, Kennen, Teemo, and Tristana will be made available to players over the coming days starting on January 6. By participating in the in-game Yordle Expedition event, you’ll have a chance to add them to your roster early ⁠— and for free.

• Read More: When is Wild Rift coming out in NA?

The addition of the five Yordles has also helped with champion diversity. Lulu’s addition as a new enchanter support will take the load off Nami and Janna, while Corki has the chance of freshening up the mid lane meta.

Zed, Master Yi nerfed, Wukong buffed in first update of 2021

Only three champions were targeted in Wild Rift patch 2.0 with balance changes. Master Yi and Zed were nerfed ⁠— the former getting a damage nerf to his Wuju Style, while Zed’s Razor Shurikens are now a bit skinnier.

Wukong was given a leg-up, with his Warrior Trickster clone mimicking the cast of Golden Staff ⁠— similar to how his clone works in League of Legends.

• Read More: League of Legends patch 11.1 notes

There were also nerfs to neutral objectives to make the lives of junglers a bit harder. Red Buff now deals less damage per second in both its regular and evolved forms, while Rift Herald will take a bit more work to execute with lower eye damage burst.

Wild Rift Season 1 starts on January 8

Wild Rift Season 1 will start in line with League of Legends Season 11 on January 8. The first official ranked season has more than just pride on the line, with Glorious Tryndamere being offered up to players who reach Gold or higher.

You can find the full Wild Rift patch 2.0 notes below.

Wild Rift patch 2.0 notes

Champions

Master Yi

(3) Wuju Style

• Bonus true damage now only 33% effective versus structures

Wukong

(2) Warrior Trickster

• Clone now mimics the ability cast of Wukong’s Golden Staff (1)

Zed

(1) Razor Shuriken

• Missile width reduced from 175 to 125

New champions added

• Corki, the Daring Bombardier
• Kennen, the Heart of the Tempest
• Lulu, the Fae Sorceress
• Teemo, the Swift Scout
• Tristana, the Yordle Gunner

Neutral Objectives

Crest of Cinders

• True damage per second reduced from (1.6 * Champion Level) + 10 to (1 * Champion Level) + 10

Evolved Crest of Cinders

• True damage per second reduced from (3.2 * Champion Level) + 15 to (1.5 * Champion Level) + 15

Rift Herald

• Eye damage reduced from 20% maximum HP to 15%
• Eye now permanently closes at 20% HP remaining instead of 15%

Season 1 Start

The first official ranked season of Wild Rift starts 8 January 2021! Which also means Season 0 ends soon. Players who participated in Season 0 will receive ranked rewards after the season ends (a participation icon for everyone and a player emblem for those who hit Gold and above). There will be a soft rank reset for Season 1, and Ranked mode will be unavailable for 3-4 hours while we transition between seasons.

We also have our first Glorious skin, Glorious Tryndamere, up for grabs for those who make it to Gold as well. They never stood a chance!

Features

Party Finder

Tired of carrying solo? Party Finder makes it easier for players to get into premade games. Party owners can make their lobbies available to their Friends list or to the public (look in the top right corner of the lobby screen), and players can search for open lobbies to join (look in the bottom left corner of the homescreen). You can filter your search by lobby type, and Party Finder will recommend eligible groups based on your social connections and game preferences. Time to queue up!

Latency Indicators

No more latency indicator on the homepage! Turns out, it wasn’t accurate in showing the latency a player would actually experience in their games. So we’ve replaced it with a network indicator to show what kind of network you’re on (WiFi, 4G, etc.), plus a new in-game indicator of your actual ping during gameplay.

Social Sharing

Players can now save the end-of-game scoreboard, end-of-game personal performance, career most played champ, season rank, win streak, new champ acquired, new skin acquired, and leaderboard screens to their device camera roll or share straight to Facebook. Perfect for flexing after a 15/0 Zed game.

Map Description

If you want to get more familiar with the lay of the land (when you’re not trying to also farm minions and watch out for the enemy jungler), you can now explore the Wild Rift map in detail. Read up on jungle monsters, epic monsters, plants, and structures at your leisure.

Tutorial Optimization

Performance-improving tutorials can now be prompted based on a player’s gameplay. We also made some visual updates to the tutorial and first champion unlock screen.

Champion Mastery Emotes

The ultimate flex: Champion Mastery Emotes. Players can unlock a Champion Mastery Emote by reaching Mastery Level 5 with that champ. They can then equip and use it like any other in-game emote to “communicate.”

Game Systems

Ping Replies

Now you can let your teammates know you heard them with ping replies.

Dragon & Baron Respawn Timers

Spawn timers for epic monsters (Dragon and Baron Nashor) now display on the scoreboard. We’ve also made some minimap UI improvements.

Scoreboard Logic

No screen peeking! Enemy information on the scoreboard now updates only after players gain vision of enemies instead of in constant real-time.

New Emotes Wheel

You can now open the emotes wheel by holding down on your champ instead of clicking into the communications panel.

System Message UI

System messages no longer block players’ view of their own champion (i.e. failed surrender vote messages won’t obstruct vision during gameplay). Phew!

Detailed Stats

In the stats tab of the scoreboard, players can now see a more detailed breakdown of key stats, including exactly how much damage reduction (in percentage) their armor and magic resistance items provide, as well as the conversion from ability haste to cooldown reduction.

Tower Prioritization

Towers now prioritize targeting super minions over siege minions. Gotta take down those supers first.