Next planned LoL bounty changes should mean “less snowballing,” devs hope

As a seasoned gamer with over two decades of gaming under my belt, I’ve seen my fair share of game updates and tweaks. The recent announcement about League of Legends (LoL) bounty changes has certainly piqued my interest.

LoL bounties are getting some changes.

Riot Games is experimenting with a new approach to decrease the speed of games in League of Legends, by implementing various adjustments to the end-of-season bounties aimed at reducing the likelihood of “runaway victories” during battles on Summoner’s Rift.

David “Phreak” Turley, a game designer at Riot, revealed on YouTube that some changes, effective for the 2025 League of Legends season, will be implemented following the next October patch. Instead of completely resetting after a champion dies, bounties will persist based on the gold earned or given away by the champion. The calculation method for these bounties will also undergo slight adjustments, as they were previously determined solely by kill streaks, death streaks, assists, and creep score.

The broader objectives will undergo several modifications, such as team bounties deactivating faster and a greater emphasis on Gold, Turrets, and Voidgrubs in the bounty system. Consequently, experience points will play a smaller role in the code, although they will still contribute to some extent.

Phreak acknowledged that the game seems to favor one player too much, which he referred to as ‘snowbally’. To avoid potential issues, he expressed hope for a more careful approach, and this change might lead to positive outcomes.

Why LoL bounties needed yet another swing

Next planned LoL bounty changes should mean “less snowballing,” devs hope

In his explanation, Phreak made it clear why Riot chose to retract League of Legends bounties from the game prior to its fifteenth season: They’re generally considered “not intuitive,” which negatively impacts gameplay for both high and low skill levels, and players have alerted Riot about this issue.

Phreak clarified, “We aim to make it so that ‘bounties’ don’t constantly hang over you. Many adjustments are being made with the goal of making it clearer as to why players receive a chance to come back. Furthermore, all game modes will now be consolidated for the same purpose.

“The intricacies of how bounties operate internally aren’t crucial for you to know, but they are designed to appear logical and easy-to-understand. When a bounty appears, it should seem natural and expected. Our goal is for players to recognize these bounties and think, ‘Yes, that’s a bounty, that makes perfect sense.’ The guidelines governing them should be transparent.

The exact changes being made to LoL bounties are as follows.

LoL bounty changes in Patch 14.21 update

Champion Bounties

Bounties are no longer fully reset if a champion scores a kill or dies.
Champion bounties are now determined based on how much gold a champ has earned or given away rather than kill streaks, death streaks, assists, and creep score.
- Gold earned from kills is equal to gold given away through deaths. More gold will be counted as given away from deaths if multiple champions are involved in the takedown.
- Gold earned from assists now count towards positive bounties at a rate relative to the amount of gold earned.
- Gold earned from farming now count towards a positive bounty and has a faster rate at moving a champion out of a negative bounty state.

Objective Bounties

Gold, Turrets, and Voidgrubs are now more important in determining objective bounties.
Experience is now less important in determining objective bounties.
Objective bounties now turn off faster.

2024-10-15 17:10

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