Riot reveals massive lane and turret changes coming to LoL in 2026

Riot Games is planning big changes to League of Legends in 2026, affecting key parts of the game like the lanes, minions, how players defend their base, and the towers themselves.

Each year, Riot Games updates League of Legends (LoL) to kick off the new season. In 2026, big changes are planned for things like how players defend their base, the little units called minions, and the towers protecting them. Here’s a look at what’s coming to the game.

LoL matches will be faster in 2026

At the beginning of a League of Legends game, you’ll move faster when leaving your base for the very first time. This speed boost is called Homestart, and you’ll see a trail following your champion to show it’s active.

Starting at 20 seconds into the game, all champions receive the Homeguard buff, which lasts as long as they remain near their base. Upcoming changes in 2026 will significantly expand this buff’s range. Early in the game, it will extend to the first turret, and later on, it will reach the location of the minion waves. However, the buff will be lost if a champion enters the jungle or gets close to an enemy champion.

How does this affect your gameplay?

Riot Games wants to emphasize taking and holding lanes, as this will give players more control over the map. This change is intended to make League of Legends feel faster and more dynamic.

We’ve already made some improvements to help reach these goals, like speeding up Champion Select and shortening the intro animation, ban phase, and other parts of the process. Right now, these changes are only being tested in North America (NA) and Oceania (OCE). Players in other regions will need to wait a bit longer for them to be rolled out.

Minions wave updates

Looking at the screenshot, you’ll notice the minions start appearing around 1:05. However, in 2026, these waves will spawn much earlier, at 00:30. Similar to how homeguards were updated, this change is designed to speed up the start of matches and reduce messy, unplanned invades into the enemy jungle. If your team wants to invade, you’ll need to make that decision much sooner.

Late-game waves

As a player, I’m really excited about the changes to later waves! They’ll start showing up sooner, but with fewer enemies each time. Don’t worry, they’re balancing it so you’ll still get the same amount of gold and experience overall. What’s cool is it’ll be easier to push those waves and get to enemy turrets. Basically, farming and pushing lanes should feel much more satisfying and rewarding!

At 14 minutes: Waves spawn every 25 seconds
At 30 minutes: Waves spawn every 20 seconds
Fewer minions spawn in waves

Turret changes

Get ready to rethink how you play with turrets in 2026! A new feature called Crystalline Overgrowth will gradually appear on turrets, and players will be able to trigger a powerful explosion by attacking it.

We’re updating the Demolish rune to make getting small advantages in lane more valuable. Instead of building stacks over time, Demolish will now simply grant bonus gold after hitting an enemy turret three times. This change is designed to make it easier and more rewarding to take down a few tower plates during pushes or split-pushing.

The plates are now a permanent feature. You can always earn gold by playing aggressively, regardless of the turret’s status.

Adjustments

Next season, Riot is changing how destroying inner turrets works. Instead of getting all the reward immediately, it will be given out in smaller portions over time as you damage the turret.

T1 turret plates will no longer disappear at 14 minutes
T2 and T3 turret plates now have three plates each, with gold distributed among plates rather than all at once when the turret is destroyed
Nexus turrets respawn with 40% health instead of 100%

Riot is updating how turrets work in the game. They’re making it so turrets take 20% more damage from champions who attack up close, but they’re also increasing the turrets’ overall health to balance this change. Additionally, turrets won’t become harder to destroy later in the game – the inner turrets won’t gain extra defenses after 15 minutes, and outer turrets will get less attack damage as the game goes on.

2025-12-01 19:16