Riot Games will launch the open beta of Legends of Runeterra on January 24, about three months after the digital card game was announced alongside other new projects by the League of Legends developer.
The announcement, made as part of the celebration for the kickoff of League of Legends‘ 10th season, will allow anybody to sign up and play Legends of Runeterra after a couple of limited preview patches that were only offered to a few lucky followers.
Players who participated in the first two testing sessions for Legends of Runeterra will be able to gain early access to the open beta on January 23, as well as those who pre-register on the game’s official website before January 19. Open beta participants will acquire an exclusive Moonstruck Poro Guardian.
Compared with the earlier versions, the Legends of Runeterra open beta will include several significant changes, including a new ranked mode that players can climb from the lowest Iron rank to the highest Masters rank. It will also add a friends list, through which players can challenge their friends directly. Riot Games will also be adding new board and guardians, as well as issue a patch that will change more than 20 cards currently in the game.
Players who were not able to participate in the two preview patches should not worry that they will get wrecked in the open beta as other players will have accumulated better cards. Riot Games said that all accounts will be reset upon the launch of open beta. The developer added that this will be the last time that accounts will be reset, so players will be able to keep whatever they earn or buy during the open beta.
Legends of Runeterra is set to be released for the PC sometime in 2020, with a mobile version of the digital card game with cross-platform play capabilities to follow within the year.
In addition to Legends of Runeterra, Riot Games is also working on League of Legends: Wild Rift, which will bring the popular MOBA to mobile platforms, and Project A, a character-based tactical shooter. Riot Games also recently opened the Riot Forge, a publishing label that will allow other studios to expand the League of Legends universe.
