League of Legends 2026 Season 1 Act 1: For Demacia — Everything You Need to Know

2026 is coming rapidly, and with every new year, League of Legends likes to shift up massive gameplay changes to keep the game interesting. While the tri-seasonal approach to years has been a success, large changes are kept to the first season of the year to ensure that the game feels balanced and players don't have to adapt to a wholly shifting meta.

In the Dev Update for 2026 (the final one of the year, with the next one coming in January), we got a massive look at all of the changes coming to Summoner's Rift, and they're substantial. The major rehaul will shift League of Legends' current identity to be pretty much unrecognisable from 2025, while focusing on making the experience better for the weakest roles in the game.

We're going to split this into changes affecting everything, looking at each lane or map changes individually so that you can see what's being changed in your main role. But before we get into specific roles, we'll talk a bit about the "overall" Summoner's Rift changes coming.

Summoner's Rift Changes

First, it's worth noting that when For Demacia launches early in 2026, the Winter map will be retired; it's been a strong run, but it's time for the Gold and blues of Demacia to start. If you'd like to learn more about the Demacia-focused changes coming, you can learn a bit more about it in our news coverage of the reveal of the season theme.

Now, for actual gameplay changes, the tempo of every match should be sped up quite a bit, with everything being expedited to ensure a faster start, saving a few seconds of wait-time. Specifically, everything, such as jungle and minion spawns, will begin 35 seconds earlier. While this change shouldn't affect early-game invades (because we love our CC-heavy invades), the shorter times mean that teams will need to be more decisive to invade early if they want to keep up with the tempo of the match.

Faster games mean more time to duke it out, and with a removed emphasis on early Jungle ganks (more on that in the Jungle-specific section), sub-objectives like First Blood and First Tower are being reintroduced. In an effort to prevent objective fatigue, though, Feats of Strength and Atakhan have been removed entirely, including the blood roses, the petals, and the tier-three boots tied to these mechanics.

With the emphasis on smaller objectives that don't require huge teamfights to battle over, split pushing and macro plays are being re-emphasised, moving away a bit from the teamfight-heavy approach. To match this new philosophy and give solo champions a bit more leeway, mini objectives are becoming the primary focus.

Split-pushers specifically will be receiving some major changes and buffs to their identity. With the new mechanic, called Fae Lights, warding specific locations in the Summoner's Rift will give you more vision temporarily, increasing the effectiveness of wards placed in riskier positions to protect those overextending for objectives.

With this, it should be easier to go out of your way to hit the Tier 2 and further turrets, rewarding players who have great map awareness and are willing to fight for the wards placed in Fae Lights. Split-pushing will specifically be powerful with two mechanical overhauls coming to turrets.

The first we're going to talk about is a new, global Demolish-like ability called Crystalline Overgrowth. Over time, throughout minutes, towers will begin gathering crystals that champions are able to destroy with an auto attack, dealing substantial damage to the turret and making it easier to break them and breaching into the enemy base.

While this does creep into the Demolish mechanic identity, the rune has been reworkedto instead be a three-hit passive on turrets rather than a time-based mechanic. This should be a strong change for champions who can quickly trigger it with auto-attack resets.

Now, every turret in the game will permanently have Plating on it, meaning that this temporary objective won't go away over time. Plates won't inflate the amount of Gold available in the game; instead, all tower currency rewards will be tied to the destruction of plates.

With this, there should be more of an emphasis on earning a bit of currency from your split push without needing to greed and over-commit to destroying the tower to see the fruits of your labour. Paired with the new Crystalline Overgrowth, this should encourage teams to play more around their tower objectives and prevent from surrendering Gold to the enemy team.

To keep up with better momentum, Homeguards are being reworked to instead increase your movement speed to the most-pushed wave in each lane rather than a time-based mechanic. Returning to base and catching a wave before it crashes to a turret should become more accessible, meaning you can get back to the fight faster.

Towers are becoming weaker as well, simplifying turret rules across the board. Instead of balancing minion and ranged champion damage, melee champions will instead deal an increased 20% to towers, with their health being a bit buffed to match the change in strength. That said, Inner turrets no longer gain resists after 15 minutes, and outer turrets, if they're still standing in the mid- and late-game phases, won't receive as much of an AD buff.

Sieging is being essentially reworked, with minion spawn rates being upped the later into the game goes. When the laning phase finishes, minions will spawn every 25 seconds instead, and to prevent Gold inflation, one fewer melee minion will spawn whenever a cannon is available in the wave. This number will then be changed to 20 seconds after the late game, replacing one caster minion with a super minion whenever the Inhibitor dies, returning pressure to protecting inhibitors.

The final rework to sieging is that Nexus turrets will now respawn with only 40% of their health rather than at max HP. Reworking the Welcome to Noxus approach, this should still prevent backdoors from being too frustrating, but it should also de-emphasise the strategy of leaving a turret with minimal HP alive until it's safe to end the game.

New Items

While technically a Summoner's Rift change overall, there are nine new items being added to League of Legends, which merited its own separate category in this article. Riot Games has de-focused making substantial build changes with each new season (a welcome approach), but new items were needed to fill niches that weren't being met.

Among the nine items, there are two AP champion items, three ADC items, one fighter item, one AD assassin item, two new tank items, one new enchanter item, and one fan-favourite hybrid return. Here's the low-down of all the items and what their main point is:

Oh, and these names are temporary, so don't get too attached...

• Scepter of Bonking (AP Fighter): A new AP fighter Sheen item (contrasting Lich Bane) that will let AP fighters get an extra on-hit effect with their next attack. Great for champions like Gwen and Diana.
• Emblem of All-Inning (ADC): A Zeal item similar to Experimental Hexplate for ADCs, empowering the user's next three auto attacks after casting their ultimate to guarantee crits (or deal bonus true damage if they were going to crit anyway) and giving ultimate ability haste. Great for champions like Zeri, Twitch, and Yunara.
• Blood Sphere (AD Fighter): This new AD fighter item gives purchasers Tenacity and Haste that scales based on their bonus AD, giving them a massive boost of omnivamp after achieving a takedown that should provide fighters with a second wind. This is going to easily be massively strong on Zaahen (with his gargantuan amounts of bonus AD) and Ambessa, but it'll be a pretty solid pick all around.
• Assassin Item (AD Assassins): The most creatively-named of the list, this item should help assassins close out matches more easily by giving them a large amount of damage to an epic monster or tower after an objective kill. It'll also provide some extra true damage to a spell every so often.
• Mananomicon (AP): This new AP item is perfect for mana hoarders, and it brings the first new active in a while. After activating, the user will enter an empowered state that'll make their abilities consume a significant amount of mana per spell and reduce their cooldown drastically, increasing these numbers scaled based on your mana. It's going to be a no-brainer pick for Ryze.
• Snowbow (ADC): Snowbow is a meant to bolster the strength of long-range marksmen, giving them the opportunity to deal extra damage based on how far away they are from the target. On takedown, their range will increase even more, helping them clean up fights. This should be amazing for Caitlyn, Senna, and Kindred.
• Buff Engine (Tank Support): Tanky supports are getting some love with Buff Engine, essentially a resistance-based version of Ardent Censer. Whenever slowing or immobilising an enemy, emit an aura that increases attack speed to nearby allies, with the duration being heavily increased for melee champions. Off the top of my head, Rell, Maokai, and Rakan should be great with this.
• Mantle of the Twelfth Hour (Tank): A new lifeline addition, tanks will now be able to purchase this item to get a large heal-over-time effect whenever getting low, scaling with bonus armor and magic resistance. While healing with this item, the user will get a burst of movement speed and tenacity to help disengage or soak up more damage. This should be stronger for resistance-heavy champions, de-emphasising it as an item for HP stackers.
• Savior's Manabell + Superbell (Enchanter): A brand-new item joins the Tear family, as Savior's Manabell (and later Superbell when Tear is fully stacked) lets enchanters get extra heal and shield power based on their maximum mana. When it becomes Superbell, enchanters will heal the lowest-health ally every second while in combat against enemy champions, with the heal scaling based on their maximum mana.
• Hextech Gunblade (Hybrid): Hextech Gunblade needs little introduction, as one of the most famous hybrid items makes a return, offering AP, AD, spell vamp/lifesteal, and a single-target active to deal damage and slow the target. Akali fans are going to be ecstatic about this one.
• Stormrazor (ADC): Stormrazor also makes a return to the Energised effect family, bringing AD, critical strike chance, and attack speed giving movement speed when the passive is triggered.

Role Quests

Now, it's time to talk about the Role Quests that are being added globally to all the lanes. Much like the pet in Jungle or the Support item that can be traded for a full one, every lane will receive a unique incentive to stick to their lane and get extra stats that best fit the prominent playstyle of the champions.

Every lane is getting unique Role Quests, which should also make buffing or nerfing any given lane much easier by altering the rewards without affecting everything else in the game. To progress, summoners will need to kill minions, champions, playtes, towers, and epic objectives, getting extra experience and progression whenever this is done in their lane.

Your "lane" is defined in champion select, where your assigned role will dictate where you will get better XP for this progression. Since this is one of the main focuses of the season this time around, you'll need to make sure you're proactively changing roles with other players in the lobby whenever you're intentionally making an adjustment.

Top Lane

First up, we'll begin from the top and work our way down the Summoner's Rift with Top Lane. Known as one of the least-influential roles for a few years, these players haven't been able to quite attain the carry potential that other roles have been able to for a while, and Riot Games decided it was time to change that.

Their quest, upon completion, will grant a big chunk of XP up front, and a passive amount of extra HP from future sources, while also increasing the level cap. While the new level cap hasn't been stated for top laners, this change should be a massive buff to champions like Udyr, who get a significant benefit from every new level they acquire.

Aside from getting extra experience and higher scaling base stats, Top Laners will also earn a free third Summoner Spell upon completion: Teleport. This means that split pushers who want to favour early combat expertise with Ignite or Exhaust won't have to sacrifice too much in terms of map presence for picking these. If you happen to have Teleport as your main Summoner Spell during the match, you'll instead get a large shield once you've channelled it.

Jungle

Jungle won't see many changes this season, as it has been the de facto strongest lane (according to Riot Games). With their influence being so strong, the team is trying to balance their presence without making them fall behind on the rewards offered to the other roles.

In terms of their Role Quest, Junglers will keep their pet and PvP Smite as their primary focus, but upon completion, they'll also get increased Gold and XP from large monsters, as well as increased movement speed whenever they're in the jungle.

This isn't the only change coming to Jungle mains, however, as the objective overhaul will also have an effect here. Baron returns to his previous 20-minute spawn time, and all Epic monsters are becoming more durable, especially later on in the game as more Dragons are slain and Dragon Soul gets closer. These changes shouldn't affect Junglers as much, as Smite is getting a bit of an increase to its damage, and the increased resists should prevent other laners from stealing major objectives too often.

Mid

Mid Lane is in a pretty balanced state, so they're getting the most basic of the Role Quests available. Instead of a substantial change, upon completion, mid laners will be able to get a free tier-3 boot upgrade from the now-scrapped Feats of Strength feature.

Support

Supports have also been recognised by Riot Games as one of the strongest roles in the game, so they won't be receiving too many changes with the Role Quest addition. However, to make it more balanced, their purchasing capabilities and economy is getting buffed.

For their Role Quest, Supports will get a unique slot for control wards and discounts on them, making it easier to purchase them frequently while also not having them take up too much space in your inventory. This is also being paired with a little bit more Gold over time, to account for the number of wards that they purchase, putting them behind item purchases.

ADC

The second biggest change is to ADC, which is also getting a massive boost to their end-game performance. Once their quest is completed, ADCs will instead get a large sum of Gold to make a purchase, and increased Gold on minion kills, champion kills, and champion assists for the rest of the game.

While that might be too much Gold, their boots will be permanently swapped to the Role Quest slot, meaning that ADCs will be able to, effectively, have seven total items. So now, ADCs will lean more into the heavy "carry" fantasy, making them more of a threat as the Gold starts trickling in.

ADCs are also going to be especially affected by base crit damage being moved back up to 200%.

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All of these changes are coming soon, when League of Legends enters 2026 Season 1 Act 1: For Demacia later in January.