League of Legends reveals loot box drop rates

Against the overarching political discourse, loot box rates continue to cause concern for players. With transparency in mind, Riot has now published the official drop rates for League of Legends' Hextech chests. 

Hextech Chests contain items from LoL's store and can be both earned for free or purchased directly. Hextech rates appear on the support section of the game's official site, contained within a list that Riot suggests will be updated "whenever we make changes to Hextech chests" including "event-specific" chests or capsules.

Check 'em out:

  • Skin Shard—50 percent.
  • Champion Shard—25 percent.
  • Emote Permanent—10 percent.
  • Ward Skin Shard + 150 Bonus Orange Essence—11.5 percent.
  • Summoner Icon Shard + 150 Bonus Orange Essence—3.5 percent.

There're Bonus Drops, too:

  • Gemstone—3.6 percent.
  • Bonus Chest + Key—10 percent. 

Riot also lists the following "special rules" which are worth bearing in mind: 

Equal Odds: Outside of Hextech exclusive skins, all skins in the system have the same odds of dropping. Any given ultimate skin is just as likely to drop as a cheaper skin.

Big Drops, Free Unlock: Ultimate and mythic skins drop as auto-redeeming permanents (no orange essence required to upgrade them). If you already own the skin, you'll be able to disenchant them for orange essence.

Bad Luck Protection: You can't open three chests in a row without dropping at least one skin shard. This raises the effective drop rate of skin shards to roughly 57 percent.

Bonus Gemstones: Gemstones have a 3.6 percent chance of dropping as a bonus alongside normal chest content. These also have light "bad luck protection," since you can't go more than 50 boxes without getting a gemstone. This brings the overall drop rate up to 4 percent.

Chests inside Chests: Bonus chests (with a key) have a 10 percent chance to drop whenever you open a Hextech chest. Each of these chests also have a 10 percent chance to drop with another bonus chest (and key).

Hextech Exclusives: Outside of redeeming Gemstones for these skins, they also have a 1 in 2,500 chance to drop alongside the normal Hextech chest content.

No Cheap Champs: Hextech chests only drop shards for champions worth 4800BE or more. Sorry, Nunu fans.

More information on all of that can be found over here. In other League of Legends news, learn more about new Champion Kai'Sa Daughter of the Void. She looks badass.