Path of Champion 2.0 In - Depth Guide: Jinx - Ezreal Level
Master player and Rulebook author Conansson walks you through the first level of the Path of Champions.
Hello and welcome to my Path of Champions guide!
My name is Conansson, I’m a Masters player, content creator and the writer of the unofficial rulebook for Legends of Runeterra. I’m having a blast with the Path of Champions 2.0, here’s part 1 of my guides on the gamemode.
Jinx’s first adventure, up until defeating Ezreal, is currently mandatory for every new player joining Legends of Runeterra, even before they have access to the Challenges (in-game tutorial missions).
That’s why this first guide will be quite in-depth and showcase key mechanics to understanding the Path of Champions, even if you’ve never played a cardgame before.
Our Starter Deck
Before we get started with the actual adventure, let’s take a look at our own deck. You can do so in - game by clicking on the little Jinx Icon in the bottom left corner.
We start with 16 cards in total, 12 are units and 4 are spells. Jinx is our champion, she also has a special border, whereas our other units are followers. Some spells can only target followers, but not our Jinx!
Some of our units have keywords. You can see what each keyword means by hovering over it/clicking on it.
Quick Attack allows our units to strike first while attacking. If they kill the blocker, it doesn’t get to strike back at all! Quite a powerful offensive ability.
Elusive units can only be blocked by other elusive units, allowing them to get them damage in for free if our opponent lacks units with this keyword.
Our first spell, Jury-Rig summons a 1/1 Scrap Scuttler (you can see what cards a card summons/creates by right - clicking/enlarging the card). It also summons a Scuttler if it’s discarded, for example with the effect of Zaunite Urchin or Sump Dredger.
Pow - Pow, our second spell, allows us to shoot any unit, both champions and followers, for 3 damage. We could even shoot our own units, althought that is not advised!
Our Champ
Our most powerful card is our champion, Jinx.
She starts as a 4/3 with Quick Attack, but once she “sees” your hand being empty, she levels up (and stays leveled up for the rest of the game, even if she dies). The next time your hand is empty, she generates you a SUPER MEGA DEATH ROCKET!, a powerful spell that you can only use the round you get it.
Both of these can happen in the same round, for example:
We have Jinx on the board and 2 cards in hand,
We then play a Zaunite Urchin, discarding the other card and leveling up Jinx,
We then play the card we just drew, which makes our hand empty again and gives us the Rocket.
On the rare case that you have your champion on board and draw another copy of it, the copy transforms into a spell (in Jinx’ case Get Exited!).
With Great Power…
The first thing you get to do when starting your adventure is to choose a power.
Powers are passive bonuses that accompany you for your whole journey and activate for each fight. Some just summon stuff at the start of the game, others have effects on every single round. Most opponents you will fight have powers as well!
The first level can be beaten with any power, but some of the best ones are Battlefield Training, Bouncing Blades, Fast Deal and Flexible Gameplan.
First Fight
The first foe, Golden Crushbot, mostly just plays units without text.
Our first enemy’s scariest unit is probably Funsmith, although you can answer that with Pow-Pow.
His two spells are of different speeds: Jolt is a Slow spell, so it can only be used outside of combat, whereas Statikk Shock is Fast, so it can be used while in combat. You get a chance to react to both these spells, unlike your own Pow-Pow that just happens instantly.
You start with one extra mana over the encounter and it only has 10 life. Try to play a unit each round and hit your opponent down before they start dealing Nexus damage with their spells.
To the Victor go the Spoils
After the fight, you get to choose a card and add 2 copies of it to your deck.
Note that even uncollectible cards can appear as an option. You can see whether or not cards can be put into PvP decks by looking on the bottom: If they have a green/blue/purple or yellow icon, you can put them into your own deck when playing on the Ladder — if they don’t (like Living Legends, the rightmost card in the picture above) then it’s either a PvE-only card, or a card that, in PvP needs to be created by other cards.
But in Path of Champions, we get (if we are lucky…) to put the most broken cards in our deck!
A Little Help Here?
In the next encounter, a support champion will join our deck.
All of them are good, although I recommend a cheaper champion between 2 to 5 mana. But in the end, just go for whichever one looks the coolest to you!
Choices, choices…
After the champion has been picked up, we head to the first choice — we get to choose whether to go left or right, and we’ll face different foes depending that choice.
I recommend you to take on the Chempunk Pickpocket, as this enemy mostly plays units with not text, whereas the other one uses a pesky mechanic to deal damage to your Nexus over time.
Before the fight, you get to look at the enemy powers:
Also notice that, to the right of the big yellow FIGHT button, you have the Loadout button: this is also where you can change your loadout and equip skins, boards or guardians — they have no mechanic influence in the game, but do make you look good.
You can also look at the enemy power in-game by clicking on the little circle in the top left.
Once we jump into the fight, here’s what our foe will bring:
Chempunk Pickpocket tries to summon a lot of 1/1s and 2/1s, but his power Stolen Scrap also works for you when discarding with Zaunite Urchin or Dreg Dredgers. Block his 1/1s down, Pow-Pow the Aeronaut and you will have a victory in no time!
If you choose the other route, instead of Chempunk Pickpocket you’ll face Stinky Whump . It uses the Puffcap mechanic, which plants poisonous mushrooms on cards in your deck that damage you once you draw them. His power Bump goes the Whump adds Puffcaps whenever one of your units dies and Poison Dart pings down your one-health units. It also copies your followers with Iterative Improvement or Charming Guildmember. Be advised: avoiding taking at least some damage is often impossible on this encounter.
The next battle rewards you get will have Items:
These items are attached to a card and give it certain bonus, for example Skirmisher’s Sabre gives the Clump of Whumps the Challenger keyword, whereas Studded Leather turns Forge Chief into a 3/2.
Notice that items affect all copies of a card in your deck — that is to say, if there are two copies of card A already in your deck, and you pick two more copies of A, these last two having an item, then all four copies of the card will have the item.
Items also stack in a similar way. For example:
You have 3x copies of Card A in your deck, with Item #1,
As reward, you pick 2x of Card A, with Item #2,
Now all five copies of Card A will have both Item #1 and Item #2.
The next node is random. You could get a chest giving you units, spells or items for your champion, there could be a shop, where you can spend the money you earned, a healer patching you up or a suprise encounter — these are marked with: (!) .
After that, you’ll get a powerful item for Jinx, which gives you The loose Cannon once she hits the board, a gamewinning spell reducing the cost of ALL your cards by 2.
For the next choice of foe, I recommend going for the Practical Perfectionist. The other encounter has an annoying power which shuffles your stats and quite a few elusive units, so Perfectionist is just easier.
Predict is the mechanic this encounter uses with Time Trick and Practical Perfectionist. It basically lets the opponent put a card out of 3 randomly chosen ones on top of their deck. You don’t really have to care about that, while they’re busy stacking the deck, just punch them in the face!
Keep an eye out for their Amateur Aeronaut, since it has Elusive, and try to trade away your one-health units so that they don’t get destroyed by Timewinder and Chempunk Shredder.
Then it’s time to hit the bar…
A fight has broken out in the Back Alley Bar, causing a lot of confusion. This encounter has a ton of flavor since it features everybody who would normally hang out in such a shady joint.
Gameplay-wise, the power Bar Fight! is frustrating since it can turn your units into 0/2s which can’t deal damage.
The biggest threats are Bubble Bear, which might turn into a 4/2 with Elusive, or Sumpsnipe Scavenger, a 4/3 that can give an ally Elusive if the top card of the enemy deck is from Piltover and Zaun.
You also have to end the game fast, otherwise Back Alley Barkeep might surprise you with a game- inning bomb that was randomly generated. A tricky encounter, but manageable nevertheless.
Boss Fight
After a shop and a healer, it is time for the final boss of the stage, Ezreal.
The scariest card in this fight by far is the enemy champion, Ezreal.
His Target Practice Power immediately summons him to the field when the game starts, and he has 2 more copies in his deck. Ezreal is a 1/3 with Elusive, so you either need your own Elusives, or your Pow-Pow spell to deal with him.
Once he hits your Nexus, he creates a Mystic Shot, which can deal 2 to your units or even the Nexus. After sniping your units 6 times, he levels up and starts dealing damage to your Nexus for each spell he plays. Best to get rid of him quickly!
The rest of the deck is underwhelming, though, featuring mostly units without text. Watch out for Thermogenic Beam, which Ezreal loves to fire at your Jinx.
As long as you come in with a decent life total and have an answer for Ezreal, you should manage to defeat the gauntlet boy EZily, and unlock the rest of Legends of Runeterra.
Final Tips
If you are a new player, my recommendation would be to head to the Challenges, which explain core mechanics of the game, or to the Collection and just reading a few other cards. You can also just jump into another adventure, for example Teemo, which will be covered in a future guide.
That’s going to be it for this guide, thank you so much for reading!
If you liked it, consider checking out my Youtube - channel , where I publish Legends of Runeterra podcasts and educational content, or follow me on twitter:
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Good luck on your journey through the world of Runeterra!
