Riot Games Reveals Odds in League of Legends Loot Chests

The loot box controversy rages on, with players and politicians stepping up to bat against the system while game developers try to find a solution that allows them to have their cake and eat it too. One such developer is Riot Games, the creator of the world’s #1 MOBA, League of Legends. They introduced loot boxes ages ago, and at the time, it wasn’t really an issue. You would occasionally get chests and “key fragments” just from playing (although you could buy them as well) that would unlock skins and other goodies, but since you could still just buy the stuff directly from the store for the same price, it wasn’t really an issue. Nowadays, they’ve restricted some so loot boxes are more invasive, and fans are… not fans of it.

So to help curtail controversy and follow the example set by Blizzard (who was forced to do it in China), they’ve decided to publicly reveal the exact odds of getting something when you pry open one of their loot chests. Every time you crack open one of those chests, here’s what you might get:

Skin Shard (something that can be turned into a full skin or combined into a random skin) —50 percent.
Champion Shard (like the cosmetic skins, but playable champions) —25 percent.
Emote Permanent (Small emotes you can display in-game) —10 percent.
Ward Skin Shard + 150 Bonus Orange Essence (Cosmetic skins for vision-granting ward items)—11.5 percent.
Summoner Icon Shard + 150 Bonus Orange Essence (Icons for your profile)—3.5 percent.

These things have a chance of dropping no matter what your chest has in it.

Gemstone (used to unlock special skins) — 3.6 percent.
Bonus Chest + Key—10 percent.

To really juice up the transparency, they explained some other special rules their loot boxes operate by.

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.