Project K is Riot Games’ first attempt to create a physical card game based on the League of Legends world. Although Legends of Runeterra, the digital card game, didn’t go well for Riot Games, it seems they’ve set their eyes on the old classic way of playing trading card games and are confident of their product.
The game is being tested in China, but we don’t have an official release date for English cards. However, most are speculating that Project K will be available in 2025.
The game director of Project K, Dave Guskin shares how the game is played, the rules, and everything you need to know to get started.
Goal of the Game
Project K is a competitive Trading Card Game for 2-4 players where you join forces with your favorite League of Legends champions. Play out your army and conquer the battlefields of Runeterra to win – each battlefield you take with your units scores 1 Point, and each turn you hold one earns you 1 more. The first to 8 Points wins!
You’ll also play spells and gear, use abilities, and do anything it takes to push the enemy off of their battlefields and hold your own – including forging alliances with other players… and betraying them when the time comes!
Choose your Champion
At the TFT Macao event, to get you started quickly we’ve created a number of pre-built decks:
● Jinx (Fury/Chaos): “I’m crazy! I’ve got a doctor’s note.”
○ Aggressive, Tricky, likes to Conquer
○ Discard cards to trigger a frenzy of surprising effects and out-crazy your opponents.
● Viktor (Mental/Order): “Join the glorious evolution.”
○ Controlling, Go-Wide, likes to Hold
○ Engineer an endless army of recruits and consume them for spare parts as you dismantle Zaun’s enemies.
● Yasuo (Calm/Chaos): “Death is like the wind—always by my side.”
○ Midrange, Very Tricky, likes to Conquer
○ Glide between battlefields to outmaneuver your enemies to deliver your blade where they least expect it.
● Volibear (Fury/Physical): “Men speak in small words. I speak in thunder!”
○ Controlling, Go-Big, good at Conquering and Holding
○ Save up tons of Runes to summon the huge armored bear and other monsters to claw your way to victory.
Deckbuilding Rules
Deck building is deep and rewarding in Project K. Here’s how you build a deck:
● Pick a Champion Legend. This defines the colors of your deck and the champion unit you can choose.
● Choose a champion unit matching the name and one of the colors of your Legend.
● Build a deck of 40 cards, max 3 copies of any card from the colors of your Legend, including the 1 chosen
champion unit.
● Choose 3 battlefields (these are colorless so you can pick any of them).
○ In a single game, you get 1 of these at random to present at game start.
○ In a best-of-3 match, you pick 1 to present at the start of each game (but you can’t pick the same one
again in this match).
Starting the Game
Shuffle your Main Deck and your Rune Deck.
● Draw 4 cards from your Main Deck.
● Determine the starting player by shuffling the battlefields and selecting one at random. That player goes first.
○ With 4 players, remove the selected battlefield (only play with 3 battlefields).
● Before the game begins, you may mulligan:
○ Choose up to 2 cards to recycle (place facedown on the bottom of your deck), then draw that many.
○ You can only mulligan once.
● The last player plays an extra Rune on their first turn.
○ With 4 players, the first player also skips drawing a card on their first turn.
● Turns proceed clockwise around the table.
Playing your Card
(Above: a prototype version of the Yasuo card.)
● Playing a card requires Runes.
● The top left of each card displays its Rune cost.
Rune Costs: These have two components –
○ Energy (exhaust) cost: # of Runes
■ Exhaust (turn sideways) this many to play it.
■ You can only exhaust ready (vertical) runes.
■ Color doesn’t matter for this.
■ Your runes all ready at the start of your turn.
○ Power (recycle) cost: # and specific color of Runes
■ Recycle (go to bottom of deck) this many to play it.
■ You can recycle exhausted runes to pay this cost.
■ Some cards don’t have a recycle cost at all.
Types of Cards
● Units and Gear can be played on your turn.
○ Units enter play exhausted (horizontal).
○ Units can exhaust (turn sideways) to move, from
base to battlefield, or back to base.
○ Play units to base or to a battlefield you control.
● Spells do effects, then go to trash. Gear stays in base.
○ Spells with Reaction can respond to spells and abilities when they interact with you or your stuff, or in a
Showdown (combat at a battlefield, or when an Epic card is played).
Steps of the Turn
Start your turn:
- Ready any exhausted units or runes from last turn (turn them vertical).
- Score a Point for each battlefield you control. (This is Hold.)
- Resolve any Start of Turn or Hold abilities.
- Draw 1 from your Main Deck (no max hand size) and play two runes (readied) from your Rune Deck.
Then in any order you choose, as much as you are able:
● Play units from hand, or your Chosen Champion from the Champion Zone, or play spells or gear.
● Use the abilities of your cards, including your Legend card.
● Move units to or from battlefields. (This starts a combat if you move to an enemy-controlled battlefield!)
When you’re done, tell other players “I’m done” and resolve any End of Turn abilities. All units return to full health.
Moving, Conquering, and Control
● If a battlefield is open (not controlled), all you have to do to take it is to move a unit there. (This is Conquer.)
○ You can only Score each Battlefield once per turn.
○ Units can’t move between battlefields unless they have Ganking.
● Once you take a battlefield, you control it as long as you have units there.
○ You can hide 1 card with Hidden on that battlefield, as a nasty surprise. (If you lose control, discard it.)
Combat: When you move units to a battlefield occupied by an enemy, that starts a Combat.
● Resolve any “When I defend,” abilities, then any “When I attack” abilities. (Either player can use Reactions.)
● Players involved in the combat can play spells, or cards hidden there, until everyone passes. (It’s a Showdown!)
○ When a spell or Hidden is played, either player can use Reactions before it resolves. Then resolve it!
○ Want to invite someone to help with 3+ players? You can invite them before spells/Hidden get played.
● Then fight! Each player sums their Might, then divides that as total damage to the opposing units.
○ A unit assigned damage ≥ its Might dies.
○ At the end of combat, units that didn’t die return to full health.
● If only attackers live, take control (and score). If defenders lived, they stay and living attackers go back to base.
Winning the Game: The game ends when a player scores 8 points. (GGWP go next)
● Unlike other Points, the winning Point can’t come from just a Conquer.
● If you don’t get the last Point from Hold, you must Score all battlefields in a single turn.
● If you conquer but haven’t scored the other battlefields, you get to draw 1 card instead of gaining a point
