Riot has dropped the last Dev Update of 2025. Join Pabro and Meddler as they talk about Season 1 2026, including the theme, Ranked changes, Swiftplay, and more.
Dev Update Highlights
If you don’t have the time to watch the whole video, don’t worry, we have you covered with a recap!
Season 1 2026 Theme: Demacia and a “Hope Era”
- They’ll continue to find the right balance for thematic Seasons moving forward.
- Season 1 starts with themes of unity, justice, and the classic Demacian blue-and-gold shine, which means new Demacia-inspired map elements and a skill line featuring champions reimagined as Demacians.
- Riot will drop a cinematic in January that goes “old-school Demacia,” set during what they call its golden age.
Core Gameplay Changes
- Riot said the game has leaned way too hard into “fight every objective every 2 minutes.” They will shift away from that philosophy.
Faster Game Start
- Minions and jungle camps spawn 35 seconds earlier, which means the game begins at full speed the moment you load in. Early invades will still work, but you will need to commit faster.
Vision Overhaul with Faelights
- Riot wants pushing solo laners to matter more by adding Faelights, special zones that give bonus vision to wards. Some will exist at game starts, others will appear when the Elemental Rift kicks in.
- With this change, they hope to give mid and top laners more vision tools that reward pressure.
Objectives Are Being Pulled Back
- Atakhan has been removed.
- Baron returns to its 20-minute spawn.
- Epic monsters are beefier.
- Teams behind have more room to contest or trade.
- Feats of Strength have been removed, replaced by normal rewards like First Blood and First Turret gold returning.
Sledging & Pushing Are Getting Buffs
- Riot is pushing the meta toward split-pushing and turret pressure.
- Hitting towers will unleash bonus damage, giving the every team real pushing windows even without insane DPS.
- Plates have been added to inner and inhibitor towers and stay on outer towers permanently.
- Minions spawn faster and late-game Homeguards take you straight to your furthest wave.
- Nexus turrets respawn with missing health.
The changes above should bring back macro, the part of League many players miss.
Role Quests: The Biggest Changes of 2026
- Top, mid, and bot are getting their role quests, similar to jungle pets and support upgrades.
- Your quest is tied to the role you were assigned in lobby.
Top Lane Changes
Riot’s making some changes to the top lane to ensure top laners can influence the game outside their island.
- Once you complete the quest, you will get a free teleport
- You will receive a stronger teleport if you already took TP
- Gives more XP now
- A raised level cap
Mid Lane
Mid players will unlock:
- A free Tier 3 boot upgrade
- Faster recall times, very useful for assassins, battlemages, and other weird picks
Bot Lane
ADC’s are getting:
- A big gold boost from quest completion
- Bonus gold from CS, kills, and assists
- A new seventh slot holding boots permanently resulting in 6 full legendary items total
Jungle & Support Updates
Jungle early influence is being nerfed via:
- Slower early clears
- Epic monsters harder for laners to steal
- Smite dealing more damage
- More gold/XP from large mobs after quest completion
- Bonus jungle movement speed
Support gets:
- A dedicated control-ward slot
- Discounts on control wards
- Buffs to passive gold regeneration
- Lane Swap Detected is getting permanently removed
Ranked 2026 Changes
We have a separate article covering the Ranked 2026 changes.
Item Shake-Up: 9 New Toys and Returning Favorites
- Scepter of Bonking: empowers Spellblade to double your on-hit effects
- Blood Sphere: Omnivamp + Ability Haste scaling for AD fighters
- Snowbow: bonus range on takedown for precise ADCs, plus distance-based damage amp
- Crit damage returns to 200%
Swiftplay Changes
Riot made the following changes to Swiftplay to make the games faster:
- Players start at level 3 with bonus starting gold
- Death timers have been reduced
- Cannon minions spawn every wave after wave 3
- New “Minion Frenzy” effect when you score kills around your wave
- Earlier Baron and Elder spawns
- Dragon Soul at two dragons
- Grubs or Rift Herald have been removed from this mode
WASD Controls Go Live in Unranked Queues
- WASD controls are going live in all unranked queues except Normal Draft
New features include:
- Auto-attack weaving has been optimized for WASD users
- Better navigation around minions
- A dynamic locked camera with speed tuning
- A new Scout ahead free-camera mode
- Accessibility options like 45-degree directional movement