In an interview with Inven, Legends of Runeterra's Communications Lead, Dillon Buckner, has confirmed that there are no plans to offer card refunds when cards get changed.

  • There will not be refunds when a card gets changed.
  • The goal is to make all cards in the game viable.
  • If a card change makes a card no longer viable, the goal is to quickly fix it.

The Runeterra team also aims to make sure that all Champions fit into their own "dream" deck and that all Regions remain viable. They've currently done a pretty good job with keeping these goals in mind so we'll have to make sure we hold them to these standards as new Champions and Regions get released.

How do you feel about their philosophy behind card changes?

Quote From Dillon Buckner

It’s Beta, so many cards could still change. Has the team thought of a balance approach for when the game launches? And has the team thought of a “card refund” policy yet for cards that get changed?

We patch LoR every other Tuesday, with card updates every other patch (so monthly). When it comes to how much we change in those patches, we’re still learning and want to hear what players think, but we plan to pretty actively adjust cards in pursuit of our gameplay goals and to keep LoR fresh.

I actually handle patch notes for our team, so I’m constantly in touch with the gameplay designers and can share some info on their goals. When we look at balance in LoR and consider changes, we have some high-level, aspirational targets we use to guide our long-term efforts: 

  • Every champion should have a deck where they're the best fit and their “dream” can be realized.
  • Non-champion cards should have at least one deck where they're a good option.
  • Regions should have at least one competitively viable deck.
  • The meta should support the widest possible array of competitively viable decks.

While buffing cards in pursuit of these targets is the fun part, we will also power down cards where necessary. When we do, we want to avoid over-nerfs (cards should remain playable) as well as minimize collateral damage to cards or decks that aren’t the actual target of a given change. 

We fully plan to monitor changes, rather than drop them and forget, and will make further tweaks in future patches as needed. This last bit is particularly critical because we don’t plan to refund cards we’re adjusting—our commitment is that any card a player obtains should remain viable despite changes (or be quickly adjusted again if we miss the mark), and that LoR’s generous card access means players always have options to iterate on their current strategies or pursue new ones.