Wild West

LoL has always had an established metagame the playerbase expects you to follow. Even Riot has fully embraced it, though, without fully enforcing it. Not the case with PvP mode, though. Wild Rift’s equivalent to Casual is still in its wild west phase, which means you can play however you like. Sure, some players - including yours truly - will get upset with you for not picking a Support. But when you look at the enemy team, they’re also a bit of a jumble, so who cares?

Faster Matches

As mentioned above, LoL on PC requires you to make a sizeable time commitment with games clocking in at 45 minutes to over an hour. Not exactly great for busy people and gamer parents. On top of that, the game feels incredibly slow during the opening phases. Wild Rift shoots for matches that last at most 25 minutes. On average, I’d say my games fall on the 18-22 minute mark. Not only am I able to play more matches, but they’re also incredibly fast-paced. Laning goes by quite fast, especially if you have a jungler that’s solid at ganking.

Combat Tips

More Accessible

While League of Legends isn’t the most hardware-intensive game, you still need a decent computer to run it well. Wild Rift being on phones is nothing short of a godsend. It’s designed to be played by devices made in the last six years, which is incredibly forgiving. Heck, the game will run on phones still running Android Kit Kat. With these specs, it’s a lot easier even to get your friends involved.

Simpler Gameplay

LoL has never been the most complicated game to jump into. Its “easy to learn, hard to master” design is relatively well-known. Wild Rift takes that a step further by introducing elements from other mobile MOBAs. My favorite is the quick buy system. Once you’ve racked up enough gold, the game will offer you two choices for your next purchase. Wild Rift also doesn’t have potion items. Instead, scattered around the map and near turrets, you’ll find respawning plants that you can destroy to drop three healing orbs.

Relatively Generous

Compared to other free-to-play games out there, Wild Rift feels very generous with its Blue Motes currency. From simply playing an average of two games per day, I’ve been able to purchase pretty much every Champ I wanted from the current roster while still saving enough to buy 5-6 more Champions down the line. The most significant advantage is that new Champs don’t release at a higher price. Events, quests, and the free version of the Wild Pass also doll out many booster items for XP and Blue Motes.