League of Legends is home to nearly 150 champions that players can choose to try out, grind gameplay on, and even master if they find themselves particularly enjoying a specific playstyle.
Currently, playing games on champions on Summoner’s Rift, Howling Abyss, and Twisted Treeline (until it retires later this year) offer Mastery Points. Winning earns more than losing, and all points collect for each champion.
Players can reach Mastery Levels for each champion – with levels 1-5 based on points alone. After Level 5, points will continue to be added; however, Mastery Level 6 and 7 are obtainable by earning the max grade (S) in a game with a champion a set number of times. This, combined with blue essence or the right champion shard, unlocks higher levels.
While this progression system does give players room to reach achievements and feel like they’re making good progress with individual champions, once Level 7 is achieved, it’s merely grinding for more points after that – which gets to feel repetitive and sort of underwhelming.
Recognizing that one of the largest game addition requests from players is to add “champion-based achievements” prompted Riot to start working on a new system revolving around Eternals.
According to a recent FAQ, “Eternals are new, champion-based achievements that let you prove your Mastery and stunt on your opponents. Track your per-game personal bests and rack up lifetime milestones for things like hooks hit, dunks dunked, and more.”
Between the FAQ and the /dev blog post exploring the background behind Eternals, it’s safe to conclude that this new feature will bring a lot of opportunities for players to unlock on an individual champion basis.
Looks like we announced our Eternals today. Been a long time coming, kinda excited to see how they feel.https://t.co/V3JNJXreUh pic.twitter.com/JiR38vXMhc
— Rowan – L4T3NCY (@RiotL4T3NCY) August 13, 2019
Eternals will be available for purchase through RP – an in-game currency only obtainable through money purchase. Players can buy them in sets of 3, which can then be applied to specific champions.
The basis of Eternals is to give players more ways to progress with champions, with unlockable achievements revolving around general requirements as well as individual achievements – such as Riot’s example of “Sylas’s ‘Stop Hitting Yourself,’ an Eternal which tracks how many times Sylas kills an enemy with their own ultimate.”
Riot shared six different Eternal categories – The Warden, The Protector, The Empress, The Guide, The Warrior, and The Trickster – which categorize different champions based on their abilities and purposes and are represented by color-coordinated statues.
So, what exactly do Eternals do for players other than giving more incentive to grind out games on their favorite champions?
Eternals unlock unique ways to show off a player’s skills in-game, such as by adding flair to Mastery Emotes and representing player achievements for their specific champion both in-game and afterward.
Since Eternals will follow their own five-tier progression system, as well as a stage afterward called ‘Rekindling’ which will allow players to continue tracking stats at a steadier rate than the initial climb, there’s a lot of room for growth with this new feature.
According to the Eternals FAQ, they will be debuting on the PBE on August 14th and should be available on live servers in Patch 9.17.
