Guides
Alistar Smyth
13 th May 2022 Edited at: 12th May 2022Hextech is one of the most fascinating concepts of the animated series Arcane created by League of Legends producer Riot Games.
Those who have already familiar with the popular MOBA game LoL already have an idea of Hextech is, as the game requires players to craft items using this technology to advance and upgrade their characters. On the other hand, people who came across Hextech in Arcane may be left bedazzled.
Arcane is an animated action-adventure series based on League of Legends lore. It focuses on multiple characters from the game, but particularly on Vi and Jinx. The series was released on the 6th of November and has been divided into 3 Acts to date with more Acts coming soon.
The champion Jayce is the creator of Hextech in League of Legends Arcane. He is a brilliant inventor who dedicated several years of research to create this technology.
The idea to invent Hextech came from a past experience with Jayce. When he was a young boy, Jayce and his mother faced a near-death experience while being stuck in a deadly storm in Freljord. However, a mage appears and uses mysterious crystals fused with magic to save him and his mother’s life. The mage uses magic to teleport both the mother and son to safety. Upon asking the wizard, how he was able to perform this feat, the man gives Jayce the crystal that was used to save their lives.
Jayce could never forget how there is a mysterious power that could save lives. So he joins the Piltover Academy to learn science and conduct experiments to harness this magical power one day. A fellow scientist Viktor helps Jayce in figuring out how to stabilize the crystals and fuse them with magical energy.
Until Hextech was created, it was believed that only those who are born with a natural aptitude for magic can perform supernatural feats. But that changed with Hextech technology which can fuse Elemental and Spirit magic-using mechanical apparatus to create powerful artifacts. And the best part is that it can be wielded by anyone — and not just those who are born as mages.
Hextech can harness the magical power contained within extremely rare crystals, and its power is limited only by the imagination of its users. The Hextech is capable of amazing feats, ranging from powering machinery to creating beams of light capable of cutting the strongest steel.
Before Hextech Chests, getting free skins was quite hard. You would either buy them or wait for Christmas and hope that the Riot gods smiled on you. All-in-all, Hextech was a welcome concept and was taken up quite positively by the player base as it gave multiple opportunities to players to get new skins for their champions. With the advent of Arcane, the role of Hextech has become even more prominent in the lore.
Players receive Hextech chests for getting an S- ranking or higher in match-made games. This includes ARAM, Summoner’s Rift, and some rotating game modes. You don’t have to play ranked matches to get the necessary ranking, but you must play against other players, not against bots.
You can also acquire Hextech chests if you’re playing alongside another player who was rewarded an S ranking. However, you have to be in the same pre-made group. One of the fastest ways to get chests is to play a game with friends whose skill level is higher than yours. They are more likely to play well enough, and you can rely on them to earn you an S ranking. Also, the more players you queue up with, the higher your chances of getting a hextech chest. Even if you play with random people you’ve added to your friends’ list, you’ll still receive a chest if they rank S minus or higher.
These are the 3 ways by which you can get a chest in League of Legends.
The first question that comes to one's mind after hearing you can get a random free skin from a chest is what are the odds for that? Thankfully in some European countries revealing drop rates of loot boxes is obligatory so we know the exact chances you have to get that sweet skin that you want.
You can get following items from hextech chests:
In addition to the loot mentioned above, you have a chance to get a bonus loot
Since the change from Gemstones to Mythic Essences masterwork chests became special. By unlocking them in a row you will obtain special rewards. For every 5 Masterwork chests, you open you will get bonus skin and some mythic essence. You can read more details in our mythic essence guide.
So how can you get some of these beauties? It's not as trivial as with normal chests. Masterwork chests are basically a premium version of regular chests so you can get these for free only on special occasions such as events and seasonal passes. Other than that the only way to obtain them is through Riot Games' in-game shop. Be careful though it might hurt your wallet, opening these is addictive as hell! On the other hand, this is the fastest way to unlock Prestige and Hextech Skins.
You can obtain Masterwork chests for the following prices at the time of writing this article:
Notice that the price of the Masterwork chests doesn’t go down as you buy more of them. So the cheapest way to get these if you have a lot of keys laying around is to buy them without a key one at a time. This is great because if you are an honorable player you will get more keys than chests!
So what's the difference between masterwork chests and normal chests in terms of drop rate? It's not as different as you might have thought considering that the paid version has only a 20% higher chance for the skin.
You can get following items from Masterwork chests:
Additionally, you have a chance to get:
For any chest you acquire, you’ll need a hextech key to unlock it. The easiest and cheapest way to get them is simply by being a good player in terms of behavior. The honor system is designed to reward players who maintain a good repertoire in the game and regularly get honors from teammates. Simply put, if you are an honorable player, you will regularly get key fragments, both randomly and through honor capsules and orbs. The key fragments are periodically distributed to Honorable players (Honor 1 or above) that continue to play games. There is a monthly earn limit of 12 Key Fragments.
Upon reaching a checkpoint within levels 3, 4, and 5, the player is rewarded an Honor Orb containing key fragments (along with champion shards).
Upon reaching levels 3, 4, and 5, the player is rewarded an Honor Capsule containing key fragments (along with ward skins, emotes, champion shards, and Honor-exclusive skins).
You earn the following keys and fragments based on your honor level and level ups
Now, not all players are patient. Riot understands that and hence has provided the facility to purchase keys from the in-game store.
Press “Loot.”