Here’s one of the most common questions from people playing League of Legends: How to level up fast? Whether you’re itching to get started with ranked matchmaking or you’re after those crafting ingredients, we got just the info you need!
The Rundown on League of Legends – How to Level Up Fast
If you need to level up your summoner level ASAP, then look no further; here’s the gist of what you have to do.
- Playing with duration and win boosts will significantly speed up your leveling experience.
- Winning PvP games will give you the most XP per match. However, losses (and lower XP) are more likely to happen
- Coop vs AI (beginner) games will give you more consistent XP gains over time, especially with both boosts on, and is currently the fastest way to level up.
IMPORTANT – Spamming Coop vs AI games in Twisted Treeline will no longer be possible because Riot is retiring that game mode at the end of season 9!
For those who need to know more about why these methods work, or if you’re new and you don’t know why you’d want to get your summoner levels up ASAP, read on as we take a closer look at the level system and how XP works.
The Summoner Level System Explained
The summoner level system is Riot’s way of helping summoners “get used” to how LoL is played. As you gain more XP and increase your summoner level, you get certain rewards that add more depth to the game. Here are the most important rewards for certain summoner levels.
- 3 – 5v5 Blind pick PvP queue
- 5 – Hextech crafting
- 6 – ARAM PvP queue
- 8 – Default rune pages
- 9 – Smite, Ignite, and Cleanse (by this point you’ll have access to all summoner skills)
- 10 – Custom rune pages
- 30 – Ranked 5v5 Queues
Why Level up Fast in the First Place?
On one side, the level system is an ingenious way to prevent a player from getting overwhelmed by the game mechanics. On the other hand, you pretty much have to gain levels without access to summoner skills and runes that other players on the opposing team may already have. That’s not even including the climb to level 30 that gives you access to ranked queue.
Beyond level 30, there are two good reasons why you’d want to keep leveling up fast: gemstones and capsules. Gemstones allow you to unlock rare or exclusive content such as hextech skins and masterwork chests. Capsules give you champion and skin shards that can be dissolved into essence, which are essential for Hextech Crafting and unlocking skin or champion permanents.
How to level up fast in League of Legends
Common Methods Grind for XP Faster
Regardless of which approach to leveling you take, the following rules apply:
- You gain more exp if you win games
- Experience purely time-based; getting objectives or more kills do not affect experience gain.
- For a game to yield experience points regardless of winning or losing, it must last for at least 7 minutes.
- Using duration boosts doubles the amount of experience you gained.
- Using win boosts adds a flat 210 experience on top of whatever experience you got after the game.
- Both types of boosts can be active at the same time, but the duration boost will multiply your experience BEFORE you get the extra 210 XP from the win boost.
Lots of people also tend to use LoL boosting services to level up their accounts faster.
That being said, let’s take a look at the three fastest means to gain experience.
Method 1 – Pure PvP
This method is meant for those who want a challenge or those who already have experience playing LoL. If you’re an F2P player, you will get the most XP from playing PvP matches. It’s important to note that the type of PvP matchmaking queue will not affect how much experience you gain: all modes will give the same amount of experience per second.
Let’s assume that you played and won a 20-minute PvP game on the dot. This gives us the following formula:
(1,200 seconds x 0.11 XP per second) + 6.6 base XP = 138.6, rounded up to 139 XP.
- With duration boost, you get 278 XP
- With a win boost, you get 349 XP
- With both boosts, you get 488 XP
Losing the same match will give you fewer experience points:
(1,200 seconds x 0.09 XP per second) + 5.4 base XP = 113.4, rounded down to 113 XP
- With duration boost, you get 226 XP
That seems like a lot of XP regardless of how you look at it, but let’s check out the second method.
Method 2 –Coop vs. AI
Playing Coop vs. AI games will yield less XP per second and lower base XP than playing PvP matches. However, this method still has the potential to be a lot faster than the first method.
This time, we’ll take a look at a 20-minute Coop vs AI game, which follows the same formula as PvP matches.
(1,200 seconds x .0825 XP per second) + 4.95 base XP = 103.95, rounded up to 104 XP.
- With duration boost, you get 208 XP
- With a win boost, you get 314 XP
- With both boosts, you get 418 XP
Again, losses yield less XP
(1,200 seconds x 0.0675 XP per second) + 4.05 base XP = 85.05, rounded down to 85 XP
- With duration boost, you get 170 XP
Okay, the numbers look a lot lower across the board. Still, that doesn’t stop Coop vs AI matches from being a viable tactic. Read on to find out why.
PvP or Coop vs. AI – Which One Is Faster?
If we’re just looking at the experience gained per game, then the PvP method is hands-down the fastest way to level up. However, certain factors affect how fast you level up. First, queue times for PvP matches take longer, so you end up having to wait longer between matches. Second, it’s more difficult to win in PvP matchmaking than in Coop vs AI games.
Let’s take ten 20 minute games from both methods as an example with both boosts enabled:
Playing PvP with a win-loss record of 7-3 nets you a total of 4094 XP
Playing Coop vs Beginner AI with a perfect 10-0 streak nets you a total of 4180 XP
This means for the same amount of time, you have to win eight out of ten PvP games just to gain exp faster than playing 10 easily winnable Coop vs. AI games!
League of Legends – How to Level up Fast: Conclusion
Many players would argue that spamming Coop vs AI games – especially against beginner-level AI – is not the best way to level up because it “isn’t as challenging”. However, when it comes to speed leveling, this method is objectively faster and more consistent.
If you’re really worried about not being able to hone your skills along the way, you can always get your feet wet in a few PvP matches after you leveled up. That being said, we also have a comprehensive guide that can help you get better at the game. Click this link to check it out!
That wraps up our discussion on League of Legends – How to Level up Fast! We hope this can help you make the grind to summoner level 30 and beyond!
