Gold (League of Legends)

Gold is the in-game currency of League of Legends. It is used to buy items in the shop that provide champions with bonus stats and abilities, which in turn is one of the main ways for champions to increase their power over the course of a game.

At the beginning of the game, champions are given starting gold based on the map being played on, and can receive more gold through various means.

Starting Gold

• Summoner's Rift: Champions start with 500.
• Howling Abyss: Champions start with 1400.

Base gold generation

Every champion passively generates gold at a rate that varies from map to map.

• Summoner's Rift: 20.4 per 10 seconds; starts at 1:50.
• Howling Abyss: 55 per 10 seconds; starts at 1:00.

Increasing passive gold gain

Champions can earn gold passively, without requiring direct action from the player. It is typically quantified in terms of the amount of gold gained over 10 seconds ("gold per 10" for short). Passive gold gain does not activate until minions spawn, and can be increased by gold-generating items.

Items

The following gold income items will passively generate gold every 10 seconds, only one of them may be carried at a time.

This table is automatically generated based on the data from Module:ItemData/data.

Item	Cost	Amount	Availability
Black Mist Scythe Black Mist Scythe	400	3	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Bulwark of the Mountain Bulwark of the Mountain	400	3	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Frostfang Frostfang	400	3	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Harrowing Crescent Harrowing Crescent	400	3	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Pauldrons of Whiterock Pauldrons of Whiterock	400	3	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Relic Shield Relic Shield	400	2	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Runesteel Spaulders Runesteel Spaulders	400	3	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Shard of True Ice Shard of True Ice	400	3	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Spectral Sickle Spectral Sickle	400	2	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Spellthief's Edge Spellthief's Edge	400	2	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Steel Shoulderguards Steel Shoulderguards	400	2	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz
Targon's Buckler Targon's Buckler	400	3	Summoner's Rift, Nexus Blitz

Increasing active gold gain

Champions can also gain gold by doing certain actions. Gold that is earned through direct action from the player is considered active gold gain. It can be increased by items.

Items

• Cull
• The Collector
• Spoils of War
  • Relic Shield / Targon's Buckler
  • Steel Shoulderguards / Runesteel Spaulders
• Tribute
  • Spellthief's Edge / Frostfang
  • Spectral Sickle / Harrowing Crescent

Champion abilities

• Akshan's Going Rogue
• Draven's League of Draven
• Gangplank's Parrrley
• Illaoi's Test of Spirit (from killing Spirits)
• Pyke's Death from Below
• Senna's Absolution
• Skarner's Crystal Spires
• Twisted Fate's Loaded Dice
• Viego's Sovereign's Domination (from possessing Mist Wraiths)

Runes

• Biscuit Delivery
• Future's Market
• Triumph

Killing units

Minions, monsters, and pets

Gold can be earned by dealing the killing blow ("last hit") to enemy minions and neutral monsters.

• The gold earned from minion kills is dependent on the game time. As the game progresses, each minion is worth more.
• The gold earned from neutral monsters also increases over time, depending on when the monsters were spawned. In addition, the largest monster in a minor camp will slowly increase its gold value to a modest cap after approximately two minutes.
• Pets and summons such as Annie's Tibbers, Malzahar's Voidling, Shaco's Jack in the Box, and Zyra's Plants grant gold to the champion who kills them.
• Certain epic monsters give gold globally, providing gold for the entire team. The champion who lands the killing blow receives additional gold.

Champions

Main article: Kill

Gold can be earned by killing or assisting in killing enemy champions. The gold gain is determined by how many kills the slain champion has recently accumulated (champions that have killed many enemies without dying are worth more gold).

Structures

• Destroying a turret grants varying amounts of gold.
• Destroying an inhibitor or nexus grants the player 50, but the latter is irrelevant as it also causes the game to end.

Wards

• Destroying a ward / trap grants varying amounts of gold.

Selling Items

• All items can be sold back at the shop for 70% of their total cost.
• The exceptions to this rule are returning only 40% of their original cost:
  • Gold generating items:
    • Cull
    • Spoils of War's line: /
    • Tribute's line: /
  • Consumable items:
    • Potions:
    • Vision:
    • Elixirs:
  • Starting items:
    • Doran's items:
    • Dark Seal
  • Guardian Angel, Stopwatch
• Total Biscuit of Everlasting Will sells for 5.
• When you undo an item purchase, you are refunded the full cost. Gold generation items also return any gold they generated.

Trivia

• Most gold possible from a single teamfight : 5750 (abilities and items that increase gold income excluded)
  • Requires 1 champion getting 5 shutdowns against enemies with maximum shutdown ( 1000 each), and at least 1 ally assisting the 5 kills ( 150 per assist).
  • The maximum gold allowed for a shutdown is 700 on top of the 300 base kill gold.
• On Twisted Treeline champions started the game with 850, and passively generated 16 per 10 seconds.
  • When someone on your team seized an altar 80 was globally earned for each member of the team.
• On Crystal Scar champions started the game with 1300 while playing Ascension and 1400 while playing Definitely Not Dominion, and passively generated 56 per 10 seconds, starting at 1:30.
  • When a player neutralized a point, they would gain 100, and 100 for capturing a point. This number is dependent on the number of champions involved in the capture of a point: two champions will each gain 75, and three champions will each gain 63.

See also

• Gold efficiency
• Gold income