Nexus (Legends of Runeterra)

Edit

The Nexus represents the player's health. Apart from mode-specific exceptions, it has a maximum of 20 Health points, which it starts the game at. It cannot go above its maximum health. But maximum health can be increased, by cards like 9 Gorlith the Unscalable, capped at 99.

It is destroyed when its health is depleted or the player otherwise loses the game (eg. 4Fiora or decking out)—at which point the game ends and its player suffers a loss.

The Nexus takes damage from attacker that wasn't blocked, taking damage equal to the power of the unit, or by Overwhelm damage.

Nexusese can be affected by card effects, and they will be clearly indicated on the card text.

• Therefore, the Nexus can have its own effect (given from card effects).
• For card effects that require an effect on a specific player, it will need to target the Nexus, for example 5 Most Wanted.

Notes

• If both Nexuses are destroyed by effects that occur simultaneously, the game ends in a Tie game.
  • For example, if an allied 4Fiora kills her last required unit to win the game, while blocking an attack, and the blocked unit has Overwhelm and kills the enemy nexus when it strikes, the game will tie. This is because both these actions occur at the moment when the units strike each other.
  • Another example is, if an allied unit is killed with 0 Final Spark, and destroys the allied Nexus, and then an allied 3 Phantom Prankster damages the enemy Nexus. These actions occur simultaneously.
  • Many interactions are still PENDING FOR TEST:, there is a significant amount of information on order of actions that is missing.
• 'Game rules' for Labs are often implemented as effects originating from the Nexus.

Trivia

“	"Nexus health is unfortunately just a bit too much for us to change, at least right now as (it) essentially would require sweeping card changes and could be very unsettling for the way the game is played, even down to what archetypes can even exist. In addition to all the content we've worked on with the assumption at 20. I think we're willing to take these type of risks to better the game generally speaking, but the risk and amount of work is just a bit high."
	— Steve "RubinZoo" Rubin, 13th October 2020

• The Nexus can take different forms depending on the board - for example, on many Lab Boards, the Nexuses appear as colored light bulbs to fit the thematic.