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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. Actively, champions acquire gold through last hitting minions and monsters, destroying enemy turrets, and killing enemy champions (or assisting in kills). Champions also passively generate gold, which can be increased by runes, masteries, and items. Passive gold gain does not activate until minions spawn.

Starting Gold

Champions start with 475 gold on Summoner's Rift, 825 gold on Twisted Treeline, and 1375 gold on Crystal Scar and Howling Abyss. The Wealth mastery 2014 Wealth mastery increases starting gold by 40, allowing more potential combinations of items or an additional Health or Mana Potion.

Passive Gold Gain

Gold earned automatically, without requiring direct action from the player, is considered passive gold gain. It is typically quantified in terms of the amount of gold gained over 10 seconds ("gold per 10" for short). Passive gold gain can be increased by runes, masteries, and gold-generating items.

Base Gold Generation

Every champion passively generates gold at a rate that varies from map to map. This gold gain does not begin until minions spawn (or on Crystal Scar, at 1:30).

Items

  • Avarice Blade Avarice Blade generates 3 gold per 10 seconds.
    • Note that this is the only gold-generating item without the Gold Income passive, meaning it can be purchased alongside any other gold-generating item.

Gold Income Items

Certain items are categorized as "gold income items", of which champions can only carry one of at a time.

Selling Items

Runes and Masteries

Active Gold Gain

Gold that is earned through direct action from the player is considered active gold gain. It can be increased by runes, masteries, and items.

Killing 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 Annie's Tibbers Tibbers, Malzahar's Malzahar's Voidling Voidling, Shaco's Shaco's Jack In The Box Jack In The Box, and Zyra's Zyra's Plants 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 an additional 25 gold.

Champion Kills and Assists

Gold can be earned by killing enemy champions. The gold gain associated with a champion kill is determined by how many kills the slain champion has recently accumulated (champions that have killed many enemies without dying are worth more gold). When a champion is killed, the bounty ranges from 15 to 500 gold[1].

  • The last hitter always receives 100% of the value of the bounty.
  • An extra 50% of the value of the bounty is put into a gold pool. This pool is split equally among all champions who assisted in the kill in the past 10 seconds (either by damaging or debuffing the slain champion, or by healing or buffing the killing champion). If there are no assists, this pool is lost.
  • An extra 100 gold is earned for getting First Blood, the first kill in a game.

Destroying Structures

  • Whenever an enemy turret is destroyed, every team member receives between 100 and 175 gold. Members who contributed to the turret kill split an additional 0 (Inhibitor/Nexus Turrets) to 150 (Outer Turrets) gold.
  • Destroying an inhibitor or nexus grants the player 50 gold, but the latter is irrelevant as it also causes the game to end.

Destroying Wards

  • Destroying a Sight Ward Sight Ward or a Vision Ward Vision Ward will grant the player 15 gold. An additional 15 gold is granted to the champion who provided true sight to reveal the ward, if necessary. This means that revealing and destroying a ward grants a player 30 gold in total.

Items

Spoils of War

Spoils of war is a unique passive ability. It reads: Basic melee attacks deal 200 bonus true damage to minions with less than 200 health, consuming a charge. Whenever a minion is killed by Spoils of War, the nearest allied champion is healed for 2% of your maximum health and gains gold equal to the kill. Requires a nearby allied champion.

The following items have Spoils of War:

Tribute

Tribute is a unique passive that triggers on champion damage dealt to other champions and turrets. Upon triggering, the champion will deal bonus damage and gain a small amount of gold.

Works on an ammo system, starting off with 3 charges, and uses one each time the passive is triggered. 30 second cooldown.

The following items have Tribute:

  • Spellthief's Edge Spellthief's Edge - 5 gold, triggers independently on both autoattacks and abilities. Killing a minion will disable this effect for 12 seconds.
  • Frostfang Frostfang - 10 gold, triggers independently on both autoattacks and abilities. Killing a minion will disable this effect for 12 seconds.
  • Frost Queen's Claim Frost Queen's Claim - 10 gold, triggers independently on both autoattacks and abilities.

Masteries

  • Bandit mastery 2014 Bandit grants different effects for melee and ranged champions.
    • Melee: 15 gold on kill or assist.
    • Ranged: 3 gold for attacking an enemy champion with a basic attack.

Champion Abilities

Some champions have abilities that grant them additional gold under certain circumstances.

Seizing Capture Points (Crystal Scar Only)

  • Players gain 100 gold for neutralizing a point, and 100 gold 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 gold, and three champions will each gain 63 gold.

Capturing Altars (Twisted Treeline Only)

  • Gold is rewarded globally when someone on your team seizes an altar.

See Also

References

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