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
- Summoner's Rift: Champions start with
500. - Twisted Treeline: Champions start with 850.
- Crystal Scar: Champions start with 1300 while playing Ascension, and
1400 while playing Definitely Not Dominion. - Howling Abyss: Champions start with 1400.
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).
- Summoner's Rift: 20.4 per 10 seconds.
- Twisted Treeline: 16 per 10 seconds.
- Howling Abyss: 50 per 10 seconds.
- Crystal Scar: 56 per 10 seconds.
Items
Gold Income Items
Certain items are categorized as gold income items, of which champions can only carry one of at a time.
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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 ( Face of the Mountain, Frost Queen's Claim)
- Doran's items ( Doran's Blade, Doran's Shield)
- Hunter's Machete, Hunter's Talisman
- Prospector items ( Prospector's Blade, Prospector's Ring)
- Guardian's items ( Guardian's Hammer, Guardian's Horn, Guardian's Orb)
- Gold generating items (
- When you undo an item purchase, you are refunded the full cost. Gold generation items also return any gold they generated.
- The exceptions to this rule are returning only 40% of their original cost:
Runes
| Name | Type | Tier 1 (Lesser) | Tier 2 (Normal) | Tier 3 (Greater) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold
(Gold / 10 sec) |
Mark | X | X | X |
| Seal
|
X | X | 0.25
410 | |
| Glyph | X | X | X | |
| Quintessence
|
X | X | 1
515 |
Active Gold Gain
Gold that is earned through direct action from the player is considered active gold gain. It can be increased by masteries, and items.
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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 Tibbers, Malzahar's Voidling, Shaco's , 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 an additional 25.
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[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 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. Members who contributed to the turret kill split an additional 0 (Inhibitor / Nexus Turrets) to 150 (Outer Turrets).
- Destroying an inhibitor or nexus grants the player 50, but the latter is irrelevant as it also causes the game to end.
Destroying Wards
- Destroying a Sight Ward or a Vision Ward will grant the player 15. An additional 15 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 in total.
Favor
Favor grants gold and heals each time a nearby enemy minion dies that you didn't kill.
The following items grant Favor:
- Ancient Coin – 4, 5 health.
- Nomad's Medallion – 6, 10 health.
- Talisman of Ascension – 6, 10 health.
- Eye of the Oasis – 6, 10 health.
Spoils of War
Spoils of War: Melee autoattacks execute minions below a certain amount of health. Killing a minion by any means heals yourself and the nearest allied champion and grants them kill gold. These effects require a nearby allied champion and consume a charge.
The following items grant Spoils of War:
- Relic Shield – Execute minions below Template:Pp18 health ; heals for 20 health ; has 2 charges, and a 40 second recharge time.
- Targon's Brace – Execute minions below Template:Pp18 health ; heals for 40 health ; has 3 charges, and a 30 second recharge time.
- Face of the Mountain – Execute minions below Template:Pp18 health ; heals for 50 health ; has 4 charges, and a 30 second recharge time.
- Eye of the Equinox – Execute minions below Template:Pp18 health ; heals for 50 health ; has 4 charges, and a 30 second recharge time.
Tribute
Tribute: Damaging an enemy champion or structure deals additional damage and grants the wielder gold. Tribute can be triggered up to three times every 30 seconds.
The following items grant Tribute:
- Spellthief's Edge – 10 additional damage, 8. Passive is disabled for 12 seconds after killing a minion.
- Frostfang – 15 additional damage, 15. Passive is disabled for 12 seconds after killing a minion.
- Frost Queen's Claim – 15 additional damage, 15. Killing a minion does not disable the passive.
- Eye of the Watchers – 15 additional damage, 15. Killing a minion does not disable the passive.
Masteries
- Bandit grants 1 whenever a nearby enemy minion dies (1400 range).
- Gain an additional 3 / 10 when hitting an enemy champion with a basic attack or a spell that applies on-hit effect (5 second cooldown).
- Gain an additional
Champion Abilities
Some champions have abilities that grant them additional gold under certain circumstances.
- Draven's League of Draven : When Draven catches a Spinning Axe, kills a minion or monster or destroys a turret, he gains a stack of Adoration. In addition, Draven generates 2 bonus Adoration stacks if he kills 6 minions in a row without dropping an axe. When Draven kills an enemy champion, he consumes all of his Adoration stacks and gains 50 + (2 × stacks). Draven loses half of his Adoration stacks upon death.
- Gangplank's Parrrley grants 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 if it lands the killing blow on an enemy unit.
- Twisted Fate's Loaded Dice grants him 1 to 6 for every unit killed. The chance of getting 6 is 33%, while the chance of getting 1-5 is 13% each, making the total average 4.
Seizing Capture Points (Crystal Scar Only)
- Players gain 100 for neutralizing a point, 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.
Capturing Altars (Twisted Treeline Only)
- When someone on your team seizes an altar 80 is globally earned for each member of the team.
Trivia
- Most gold possible from a single teamfight : 8535 (abilities and items that increase gold income excluded)
- Requires 1 champion on winning side to be very negative in KDA, 1 champion must get all 5 max shut downs, the 3 remaining must have 4 assists over kills before the fight.
- Everyone but the player getting the shut downs must get an assist on every shut down. Everyone on the winning side must survive the fight.
See Also