Gold is the in-game currency of League of Legends. It is used to buy items that give bonus stats and abilities to your champion. There are some differences in gaining gold between the Classic and Dominion game modes.

At the beginning of the game, champions are given starting gold based on the game map played and can receive more gold through various means. Actively, champions aquire gold through last hitting minions, killing Epic Monsters, destroying enemy turrets, and killing champions (or assisting). Champions also passively generate gold which can be increased by gold generating runes, masteries, and/or items. The passive gold gain does not activate until minions spawn (at 1:30 on Summoner's Rift).

In Dominion, minions grant more gold than in classic, but champion kills and assists grant less. There is no global gold to be gained, but gold can be earned by taking capture points.

Contents 1 Starting Gold 2 Passive gold gain 2.1 Items 2.2 Masteries and Runes 3 Gold from Active Sources 3.1 Killing Pets, Minions and Monsters 3.2 Champion Kills and Assists 3.3 Destroying a Turret 3.4 Destroying the Inhibitors/Nexus 3.5 Destroying a Ward 3.6 Champion Abilities 3.7 Items 3.8 Masteries 3.9 Seizing Capture Points In Dominion 4 Selling Items 5 Trivia 5.1 Max Gold per 10 5.2 Item Gold Efficiency 6 References

Starting Gold Edit

Your champion starts with 475 gold in Summoner's Rift, 825 gold in Twisted Treeline, 1375 gold in Dominion, and 1350 on Howling Abyss. This starting amount can be increased by:

• +25 / +50 with the  Wealth mastery
• +25 with the Explorer mastery (Maps other than Summoner's Rift)

Passive gold gain Edit

The gold a champion earns without actively killing units is called passive gold gain. Every champion passively generates gold at a rate of 16 every 10 seconds on Classic, and 56 every 10 seconds on Dominion. This gold gain does not begin until minions spawn at each base (from 1:30 onwards). Passive gold gain can also be the result of runes, summoner masteries, or gold generating items.

Items Edit

• Avarice Blade grants an additional 3 gold every 10 seconds and 2 additional gold per enemy unit killed.
• Kage's Lucky Pick and Shard of True Ice both grant an additional 4 gold every 10 seconds but do not stack with one another.
• Philosopher's Stone grants an additional 5 gold every 10 seconds.

Masteries and Runes Edit

• The Greed mastery grants an additional 0.5 / 1 / 1.5 / 2 gold every 10 seconds.
• Greater Quintessences of Avarice grant an additional 1 gold every 10 seconds
• Greater Seals of Avarice grant an additional 0.25 gold every 10 seconds.

Gold from Active Sources Edit

Killing Pets, Minions and Monsters Edit

Gold can be earned by landing the killing blow (last hit) on enemy team 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. On Twisted Treeline melee and caster minions gold rewards increase by 1 gold after the 1st wave and 1 gold per 5 minutes after that. Siege minions gold rewards increase by 1 gold every 2-3 minutes.
• 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 gold value to a modest cap after approximately two minutes.
• Pets such as Malzahar's  Voidling or Annie's  Tibbers will grant gold to the champion that killed the pet.
• Shaco's  Jack In The Box will grant 10 gold to the champion that kills it.
• Certain kinds of monsters called epic monsters give gold globally, providing gold for the entire team regardless of which individual champion landed the killing blow, although the champion that does so will receive an additional 25 gold.

Champion Kills and Assists Edit

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. The pool is split equally among all champions who assist (by damaging or debuffing the slain champion or healing/buffing the champion that made the kill within 10 seconds of the kill). If there are no assists, the pool is lost.
• An extra 100 gold is earned for getting First Blood.
• In Season 2, Mercenary was a defensive mastery that will increase the gold earned from all kills and assists by 8 / 16 / 24 gold for the affected champion; this effect was halved on the Crystal Scar.

Destroying a Turret Edit

Whenever an enemy turret is destroyed, every member of your team receives 150 gold, regardless of their position or state.

Destroying the Inhibitors/Nexus Edit

Destroying an inhibitor or the nexus will grant the player 50 gold, but the latter is irrelevant, as it also causes the game to end.

Destroying a Ward Edit

• Destroying a Sight Ward or a Vision Ward will grant the player 25 gold (includes the ward from Wriggle's Lantern and  Ghost Ward from a Sightstone or Ruby Sightstone)

Champion Abilities Edit

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

• Ashe's  Hawkshot passively grants her 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 bonus gold for every enemy unit killed.
• Gangplank's  Parrrley grants a bonus 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 gold if it lands the killing blow to an enemy unit.
• Twisted Fate's  Loaded Dice grants him and his allies 2 bonus gold per kill.
• Smite grants 10 gold when used when enhanced by the mastery Summoner's Resolve.

Items Edit

• Avarice Blade grants 2 additional gold per enemy unit killed in addition to its 3 gold per 10 seconds passive gold gain.

Masteries Edit

Some masteries provide an active means to acquire gold.

• Pickpocket mastery grants +3 / +5 gold for attacking a enemy champion with range/melee basic attack.

Seizing Capture Points In Dominion Edit

Players gain 100 gold for neutralizing a point, and 100 gold for capturing a point, except for the first time capturing any given point, wherein every point captured is worth 100 gold. This number is dependent on the number of champions involved in the capture of a point. 2 champions will each gain 75 gold, 3 champions will each gain 63 gold, ect.

Selling Items Edit

Items can be sold back at the shop for 70% of their total cost. Items that generate gold and Prospector's items only return 50% of their original cost; Doran's items only return 40% of their original cost.

Trivia Edit

Max Gold per 10 Edit

By buying all the gold income items, and using the right masteries and runes, the player can achieve a total of 35.25 gold per 10 seconds on classic and 75.25 per 10 on dominion. Calculated as follows:

• (9 Seals + 3 Quints + 4 Masteries + Avarice + Philosopher's + Kage's + Map)
• (9 * 0.25) + (3 * 1.0) + (4 * 0.5) + 3 + 5 + 4 + 16 = 35.25
• (9 * 0.25) + (3 * 1.0) + (4 * 0.5) + 3 + 5 + 4 + 56 = 75.25

Item Gold Efficiency Edit

Calculations are based on the basic item(s) of the corresponding statistics except in certain cases where no basic item exists for that particular statistic. The average gold per stat is based on the values in the chart. Note that an item is more gold efficient if its gold per stat is lower.

The item efficiency of all items can be found here. You may also check each item page to learn their efficiency. Due note that on those pages, the gold value of each stat is based on the cheapest lowest tier item instead of the average.

Gold Efficiency Chart

Champion Statistic	Average	Gold / Stat	Reference Item(s)
Health	2.64	2.64 2.63	Ruby Crystal Giant's Belt
Attack Damage	36.48	40.00 35.00 34.44	Long Sword Pickaxe B. F. Sword
Ability Power	21.08	21.75 21.50 20.00	Amplifying Tome Blasting Wand Needlessly Large Rod
Armor	19.00	20.00 18.00	Cloth Armor Chain Vest
Magic Resist	19.00	20.00 18.00	Null-Magic Mantle Negatron Cloak
Attack Speed	32.50	33.33 31.67	Dagger Recurve Bow
Critical Chance	49.34	50.00 48.67	Brawler's Gloves Cloak of Agility
Mana	2.00	2.00	Sapphire Crystal
Health Regen	36.00	36.00	Rejuvenation Bead
Mana Regen	60.00	60.00	Faerie Charm
Life Steal	40.00	40.00	Vampiric Scepter
Spell Vamp	27.50	27.50	Hextech Revolver
CDR	32.2	32.2	Kindlegem
Stats in the bottom half of the chart lack reference items to calculate the item effiency precisely. In these cases, the specified single item from the lowest possible tier was taken to calculate the price.

Movement speed and armor penetration are not presented on this table because their values are misleading from the lowest possible tier with, 16.27 and 3.94 respectively. It has been implied that the value of movement speed is around 87.5[1].

Postulate : Boots of Speed cost 350g and give 25 flat MS. 350 / 25 = 14g. Therefore, flat move speed is 14 g : 1. 

The slowest champion has 325 MS. +1% MS would make that 328.25, a difference of 3.25. If this is the lowest possible MS increase for +1% and if flat MS is 14g, then percent MS is worth a minimum of 45.5 g : 1.

The soft cap is 415 MS, creating a diminishing return. Theoretically, the most valuable 1% would be that which would exactly total the cap. 415 (100/101) = 410.89, a difference of 4.11. If this is the hightest possible MS increase for +1% and if flat MS is 14g, then percent move speed is worth a maximum of 57.54 g : 1.

The average of 45.5 and 57.5 is 51.5. It is possible that Percent Move Speed is worth approx. 51.5 g : 1.

1. ↑ V1.0.0.152#Summoner's Rift

References Edit