True damage

For the virtual band and associated content, see True Damage.

For the trait in teamfight Tactics, see True Damage.

For the other types of damage see: Magic damage and Physical damage.

True damage is one of the three types of damage in League of Legends. Effects that deal true damage are the least common of the three damage types. True damage is dealt by a portion of all damaging spells from champions, items, runes, and buffs, as well as all damaging summoner spells

Unless otherwise stated, true damage ignores incoming damage reduction (e.g.  armor and  magic resistance, Unbreakable Will, Exhaust) as well as incoming damage amplification (e.g. Hemoplague, Press the Attack, Last Stand).

Blocking true damage

• Abilities or summoner spells which deal true damage are still blocked by spell shield, unless otherwise noted.
• Parries can block the true damage from basic attacks and on-hit effects.
• Invulnerability will block all types of damage including true damage.

Countering true damage

True damage cannot be mitigated or reduced, but there are ways to counter it:

• Stacking  health causes sources of flat true damage (e.g. Ignite) to effectively deal a lesser percentage of total health.
• Normal shields can absorb true damage at any amount.

Dealing true damage

Champion abilities

Deals true damage

• Amumu's Cursed Touch
• Bel'Veth's Endless Banquet
• Cho'Gath's Feast
• Darius' Noxian Guillotine
• Fiora's Duelist's Dance
• Gangplank's Trial by Fire
• Garen's Demacian Justice
• Kog'Maw's Icathian Surprise
• K'Sante's Dauntless Instinct while in All Out
• Master Yi's Wuju Style
• Olaf's Reckless Swing
• Renata Glasc's Bailout *
• Samira's Taunt
• Smolder's Super Scorcher Breath
• Syndra's Force of Will and Unleashed Power with Transcendent
• Twitch's Deadly Venom
• Vayne's Silver Bolts
• Vel'Koz's Organic Deconstruction and Life Form Disintegration Ray

On recast/completion

• Ahri's Orb of Deception *
• Camille's Precision Protocol *
• Urgot's Mercy *
• Yone's Soul Unbound *
• Zoe's Sleepy Trouble Bubble *

Specific area of the ability deals true damage

• Gangplank's Cannon Barrage with Death's Daughter upgrade *
• Gwen's Snip Snip! *
• Lillia's Blooming Blows *
• Sett's Haymaker *

Against non-champions only

• Akshan's Comeuppance *
• Ivern's Friend of the Forest *
• Nunu's Consume *

To executed enemies

• Aurelion Sol's Singularity *
• Draven's Whirling Death *
• Pyke's Death from Below *

Items

• Death's Dance (self damage)
• Elixir of Avarice
• Elixir of Sorcery
• Gustwalker Hatchling / Mosstomper Seedling / Scorchclaw Pup
• Knight's Vow (self damage)
• Minion Dematerializer
• Redemption
• Shadowflame
• The Collector

Summoner spells

• Ignite
• Mark and Dash
• Smite ( Unleashed Smite and Primal Smite)

Runes

• Cheap Shot
• First Strike

Neutral Buffs

• Aspect of the Dragon
• Crest of Cinders
• Hextech Dragon Soul

Neutral Monsters

• Rift Herald *

Notes

• The following items' damage modifiers affect true damage dealt:
  • Bloodsong's Spellblade
  • Haunting Guise's Madness
  • Horizon Focus' Hypershot
  • Liandry's Torment's Suffering
  • Navori Quickblades' Impermanence
  • Riftmaker's Void Corruption
  • Shadowflame's Cinderbloom
  • Spear of Shojin's Focused Will
• Despite popular belief, champions whose abilities have health costs associated with them do not deal true damage to themselves when they use an ability which requires health to cast; instead, they directly remove health from themselves.
  • This can be evidenced when they have a shield on them. When they use their health-based ability, the cost of health penetrates the shield and directly drains the health of the user, in contrary to true damage that has to break any shield on the target to reach their health. This also applies to invulnerability.
• Even though it is not fully noted, Lord Dominik's Regards' Giant Slayer does not amplify true damage.
• The Nexus Obelisk deals a unique form of true damage that additionally bypasses every damage-event related effect in the game, including shields, damage transfers, death immunity, and invulnerability effects. Furthermore, since it doesn't register as a damage event, it will not flag the champion with 'in combat' status, with some exceptions. This is classified as internal raw.
  • If the target becomes untargetable after the turret's attack wind up started, the turret will drop aggro but that specific attack will still fire and hit the target through untargetability.
• As of patch V3.15, true damage is no longer amplified by abilities such as Zed's Death Mark and Vladimir's Hemoplague. Items that amplify true damage continue to exist, however, starting with the now-removed Mythic item launch in patch V10.23.

References

Champion statistics

Gameplay Elements