Ruined King: A League of Legends Story – What Version of Game to Buy?

To Deluxe or Not to Deluxe?

All credit goes to advokatze !

The Deluxe edition of Ruined King includes three additional DLC for the game.

A skin pack containing Ruined Skin variants for the six playable champions Miss Fortune, Illaoi, Braum, Yasuo, Ahri and Pyke.

A pack containing the following additional in-game items:

• 2 Group Cleansing Potions, 3 Minor Cleansing Potions, 3 Minor Revival Potions, 4 Minor Mana Potions, 2 Minor Group Health Potions, and 2 Minor Lustrous Potions.
• Plunderer’s Pendant, a level 1 equippable item (necklace) granting 10% bonus gold from combat.
• Savant’s Tome, a level 1 equippable item (trinket) granting 10% bonus xp from combat.

A pack containing the following additional in-game items:

• The Poro Idol, an equippable item (Illaoi weapon).
• The Poro Defender, an equippable item (Braum weapon).

Is the Weapon Pack Worth It?

Honestly, the Weapon Pack is extremely bad in terms of utility for combat – I agree with the approach that DLC shouldn’t be pay-to-win, but the gear that you find outclasses the Poro items way too quickly to actually appreciate them in-game.

The Poro Idol is a level 2 weapon for Illaoi that gives her 52 damage, 6 physical defence and 12 stamina. While it’s an improvement over her default starting weapon, it gets outclassed way too quickly – you’ll barely have few battles with it before you pick up the level 3 Weighted Brass Idol, which gives 48 damage, 8 bonus damage and 8 stamina (with a 20% chance to stun).

The Poro Defender is a level 5 shield for Braum that gives him 72 damage, 12 bonus damage, 10 stamina and 33 haste. While it’s a vast improvement over his default shield and will see more use than the Poro Idol, it gets outclassed once you find the level 8 Tavern Brawler, which gives 104 damage, 16 bonus damage and 10 stamina (with a 20% chance to inflict Bleed).

However, if you’re only here for Story mode and aren’t concerned about combat stats at all, the Poro Defender shield really adds a touch of fun to exploring as Braum. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Illaoi – poros just don’t match her theme at all.

Is the Starter Pack Worth It?

The Starter Pack is not great, but not terrible either. On higher difficulties, early potions can make or break a fight, especially if it’s not feasible to make it to the next Rest point. The 10% gain on gold and experience is not bad, but these effects are minimal over time and frankly, can be replicated with some grind farming of respawning monsters.

As with the Weapon Pack, the biggest issue I have with the Starter Pack is the tradeoff against combat stats in the early game, when the pendant and trinket take up a valuable slot that could be used for higher-stats items. That said, it’s only an early-game issue: once you gain your fourth party member, combat stats become a non-issue for the ‘away’ Champion (you can only have three Champions active in your party at any time) so popping the pendant and trinket on the ‘away’ Champion will give you a miniscule boost to your progress over time.

Is the Skin Pack Worth It?

Last but not least, the Skin Pack is probably the most worth it of the three. Even though these in-game cosmetics don’t affect your Champion stats, it’s still a nice option to have if you’re the kind of person who likes customisation in-game, or if you’re a collector. That said, it’s not the only customisation available – there are other skins available just through playing the base game too.

Verdict

If you’re a collector of all things Ruined King, then the Deluxe Edition is probably the best value for money (although the marginal utility for the additional cost is relatively low).

Otherwise, for casual collectors, getting the base game with the Skin Pack is probably the most cost-efficient way to go.

That said, the base game on its own already offers quite a lot of value, and you don’t need any of the DLC to enjoy the experience.