With almost 170 champions in League of Legends, unlocking each one can be a hustle. While there are multiple ways of claiming them by completing in-game tasks and currencies, most of them are still time-consuming. There are exceptions, though.
League is a standout MOBA title from Riot Games, who’s now been running for 15 years. The developer did an excellent job with increasing the champions roster, adding a handful of new faces into the game each year. That way, the creators ensure that League stays fresh and exciting for both experienced and new players.
Nevertheless, this vast lineup of champions isn’t available from the get-go. Or, it rather isn’t unless you create your account or link it with a specific subscription. You can find more details below.
How to unlock every League of Legends champion without paying
Champions in-game can be obtained in a few ways. Some of them can be opened in a Chest, but that scenario is random, giving you a random champion. You can also spend Blue Essence or Riot Points to claim champs, but the former takes time to collect, while the latter is expensive. However, you can get each champion in League for free if you connect your League account to Xbox Game Pass.
That’s right. In 2023, Microsoft signed an exclusive deal with Riot Games, which brought tons of benefits for League players. It ensured that if you have an active Xbox Game Pass subscription, you may link your Riot account and receive each of the MOBA champion for free. You will also get a 20 percent experience gain bonus, and will be gifted each new champ that arrives at the Summoner’s Rift while your Game Pass is still active.
It’s worth noting that this connection benefits other Riot titles as well, including Teamfight Tactics, League of Legends: Wild Rift and VALORANT. In the latter two, it also unlocks each champion and agent, respectively. So as it stands, it’s a true win-win opportunity.
How to link your League account and Xbox Game Pass account?
There are a few easy steps you need to follow if you want to connect both accounts and unlock free champs in Riot’s games. They go as follows.
- Head over to Xbox Game Pass’ Welcome Page and sign in to your subscription
- Once you log in, click “Link existing account,” choose Riot Games’ icon, and sign in as if you were signing it to Riot client.
- You will then receive an email with the confirmation of the request to link both your accounts. Once you confirm it, your accounts will be connected.
How many League of Legends champions are there?
At the time of writing, League’s roster consists of 169 champions, with Ambessa being the latest one that was added. In 2025 and in the following years that number is bound to rise, with the developer coming up with new, exciting champs.
However, Riot also makes sure to refresh older champs that are no longer as great as they once were. Skarner was one of the major overhauls in 2025, for example. Therefore, while in the past Riot was making six or even seven champs a year, nowadays, it’s down to three or four at maximum.
What are the other ways of unlocking League of Legends champions?
If you don’t want to get Xbox Game Pass, you can try claiming each League champion by playing the game. Champion shards and champions themselves are gifted as rewards to different in-game challenges and can be opened in Mystery Chests. You may also spend Blue Essence to get champs, which is collected by playing the game, completing challenges, and so on.
Eventually you may just buy Riot Points and spend those for each champion. However, the RP prices on characters are usually inflated, so unless you want to go bankrupt, we wouldn’t recommend going that way.
