Summer season introduces an entirely new progression system focused on fun for all players, including something new to collect (Sunlight) and a Summer Chest full of daily loot. Plus, there’s exclusive seasonal skins & card events, a summery Halcyon Fold map, new quests, new in-game items (yes!) and a new roam hero about to make a major impact. The massive Summer party kicks off with Update 1.19. Join the fun …
Introducing the First Exclusive: Summer Party Krul!
The first skin to join the fun is Summer Party Krul, arriving in-game June 24. You can unlock this seasonal skin with ICE or through collecting special Summer Krul cards from post-match spoils, chests, a special ICE box and Summer events. Mystery Summer Party skins will be revealed and released in future updates. Learn about special Summer card events and get all the seasonal skins details from the full article.
Read the full story: ‘Celebrating the Vainglory Summer Beach Party‘
Get Big Rewards All Summer Long
However you like to play, Summer is going to pump out rewards that get better and better as you make progress. In Update 1.19, you’ll find a new tab within your player profile called SEASON. Inside, you’ll find new Summer Chest you can open every day filled with awesomeness. Plus, this chest will rank up with you for better and better loot. That’s just the beginning. You can collect Sunlight to boost your rewards and get bonus Sunlight from wearing skins in matches. Be sure to read the full article!
Read the full story: ‘Get New Rewards & Progress‘
SUMMER GAMEPLAY CHANGES: INTRODUCING NEW ITEMS & AMBIENT GOLD
Starting in Summer season, you’ll have much more build freedom and diversity. That’s because in addition to a number of new items and revamped build paths, roam players no longer need to buy Ironguard Contract first. That’s right; the Ironguard mechanic is now “always-on” without a shop purchase. Plus, there are changes to experience range as well as gold range & trickle rate. We strongly suggest you read up on the Summer changes since it will affect every match you play!
Read the full story: ‘New Items & Gameplay Changes‘
Summer Season Halcyon Fold Map
Explore the latest seasonal map to discover all its treasures — including sunflowers, sandcastles, shop cabanas, rich lighting & more. Turn on pinch-to-zoom in settings and use the mini-map to look around!
NEW ROAM HERO: LYRA
Lyra uses healing and protective magic to turn enemy positions into powerful zones for her allies. Utility and defense items improve her role as a healer, while crystal items provide a devastating-but-fragile mage path.
LYRA EARLY-ACCESS PERIOD
Lyra will be unlockable with ICE only for the first 7 days. Afterward, you will be able to unlock her with ICE or Glory.
Principle Arcanum (Heroic Perk)
Lyra’s attacks are arcane missiles, dealing crystal damage. If she holds her ground after releasing an attack, she automatically channels and releases a much stronger arcane missile that deals additional crystal damage and briefly slows its target. Each channeled missile consumes energy, but Lyra can continue using these even if she runs out of energy.
Imperial Sigil (A)
Lyra forms a sigil at the target location, revealing surrounding enemies. While this sigil remains active, it heals nearby allied heroes and damages nearby enemy heroes. Lyra can reactivate this ability at any time to detonate the sigil, dealing heavy damage to surrounding enemies while providing a burst of healing and a moderate move speed boost to nearby allies.
Bright Bulwark (B)
After a brief delay, Lyra releases a pulse of magical energy, damaging and applying a decaying slow to surrounding enemies. The affected area then becomes a walled zone of protection that deals the same damage and slow to enemies attempting to cross its borders. Enemies inside the zone are snared, allowing them to move normally but preventing them from using movement abilities.
Arcane Passage (C)
Lyra blinks to the target location, leaving portals at both the beginning and the end of the blink. Portals last for a few seconds, allowing allied and enemy heroes to move freely between them in both directions. Heroes must wait several seconds before they can re-enter a portal. This cooldown is also applied to enemies when Lyra hits them with the initial pulse of Bright Bulwark.
UNDERSTANDING LYRA
Learn the ins and outs of each of Lyra’s abilities. Plus find out her best hero-comp synergies and how to play against her if you run into her on the Fold.
Read more: ‘Lyra Abilities Breakdown & Play Tips‘
Find new skins in the Vainglory Market every Friday.
JUNE 24
SUMMER PARTY KRUL
JULY 1
SYLVAN KESTREL TIER I
JULY 8
NORTH WIND REIM TIER I
JULY 15
FURY RONA TIER II
Keep an eye on the in-game News section for official skin lore, dev interviews and in-game skin reveals.
REVISED HERO SPLASH ART
Some of our heroes are receiving extra love throughout Summer. Keep an eye on the in-game Market for fresh hero splash art.
NEW QUESTS & ‘COMMUNITY IDEAS’ KICKOFF
Summer season brings new quest types and a number of additional quests to Vainglory. Plus, we’re going to begin soliciting your ideas for quests and picking some every cycle to make into real quests in the next update!
NEW QUEST TYPES
- Collect from Gold Mine
- Get Assists
- Win with Fewer than 5 Deaths
- Use Glory Boost
- Earn Gold
- ???? (We’ll let you discover this one. You’ll know it when you find it.)
HERO QUESTS
Heroes now have more quests:
- Play any game mode as [specific hero]
- Kill enemy heroes as [specific hero]
- Earn gold as [specific hero]
- Also: Lance now has quests like most other heroes. (Sorry, Petal!)
DAILY QUEST & CONQUEST
- New Daily Quest: Play Any PvP mode
- New Conquest Quest: Win 3 Public Matches in 2 Days
COMMUNITY QUESTS
Submit your quests ideas here! Punchpop will pick a few every update to make into real quests.
QUEST TIMERS
- New quest timers tell you exactly when you can expect your next quest in a certain row.
EXPANDED ‘PRACTICE’ MENU
Now additionally find:
- CO-OP vs Bots: Battle Royale – Play with other players vs bots in lane-only clashes.
- CO-OP vs Bots: Standard – Play with other players vs bots on the full Halcyon Fold map.
CONNECTION PING INDICATOR
Sometimes, a local Internet issue can result in a frustrating play experience. This new persistent ping indicator will give you a better sense of the connection quality you’re getting from your local router and ISP. Note: While this will indicate where things generally stand, it can’t predict local ping spikes. We hope this helps! If you notice you have higher-than-expected local lag, try these tips:
HERO PRICE NORMALIZATIONS
The following heroes have ICE & Glory price increases in Update 1.19: Koshka, Petal, Catherine & Glaive. However, these changes will allow us to include these heroes in future sales, events and special bundles in ways we could not previously.
NEW ITEMS COMING IN SUMMER UPDATE 1.19
The other major reason for more build flexibility is more item choice!
NEW CONTRACT ITEMS
With the introduction of Ambient Gold, Ironguard Contract is no longer a staple item for every roam build. Instead, a few early-game options have been introduced into the OTHER section in the item shop. These can grant a significant amount of power early on, or if you find the need for a small power boost at any given time for a fairly low cost, these new Contract items are fantastic options. However, keep in mind that none of these Contracts upgrades into anything, though they can be sold back for half the purchase cost.
IRONGUARD CONTRACT
Ironguard is now specifically geared toward coming out of the jungle with a bit more battle readiness and to keep both members of a jungle duo topped off to fend off invasions. While no longer a necessity, Ironguard still makes for a fantastic starting purchase.
- Passive: When a nearby ally kills a jungle monster, you both heal for 75 health
Range: 14m - Cost: 300 gold
Protector Contract
A much more defensive start, the Protector Contract allows you to protect your teammates — as long as you are close enough to do so. This is a fantastic purchase if you expect heavy aggression coming out from the opposing team or if you plan on team fighting early on.
- Activate: Grant a 120 health barrier to the nearest ally hero for 2 seconds. 5s cooldown. 2 max charges, 20s per charge.
Range: 8m - Cost: 300 gold
Dragonblood Contract
The Dragonblood Contract supports early aggression and may allow you to dominate early on in a match; however, this initial advantage falls off very quickly. Having a fairly long recharge time and a fixed amount of damage, it is a great tool for early aggression and calculated ganks, but it is a good candidate to replace once mid-game rolls around.
- Activate: After a brief delay, nearby enemy heroes are marked for 3 seconds. The next basic attack from an ally consumes the mark, slowing by 30% for 2s and dealing 75 bonus crystal damage. 15s cooldown. 2 max charges, 40s per charge.
Range: 4m - Cost: 300 gold
NEW UTILITY ITEMS & REWORKS
Stormguard Banner
Stormguard Banner has been reworked to be a strong pickup for heroes who have weak wave/jungle clear abilities and for teams who intend to prioritize objective control over constantly battling the enemy team. However, this does come with the caveat that you will be giving up a significant amount of combat power.
- Passive: After using an ability, your next 3 basic attacks in the next 6 seconds deal 75 bonus true damage to non-heroes or 20 to heroes. Can only be refreshed once every 6 seconds.
- +2.5 Energy Recharge
- +150 Energy
- Energy Battery (300) + Recipe (800) = 1100
Stormcrown
An upgraded version of the new Stormguard Banner. Deals significant but not overwhelming damage to heroes, but it’s fantastic for quickly taking down objectives.
- Passive: After using an ability, your next 4 basic attacks in the next 6 seconds deal 140 bonus true damage to non-heroes or 35 to heroes. Can only be refreshed once every 6 seconds.
- +30% Cooldown Speed
- +5 Energy Recharge
- +200 Energy
- +150 Health
- Stormguard Banner (1100) + Chronograph (800) + Recipe (300) = 2200
Journey Boots
Running fast is a lot of fun. Running fast often is even more fun.
- Passive movement speed up from 0.5 to 0.6
- Cooldown increased from 30 to 60
- Passive: Damaging heroes instantly sets the cooldown to 12 seconds if it is above it.
- Armor, Shield and Health Regen removed
- Health down from 300 to 250
War Treads (Warhorn is now a type of Boots)
These new boots have replaced Warhorn has a team-wide mobility option. If you ever find yourself in the situation where you need to get your team into or out of a fight quickly, War Treads is a perfect purchase.
- Activate: Nearby allies Sprint for 2 seconds (60s cooldown).
- Passive: +0.4 Movement speed
- Passive: Travel Boots
- +500 Health
- Stormguard passive removed
- Travel Boots (1000) + Dragonheart (650) + Recipe 850) = 2500
Halcyon Chargers
A powerful new option for both running down your foes or escaping from a pursuer. Halcyon Chargers should easily be able to get you in or out of danger once. Choose this over Journey boots when prioritizing ability usage from cooldown speed.
- Activate: Sprint for 3 seconds (50s cooldown).
- Passive: +0.5 Movement speed
- Passive: Travel Boots
- +200 Health
- +15% Cooldown Speed
- +4 Energy Recharge
- +250 Energy
- Travel Boots (1000) + Void Battery (700) + Recipe (600) = 2300
Flare Gun
Offering an early game vision option. Pick up a Flare Gun if you plan to constantly track your enemies.
- Activate: Fire a Flare at target location. (18s cooldown).
- +250 Health
- Oakheart (300) + Recipe (300) = 600
Contraption
No longer building out of Stormguard Banner, Contraption now charges a bit faster and offers a bit more defensive power.
- Cooldown up from 3 to 5 seconds (18s per charge)
- +350 Health
- +35% Cooldown Speed
- +3 Energy Recharge
- Health Regen removed
- Stormguard passive removed
- New Recipe: Flare Gun (600) + Chronograph (800) + Recipe (700) = 2100
OTHER
- Kraken is no longer affected by any positive buffs (i.e. Warhorn speed boost and Adagio’s Gift of Fire).
- Players may no longer walk into the area where the Jungle Shop resides.
- Tap area of the jungle shop has been decreased to avoid accidental shopping during fights.
- Flares are no longer globally visible, but brush will not inherently hide them if there’s vision on that area.
ITEM STAT CHANGES
Shiversteel
- Buff duration (in seconds) changed from 6 to 4 for ranged heroes (melee unchanged)
- Slow duration (in seconds) lowered from 2.0 (melee) and 0.6 (ranged) to 1.2
- Cooldown lowered from 20 to 18 seconds
Travel Boots
- Passive movement speed down from 0.45 to 0.4
- Bonus health down from 200 to 100
- No longer grants health regen
Void Battery
- Energy recharge per second down from 5 to 4
- Recipe cost reduced from 450 to 400
Chronograph
- Energy recharge per second up from 2.4 to 2.5
Clockwork
- Energy recharge per second up from 7.4 to 7.5
- Recipe cost down from 400 to 350
Eve of Harvest
- Recipe cost up from 800 to 850
Aftershock
- Energy recharge per second up from 2.4 to 2.5
Flare
- Renamed from Flare Gun.
SKAARF
FAN THE FLAMES
“Skaarf was applying too much hidden damage with Fan the Flames, so we’re adjusting to make it more clear where the damage is coming from.” —Zekent
- Skaarf’s fire-based abilities burn targets for 5 damage per second for 4 seconds. Basic attacks against burning targets instantly deal 3% (+2% of crystal power) of the target’s maximum health as bonus crystal damage.
- This damage can critically strike for double damage.
- Deals reduced damage to Kraken and structures.
SPITFIRE
- Damage up from 75-120-165-210-300 to 75-125-175-225-325
- Damage to minions up from 75-120-165-210-300 to 75-125-175-225-325
GOOP
- Damage up from 50-80-110-140-200 to 80-120-160-200-240
- Damage per second up from 25-40-55-70-100 + 100% CP to 40-60-80-100-120 + 140% CP
- Slow up from 55% to 60%
- Slow while burning up from 30% to 40%
DRAGON’S BREATH
- Fixed a bug where Skaarf’s items were silenced while breathing fire
- Fixed a bug where Skaarf was invisibly gaining 50 armor and shield while breathing fire
- Fortified health up from 150-225-300 to 150-250-350
SKYE
FORWARD BARRAGE
- Cooldown up from 6-6-6-6-5 to 6-6-6-6-6
- Duration changed from 2 seconds (plus crystal ratio) to always 3 seconds
- Damage to objectives down from 60% to 40%
- Damage down from 160-200-240-280-360 per second to 100-140-180-220-300
DEATH FROM ABOVE
- Damage to objectives down from 60% to 40%
ADAGIO
“Adagio was a bit too powerful when paired with an attack speed oriented ally.” —Zekent
AGENT OF WRATH
- Only buffs the next 4-4-4-4-6 basic attacks.
VERSE OF JUDGEMENT
- Damage changed from 450-750-1050 + 140% CP to 500-900-1300 + 100% CP
KRUL
“Without the ability to double infuse, we can allow crystal ratios that would have been just an added bonus in previous updates with a Crystal Infusion.” —Zekent
SPECTRAL SMITE
- Damage crystal ratio up from 0% to 50%
- Base heal crystal ratio up from 0% to 35%
FROM HELL’S HEART
- Damage crystal ratio up from 50% to 100%
ARDAN
“With Lyra bringing some fun new tech, we are now able to use ability ranges to stop enemy movement. This change helps Gauntlet better fulfill its purpose in engagements.” —SurpriseBirthday
- Basic-attack damage down from 80-154 to 80-141
GAUNTLET
- Enemy dash abilities now stop at the wall, rather than traveling through it.
- Stun duration down from 1.2 to 1.0 seconds
- Damage crystal ratio up from 250% to 350%
BLACKFEATHER
“Fixed a pesky bug that will help players building against a Blackfeather, as well as backed off his late-game power in exchange for earlier consistency.” —Zekent
FEINT OF HEART
- Execute damage changed from 12-15-18-21-24% + 18% WP to 15-16-17-18-20% + 20% WP
ROSE OFFENSIVE
- Fixed a bug where this ability dealt entirely weapon damage even with crystal items.
CATHERINE
“Catherine is the perfect pick in many situations, but we want her to continue to pursue mercilessly, rather than run out of energy.” —Zekent
MERCILESS PURSUIT
- Energy cost down from 40-50-60-70-100 to 40-50-60-70-80
STORMGUARD
- Damage per second up from 35-45-55-65-90 to 40-55-70-85-100
BLAST TREMOR
- Damage up from 370-495-620 to 375-500-625
SAW
“In 1.19, we made a change to SAW’s animations so that he moves more fluidly while spun up. Essentially, he continues to face his target while stutter stepping rather than rapidly turning back and forth, which looks much better. While this might throw people off at first, it’s almost purely a visual change and nothing about SAW’s stutter step timing has changed. Players will just need to mentally adjust to the new visual cues.” —AWAL
ANIMATIONS
- SAW’s movement while Spun Up is more fluid. This appears different when stutter stepping.
- Nothing about SAW’s stutter-step timing has changed.
BUG FIXES
- Pinging a unit will no longer track them if you don’t have vision.
- Taka’s Mortal Wounds will no longer stack with other instances of Mortal Wounds.
- Tactical pings no longer appear for spectators.
- Skaarf will no longer silence himself while channeling Dragon’s Breath
- Skaarf no longer gains accidental armor and shield during Dragon’s Breath
- Misc. performance improvements
Summer season is jam-packed with new content. Jump in and explore the new progression system, new hero, exclusive Summer Party skins and so much more. And most importantly, remember to open your special Summer Chest every day in the SEASON tab of your profile. Your loot awaits!