Legends of Runeteera welcomes new Bilgewater champions

Gangplank and Twisted Fate, Nautilus, Fizz and Miss Fortune got revealed as the newest members of the Bilgewater region in Legends of Runeterra, becoming the newest playable characters with vastly different playstyles.

Gangplank

Gangplank will be a five-cost unit with five power, five health and an Overwhelm effect. When Gangplank is summoned, he will also summon a Powder Keg – his iconic ability in the League of Legends game title. Additionally, Gankgplank will level up once he deals damage to the enemy Nexus in five different rounds

The Powder Kegs are 0/1 units, who can't attack or block and also have Vulnerable, meaning they can be challenged by any unit in the game. However, Kegs are not meant to be a combat card, to begin with. Each Powder Keg increases the damage of player's spells and abilities by one, after which the keg is destroyed.

Once levelled-up, Gangplank gains +1/+1 in stats, while retaining his Overwhelm and ability to summon Powerd Kegs at the beginning of each round. Additionally, every time Gangplank attacks he deals one damage to all enemies and the enemy Nexus – the damage is amplified by the Kegs.

Twisted Fate

Following the announcement of Gangplank, Riot Games unveiled Twisted Fate as the second Bildgewater champion who will find its way into the Legends of Runeterra.

Unlike Gangplank, who is a perfect hero for any aggro deck, Twisted fate is all about card advantage and control rather than direct damage to the enemy's Nexus. Twisted Fate will be a four-cost card with +2/+2 stats and a Quick Attack. Additionally, Twisted Fate brings with him a play effect, which lets you pick one of three Destiny Cards to act as his skill and levels up once he sees you draw at least 8 cards.

Once levelled up, Twisted Fate gains +1/+1 in stats, while retaining his Quick Attack. What's more, the levelled up TF will play a Destiny Card for the first three times he sees you play a card during each round.

Although Twisted Fate may seem like a very weak card, given his low stats, his strength, much like in League of Legends, comes from his Destiny Cards. Each Destiny Card is a 0-mana spell and are divided into three different cards – Red, Blue and Gold. The Blue card draws 1 card and refills 1 mana; Red card deals 1 damage to all enemies and the Nexus; while the Gold card deals two damage and stuns the strongest enemy.

While we are still far from unveiling the perfect strategy, it seems like the Blue cards are perfect for enabling combos, Reds are great for clearing the board and establishing control, while Gold comes off as a more situational card, where you need to get rid of a specific card. It is worth noting, however, that Twisted Fate and Gangplank have a very strong synergy since Gangplank's Powder Kegs add +1 damage to all spells (including Twisted Fate's cards)

Earlier this weekend, Riot Games also unveiled two more Bilgewater champions who will join the LoR on Thursday, including Fizz and Nautilus.

Fizz

Everyone's favourite trickster Fizz will be a one-cost unit with +2/+1 stats to go along with it. Once you cast a spell with Fizz on the board, he will gain an Elusive effect and an ability which makes him untargetable by spells, making him significantly harder to kill. Fizz will level up once the player will cast six or more spells,

Once levelled up, Fizz will gain +1/+1 in stats and keep ahold of his previous passive ability. Furthermore, he will gain a new ability: on Nexus Strike, which will create Chum the Waters – a spell that spawns a 5/1 Overwhelm Shark unit to fight alongside him and give enemy units Vulnerable for the turn.

With the release of Fizz, LoR also got introduced to a new keyword: Attune. Units with Attune will restore one spell mana when played and while that might not seem like a big deal, the gained mana persist through rounds, meaning that using Attune units will help the players accumulate a lot of spell mana, which should help to set the tempo of the game with many cheap spells.

With Fizz's ability to be untargetable and his elusiveness, he will prove just as annoying and hard to kill as he is in the League of Legends while dealing significant damage with the help of his Shark.

Nautilus

Nautilus emerges as a surprise champion that will join LoR, yet a champion that was greeted with a lot of approval from the community. Nautilus will be a seven-cost card with 0/+12 stats, Fearsome and Tough. The Titan of the Depths will level up once the player reached the keyword called "Deep". Deep is when a player has 15 or fewer cards in his deck, which will give all cards with "Deep" a +3/+3 in stats.

Deep will also synergise with a new mechanic in the game called "Toss", which will also synergise perfectly with Maokai. Once Nautilus levels up, he will return all tossed followers that cost four or less back in the deck. Nautilus' levelled up form is a seven-cost with +13/+13 while he retains his Fearsome and Tough keywords. Nautilis will also get an aura which will make all Sea Monsters allies cost four less.

With the new mechanic – Toss, Nautilus would be a perfect card to play with Maokai, as it would allow the player to toss away his/her deck as soon as possible, to level up Maokai, who will then obliterate all but four non-champions from the enemy deck. Nautilus will then return all tossed followers back in the players' hand, effectively giving the player plenty of resources to play with, while the enemy will be left with none.

Miss Fortune

Most recently announced Bilgewater champion that will be added to LoR on the game's official release is Miss Fortune, a three-cost champion unit with +3/+3 in stats. Her special ability deals one damage to all enemies and the enemy Nexus once her allies attack. She reaches her levelled up form once Miss Fortune attacks four time.

Once levelled up, Miss Fortune gains +1/+1 in stats and Overwhelm, Her ability also improves, dealing one damage to defending enemy units and the enemy Nexusthree times instead only once.

Due to her unique ability, Miss Fortune falls into a cathegory of aggressive units, much like Zed and Draven. She can serve both as standalone unit and enabler, giving the player a lot of options when playing her. What's more, she synergises very well with Gangplank, whom she can help level up significantly faster with her guaranteed Nexus hits. Miss Fortune, however, is not as effective early on, but once levelled up, dealing with "The Bounty Hunter" can become a huge headache.

Additionally, her abilities scale with Gangplank's Powder Kegs, making them an extremely deadly duo – if you manage to get Miss Fortune to her levelled-up state before the enemy kills her or ends the game.

Legends of Runeterra will officially release on Thursday, April 30 for both PC, iOS and Android. The game was in open beta since January 24, and will now officially be launched with a plethora of new cards, abilities, keywords, spells, followers, new champions in Lee Sin (Ionia), Vi (PIltover and Zaun), Swain (Noxus), Maokai (Shadow Isles), Sejuani (Freljord) and Quinn (Demacia), as well as Gangplank, Twisted Fate, Fizz and Miss Fortune as members of the newly introduced region – Bilgewater.