Riftbound Continues Its Momentum With Set 2, But Can It Keep It Up?

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I was really impressed with Riftbound after trying it out at PAX. It has beautiful artwork, plays smoothly, and is very easy to pick up and explain to others.

What really sets these games apart is the focus on strategic battles instead of direct player elimination, and the Spiritforged expansion is a strong addition. It’s a fairly safe design choice, but it actually enhances the original game while also adding fresh characters and interesting new elements.

Set 2, Spiritforged, Gels Nicely With Set 1

Equipment Feels Natural

The recent Spiritforged update adds more depth to the game with a new system for attaching cards. This works a lot like equipment in Magic: The Gathering – you play an equipment card and then use resources to connect it to another card, making the process straightforward and easy to grasp.

Players can find equipment like armor and weapons to boost their strength and gain extra benefits. Spiritforged also includes a comprehensive collection of frequently asked questions and rule explanations, which are especially helpful after the release of Set 1.

We tested both starter decks in Spiritforged – Rumble and Fiora – and they’re a lot of fun! We definitely recommend them for learning the game or playing casually, and you can easily improve them by adding new cards you collect.

Rumble specializes in using mech units and gets a small but helpful bonus: he gains one extra power when defending battlegrounds. While it doesn’t seem like much, this advantage really adds up if you capture and hold multiple battlegrounds throughout the game. We tested Rumble with a three-player group and found the extra battleground gave him even more opportunities to excel. The ability to recycle cards for mech tokens is a clever feature that really reinforces the theme of building and repairing mechs.

Fiora is a little more challenging to learn because her strategy isn’t as simple. She focuses on using the “mighty” keyword to boost her units to five or more might, then she uses her Legend card to play a rune that’s been temporarily removed from the game. This significantly improves her resource generation, and you should aim to do it every turn – her starting deck includes several cards with lower rune costs due to this ability.

While working with Spiritforged, I created decks for Jax and Draven. Jax, focused on equipment, felt perfectly suited to the set’s themes. Draven, a combat-focused hero, played more like one from the first set. Regardless, I still think the Legend system is excellent – it adds great flavor and interesting choices to how you play and build your deck.

What’s Next For Riftbound?

The 2026 Roadmap Is Live

While some of Riot’s other games are seeing reduced development, Riftbound is still on track for a major launch in 2026. Here’s a detailed look at what to expect this year:

  • March 16, 2026 – Unleashed (Set 3) is revealed
  • May 8, 2026 – Unleashed Is released worldwide
  • June 22, 2026 – Vendetta (Set 4) is revealed
  • July 31, 2026 – Vendetta is released worldwide
  • September 21, 2026 – Radiance (Set 5) is revealed
  • October 23, 2026 – Radiance is released worldwide

Okay, so 2026 is looking massive for the game! We’re getting four full set releases – that’s sets 2 through 5! – which is way more than usual. The big one, ‘Unleashed,’ is being led by Vi, who’s a total star from the Arcane show – seriously, if you haven’t watched it, do it! We’ve also seen LeBlanc, Rengar, and Master Yi in the promo stuff for Unleashed, so they’re definitely going to be a part of it.

The upcoming ‘Vendetta’ set highlights Akali, with Mel and Ambessa also appearing in the artwork. ‘Radiance’ will then feature Echo and Seraphine. There’s a lot to be excited about as the developers of ‘Riftbound’ continue to refine the game and tackle the difficulties of releasing a large collectible card game globally in 2026.

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2026-02-23 22:23