How to play FLUX

The goal

Each team has a crystal (in Conquest, a core) at the back of its base, with towers in front of it. Break the other team's crystal and you win on the spot. A tower cannot be damaged until the tower in front of it in the same lane has fallen, and the crystal cannot be damaged until every tower guarding the base is down. From 8:00 on the clock the towers stop protecting each other, but the crystal still needs its guards broken first.

If no crystal has fallen when time runs out, the team that scored more wins.

The modes

In the lobby you also choose how to play: Practice against bots at a difficulty you set, with no rank at stake; Ranked online; Duo with a friend; a Custom lobby with a code, your own teams and observers; or the Training camp, a guided first match that teaches the controls. Start with the Training camp, then Practice.

Lanes and minion waves

Minions spawn in waves and march down each lane towards the enemy base, fighting whatever they meet. A tower shoots the enemy minion wave first, and its shots at a champion start soft and grow, so walk in behind your own minions and let them soak the first shots. Hit an enemy champion near their tower and the tower turns on you for a moment. Minions that reach an open enemy structure attack it, and enemy minions turn on a champion who hits them.

Bushes are cover: the other team cannot always see who is standing in one. Between the lanes, jungle camps give whoever clears them a buff for a while.

Last hits

Gold and experience go to the champion whose hit finishes a minion. That killing blow is the last hit, and it pays 3 gold (heavier minions pay more) plus experience. Teammates standing nearby get a small share, so a late hit is not worthless, but the last hit is where most of your gold comes from.

A last hit on a lane minion also gives you a salvage stack: +6% basic-attack damage per stack, up to three stacks, for 8 seconds, refreshed by every new one, and a sliver of health. Timing your basic attack so it lands as a minion drops is the first skill worth practising. The team that is behind earns experience faster, so a bad start can be clawed back.

Levels and abilities

Every champion has a basic attack, an ability, a support spell and an ultimate. Last hits, takedowns and structures earn experience, and your champion levels up during the match, to level 15 at most. Each level makes your champion tougher and hit harder, and gives you a skill point to rank up an ability.

Items

Gold buys items in the War Shop during a match. There are 63 items across five kinds (attack, magic, defence, movement and utility), in four tiers. The 35 tier-4 prime items are forged from components and each carries a unique passive.

The shop recommends six primes for your champion's class. You can save your own plan, and your picks come first. The class guide lists the six for each class.

Ranked

Ranked Coreburn (2v2) and Ranked Conquest each have a ladder, and a Duo is Ranked 2v2 with a friend, so it counts too; Practice, the Training camp and the campaign never move your rating. Your rating is saved to a free FLUX account (13 or older); you can queue as a guest, but the rank will not stick. A ranked match opens with a short ban phase and the picks, run by the server. A result moves your rating only with a single-use certificate the match server signs, which a browser cannot forge, and a match whose replay on the server does not come out the same is refused.

A win is worth 20 points, plus a streak bonus, and a loss costs 18. Your first five ranked results count double. The tiers, from 0 points up:

Seasons last eight weeks. When a new one starts your rating is halved and 100 added, so 1200 becomes 700, and the climb starts again. The esports page covers cups, custom lobbies and spectating.

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