Legends of Runeterra’s Path of Champions provides many different challenges. As you continue to play, some of the more exciting challenges will be 4 Star quests and higher. The headliner of these adventures, and the first main quest 4 Star quest you’ll unlock is the star dragon, Aurelion Sol. This quest, in particular, is one of the most fun adventures you’ll encounter. There’s just one problem: these quests are all insane.

Whether it’s the huge amount of champions these decks can summon or the insane stats that the enemy units can have, the Path of Champions has a challenge in store for you. If you’re struggling with the challenge that high star quests in the Path of Champions pose, then this guide is for you.

High Star Quests Are Shameless Cheaters

Quite simply, any quest rated 4 stars or higher is up to some nonsense. Before starting the adventure’s first battle, you’ll notice a list of powers that apply to all battles. In Weekly Nightmare runs, where quests range from 4.5 to 6.5 stars, you’ll usually see several powers that make the run harder.

One recurring power in Weekly Nightmare adventures is “Deadly.” This power strengthens all enemy units by adding half their health and power to their starting stats. This can put even basic units out of range of most of your damaging spells, even if they’re upgraded. Finding a way to overcome “Deadly” is the most important priority for overcoming weekly nightmare runs.

The first 4 star quest you’ll find in the main Path of Champions quest, Aurelion Sol, has “Legendary Climb.” While it’s not “Deadly,” “Legendary Climb” doubles the base stats of every champion… and every battle in this adventure is a champion battle. High-power units are a recurring threat in high star adventures.

Powers are just the tip of the iceberg, however. Especially in weekly nightmare runs, you will sometimes notice that battles can start with a unit out on the enemy’s field. This is because at 4 stars and above, enemy decks regularly and aggressively use items on their cards. Some items, accessible only to the enemy, allow a card to start out on the battlefield.

The enemy will also liberally use powerful items on cards that you won’t be able to predict. Once they’re out, you’ll have to look at the card carefully to understand if it’s about to steamroll you. Sometimes, one card can hand you defeat out of nowhere. Anything higher than a four star quest is not fair and will not hold your hand or apologize for demolishing you.

Cheat Right Back

Battles in the Path of Champions are not fair… for the enemy. No matter how strong the high star quests get, players’ decks are almost always going to be more powerful. By now, I’ve managed to beat the 4 Star Aurelion Sol quest with a few 3 Star champions. Some champions are even powerful enough to unbalance things in your favor completely.

The level up system combined with the Constellation mechanic will allow you to literally stack the deck in your favor. Once you reach the maximum level of 30 with a champion, many of your cards will be upgraded with items. You’ll also have a good number of passives that make stronger items and powers easier to find. Upgrading a champion’s constellation to at least level 2 gives two powerful passive powers and an extra starting mana. This makes decks perform incredibly well, and upgrading to the third star rank (which I highly recommend) gives a stronger version of the first champion power you unlock.

In addition to the starting powers and upgraded starter deck, you’ll also find that items you encounter in the Path can break the game. I have sometimes accidentally broken the game by putting together a combo with acquired items. Stacking champion items onto your main champion, on top of the relics you’ll equip, will usually increase their power exponentially. The same goes for powers you’ll acquire and items for your most important cards.

As long as you keep synergies in mind while collecting items and powers in the Path, your deck will be high performing. I have found that once you clear the first few encounters, high star adventures generally start to skew in your favor.

Stacking the Deck

No two ways about it; high star adventures are hard. To beat them, you’ll need to bring every ounce of skill and tenacity. There are ways to get out on top. 

There are a variety of powers and items available to you, and it can get overwhelming to figure out what is good. While some powers and items synergize well with different decks and champions, some are generically powerful in the Path of Champions. These strategies might help get you past tricky encounters.

More Power To You

There are a few powers that can ensure the enemy can’t attack effectively. “Hold them off” and “Treacherous Terrain” both set opponents’ cards’ power to zero in different ways, making it hard for them to attack. “Hold it” stuns an enemy at the start of each round, effectively locking down one threat on the board. Finally, “Enfeebling Strike” reduces the enemy’s power by the damage they take. This ensures your early blocks and your damaging spells actually have an effect early on in the run. These powers can keep you in the game longer and might even have synergy with your champion’s deck.

I’ve also found that powers that summon units are usually really good. For that reason, “New Student,” “Woosh!,” “Gearing Up,” “Officer Backup,” and “Vanguard Lookout” are great picks. These allow you to focus on your gameplan without worrying about blocking the first hit. These powers can save you mana that might otherwise be used to prevent the first attack. Be careful: if the enemy’s first unit has “overwhelm,” this plan might go out the window.

Aside from being aggressive when picking powers, you should be sure to hit the best events you can. This means avoiding bad events and picking good ones. There are some great events to pick. “Rekindler” is a way to buy a revive for your run. Scribe of Sorrows and Smooth Soloist are excellent picks if you’re looking to buy powers. They each offer a choice of three powers to buy from. Smooth Soloist even offers epic and legendary powers at higher prices. Keep in mind, at higher player levels, you can also buy random powers at stores, though you only have one option to choose from.

Item of Power

A good strategy for the store or item rewards involves picking options that make your important cards cheaper or easier to find. Even a “Nomad’s Medallion” to reduce the cost of a key card in your deck can be the difference between defeat and victory. Items that make your cards stronger also never go amiss, especially in high star formats.

Finally, when it comes to relics, while there are many strong and synergistic relics, I highly recommend “Guardian Angel.” This relic adds an ability for your champion to survive lethal damage once per card, but more importantly, it gives you an extra revive. I have often found this to be incredibly useful during high star adventures as it allows you to get over the early adventure difficulty spike. Additionally, since you can have multiple copies of this relic on a champion, you can even stack it for multiple chances at an adventure.

Leveling the Playing Field

There are as many strategies to building a deck as there are champions. However, I’ve found a few strong strategies that are generally quite powerful. When attempting to tackle Aurelion Sol or any of the weekly Nightmare Challenges, these might be a good first step.

Control Strategies

A heavy control strategy is one way to handle a board full of huge creatures. Using a champion that utilizes a lot of controlling spells or skills is one path to victory. Control strategies can be tricky to pull off, but they are very rewarding when they are successful. Many champions that use spells for control also have Constellation abilities that allow these synergies to flourish.

There are many ways to control the board, but kill spells and stunning spells are a good place to start. The first control champion that led me to victory against Aurelion Sol was Jhin. Jhin’s constellation allows him to generate a zero-cost spell at rank three that stuns an opponent or deals three damage. Throughout the adventure, assembling spells and skills let me stun Aurelion Sol’s champions and steadily deal damage until I won.

If you’re looking for suggestions for a champion who can help with a controlling strategy, Yasuo and Morgana’s decks are both strong contenders. With Yasuo’s focus on recalling enemies or stunning them, you can steadily whittle down enemies with Yasuo’s passive abilities while locking down their board. Meanwhile, Morgana gets some great powers from her constellation that allow her to curse anything that is targeted. This curse can then immobilize foes and clog up the board, and steadily deal damage to the creatures and the nexus.

Be careful: one big flaw of this strategy is that it is very weak to units with Spellshield. Spellshield is an ability that negates the first spell or skill that targets a unit. It can be difficult to stall or affect a board if your foes have this ability.

Big Guys

One of the simplest ways to combat a board full of big guys is to build a board of your own big guys. If you have a board full of creatures that can actually make a dent in the foes units, or kill them outright, you have a path to victory.

I have found the most success on this front while using Viego and Evelynn. Viego has a power from his constellation that allows the deck to steadily generate “Encroaching Mist” when killing allies and enemies. This unit gets more powerful the more you summon it and can steadily overwhelm the board. This even meshes well with Viego’s rank 2 power and can steadily reduce the cost of the most powerful creatures in your hand. Veigo’s also synergizes particularly well with other Shadow Isles cards that allow you to kill allies and foes.

Evelynn’s deck also performs well in regard to generating powerful creatures. Her deck generates “husks,” adding abilities and minor stats to units you summon. With the right setup during adventures, you can make the “husks” stronger, making your units stronger. 

The downside of this strategy is that many strong units might only be available on later turns. You’ll have to find a way to get out your strongest units incredibly quickly or risk being overwhelmed by your foe’s first units.

C-C-C-COMBO!!!

The easiest way to win a high star adventure in the Path of Champions is in the first three turns or fewer. Even if you don’t win in the early turns, it’s important to get off to a blistering start. The longer you let Aurelion Sol continue putting out champions, the more your chances of victory dwindle.

With the proper setup, you can snap this game over your knees. A “Mana Deposit” on Katarina can get you infinite combats by constantly generating Rally. Killing a Viego with two “Guardian Angel” relics can get you two Viegos and almost certainly lead to you killing or stealing two units on your next turn (and every turn after that). These are only the two of the combos I’ve found, and there are many more to find.

Once you find a synergy you can exploit during an adventure, you might find games are over very quickly. However, one thing to keep in mind is you can accidentally hamstring yourself if you synergize too much. For example, one run while playing Jhin, I reduced his cost to zero in a turn… but that also kept an ability that triggered based on cost from triggering. 

Aurelion Sol

Aurelion Sol’s adventure, “The Star Forger,” is an incredibly fun and exciting adventure to play. Every battle features a battle with a champion, and each battle starts with a random legendary boon. The order of the battles also changes every time, so no two runs feel the same.

I would not recommend challenging Aurelion Sol’s adventure without a champion with at least Rank 2 in their Constellation AND at Level 20 or higher. Without meeting these requirements, you may find that Aurelion Sol’s adventure is incredibly difficult. Reaching rank 2 in a champions constellation is important since it allows you to start with extra mana. Without it, you might find yourself floundering against decks that start with 3 or more mana. 

Reaching level 20 with a champion is also essential, allowing you to draw a champion on your first round. This gives you the consistency you will usually need, especially if you plan to use combos. Without a champion in your starting hand, you may be overwhelmed by the enemies’ flood of champions.

Fierce Competition

When challenging “The Star Forger” adventure, you’ll face some fierce battles. You’ll typically find that enemy decks usually get champions out quickly and can take over the board. 

In general, dealing with an enemy’s champion is a great way to keep your head above water. When the foe’s champion advances to level 2, they will become more powerful and have a better chance of winning. If you kill an enemy champion very quickly, you won’t have to worry about this.

“The Star Forger” also gives you difficult choices when choosing nodes to encounter. In particular, each section before a pivotal boss battle forces you to choose between healing or visiting the shop. The last time this happens, you’ll face two champions in a row before you get the chance to face Aurelion Sol. 

This makes it critically important to pace yourself and keep track of your nexus health as you advance during this adventure. Too much health lost early during one section may mean you have to miss out on the shop in order to heal. 

Slaying the Dragon

When it comes to facing Aurelion Sol himself, you’re in for a pitched battle. In addition to “Legendary Climb,” which makes Champions more powerful and harder to kill, Aurelion’s personal power is “Cower, Worship, Beg.” “Cower, Worship, Beg” takes a champion from Aurelion Sol’s deck at the end of EACH turn, with its increased power, and puts it on the battlefield. 

Aurelion Sol can also still cast creatures and spell, AND has another random legendary power to boot. Oh yeah, and Aurelion Sol’s nexus health is also set to 50 and he has FIVE mana gems to start. This fight is one to remember.

When facing Aurelion Sol, it is crucial to take a commanding position early. The later the game drags on, the more threats will come out, and Aurelion Sol will start to cast powerful spells to clear your board. It is important to stop Aurelion from snowballing into an even bigger threat. While killing or stopping one creature per round is good, there are many creatures to stop, and they won’t stop coming. Even when you’ve cleared the board, you won’t be safe the next turn from another champion coming down.

I have found the most success by prioritizing ways to increase the amount of mana available, or utilizing cost reduction items. With the right setup, you can have your best champion out in the first round of combat. For this reason, I recommend heavily prioritizing champion item nodes and being selective of items in these nodes. Rerolling away a set of lackluster champion items may be the key to getting you something more useful.

With your best champion on the field, I find that the chances of beating Aurelion Sol soar much higher. Hitting level 20 with a champion before facing the star dragon gives you a much better chance of drawing your best champion at the start of a game. With your champion out, the rest of the deck should synergize and steer you to victory.

Stars Guide Your Way

The Path of Champions offers some of its most unique and fun experiences in high star adventures and in your fight against Aurelion Sol. Every champion is different and each player might have different favorite champions and playstyles. You’ll have to build your own strategy based on your Constellation and champion levels, and what nodes you encounter in the Path.

You can do this! Victory awaits you in Legends of Runeterra’s Path of Champions! Happy adventuring, and good luck slaying the dragon.