If you learned about Hextech Crafting a few years ago, most of what you knew is now out of date. Riot pulled free chests out of the game entirely in early 2025, then walked it back a few weeks later after heavy player backlash. What came back wasn't the old system. Key fragments are gone, champion mastery no longer earns you chests directly, and chests now arrive already paired with a key. Here's how it actually works today.
What Is Hextech Crafting?
Hextech Crafting is the loot system built into your in-client Loot tab. You earn Hextech Chests, open them with Keys, and get Skin Shards for skins you don't already own. From there you decide whether to turn a shard into the full skin, break it down for currency, or gamble it away on something else entirely. It's Riot's main way of letting players build a skin collection without spending RP on every single one.
How Do You Actually Get Hextech Chests Now?
The short answer: mostly by playing normally. Since Patch 25.05, chests and keys come bundled together, and the free Battle Pass track is the main source. You can earn up to 8 chest and key bundles per Act just by progressing through the free Battle Pass, plus another 2 through Honor milestones, for up to 10 per Act. With roughly 6 Acts across a full year, that works out to as many as 60 free chest and key bundles annually if you're playing consistently.
Battle Pass progress comes from normal games, Ranked, and ARAM alike, along with daily and weekly missions, so there's no need to grind a specific queue. If you want more than the free allotment, chest and key bundles are also purchasable directly from the store for 195 RP each.
What's gone for good: the old key fragment system, where you'd slowly collect three fragments to craft one key, and the old champion mastery path, where hitting a high grade on a champion handed you a free chest. Neither exists anymore. Mastery still matters for other reasons, it just feeds into Battle Pass XP instead of granting chests on its own.
What Happens When You Open One?
Opening a Hextech Chest with a Key gives you a Skin Shard, a locked-in version of a skin you don't currently own. It sits in your Loot tab until you decide what to do with it. Nothing forces your hand right away—shards don't expire, so you can stockpile a few before deciding.
What Can You Do With a Skin Shard?
Every shard gives you three options.
- Upgrade it into the full permanent skin using Orange Essence.
- Disenchant it, converting the shard into Orange Essence instead of keeping the skin.
- Reroll it, combining it with two other shards to get one random permanent skin.
Should You Disenchant or Reroll?
As a general rule, cheaper shards are better off rerolled and pricier ones are worth holding onto.
Lower tier shards don't disenchant into much Orange Essence, so breaking three of them down barely moves you toward unlocking anything. Rerolling those same three shards gives you a real shot at something you'll actually want, and whatever comes out is guaranteed to be a skin you don't already own. Higher tier shards are the opposite case. If you already like the skin, keep it and save toward the Orange Essence to upgrade it, since disenchanting a shard you actually wanted just to gamble it away on a reroll rarely pays off.
What Is Orange Essence For?
Orange Essence is the currency that turns a Skin Shard into a permanent skin, similar to how Blue Essence works for champions, except it's locked to cosmetics. You'll get most of it from disenchanting shards you don't plan to keep, with the occasional bonus from event missions on top.
A Few Things Worth Knowing
Chests already sitting in your Loot tab don't expire. Only your ability to earn new ones resets when an Act ends, so there's no rush to open what you've already collected. If you run into an older guide mentioning Feats of Strength as a way to earn chests, ignore it, that system was removed entirely with Patch 26.1 at the start of the year.
FAQ
Do I still need key fragments to open chests? No. Fragments were retired with Patch 25.05. Chests now come bundled with a key already attached.
Does champion mastery still give free chests? Not directly. High mastery grades feed into your Battle Pass XP instead of handing you a chest on their own.
How many free chests can I realistically earn in a year? Up to 60, assuming you complete the free Battle Pass track and hit Honor milestones across all 6 Acts.
Is it better to reroll or disenchant a skin shard? It depends on the shard's value. Cheap shards are usually better rerolled, while shards for skins you actually want are usually worth keeping and upgrading with Orange Essence.
Trying to figure out which skins are worth saving your shards for? Check out our latest skins coverage for everything currently in rotation.