The Radiance overview: one Ultimate Rare in every 4,000 packs
Riot has published The Radiance Overview, the article that lines up the fifth set’s dates, mechanics, pack contents and products in one place. The number that stands out belongs to the new Ultimate Rare: Riot says it shows up in roughly 0.025% of booster packs, one in four thousand. Release day is still October 23, 2026, with Pre-Rifts running in stores from the 16th.
The calendarEvery date in one place
The piece went live on the official site late on Friday, September 25, a few hours after the first cards were shown at the Los Angeles Regional Qualifier. Riot says up front that it will be updated twice more, on October 5 and October 16, so what is there now is a partial picture — but the calendar is already complete.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| September 25 – October 9 | Preview season |
| September 25 – 30 | Merch store drawing sign-up |
| October 5 | Drawing selection begins (around 9:00 AM PT) |
| October 16 – 22 | Pre-Rifts in stores |
| October 23 | Release in English, French and Chinese |
CollectibilityThe hardest card Riot has printed
Radiance brings Riftbound’s second Ultimate Rare, after the one in Unleashed. Riot admits the first attempt missed the mark: that card, it writes, «wasn’t quite as rare as we wanted it to be». The correction is a blunt one, and the result is a card Riot itself calls its rarest Ultimate Rare yet.
The figures read like a lottery ticket: roughly 0.025% of packs across the whole print run, one in four thousand. No Ultimate Rare is guaranteed in any pack, display or case, and a single pack can never hold more than one. The card itself will be shown towards the end of preview season.
What is inside
Seven commons, three uncommons, one foil slot (common, uncommon, rare or epic), one rare or epic, one variable slot and one token, rune or Alt Art rune. Plus the informational insert.
Where the big hit lands
That last slot is the one that can hold a rare, epic, Alt Art, Special Alt, Overnumber or the Ultimate Rare. Special Alt Arts appear at roughly the same rate as Alt Arts.
Overnumbers are confirmed too: all nine new Legends in the set get a variant numbered beyond 167, and those can also be found with the artist’s signature. The musically themed Alt Art runes arrive with the October 5 update.
ProductsDisplay, Showdown Decks, Vault and Pre-Rift Kits
Ekko and Seraphine take the front of the booster display art, with Ziggs and Jarvan behind them. The two Showdown Decks pit Seraphine against Evelynn, and Seraphine’s Legend is Starry-Eyed Songstress — the card we covered on September 22 as unconfirmed by Riot, now written down in black and white on the official site. Full decklists follow on October 16.
The Vault returns with a storage box, six Radiance packs, foil tokens and a set of 36 runes. Pre-Rift Kits hold five boosters plus a seeded Pre-Rift pack for each of the nine new Legends.
PromosWhat you take home from your store
Sign up for your local store’s Pre-Rift and you get Heimerdinger, Academy Instructor while supplies last: six Energy for five Might, Piltover and Yordle, with a line that swaps unit tokens played to a location for a 3 Might Mech token while the Legend sits at a battlefield.
Nexus Night promo packs are being refreshed with Radiance cards, but the list only lands on October 16. Summoner Skirmish 1 starts on November 9 and Skirmish 2 on December 14; for the second one Riot already shows the Top Cut and Champion prizes, two promo versions of Ahri, Confident stamped «TOP 8» and «CHAMPION». The Champion also walks away with the Skirmish playmat.
Why it matters here. Pre-Rifts from October 16 to 22 are store events, so they run in Italy too: anyone who wants the Heimerdinger promo just has to sign up in time. The October 23 release, on the other hand, covers English, French and Chinese, and Italian is not among the announced languages — as with the previous sets, we play in English. And anyone dreaming of the Ultimate Rare should read that number for what it is: one pack in four thousand is not something you open your way to by the display.
The short version
- Radiance lands on October 23, 2026, with Pre-Rifts from the 16th to the 22nd and previews running to October 9.
- The new Ultimate Rare appears in roughly 0.025% of packs and is guaranteed in no pack, display or case.
- The overview gets updated on October 5 and October 16 with runes, Specials, Showdown decklists and Summoner Skirmish prizes.
Source: playriftbound.com. Images: Riot Games.
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