Riot Games has officially revealed Locke, the Ashen Exorcist, as the only new League of Legends champion for 2026. Here’s a complete breakdown of his AP assassin kit, lore, release skin and launch date.
Riot Games has officially revealed Locke, the Ashen Exorcist, as League of Legends’ 173rd champion. An AP mid-lane assassin built around marking targets with Soul Nails and executing enemies caught in his ultimate, Locke arrives with Patch 26.13 on June 24, 2026. He is the only new champion Riot plans to release this year, following Zahen’s debut in November 2025, roughly seven months ago. PBE access started on June 10.
Who Is Locke? The Demon-Hunting Exorcist of Demacia
Locke is described as a nail-slinging exorcist versed in forbidden rites and the son of Demacian occultists. Raised amid lies and hypocrisy, he came to believe that demons are not the source of humanity’s darkness but rather a consequence of it. He tears through souls to expose the darkness hidden within, determined to make the world a more honest place, one exorcism at a time. His debut cinematic, “Back from the Brink,” pits him against a demon-possessed Vayne, who he knew as a childhood friend.
Senior Game Product Manager Edward Zhao described Locke as a “cool, stylistic character” designed specifically for mid-lane assassin players. Champion Designer Blake “Squad5” Smith explained that the team wanted to create an assassin that avoided common frustration points: opponents struggling to read what the assassin is doing, and instant-kill “snap abilities” with no window to react. The result is a champion with a sky-high damage ceiling gated behind a chain of inputs opponents can see and counter.
Full Ability Breakdown
Passive: Silver Stake
Locke pins enemies’ souls with his basic attacks, dealing bonus magic damage on-hit that scales with the target’s missing health. Squad5 calls it a “glue ability” that gives Locke something meaningful to do between cooldowns and helps him finish off low-health targets his combo didn’t quite kill. It also feeds into his Q mechanic by incentivising auto attacks.
Q: Ritual Nails
Locke readies a set of Soul Nails and throws them forward, dealing magic damage, marking and slowing all enemies hit. He can recast this ability twice more before it goes on cooldown, with the slow intensifying based on accumulated stacks. Attacking a marked enemy consumes the stacks for significant magic damage per mark. The nails pierce through targets, so multiple enemies can be marked simultaneously. Unspent nails refund a portion of cooldown and mana cost, rewarding accurate usage. When all three nails connect on a single target, Locke plays a unique spinning animation.
W: Soul Ignition
Locke releases his seals, gaining movement speed that decays over a few seconds. While the effect is active, he suffers percentage-health true damage every second, similar to Vladimir’s health-cost mechanics. When the ability ends or is recast, Locke heals based on champion damage taken (including self-damage), his missing health, and how long the ability was active. Crucially, Soul Ignition can be recast even while crowd controlled, providing a lifeline in desperate situations. This makes it a powerful tool for tower dives: activate W for speed, stay in the fight, and recast just in time to heal and survive.
E: Ashen Pursuit
Locke blinks to a target location, dealing magic damage around him on arrival. His next basic attack then triggers a fixed-distance dash toward his target, dealing magic damage to all enemies in the path. Both the blink hit and the dash consume Soul Nail stacks, just like regular auto attacks. The real power here: cooldown resets on takedown, letting Locke chain through the enemy backline in teamfights. The dash distance is fixed regardless of target position, so spacing and positioning matter enormously.
R: Purgatory
Locke kicks a binding artifact (totem) to a target location. On arrival, it opens and fires chained Soul Nails at enemies in the area, dealing magic damage and applying a slow. Marked champions that drop below a health threshold are pulled inside and executed. If a champion is killed this way, the binding duration resets on all remaining affected champions, enabling chain executions across an entire team.
After several seconds, the artifact seals itself and stays on the ground if at least one champion was trapped. Locke can pick it up to permanently increase the execution threshold and refund a portion of the ultimate’s cooldown for each sealed champion. Blake Smith confirmed there is no cap on how much the threshold can grow, meaning it can theoretically reach 100%. In practice, however, kills must come from the ultimate itself, making it a skill-intensive stacking mechanic rather than a guaranteed scaling tool. Important interaction: abilities like Yasuo’s Wind Wall cannot block the totem itself, but they can interact with the projectiles it fires on landing. Purgatory’s debuff is time-based, not distance-based: no amount of running will save a marked target whose health falls below the threshold.
Gameplay Tips: How to Play Locke
Locke is an early-aggression assassin who must snowball to become a late-game threat. Riot’s official Champion Spotlight lays out core strategies:
- Stack three Ritual Nails: Look for opportunities to land all three Q casts on an overextended laner. The combined slow is massive and sets up guaranteed follow-up damage.
- Time Ashen Pursuit to cut off escapes: Use the blink to position behind fleeing targets, then dash through them for maximum damage.
- Use Soul Ignition for all-in plays: Activate W for speed on tower dives, fight as long as possible, then recast at the last moment to heal and survive.
- Prioritise squishy targets: Locke’s damage does not scale with max health, so defensive items on tanks become a major obstacle in mid-to-late game. Use Purgatory and Ashen Pursuit resets to eliminate carries before turning on frontliners.
- Pick up your totem: Always retrieve the sealed artifact after an execution to permanently increase your execute threshold and reduce your ultimate cooldown.
Like most assassins, Locke is fragile and vulnerable to crowd control. Coordinated ganks can punish his aggression, and he struggles to land Ritual Nails against enemies approaching from multiple angles.
How Does Locke Compare to Other AP Assassins?
The pure AP assassin slot in mid lane has been at its weakest in years. Akali remains durable but not dominant, Katarina spikes hard but loses to range, and Naafiri has fallen out of S tier after recent nerfs. Locke steps directly into this gap with a unique selling point: mid-range skillshot poke into burst follow-up. Most AP assassins force an all-in to deal damage, but Locke’s Q allows him to chip safely before committing.
Community comparisons place him alongside several champions. His E blink resembles Ekko’s, the W health-cost mechanic mirrors Vladimir’s, and the AoE execute ultimate draws parallels to an expanded version of Urgot’s R. Reddit discussions describe him as something between an AP Naafiri and a Sylas-like brawler, though Riot firmly categorises him as a conditional assassin in the Zed and Akali mould: high ceiling, punishing if misplayed.
Release Date, Skin and Season Context
Locke launches on Wednesday, June 24, 2026 at 11:00 AM PDT with Patch 26.13. His debut skin is High Noon Locke, which blends his demonic exorcist aesthetic with a rugged cowboy theme. Akshan will also receive a High Noon skin in the same patch. Locke’s release coincides with Season 2, Act 2: “Pandemonium,” the demon-hunting story arc centred on Demacia.
Riot has confirmed Locke is the only new champion arriving in 2026. Post-Locke, the studio’s focus shifts to the League Next overhaul, expected to be previewed during the MSI 2026 finale in July. Future champions may debut alongside that major update.
Things Players Usually Want to Know
What role and lane does Locke play?
Locke is an AP assassin designed for mid lane. He turns early skirmishes into snowball advantages against squishy targets.
Is there a cap on Purgatory’s execute threshold?
No. Champion Designer Blake Smith confirmed there is no upper limit. Theoretically, the execute can reach 100%, though doing so requires consistently killing champions inside the ultimate and retrieving the artifact each time.
Is Locke the only new champion in 2026?
Yes. Riot confirmed Locke is the sole new champion releasing this calendar year. Additional champions are expected to arrive with the League Next update.
What is Locke’s launch skin?
Locke releases with a High Noon skin on day one, combining his exorcist identity with a supernatural cowboy aesthetic.
Can you block Purgatory with Wind Wall?
The totem toss itself cannot be blocked by abilities like Yasuo’s Wind Wall. However, the projectiles the totem fires upon landing can interact with such abilities.
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