What Are Dragons in League of Legends (LoL)?

With the 2025 season in full motion, here is everything you need to know about Dragons in League of Legends, from the types to their strategic value to the game.

What Are Dragons in League of Legends?

The Basics of Dragons in LoL

Dragons, also known as Drakes, are neutral monsters that spawn in Summoner’s Rift. Similar to Baron Nashor, dragons grant teams additional buffs and effects to the entire team that kills them. While they do not guarantee you victory, they play a key role in every single game and increase your chances to destroy the enemy base. Aside from killing them, there are also several implications and strategic aspects around the objectives, which are usually exploited by the most skilled players and teams.

Since its inception in the early days of League of Legends, the Drake system has undergone several changes, with the latest one being the introduction of elemental drakes and rifts, making the game more dynamic and exciting. Without further ado, let’s jump into the basics of dragons in League of Legends.

Base stats and introduction

Dragons spawn at the bottom of the map and give the teams that kill them extra buffs. From season 10, the introduction of Elemental rifts and the Dragon Soul mechanic has increased the importance of this neutral objective, as teams now often create skirmishes to contest it.

Here are some of the key fundamental information you need to know about Dragons in LoL:

1. Spawn Timings:
   • The first dragon spawns at 5:00 minutes into the game.
   • Subsequent dragons spawn every 5 minutes after the previous one is killed.
   • After a team has obtained four dragons and the corresponding Dragon Soul, the Elder Dragon spawns. This is a special version of the objective, which deals more damage and grants a powerful temporary buff to the team that kills it.
2. Health and Scaling:
   • Dragons’ health and damage scale with game time. For the first two drakes, each has 5,730 HP and will scale up based on its level (goes up by 380 per level). From the third drake onward, the drake starts at 9,230 and will scale up by 380 per level.
3. Dragon Pit:
   • The Dragon Pit refers to the zone around the dragon, which can be highly contested around the spawn time of dragons. In most scenarios, the red-side team has an advantage thanks to the better terrain and easier access to the dragon pit.
4. Passives:
   • Dragons are immune to crowd control (except stasis).
   • They gain 20% bonus damage and 7% damage reduction per stack when facing enemies with Dragon Slayer stacks.
   • Dragons deal bonus physical damage equal to 5% of the target’s current health and have 30% armor penetration.
   • Dragons knock back all enemies within 550 units of them upon starting the fight, displacing them further based on proximity (not through terrain).

Types of Elemental Dragons

There are four types of Elemental Dragons, with each providing a unique buff. Below are the effects each elemental dragon grants:

Infernal Dragon

• Buff Name: Infernal Might
  • Gain 3/6/9/12% attack damage and ability power based on Infernal Drake stacks.
• Infernal Soul:
  • Damaging basic attacks and abilities trigger an explosion around the target, dealing 100 (+ 22.5% bonus AD) (+ 13.5% AP) (+ 2.75% bonus health) adaptive damage to the target and nearby enemies (3-second cooldown).
• Heavily favors burst damage team compositions that rely on scaling adaptive force. Generally strong for poke team comps as well.

Ocean Dragon

• Buff Name: Oceanic Will
• Effect: Restore 2/4/6/8% (based on stacks) of missing health every 5 seconds.
• Ocean Soul:
  • Dealing damage to enemies heals you for 150 (+ 26% bonus AD) (+ 17% AP) (+ 7% bonus health) and restores 100 (+ 3.5% maximum mana) mana over 4 seconds. Damage to minions and monsters regenerates with 30% effectiveness.
• Valuable for team compositions that excel in extended skirmishes with great sustain. It can also be a good option for compositions that need to scale and don’t want to be punished by early-game picks.

Cloud Dragon

• Buff Name: Cloudbringer’s Grace
• Effect: Gain 5/10/15/20% (based on stacks) out-of-combat bonus movement speed
• Cloud Soul:
  • Gain 15% bonus movement speed, increased to 60% for 6 seconds after casting your ultimate ability (30 second cooldown).
• An incredibly powerful soul for champions that can maximize the movement speed bonus (mainly used for engages, and follow ups)

Chemtech Dragon

• Buff Name: Chemtech Blight
• Effect: Gain 6/12/18/24% (based on stacks) tenacity, heal and shield power.
• Mountain Soul:
  • While below 50% maximum health, gain 13% increased damage and damage reduction.
• The Chemtech Soul can be great on multiple team compositions but it mainly empowers protect-the-carry team compositions or champions with lots of built-in sustain in their kits.

Mountain Dragon

• Buff Name: Mountainous Vigor
• Effect: Gain 5/10/15/20% (based on stacks) armor and  magic resistance.
• Mountain Soul:
  • After not taking damage for 5 seconds, gain a shield for 220 (+ 16% bonus AD) (+ 12% AP) (+ 12% bonus health).
• Particularly strong on tanky team compositions but also team comps that want to counter burst based damage thanks to the added shield.

Hextech Dragon

• Buff Name: Hextech Prowess
• Effect: Gain 5/10/15/20 (based on stacks) ability haste and bonus attack speed.
• Mountain Soul:
  • Dealing damage to an enemy with basic attacks or ability damage causes them to be struck with electricity, dealing 25 – 50 (based on level) bonus true damage and slowing them by (45% melee/35% ranged) (+ 3% per 100 bonus AD) (+ 1% per 100 AP) (+ 0.5% per 100 bonus health) decaying over 2 seconds, while chaining the effect to up to 3 enemies near the primary target. The slow can stack from multiple sources and the decay rate is decreased against ranged champions (8 second cooldown).
• The Hextech Soul is generally great on auto-attack based team compositions with lots of DPS and multiple damage threats. Hypercarry team compositions generally synergy well with this soul.

The Elder Dragon

Once a Dragon Soul is obtained, no more elemental dragons spawn, and only Elder Dragons will be on the map. Unlike the Elemental Dragon Souls, the Elder Dragon buff only lasts for 120 seconds:

1. Buff Name: Aspect of the Dragon
2. Buff Effects:
   • Damaging enemies inflict them with a burn that deals them 75 – 225 (based on minutes) true damage over 2.25 seconds, with the first tick occurring after 0.25 seconds and the others after 1 second each. Each tick of the burn deals 25 – 75 (based on minutes) true damage. This effect does not trigger from its own damage.
   • Elder Immolation: Damaging an enemy champion while they are below 20% of their maximum health and Aspect of the Dragon’s buff is active blasts the target with dragon fire after a 0.5-second delay, executing them by dealing true damage equal to 100% of their current health. This effect cannot occur on the same target more than once every 2 seconds from any of Aspect of the Dragon’s buff holders. Elder Immolation’s execute is negated if the target is invulnerable or has a minimum health threshold. Elder Immolation can trigger against enemies even if they are untargetable.

Elemental Rifts

Elemental Rift are triggered in Summoner’s Rift after the second dragon of the game is slain. Based on the Dragon Soul that is randomly selected, the map transforms the corresponding Elemental Rift, introducing an additional layer of strategy.

• Ocean Rift: Six brushes grow in size and 12 puddles of water form across the jungle. The bushes are great for team compositions that want to abuse vision control (or the denial of vision) to create pick opportunities.
• Cloud Rift – Creates speed zones around dragon pit, blue and red buffs, granting champions within 20% bonus movement speed, increased to 35% while they are out of combat. Six additional Scryer’s Blooms each spawn in front of both teams’ base gates and by the tri-brushes near the river (great to scout vision).
• Mountain Rift: Triggers additional rocks around the red and blue buffs and the entrance of the Dragon pit. This is the opposite of the Infernal Rift, adding additional terrain.
• Hextech Rift – The map creates Hex-gates that allow users to travel to the other side of the gate for over 2.25 seconds. Each gate has a 30-second cooldown and a channel time of 0.75 seconds. The channel can be interrupted by crowd controls or damage.
• Chemtech Rift – Enhances all jungle plants on the map. Eight additional Honeyfruits are spawned and no longer slow champions that consume it (and grant a shield in addition to the heal). Blast cones displace units at twice the distance. Scryer’s Bloom reveals the area around it and reduces the health of all revealed wards to 1 (great to scout and deny vision) and gains 40% bonus movement speed in the direction the pollen was released.
• Infernal Rift – some bushes and terrain on the map are removed, opening up additional entryways to the jungle. Infernal Cinder can be collected, granting 150% bonus movement speed decaying over 2 seconds and ability haste (up to 5 stacks.)

Tips for Securing Dragons in League of Legends

1. Vision Control: Getting vision control is essential to secure any neutral objective, including the dragons. The general idea is to place control wards close to the Dragon Pit to make sure you’re not under vision and place wards on nearby entrances (or bushes) to identify the enemy team’s movements.
2. Timing: Usually Dragon can be captured after a successful gank where one or more enemies die. Thanks to the number’s advantage, the enemies are unlikely to contest. You can also try to trade the dragons if you see the enemy jungler (or multiple enemies) on the top side of the map, knowing that they won’t be able to rush back to the dragon pit.
3. Lane priority: This is generally a good tip the higher Elo you are since team coordination can make a big difference. Having lane priority on the two lanes close to the dragon will allow your teammates to converge and help you finish off the drake. If you don’t have lane priority, there is a chance the enemy team will collapse and punish you first.
4. Understand priority: while dragon stacking is important, there are certain team compositions or champions that prefer other neutral objectives (such as Void Grubs, or turrets). Understand which objective is essential to the team’s strategy and adjust accordingly. You can also play for the dragon to deny it to the enemy team if you think they will prioritize it.