Patch 26.1 deleted Atakhan, deleted Feats of Strength, and moved Baron back to twenty minutes. Almost every objective guide online still describes the old map. Here's what actually spawns on Summoner's Rift right now, when it spawns, and what taking it gets you.
League of Legends Guide
Every Rift Objective
Season 16 · Patch 26.15If you learned the objective map any time in the last two years, some of what you know is now wrong. Patch 26.1 deleted Atakhan and the Blood Roses that fed it, deleted Feats of Strength and the tier 3 boots it unlocked, and pulled Baron's spawn back from twenty-five minutes to twenty. Riot's stated reason was objective overload: too many things on the map competing for the same attention.
The result is a leaner map than the one most guides describe. Here's every neutral objective that actually exists right now, in the order you'll meet it.
The Objective Timeline
Learn this table and you'll know what your jungler is doing at any point in the game. Every time below is from the moment minions spawn, not from the loading screen.
| Time | Objective | Where | Repeats? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5:00 | First elemental drake | Bottom side pit | Yes, on a respawn timer |
| 8:00 | Void Grubs (three of them) | Top side pit | No, once per game |
| 14:45 | Grubs despawn if untouched | Top side pit | Not applicable |
| 15:00 | Rift Herald | Baron pit | No, once per game |
| 19:45 | Herald despawns if untouched | Baron pit | Not applicable |
| 20:00 | Baron Nashor | Baron pit | Yes, six minutes after each kill |
| After a 4th drake | Elder Dragon | Bottom side pit | Yes, every six minutes |
The two that only happen once. Grubs and Herald each spawn a single time per game and then never come back. That's why a jungler who gives up grubs at eight minutes is giving up something permanent, and why "we'll get the next one" isn't a plan that exists for either of them.
Void Grubs
The camp spawns at eight minutes in the top side river pit and holds three grubs. They only appear once all game, and if nobody takes them they leave for good at 14:45.
Each grub you kill gives every member of your team a stack of Touch of the Void, which adds bonus true damage to your attacks against structures. Melee champions get more of it than ranged ones. Collect three stacks and the team also gains Hunger of the Void, which periodically summons allied Voidmites to help chew through enemy turrets.
That combination is why grubs decide side lanes. A team with a full stack of grub buff takes towers dramatically faster than one without, and the effect lasts long enough to convert into real map control before it expires.
Patch 26.1 changed how they're rewarded. The gold used to be split into a small local share plus a large global payout to the whole team, which added up to a couple of hundred gold spread around. It's now concentrated on whoever actually kills them, at a much lower total. The grubs themselves also became sturdier and harder to solo early, with a higher minimum level requirement and increased resistances.
Take them when
You have top and mid pushed in, your jungler is on the top half, and the enemy jungler has just shown on the bottom side. Grubs are a tempo objective, so the setup matters more than the fight.
Give them up when
The first drake is contested at the same time and you're stronger in the bottom half. Trading grubs for a drake is a normal, correct trade, not a loss.
Dragons and Dragon Soul
Elemental drakes spawn in the bottom side pit starting at five minutes, and each one gives a small permanent stacking bonus to your whole team. That part hasn't changed in years. What matters is the fourth one.
Taking your team's fourth drake grants Dragon Soul, a permanent buff that lasts the rest of the game and doesn't go away on death. There are six of them, and which one you get depends on which element the map committed to.
Infernal Soul
Your damage triggers an area explosion around the target on a short cooldown. The most straightforward teamfight soul in the game and usually the one both teams want most.
Mountain Soul
You gain a shield after going a few seconds without taking damage. Brutal in poke and siege situations, because the chip damage simply stops accumulating.
Ocean Soul
Dealing damage heals you and restores mana, at reduced effectiveness against minions and monsters. It turns extended fights into a war of attrition you win by default.
Cloud Soul
Permanent movement speed that spikes hard for several seconds after you cast an ultimate. It's the roaming and repositioning soul, and it's far better than it looks on paper.
Hextech Soul
Your damage arcs chain lightning to nearby enemies, dealing true damage and slowing them. Strong in grouped fights and very strong at catching people out.
Chemtech Soul
You deal more damage and take less of it while below half health. A comeback soul that rewards teams willing to keep fighting from behind.
Patch 26.1 made every drake noticeably tougher, raising their base health and growth. It also sharply increased Dragon Vengeance, the stacking damage reduction the losing team gets against drakes, which makes a 3-0 drake lead much harder to convert into a soul than it used to be.
Rift Herald
Herald takes over the Baron pit at fifteen minutes and stays there until 19:45. Kill her and she drops the Eye of the Herald at the pit entrance, where it sits for twenty seconds waiting for someone to pick it up. Whoever grabs it gets a trinket that summons her as a siege unit that charges down a lane, ignoring champions in favour of minions and structures.
Patch 26.1 made her a much more serious fight. Her minimum level went up considerably, her health scaling was raised sharply, and she now deals bonus damage to non-champion targets, which means she chews through a jungle pet or a summoned unit rather than being tanked by one. The gold reward dropped to a flat payout for the killer, so like grubs, she's now taken for what she does rather than for the income.
The practical read: Herald is a tower, not a fight. If you can't convert her into at least one structure before Baron spawns at twenty, you spent five minutes of map presence for a buff that expired.
Baron Nashor
Baron replaces Herald in the pit at twenty minutes and respawns six minutes after each kill. Patch 26.1 moved him back to that twenty minute slot, which is where long-time players will remember him, after a stretch at twenty-five.
Killing him gives everyone alive the Hand of Baron for three minutes: bonus attack damage and ability power, a much faster empowered recall, and an aura that dramatically strengthens nearby allied minions. That last part is the real prize. Baron doesn't win you a fight so much as it lets a wave of empowered minions take a base while the enemy is busy losing one.
Three different Barons. Every game rolls one of three variants at the start, and that's the Baron you'll fight all match. They aren't cosmetic, they change how the pit fight plays out and two of them permanently reshape the terrain around it.
Hunting Baron
Calls down lightning pillars at champion positions and deals damage based on current health. The one that punishes standing still, and the one where positioning inside the pit matters most.
Territorial Baron
Pulls champions toward him in a cone and follows with magic damage. He also reshapes the ground around the pit permanently, which changes every approach and escape route for the rest of the game.
All-Seeing Baron
Channels void rifts at champions he can see from a distance, so simply standing outside the pit isn't safe. Also permanently alters the terrain around the pit.
Patch 26.1 also converted Baron from time-based scaling to level-based scaling, starting from level eleven. In practice that means a game where everyone is behind on levels gets an easier Baron than a fast-scaling one at the same clock time.
Elder Dragon
Once either team takes their fourth drake and claims a soul, the pit starts producing Elder Dragon instead, respawning every six minutes.
Elder gives Aspect of the Dragon for 150 seconds, and unlike Dragon Soul, you lose it when you die. While you have it, damaging an enemy applies a burn that deals true damage over a couple of seconds and scales up the longer the game has gone. The part that ends games is Elder Immolation: damage an enemy champion who's below 20% of their maximum health and, after a brief delay, they're executed outright.
That execute is why an Elder fight is usually the last fight. It converts any successful engage into a guaranteed multi-kill, because the normal escape at low health stops existing. Patch 26.1 cut Elder's gold reward substantially, but the buff itself is untouched and remains the strongest thing on the map.
What Patch 26.1 Removed
If you're returning to League after a break, this is the part most likely to trip you up, because both of these systems were prominent and both are simply gone.
Atakhan, Blood Roses and Blood Petals are removed. Atakhan arrived at the start of the 2025 season as a fourth epic monster with its own spawn logic, appearing at twenty minutes on whichever half of the map had seen more fighting. Riot cut the whole system in Patch 26.1, saying it contributed to objective overload that players had been flagging since January. The Blood Roses that grew around the map to feed it went with it.
Feats of Strength and tier 3 boots are removed. Feats gave a team a bonus for winning two of first blood, first turret and three epic monsters, unlocking a free boot upgrade and access to 500 gold tier 3 boots. Riot removed it in the same patch, saying they wanted systems that gave players more individual agency over their games.
Tier 3 boots still exist, but they come from somewhere else entirely now: the mid lane Role Quest. Only one player on each team can get them.
A few other Patch 26.1 changes matter for how objectives get contested, even though they aren't objectives themselves. First blood went back to 100 gold and the first turret bonus back to 300. Turret plates became permanent and were extended to inner and inhibitor turrets, so plate gold is available far later into the game than it used to be. And all turrets now take 20% increased damage from melee champions, which stacks with the grub buff to make melee-heavy sieges genuinely fast.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time does Baron spawn in League of Legends?
Twenty minutes. Patch 26.1 moved Baron back to a 20:00 spawn from the 25:00 timing used during the Atakhan era. After each kill he respawns six minutes later.
When do Void Grubs spawn, and do they come back?
The camp spawns at eight minutes with three grubs in it, and it only happens once per game. If nobody takes them they despawn permanently at 14:45. There's no second wave.
Was Atakhan removed from League of Legends?
Yes. Riot removed Atakhan along with Blood Roses and Blood Petals in Patch 26.1, saying the monster contributed to objective overload on Summoner's Rift. It existed from the start of the 2025 season until that patch.
How do you get tier 3 boots now that Feats of Strength is gone?
Through the mid lane Role Quest. Feats of Strength and the Blessing of Noxus were removed in Patch 26.1, and the tier 2 to tier 3 boot upgrade moved to the mid laner's role reward, which means only one player per team can have them.
How many dragons do you need for Dragon Soul?
Four. Taking your team's fourth elemental drake grants the soul matching the map's element, and it lasts permanently for the rest of the game without being lost on death. Elder Dragon then starts spawning in the pit instead.
What does Elder Dragon actually do?
It grants Aspect of the Dragon for 150 seconds, which burns enemies you damage for true damage and executes any enemy champion you damage while they're below 20% of their maximum health. Unlike Dragon Soul, you lose the buff when you die.
Why is Baron different every game?
There are three Baron variants, and one is chosen per game and stays for the whole match. Hunting Baron drops lightning pillars on champions, Territorial Baron pulls players toward him, and All-Seeing Baron attacks champions standing at a distance. The latter two also permanently reshape the terrain around the pit.
Do you miss Atakhan, or was the map genuinely too crowded? Let us know in the comments.
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