Everything in League is bought with the same currency, and most players know two of the ways to earn it. Here's every source of gold, who each one pays, and the rule about spending it that decides more games than any of them.
League of Legends Guide
Gold
Where the Money Comes FromEverything in League is bought with the same currency, and most players only know two of the ways to get it.
Farm and kills, roughly, plus a vague sense that objectives are worth something. That's enough to play with and not enough to decide with, which is how a lot of choices that feel like preference turn out to be arithmetic somebody already did.
The part nobody has to earn
Every champion opens a game on Summoner's Rift with 500 gold. On the Howling Abyss it's 1400, which is the whole reason an ARAM first back looks nothing like a Rift one.
After that there's a trickle: 20.4 gold every ten seconds on the Rift, identical for all ten players, switching on at 1:05. ARAM pays 60 per ten seconds and switches on at 1:00, so it starts a few seconds earlier as well as paying nearly three times as much.
The trickle is deliberately small and deliberately equal, so it can never be the source of a lead. Everything that puts you in front of the other nine people has to come from one of the sections below.
One structural rule sits alongside it: you can carry exactly one gold generating item at a time. There's no build that stacks two and quietly out-earns the lobby, which makes the choice binary. Either a slot is committed to earning or it isn't.
Minion gold is all or nothing
Standing near a dying minion splits its experience among nearby allies and pays you nothing. The gold goes entirely to whoever lands the last hit, and it reaches them at any range, even while they're dead.
That gap is the biggest difference between a new player and a competent one, and it has almost nothing to do with mechanics. It's understanding that a wave you watched die paid the enemy laner and paid you zero.
ARAM works differently, where nearby minion deaths do generate gold for you. It's a large part of why the mode forgives so much and why it teaches so little about this particular habit.
Kills, assists and the price on your head
A solo kill hands its whole bounty to one person. An assisted kill pays the killer their share and then creates extra gold on top, split among everyone who helped.
So a kill three of you touched is worth more to your team than the same kill taken alone. That's a better argument against sniping your own carry than the etiquette version, because it's a number rather than a feeling.
On top of that, what a champion is worth moves with the state of the game. Get far enough ahead and you're carrying a price that pays somebody a full item for ending you. Fall far enough behind and you're worth almost nothing, which is the game quietly declining to fund the team that's already winning.
Being fed is a liability as well as a lead, and dying while behind costs the enemy far less than it feels like it does. The fear of feeding is usually worse than the arithmetic of it.
Structures pay twice, and one half needs you there
Every turret splits its reward into a global half that reaches all five of you wherever you are, and a local half shared between the champions standing nearby when it falls. Plates work the same way at 120 gold each, and the first turret of the game carries an extra 300 for the team that takes it.
Which turns "don't wander off while a tower is at a sliver" from nagging into a price. Our turrets guide has the rest of the table, including the two rules that decide whether the structure falls at all.
Wards are money, plants are not
Killing an enemy ward pays gold, only to whoever killed it, and grants no experience at all. Jungle plants give neither. Neither fact appears anywhere in the client.
It isn't much per ward. It is free, it's on your way, and clearing vision was something you wanted to do regardless. Over forty minutes the player who sweeps out of habit has bought something the player who walks past hasn't.
Selling costs you 30%, and sometimes 60%
| What you're selling | You get back |
|---|---|
| Most items | 70% of what you paid |
| Starting items, potions, control wards, elixirs and a few specific pieces | 40%, and these are exactly the ones you're most likely to sell |
| Support and jungle items | Nothing. They can't be sold at all, because their quests are tied to the role |
The mid-game slot problem is therefore more expensive than it looks. Selling a starting item to make room throws away most of what it cost, so the decision to buy it was also a decision about when you'd pay to get rid of it.
Gold in your pocket does nothing
This is the one that decides games, and it isn't a mechanic at all.
Gold has no effect on anything until it's spent. A player sitting on 2,300 unspent gold is playing at the strength of whatever they last bought, and the enemy laner with 200 in the bank and an extra item is simply stronger than them. Everybody knows this. Almost everybody does it anyway, because backing feels like losing tempo and staying feels productive.
It isn't. The wave is still there when you get back, and it's worth roughly a component either way.
Frequently asked questions
How much passive gold do you earn in LoL?
20.4 every ten seconds on Summoner's Rift, starting at 1:05, and the same for every player in the game. ARAM pays 60 per ten seconds and starts at 1:00.
Do you get gold for standing near a minion kill?
Not on Summoner's Rift. You share the experience and none of the gold. ARAM is the exception.
Is an assist worth less than a kill?
To you, yes. To the team, an assisted kill is worth more overall, because the assist gold is created on top of the killer's share rather than taken out of it.
How much do you lose selling an item?
30% on most things, 60% on starting items, potions, control wards and elixirs. Support and jungle items can't be sold.
Can you carry two gold income items?
No. One at a time, always.
The short version
Last hits pay one person, assists create gold rather than dividing it, bounties swing both ways, and none of it counts until you've spent it. If you only change one habit, back with a purchase in mind instead of backing when you're bored.
For what the wave itself is worth, our minions guide puts a number on it, and our lane advantages guide covers turning that into a lead.
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