Turrets are the only thing in League you have to kill to win, and they're treated as scenery. A tower is a unit with a target priority, a damage ramp, two defensive mechanics and a gold table, and all four decide how your lane should go.
League of Legends Guide
Turrets
How Towers WorkTurrets are the only thing in League you have to kill to win, and almost nobody reads the rules on them.
They get treated as scenery: something that hurts if you stand under it, something that falls over eventually. In practice a tower is a unit with a target priority, a damage ramp, two separate defensive mechanics and a two-part gold table, and every one of those changes what you should be doing in lane.
Towers come off in order, and the rest can't be touched
Every turret behind the front one in its lane is untargetable rather than merely tanky. The inner tower isn't a thing you can hit until the outer one falls, the inhibitor tower waits on the inner, and the Nexus turrets stay untouchable until an inhibitor goes down.
Which is why a lead in one lane converts and a lead spread thinly across three doesn't. Structures come off in sequence, so pressure has to be spent where something is already exposed.
One flat bonus rides on top of all this: melee champions deal 20% more damage to structures. That's the quiet reason your top laner takes a tower in the time a marksman takes half of one, and it's worth remembering when five of you arrive at a structure with thirty seconds to spend.
You are last on the target list
Turrets shoot in a strict order: pets first, then siege and super minions, then melee minions, then casters, and only after all of that do they look at a champion.
That order is what makes the cannon wave a dive timer rather than a coincidence. A siege minion holds the turret's attention for a long stretch, a summoned pet holds it longer still, and a dive that shouldn't work becomes one that does purely because something else is standing there soaking shots.
What actually pulls the tower onto you
The trigger is damage to an allied champion within 1400 units of the turret, from any source, pets included. Whether the damage landed doesn't matter. A blocked hit, a blinded auto, a shielded skillshot, an effect that deals a literal zero, all of them turn the tower on you.
Non-damaging effects don't. Slows, walls and displacements leave the turret alone entirely, which is the whole basis of a dive done properly: crowd control goes in first, damage second, and the tower spends those seconds shooting a minion.
Two rules decide whether it falls at all
| Mechanic | What it does | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| No minions nearby | The turret takes 80% less damage, true damage included. Pets don't switch it off, traps don't, monsters don't. Only a real wave or a summoned Rift Herald does, and it takes three seconds to come back on. | This is the entire answer to "why won't this tower die". It's also what makes a backdoor a plan rather than a fantasy: bring a wave or don't bother. |
| Bulwark stacks | An outer turret gains a stack each time its health drops past 4000, 3000, 2000 and 1000. Each lasts 20 seconds and grants bonus armor and magic resist, scaled up by how many enemies are standing next to it. | The last plate is always the slowest, and a five-person siege gets less per swing than it feels like it should. Take your plates and leave. |
The money, and why standing there matters
Plating is the part everyone knows and still underuses. Lane turrets carry five plates, marked on the health bar, and each one pays 125 gold locally, shared with whoever is nearby. Two plates is most of a component. A won lane that never touches the tower converted nothing.
The turret itself pays twice:
| Half of the reward | Who gets it |
|---|---|
| Global | All five of you, alive or dead, anywhere on the map |
| Local | Split between champions within 1200 units when it falls. Damage from you or your summon in the last ten seconds guarantees your share wherever you are |
The first turret of the game pays an extra 300 gold on top, to the team that takes it. A full component for showing up, and the real reason first tower matters more than the map space it opens.
Put both halves together and you get the only habit worth building out of this section: don't wander off while a tower is at a sliver, and don't recall through the last two hits. Being present pays, and it's free.
One rune turns a tower visit into a free hit
Stand near an enemy turret holding Demolish and crystals build up around its base over three seconds. Your next basic attack spends them for 100 plus 35% of that turret's maximum health as physical damage.
Late in a game that single swing is a real chunk of the structure, which is why one visit from a top laner running the rune can leave a quiet side lane looking completely different. It only fires for somebody who actually took it, though. Those crystals are Demolish's own charge timer rather than something the tower does by itself, so a team with nobody running it never gets that hit at all.
Towers also carry true sight out to 1000 units, so invisibility, camouflage and traps hide nothing from a structure. Terrain still blocks line of sight, which means a wall helps where a stealth button doesn't.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my damage doing nothing to this tower?
There are no minions nearby, so it's taking 80% less of everything, true damage included. Bring a wave.
How much is a turret plate worth?
125 gold each, five per lane turret, shared locally with anyone standing near you when it breaks.
Why did the tower shoot me when I didn't damage anyone?
You almost certainly did. Any damage to an enemy champion within 1400 units counts, even a zero, even a blocked or blinded hit. Only non-damaging effects are safe.
Can turrets see stealthed champions?
Yes, out to 1000 units. Stealth doesn't work on structures, though terrain still blocks their vision.
Do I get gold from a tower I wasn't at?
Half of it. The global share reaches everyone, dead or alive. The local share only pays champions within 1200 units, unless you damaged the tower in the last ten seconds.
The short version
Two rules pay for themselves immediately. Plates turn a won lane into an item, and the minion rule stops you throwing four minutes at a structure that was never going to fall while you did it.
For getting far enough ahead to take plates in the first place, our lane advantages guide covers the lane, and basic laning mechanics covers the pushing that gets you there.
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