LoL patch 26.21 notes: Caitlyn and Jinx nerfs, Sion buffs and five True Damage skins

Riot’s first patch after the Worlds lock goes after the bot lane’s two favorite marksmen. Here’s when Patch 26.21 comes out and everything it changes, from Caitlyn and Jinx to ARAM: Mayhem.

When does patch 26.21 come out?

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, Pacific time, according to Riot’s official patch schedule. Riot published the notes on Oct. 20, and the five True Damage Know My Name skins are dated for the same day as the patch. The next patches are 26.22 on Nov. 4, 26.23 on Nov. 18 and 26.24 on Dec. 9.

The pros don’t get these changes. Worlds 2026 runs on Patch 26.20, which Riot calls the Worlds patch, so Caitlyn, Jinx and the rest keep their 26.20 numbers on stage in Allen, Texas, where the Swiss Stage starts on Oct. 23. Riot says locking the Worlds patch gives champions such as Azir, Orianna and Ryze more breathing room, and all three get buffs.

Champion nerfs: Caitlyn, Jinx and the jungle

Caitlyn has had a very high pick and ban rate for months, and Riot moves power from the late game to the early game. Headshot damage drops from 60 to 100% of attack damage to 60 to 80%, and its crit scaling falls from 1% to 0.8%, while Piltover Peacemaker gains base damage, up to 230 at rank 5 instead of 210. Jinx, Caitlyn’s partner in the meta, loses attack damage growth, from 3.25 to 3 per level, and 20 base health, down to 610.

The jungle takes the other big hits. Lee Sin's Safeguard cooldown rises from 7 to 8 seconds and Dragon’s Rage drops from 175/400/625 to 150/350/550 damage. Nidalee loses Pounce damage and Primal Surge attack speed, Rammus loses bonus armor and magic resistance on Defensive Ball Curl, Wukong loses jungle durability with less armor per Stone Skin stack, and Qiyana gives back part of the Q buff from Patch 26.17. Tristana's Rapid Fire starts at 40% attack speed instead of 60%, Viktor drops to 330 move speed with a smaller Siphon Power shield, Yone's Mortal Steel falls from 110% to 105% of attack damage, and Locke pays more mana for Soul Ignition.

Champion buffs: Sion, Nunu and the mages

Sion gets sturdier, with health growth up from 87 to 95 per level, and Unstoppable Onslaught ramps up to 200% bonus damage over the first three seconds of channeling. Nunu & Willump's Absolute Zero hits harder at full channel, up to 750/1,100/1,450 damage from 625/925/1,275, making up for the earlier Hextech Rocketbelt nerf.

The mages benefit most from the Worlds lock. Azir's mana growth rises from 40 to 50 per level, Orianna gets higher ability power ratios on Command: Attack and Command: Dissonance, and Ryze gets a stronger Flux bonus at high ranks, more bonus move speed and a 70% ratio on Rune Prison. Taliyah's Unraveled Earth deals more damage, Vel’Koz's passive reaches 205 base damage, and Zyra regains seeds faster. Darius's Decimate cooldown drops to 4 seconds at rank 5, Miss Fortune gets more damage on Make It Rain and more critical strike damage on Bullet Time, and Xin Zhao's Three Talon Strike scales better. Taric, Twisted Fate, Varus and Zaahen get adjustments: Taric’s spells fire even when allies are untargetable, Twisted Fate’s Destiny reveals untargetable units, and Varus gets new numbers that target top lane builds.

Item changes

Four items change. Gluttonous Greaves costs 1,100 gold instead of 1,000, since marksmen were getting too much value from them early. Hubris splits by range: 15 base bonus attack damage for melee champions and 10 for ranged, with 3 or 2 per stack. Bastion Breaker drops from 22 to 18 Lethality and deals less Shaped Charge damage, but its Sabotage bonus against objectives no longer expires. Dawncore grants 15 ability power per 100% base mana regeneration instead of 10.

True Damage skins and Journey to Stardom

The patch brings five skins on Oct. 21: Prestige True Damage Know My Name Ekko and True Damage Know My Name Akali, Qiyana, Senna and Yasuo, each with chromas. They tie in with Know My Name, the official song of Worlds 2026, as our Worlds 2026 song page explains, and Yasuo’s skin is the revenue share Worlds skin covered on our Worlds 2026 skins page.

ARAM: Mayhem gets Journey to Stardom. Every game has a Headliner, a band that plays its music and twists the rules: with K/DA, four K/DA Cards earn an extra augment; with True Damage, takedowns and destroyed towers drop Anvils; with Pentakill, one ability gets stronger at the start and at level 18. HEARTSTEEL, Disco, Cafe Cuties, Bees and Command Line round out the lineup. A new mission track from the bands unlocks augments, emotes and orange essence as you climb the Superstar Ranks. The update adds 35 augments, 10 Silver, 19 Gold and 6 Prismatic, among them Get Jinxed, Heavy Is The Crown and Totentanz, and removes 13, such as Hide on Bush and Poro Stampede. Butcher’s Bridge and Koeshin’s Crossing sit out of Mayhem queues for this patch.

League Classic and Arena

League Classic adds four champions in their old forms: Mordekaiser with the 2010 to 2015 kit, Yorick from 2011 to 2016, Hecarim and Lucian. Riot also reverts every Kassadin nerf, raises Atma’s Impaler to 18% crit chance and a 2% health conversion, buffs Aatrox and Karma and nerfs Irelia. More champions arrive in 26.22 and 26.23 before the mode closes in January, as our League Classic page explains. Arena gets a broad rebalance of its strongest and weakest augments and champions, from Bel’Veth and Briar to Yone and Yuumi.

Replays, the Mythic Shop and PC requirements

Replay downloads are capped at 10 per hour from this patch. Riot says apps were scraping thousands of replays, and the hourly limit keeps downloads open for creators. The Mythic Shop changes its Bi-weekly, Weekly and Daily rotation timings in 26.21, ahead of personal offers for each player in Patch 26.22. The patch launcher requires SSE 4.2 support, which raises Riot’s minimum AMD spec by one version.

This page is updated as soon as Riot releases a hotfix for Patch 26.21 or the notes for Patch 26.22.