Good news to all who play ARAM and even better news for those who play only ARAM because a new ARAM experience is here!
Many battles have been fought on the single ARAM map, Howling Abyss, for years — but it’s time to change things up.
“Our primary focus was to explore what a healthy change to ARAM should look like. In the past, we tended to be slightly too aggressive in changing the ARAM experience (like the Bridge of Progress), which players gave us feedback around,” Eduardo Cortejoso, Modes Product Lead at Riot Games, explained.
New ARAM release date
The new ARAM with three-map rotation and improved Champion Select releases on June 25, 2025 on patch 25.13.
All new ARAM maps in rotation
There are three ARAM maps in rotation, namely:
- Howling Abyss
- Butcher’s Bridge
- Koeshin’s Crossing
These changes are intended to be permanent, said Eduardo, but the team is open to change depending on the feedback they receive. They hope that “changes to the ARAM experience we make is seen as
only a net positive relative to today.”
“ARAM shopkeepers have also updated their inventories with an old returning legacy item, the Spectral Cutlass. It will be seen across all three maps and should be interesting for assassins and mobility focused champions,” he told media during the Spirit Blossom Summit at Riot Games HQ.
Butcher’s Bridge
Butcher’s Bridge has been revived. Instead of portals, players hop into canons that propel them to a chosen spot on the map similar to URF. You can only launch yourself up to the latest tower that’s still standing furthest from the map.
The biggest change is to the center of the map where you’ll find an alcove that extends the bridge a little beyond its linearity. The player that takes down the flower in a few hits gains a temporary shield and a small refund to cooldowns.
Koeshin’s Crossing
Koeshin’s Crossing is a brand new map that the game developers created to tie in with the Spirit Blossom season.
Bloom Portals replace Hextech Gates. There are also two new ones in the center of the map where you’ll notice is a bit wider.
These don’t require channeling time. Instead, you walk right into them and they’ll teleport you to the opposite side almost immediately, which opens up attack options for melee and assassins champions. What’s more, getting close to them grants a very small movement speed boost.
The third key mechanic on Koeshin’s Crossing is that instead of getting a gray screen after your champion dies, you’ll instead see a “spiritual version” of the bridge that gives you a “thematic glimpse into the afterlife when you’re waiting to respawn.”
During the Spirit Blossom Summit media roundtable, Eduardo shared that there’s actually a lot of Easter eggs for players to discover on the maps.
Players should pay attention to shopkeepers, who have new voice lines that reference to the ongoing Runeterra story, callouts such as the Kinku Shrine, as well as the Spirit Realm that replaces the gray screen.
“We really want to do a better job and continue to improve our narrative through environmental storytelling. So this is our way of saying without words and just representing it in the environment,” he explained.
How the new ARAM Champion Select works
Champion Select in the new ARAM functions a little differently. Instead of rerolls (and raging teammates), you’ll now get to pick from two to three champions at a time.
Most of the time, it’s one out of two. The third option appears only occasionally if you’re lucky.
Champions that players do not pick goes straight to the bench that any teammate can grab. This hopefully reduces anger generated from the reroll system where players who don’t reroll get pressured or flamed by their teammates.
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