How to Unlock Guns in League of Legends: 🔫 Champions, Builds & Upgrades Guide ⚡

Guns in League of Legends work very differently from traditional shooter games. There is no separate “gun” mechanic to unlock or purchase in the way a shooter handles weapon acquisition. Instead, League of Legends integrates firearms directly into champion identities: specific champions use guns as their primary weapon and attack animation, and their availability is tied entirely to the champion unlock system.

Understanding how to unlock guns in League of Legends means understanding how the game’s marksman and weapon-based champions are acquired, how items enhance their ranged attack power, and what customization options exist for their visual appearance.

The short answer: unlock the champion who uses the gun you want, then build items that amplify their attack damage, attack speed, or critical strike chance. There is no separate gun inventory or weapon customization system outside of these two elements.

How Champions Use Guns in League of Legends

League of Legends champions that use firearms fall into several categories based on how their weapons function within gameplay.

Marksman Champions (ADC): Gun-Based Auto Attackers

The Marksman role (ADC, or Attack Damage Carry) is primarily comprised of gun-using champions whose damage output centers on auto-attacks. These are the champions where “gun” gameplay is most prominent.

Key gun-using champions in this category:

• Caitlyn: Uses a long-range rifle. Her auto attacks have the longest base range of any ADC. Her Q ability fires a wide-area net shot. Highest pick rate among gun-using ADC champions.
• Miss Fortune: Dual pistol-wielding marksman whose entire kit revolves around shot empowerment, double-hit mechanics, and a channeled ultimate that fires a wave of shots across a wide area.
• Jinx: Switching between a minigun (Pow-Pow) and a rocket launcher (Fishbones), Jinx offers two modes of attack. The minigun builds attack speed stacks; the rocket deals AoE damage with each shot.
• Varus: A bow user who fires arrows but functions mechanically as a traditional ADC with similar item paths to gun-using champions.
• Ashe: Frost archer who uses a bow and arrow, but her mechanics are fully consistent with other gun-using ADC champions.
• Kog’Maw: Fires a biological projectile from an organic weapon-like organ. Functionally equivalent to a gun in terms of gameplay role.

Ability-Based Gun Champions

Some champions use firearms primarily through abilities rather than auto-attacks:

• Lucian: Dual pistols that fire rapid auto-attack bursts. His passive doubles his auto-attack by firing both guns simultaneously after casting an ability, making him a hybrid auto-attack and ability-based champion.
• Graves: Shotgun-wielding marksman with auto attacks that fire shells. His auto attacks have extremely short range but massive damage per shot. He is unique in having a “clip” mechanic where his gun holds two shells and must be reloaded.
• Jhin: A precision-focused marksman who fires exactly four shots before reloading. His fourth shot is always a critical hit. His ultimate fires four long-range sniper shots in sequence.
• Ezreal: Fires magical energy blasts from an ancient gauntlet. Ability-focused rather than auto-attack focused, making him more of a mage-ADC hybrid.

Non-Marksman Gun Users

Gun-style attacks appear in roles other than ADC as well:

• Vi: Punches with powered gauntlets rather than shooting, but her kit visually resembles firearms in certain abilities.
• Twisted Fate: Throws cards rather than bullets, but his mechanic parallels a gun’s targeting and accuracy system.
• Jayce: The Mercury Hammer/Cannon switcher uses a giant cannon form for long-range attacks and a hammer form for melee combat.

How to Unlock Gun-Using Champions in League of Legends

Champions in League of Legends are purchased with Blue Essence (earned by playing games) or Riot Points (purchased with real money). The process is identical for all champions regardless of their weapon type.

Step-by-step to unlock a gun champion:

1. Open the in-game client and click the Champions section in the store
2. Browse or search for the gun-using champion you want (Caitlyn, Jinx, Miss Fortune, Graves, Jhin, or Lucian are the most popular)
3. Check the Blue Essence cost. Newer champions cost more; older ones are cheaper
4. Click Purchase and confirm the transaction
5. The champion immediately becomes available in all game modes

Getting champions for free:

• Champion Shards: Earned from Hextech chests and event rewards. Shards can be activated with Blue Essence at a discount compared to direct purchase.
• Free Champion Rotation: 15 to 20 champions are free to play each week. Many gun-using champions appear in the rotation, allowing you to test them without purchasing.
• Event Rewards: Seasonal events occasionally grant champion permanent unlocks or shards as milestone rewards.

Which Gun Champion Should You Unlock First?

Can I Customize or Upgrade Guns in League of Legends?

Yes, though not in the traditional sense of a weapon upgrade system. Customization happens through two systems: skins and in-game items.

Skins: Visual Customization for Gun Champions

Skins change the visual appearance of a champion, including their weapon’s design, attack animations, particle effects, and sounds. For gun-using champions, skins often completely redesign the firearm’s appearance.

Examples of gun-specific skin changes:

• Jhin’s skins change his rifle’s appearance and make his fourth shot’s sound design unique to each skin
• Caitlyn’s Sheriff skin changes her officer rifle to themed designs
• Jinx’s Astronaut skin gives her space-themed weapons
• Graves’ Pool Party skin replaces his shotgun with a water gun complete with splash effects

Skins are purchased with Riot Points (real currency) or obtained through Hextech crafting from loot drops. Visual customization through skins is purely cosmetic and provides no gameplay advantage.

Items: Stat Upgrades for Gun Champions

While items do not change what type of weapon a champion uses, they dramatically enhance the power of ranged attacks. The item system is the primary mechanic that makes gun-using ADC champions more effective over the course of a game.

Core item types for gun champions:

• Critical Strike items: Increase the chance of attacks dealing double damage. Infinity Edge amplifies the damage of critical hits by 35%.
• Attack Damage items: Directly increase the damage dealt per auto attack
• Attack Speed items: Increase how frequently the champion fires their weapon
• Lethality items: Penetrate enemy armor for increased effective damage
• On-hit items: Add effects to each auto attack (slow, damage, healing)

Best Item Builds for Gun Champions

Items are purchased with gold earned in-game during each match. They are not permanent purchases and reset with each new game.

The Most Powerful Gun Abilities in League of Legends

Beyond standard auto-attacks, gun champions have specific abilities that define their gunfighting identity.

Caitlyn’s Ace in the Hole: A long-range sniper shot ultimate that can be blocked by other champions stepping in front of the target. It is the longest-range single-target ability in the game.

Miss Fortune’s Bullet Time: A channeled ultimate that fires waves of shots in a cone in front of Miss Fortune. The damage multiplies when enemy champions are hit by multiple waves, making it one of the highest-damage teamfight abilities in the game.

Jhin’s Curtain Call: A four-shot sniper ultimate that reveals global range targets. Each shot deals percentage of missing health, with the fourth shot dealing massive damage and rooting the target.

Graves’s Q, Smoke Bomb, and End of the Line: His ability kit is built entirely around the shotgun fantasy, with his Q firing two bursts of shells, his E creating an inaccuracy zone, and his ultimate firing a long-range explosive shot.

Pro Tips: Playing Gun Champions in League of Legends

• Learn the specific auto-attack animation cancel timing for your champion: Gun champions differ significantly in how quickly you can cancel the attack animation. Jhin’s animations are deliberate and slow to match his four-shot rhythm. Lucian’s animations are rapid. Calibrating your kiting (attack move) timing to the specific champion is essential.
• Buy Kraken Slayer for anti-tank situations: When the enemy has two or more tank champions, Kraken Slayer adds true damage to every third auto-attack that bypasses armor and shields. Most gun carries prioritize this item against tanky compositions.
• Position behind your frontline during team fights: Gun champions deal their maximum damage when they can auto-attack safely from behind their team. Positioning at maximum range while your frontline engages is more effective than aggressive forward positioning, which exposes you to assassins.
• Use skins to identify your champion at a glance: When using a distinctly skinned gun champion, enemies can identify you faster in chaotic team fights. Some players prefer default or simple skins to make their champion harder to track. Others use distinctive skins for personal enjoyment. Both approaches are valid.

Common Mistakes When Playing Gun Champions

1. Standing still while auto-attacking: Gun champions deal the same damage per auto-attack whether they are moving or stationary, but stationary champions take much more damage. Fix: Practice kiting (attack move) as a baseline habit so you are always moving between auto-attacks, even when not under immediate threat.
   
2. Buying full AD items on champions who benefit more from critical strike: Some gun champions (Jhin, Jinx, Caitlyn) scale primarily with critical strike chance and the damage multipliers it enables. Buying raw attack damage without critical strike items underutilizes their kit design. Fix: Check the champion’s win-rate build on op.gg or u.gg before purchasing items in an unfamiliar game or after a major patch changes the item meta.
   
3. Using ultimate abilities without setup: Caitlyn’s Ace in the Hole can be blocked, Jhin’s Curtain Call requires enemies to be revealed, and Miss Fortune’s Bullet Time works best on immobilized enemies. Using these ultimates without crowd control support from your team wastes their potential. Fix: Communicate with your team before using channel ultimates and coordinate with support or jungler CC for maximum impact.
   

Play League of Legends at Your Best with ExitLag

Gun champions in League of Legends depend on landing precise auto-attacks and ability shots with exact timing. Connection instability that adds even 50 milliseconds of additional latency causes your attack move commands to land a frame late, your kiting windows to close before you can move, and your ultimate ability shots to miss targets who were in range when you clicked.

ExitLag is a connection optimizer used by over 30 million players across 4,000+ game titles including League of Legends. It analyzes multiple network routes in real time and selects the fastest, most stable path between your device and Riot’s servers, ensuring your gunfight timing is as precise as your mechanics allow.

Features that directly benefit gun champion players:

• Real-Time Optimization: Continuously selects the lowest-latency route to LoL servers, reducing the input delay that causes precise attack animations to miss their timing window.
• Multipath Technology: Routes game data through multiple simultaneous paths so a single connection failure never interrupts a ranked game mid-fight.
• Traffic Shaper: Prioritizes League of Legends traffic over background applications so nothing creates ping spikes during your attack sequences.
• PC Boost: Clears background processes and RAM load, improving frame consistency during high-particle team fight moments common to gun champion ultimates.

Download ExitLag and play your gun champion without connection interference.

All champion names, game images, and trademarks used in this blog post belong to Riot Games. They are used for informational and educational purposes only and do not imply endorsement or affiliation with the rights holders.

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