League has five Honor levels and every account starts at Honor 3. Honor 1 and 2 mean an active penalty and cost you ranked rewards and Honor chests. Honor 4 and 5 come from honor votes and playing decent, and Honor 5 earns chest points 10 times faster than Honor 3. Checkpoints, seasonal resets and capsules are gone since patch 25.04.
I check Honor on every account we list, and half the guides on Google still say you start at Honor 2. It also matters more now than it did a month ago. On September 8, 2026 Riot announced Team Voice for the whole team and said it would be "tying access to speaking to Honor level", and in the dev video they put the bar at Honor 3. On September 22 it got pulled from patch 26.20 with no new date, but whenever it lands, anyone on Honor 1 or 2 will most likely be listen only.
What Each Honor Level Unlocks
| Honor level | Chat | Pings and emotes per 5 sec | Ranked rewards | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Team and party only | 2 and 2 | No | None |
| 2 | Adds champ select and post game lobby | 4 and 2 | No | None |
| 3 (start) | Everything, including All chat | 6 and 3 | Yes | Battle Pass XP drops |
| 4 | Everything | 7 and 4 | Yes | More XP drops, emblem on the loading screen |
| 5 | Everything | 7 and 5 | Yes | Most XP drops, Honor recall, 5 skins, targeted ally pings, emblem in chat |
Data from Riot's Honor guide (updated May 31, 2026), emblems per the League wiki.
Honor 1 and 2 only happen when there's an active penalty on the account. Down there you lose All chat, your ranked rewards and your Honor chests, and that last part hurts at season end, because the Victorious skin needs 15 ranked wins and Honor 3 or higher. The first time you hit Honor 5 you keep Three Honors Malzahar, Shen and Akshan, Grey Warwick and Medieval Twitch with their chromas for good.
How Many Games an Honor Chest Takes
You get two Honor Objectives per Act. Each one needs 1,200 points and pays 50 Battle Pass XP plus a Hextech Chest and Key. Points tick per minute of game time and the rate depends on your level. Riot publishes the rates but never does the math, so I did it for an average 30 minute game.
| Honor level | Points per minute | Time per chest | Games per chest | Games for both chests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 or 2 | 0 | Never | Never | Never |
| 3 | 1 | 20 hours | about 40 | about 80 |
| 4 | 2 | 10 hours | about 20 | about 40 |
| 5 | 10 | 2 hours | about 4 | about 8 |
That's the whole reason to bother with Honor 5. At Honor 3 the second chest asks for roughly 80 games in one Act, which plenty of casual players never hit, while at Honor 5 both are done in a weekend. It's napkin math from Riot's rates, not a stopwatch test, so shorter games mean more of them. The other 8 free chests per Act come from the Battle Pass (Hextech chest guide), and our Wasted on LoL tracker shows how many hours you actually put in.
How to Climb From Honor 3 to Honor 5
Riot doesn't publish a game count for Honor 5, so anyone quoting one is guessing. What's confirmed is the voting. You can honor players on either team, bank up to four votes, and a vote for your premade does count, whatever a few popular guides say. Honor also tracks how you act in game, so if you reach 4 or 5 and then go quiet, you can slide back to 3 (the client warns you first).
My tip from the jungle is boring. Ping your timers, say "my bad" when the gank flops, and don't type after a lost fight. People honor the guy who kept them calm way more often than the guy who went 12/2.
What Drops Your Honor and How to Get It Back
Flaming, inting, going AFK, whatever gets you penalized costs you Honor and puts you at 1 or 2, per Riot's Honor guide. You stay there until you play the number of games shown in your client without another strike, and then you're back to Honor 3 at least, though not always to 4 or 5. Catch another penalty during that window and the progress resets, and the next restriction asks for even more games.
Since patch 25.23 (November 19, 2025) penalties are linked across every account Riot can tie to you. Honor itself stays per account, but a chat ban on your alt now lands on your main too, and the Honor drop comes with it. Server transfers don't touch your Honor, it moves with the account.
Honor on Smurf Accounts
I check Honor on every smurf we list before it goes up. A clean handleveled account at level 30 should show Honor 3, because that's where everyone starts and nothing has dragged it down, and in practice that's what we see, accounts come in at a positive level. Honor 1 or 2 means an active penalty, so no ranked rewards that season and a restriction you'd be inheriting. We don't sell those, no discount, no "as is".
Buying somewhere else? Ask for a profile screenshot with the Honor level before you pay. Good Honor only means the account is clean right now though. The bigger question is Riot's account sharing rules and whether your main gets dragged in, which we answer in Is It Safe to Buy a LoL Account, and Honor doesn't change that answer either way.
Honor Myths Old Guides Still Repeat
| What old guides say | What's true in 2026 |
|---|---|
| You start at Honor 2 | Everyone starts at Honor 3 |
| Honor resets every season | No resets since patch 25.04 |
| Checkpoints lock your progress | Checkpoints were removed in 25.04 |
| Honor capsules and Honor 5 tokens | Replaced with Battle Pass XP drops, leftover tokens became 1,050 Orange Essence in 25.06 |
| Premade honors don't count | They do, Riot says a premade vote "grants them a boost" |
| You need Honor 2 for ranked rewards | You need Honor 3 or higher |
| Honor affects your MMR | Nothing Riot has published ties Honor to MMR, LP or matchmaking |
LoL Honor FAQ
How do I check my Honor level? Open your profile in the client. Since patch 26.12 (June 9, 2026) it's also in the social panel, along with any active penalty and what you need to do to clear it.
Can other players see my Honor? Not the number. Honor 4 shows an emblem on the loading screen and Honor 5 puts one next to your name in chat, and that's all anyone else gets.
Do ARAM and TFT count for Honor? You can vote after any matchmade League game except Arena, so ARAM counts. TFT penalties still hit your League Honor though.
