Riot Games has unveiled League of Legends’ newest champion Naafiri, the Hound of a Hundred Bites. The monster champion fans have been craving for is finally here—and so is the rest of her pack. Naafiri is a Darkin bound not to a human host, but a pack of Duner Hounds from Shurima, and despite the multitude of her form, she is designed to become the easiest assassin for League players to master.
“Our biggest goal was to make a champion that was fully a creature, because we know Bel’Veth didn’t scratch the itch for that particular crowd,” said product lead for League’s champions Lexi Gao when introducing Naafiri.
While it’s still too early to predict whether the League community will embrace Naafiri or ask for a more monstrous-like champion, it’s safe to say her design—and lore—is as far from a human figure as possible.
During ancient times, Naafiri was entombed within a dagger’s blade and imprisoned in a crypt deep beneath the Shuriman sands. Centuries later she was set free and found herself bound to the Dune Hounds, a bond she initially rejected. But the powerful Darkin soon discovered the pack’s collective consciousness would actually prove invaluable to her plans of reuniting her fellow brothers and sisters.
Driven by savage canine instincts and the ancient magic of the Darkin, Naafiri confidently hunts down all lesser creatures, as described by Riot’s narrative team, in search of other Darkin. The assassin can easily summon her pack and then launch an attack toward her opponent as one entity.
Naafiri’s strengths lie in the unity of her pack, while solitary hunts make for her biggest weakness.
Related: All Naafiri abilities in League of Legends
League players won’t have to wait long before they will have the chance to bring Naafiri out on the Rift for a stroll, or hunt, as the assassin is bound to reach the PBE in the first few weeks of July.
