To emote in League of Legends, hold T in-game and move your mouse to the emote you want, then release. Tapping T without holding casts the emote in the center slot of your wheel. Equip your loadout from Collection > Emotes in the client before you queue.
That's the short version. The rest of this guide covers wheel layout, where emotes actually come from in 2026, how to mute opponents who spam, and the rate limits Riot quietly enforces based on your Honor level.
The Emote Wheel and Reactions
Your in-game emote loadout has 13 total slots, not 5. Most older guides get this wrong.
- Emote Wheel: 9 slots. One center slot (cast by tapping T) and eight radial slots arranged around it (held T plus mouse direction).
- Reactions: 4 slots. Start Game, First Blood, Ace, and Victory. These trigger automatically when the event happens. You assign which emote plays for each.
Reactions don't count against the wheel. Hitting an Ace will play your Ace Reaction and let you fire a wheel emote on top of it. You can also adjust your loadout from inside champion select, which is the easiest place to swap a Reaction before a game starts.
How to Equip Emotes
- From the client home screen, click Collection in the top navigation, then Emotes.
- Drag emotes from your inventory into the wheel slots and Reaction slots in the loadout panel.
- Save. Your loadout sticks across games until you change it.
Mastery emotes are separate. Champion mastery emotes fire on a dedicated Ctrl + 6 keybind and don't take up a wheel slot. You can also rebind any of this under Settings > Hotkeys > Communication if T conflicts with something else in your setup.
Where to Get Emotes in 2026
Emote acquisition has shifted twice in the last 18 months. Hextech Chests were removed in Patch 25.01, Honor Capsules and Orbs were removed in Patch 25.04, and Hextech Chests came back in a different form in Patch 25.05. The current paths are:
- RP store: roughly 350 RP per emote at launch, 450 RP about a month later. The most reliable way to get a specific emote you want.
- Battle Pass / Event Pass milestones: free and paid pass tracks both include emote rewards each act.
- Hextech Chests (current): earned through the free Battle Pass (up to 8 per act) plus 2 chests tied to Honor missions. Emote permanents drop at roughly 10% per chest.
- Ranked Split rewards: emote drops at Split Point thresholds.
- Account leveling: 21 emotes are awarded automatically as you level your account.
- Missions and seasonal events: recurring drops tied to limited-time events.
The old "earn an S rank, get a chest, get an emote" pipeline is gone. Getting an S still gets you Mastery progress, but no longer drops a chest.
How to Mute Enemy Emotes
Two ways:
- Global toggle. In-game, press Esc to open settings, go to the Interface tab, and toggle Mute Enemy Emotes. This kills all enemy emote animations and sounds for the rest of the match.
- Per-player. Open the scoreboard with Tab, click the speaker icon next to the offending player's name, and select the emote mute. Useful when one specific opponent is spam-emoting after every kill but you don't want to silence the whole enemy team.
You can also mute everything with the /mute all command if pings, chat, and emotes are all bothering you at once.
Honor Level Affects Your Emote Rate
Riot quietly limits how often you can emote during a match, and the cap scales with your Honor level. The rates are roughly:
| Honor level | Emotes allowed per 10 seconds |
|---|---|
| 0 (chat-restricted) | 2 |
| 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 4 |
| 4 | 5 |
| 5 | 5 |
You can also fire up to 2 emotes while dead per 10-second window regardless of Honor. Reactions (First Blood, Ace, etc.) don't count against either cap.
If you've eaten Honor penalties from repeated dodges or AFK reports, your emote rate is the first thing that quietly gets clipped before any harder restriction kicks in.
Can You Gift Emotes?
No. Per Riot's Gifting Guide, emotes are not on the list of giftable items. The Emotes FAQ has flagged it as a planned feature for years, but as of April 2026 it's still not live. If you see a guide telling you to use the Gifting Center for emotes, the guide is wrong.
You can gift skins, champions, RP, and bundles to friends who've been on your list for at least 7 days (14 days in Brazil and Turkey). Emotes aren't part of that list.
FAQ
What's the default emote keybind? Hold T plus mouse direction for the wheel; tap T for the center slot. Mastery emote is Ctrl + 6.
Why won't my emote play? Three common reasons: you're past your Honor-tied rate cap for the last 10 seconds, you're in champ select where only the Start Game Reaction plays, or the enemy team has muted you globally and you simply can't see your own animation lag.
Do emotes affect gameplay? No mechanical effect. They're purely cosmetic. The animation plays on top of your champion model and is visible to anyone who hasn't muted you.
Can I use emotes in ARAM and Arena? Yes, all queued modes support the same emote system. The wheel and Reactions work identically.
Are mastery emotes the same as regular emotes? No. Mastery emotes are tied to your champion mastery level on the champion you're playing and fire on Ctrl + 6. They don't share a slot or cooldown with the wheel.
