Ultimate Spellbook is not live right now. The rotating game mode last ran from September 25 to November 5, 2024 (patches V14.19 to V14.21), and as of patch V26.13 Riot has not announced a return. Ultimate Spellbook replaces one of your summoner spells with a borrowed ultimate from another champion, so a Garen can carry Malphite's Unstoppable Force and a support can roam with Nocturne's Paranoia. The ruleset below reflects the mode's most recent (2024) version.
Ultimate Spellbook Return History
The mode has had four runs in five years, and it usually comes back reworked rather than reheated. Here is every appearance, drawn from Riot's patch notes and the wiki's patch history.
| Window | Patches | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 8 – Aug 9, 2021 | V11.14 | Debut during the Sentinels of Light event. Pool of 41 ultimates, choose 1 of 3. |
| Nov 18, 2021 – Jan 10, 2022 | V11.23 | RiotX Arcane run. Introduced Auto-Smite, renamed Attack-Smite in V11.24. |
| Jul – ~Sep 2022 | V12.13–V12.17 | Star Guardian run. Choices raised from 3 to 4; a short One For All-timate Spellbook variant ran in V12.16. Exact end date was not recorded. |
| Sep 25 – Nov 5, 2024 | V14.19–V14.21 | Worlds-season relaunch and the biggest rework: rerolls, objective-triggered ult refreshes, 15 ultimates added to the pool, Corki's Missile Barrage removed in an October 1 hotfix. |
There was no run in 2025, and no 2026 return has been announced. The pattern is loose compared to a mode like URF: two runs in 2021, one in 2022, a two-year gap, then the 2024 relaunch timed around Worlds. When it does return, expect another mechanics pass rather than the exact 2024 version.
How Ultimate Spellbook Works
Ultimate Spellbook is standard 5v5 Summoner's Rift with one twist: one of your summoner spell slots is replaced by an "Ult-ernate Summoner Spell," a borrowed ultimate from another champion.
Picking your borrowed ultimate
- At the start of the match you get 30 seconds to pick 1 of 4 offered ultimates. If you don't confirm, the first option is auto-selected.
- Your own champion's ultimate is never offered, and the borrowed ult costs no resource and works before level 6.
- The borrowed ult starts on a 131-second initial cooldown (211 seconds if you have Attack-Smite).
- Junglers keep their Smite: their slot becomes a combined Placeholder and Attack-Smite loadout instead.
- One champion-specific quirk: if someone takes Sylas's Hijack as their borrowed ult, it steals the target's borrowed ultimate, not their real one.
Rerolls and swap bonuses
The reroll system was added in the 2024 relaunch. Starting at 8:00, and every 6 minutes after that, you can reroll your ultimate while dead or standing in the fountain. Your current ult is always offered again alongside three alternatives, so you can keep what you have. Swapping is rewarded: each swap grants a permanent stacking bonus of 300 max health (or the mana equivalent) plus 5 to 35 adaptive force, armor, and magic resistance depending on level, up to 4 swaps total.
Objective ult refreshes
Killing Baron Nashor or the Elder Dragon, or completing a Dragon Soul, grants your team an Ulternate Summoner Charge: the next cast of each player's borrowed ultimate refreshes its cooldown 3 seconds after use. Objective fights are therefore double swings, since the winning team gets a second round of borrowed ults.
Attack-Smite
Attack-Smite gives jungle items a passive that executes epic monsters and buff camps (Blue Sentinel, Red Brambleback, Rift Scuttler) below a health threshold of 600, 900, or 1,200 depending on your jungle pet's evolution stage. This is a different mechanic from the 2021 version, which dealt bonus true damage instead of executing, so guides written for the original run are out of date here.
Ultimate Spellbook vs. Unsealed Spellbook (Not the Same Thing)
Ultimate Spellbook the game mode is frequently confused with Unsealed Spellbook, a keystone rune in the Inspiration tree. The rune lets you swap one of your summoner spells for a different one while out of combat, with the first swap unlocking at 6:00. It exists in normal games year-round and has nothing to do with borrowed ultimates. Inside the Ultimate Spellbook mode, the rune is actually disabled and replaced with First Strike, so the two never appear together.
Best Ultimates to Borrow
There is no maintained win-rate tier list for a mode that isn't live, but the picks that dominated the 2024 run cluster around a few themes. Dodge.gg's mode guide rates Nocturne's Paranoia (a global engage on any champion), Karthus's Requiem (global execute pressure), Cho'Gath's Feast (a stacking true-damage execute), Kayle's Divine Judgment (2.5 seconds of invulnerability for you or an ally), Ekko's Chronobreak (escape, healing, and burst in one button), and Lux's Final Spark (long-range poke) as its top borrows.
Riot's own mode tuning backs up part of that read: the wiki's mode-specific changes show Cho'Gath's Feast has a deliberately reduced chance to appear in the offered pool, which is as close as the mode gets to an official "this one is too strong" flag. The general rule: borrowed ults that add a global threat, an execute, or an invulnerability window to a kit that normally has none are worth more than a second damage button.
Will Ultimate Spellbook Come Back?
Probably, but on Riot's schedule, and history says the gap can be long. The mode skipped 2023 and 2025 entirely, and each return has shipped with a rework, so Riot appears to treat it as a project to revisit rather than a fixture in the rotation like URF. There is no confirmed return date; the reliable signals are the official patch notes and the in-client game mode screen, not fan countdowns. For what is actually playable right now, see our overview of League of Legends game modes.
