True damage ignores both armor and magic resistance and lands in full. A 400 true damage hit deals 400 whether the target has 0 resistances or 300 armor. This is the rarest of the three damage types in League of Legends, and the only one you cannot itemize against. There is no "true resist" stat. The counters are not items but health, shields, and positioning. How to play against it below.
True Damage vs. Armor vs. Magic Resist
League has three damage types. The first two are reduced by a resistance stat. The third is not.
| Damage Type | Reduced By | Typical Color |
|---|---|---|
| Physical | Armor | Orange/white |
| Magic | Magic resistance | Blue/purple |
| True | Nothing (no resist stat) | White |
Does armor reduce true damage? No. Armor reduces physical damage only. Magic resistance reduces magic damage only. True damage skips both formulas entirely and applies its raw number. Flat penetration, percent penetration, and flat resistance reduction (Black Cleaver, Void Staff, Nasus E) are all irrelevant to true damage because there is no resistance in the calculation to penetrate or reduce.
A worked comparison makes the gap concrete. Say an ability deals 400 raw damage and the target has 100 armor and 100 magic resistance:
| Same 400 raw damage as... | vs. 100 Armor | vs. 100 MR | Damage Dealt |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical | 50% reduction | no effect | 200 |
| Magic | no effect | 50% reduction | 200 |
| True | no effect | no effect | 400 |
100 armor cuts physical damage in half and 100 MR cuts magic damage in half (the math is in the armor guide and MR guide). True damage ignores both, so the same number lands at full value. This is why even a small amount of true damage on an ability is disproportionately valuable: it is damage no defensive item can shrink.
What Does Reduce True Damage?
True damage cannot be mitigated by any resistance, but it is not unstoppable. Four things still affect it.
| Defense | Works on True Damage? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Shields | Yes | Normal shields absorb true damage at any amount, same as physical or magic |
| Invulnerability | Yes | Invulnerability (Zhonya's stasis, Tryndamere ult) blocks all damage types, true included |
| Health | Indirectly | Flat true damage (Ignite) becomes a smaller percentage of a larger HP pool |
| Spell shield / parry | Conditionally | Spell shields block true-damage abilities; parries block true damage on basic attacks and on-hit |
| Armor / Magic resist | No | Resistances never apply to true damage |
Shields do absorb true damage. A normal shield (Locket, Lulu shield, Riven passive) soaks true damage at full value just like any other damage. If a shield has 200 health remaining and a 400 true damage hit lands, the shield eats 200 and 200 true damage carries through. This makes shields the most reliable active counter to a true-damage burst.
Invulnerability blocks it entirely. Effects that make you take no damage (Zhonya's Hourglass stasis, Tryndamere's Undying Rage, Kayle ultimate) block true damage along with everything else. There is no exception for true damage.
Health works against flat true damage. Health does not reduce true damage per hit, but it dilutes flat sources. Ignite deals a fixed amount over its duration regardless of resistances. Against a 1,200 HP target that fixed amount is a large chunk; against a 3,000 HP target the same number is a much smaller share of the bar. Percentage-based true damage (Vayne's Silver Bolts) scales with the target's max health, so stacking HP does not dilute it the way it dilutes flat sources.
Champions and Abilities That Deal True Damage
True damage is uncommon, so the champions who have it built into their kit get a real edge against tanks. The table below lists confirmed sources from base champion abilities. Each entry was verified on the champion's own ability page.
| Champion | Ability | How the True Damage Works |
|---|---|---|
| Vayne | Silver Bolts (W) | Every third hit on the same target deals bonus true damage based on the target's max health |
| Twitch | Deadly Venom (Passive) | Basic attacks apply stacks that deal true damage over time per stack |
| Fiora | Duelist's Dance (Passive) | Hitting a target's exposed Vital deals bonus true damage and heals Fiora |
| Olaf | Reckless Swing (E) | Single-target ability that deals a flat amount of true damage |
| Cho'Gath | Feast (R) | Deals a flat amount of true damage against champions and executes any target left below that amount |
| Darius | Noxian Guillotine (R) | True damage execute that scales with stacks of his bleed |
| Garen | Demacian Justice (R) | True damage execute that increases as the target's missing health grows |
This is a representative list of the most common true-damage carries, not the complete roster. Many other champions deal true damage on specific recasts, on monsters only, or against already-executing targets (Amumu, Darius bleed aside, Master Yi, Kog'Maw's death passive, K'Sante in his ultimate, and more). The pattern that matters for the table above: true damage clusters on anti-tank duelists (Vayne, Fiora) and on execute ultimates (Cho'Gath, Darius, Garen). Both designs reward a defender who builds health rather than resistances.
Runes, Items, and Summoner Spells
Champions are not the only source. Several runes, items, and summoner spells deal true damage and are available to any champion who takes them.
| Source | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ignite | Summoner spell | Flat true damage over time; the most common true-damage source in any game |
| Cheap Shot | Rune (Domination) | Deals bonus true damage to enemies with impaired movement or actions |
| First Strike | Rune (Inspiration) | First damage instance against an enemy deals bonus true damage and grants gold |
| The Collector | Item | Executes enemies below a health threshold, dealing true damage |
| Smite (upgraded) | Summoner spell | Unleashed/Primal Smite deals true damage to champions |
One common misconception worth correcting: Conqueror does not deal true damage. It is an adaptive force and healing rune; its bonus damage matches your AD or AP scaling and is mitigated by the matching resistance. If you are choosing a rune specifically for resistance-ignoring damage, Cheap Shot and First Strike are the true-damage options, not Conqueror.
Why True Damage Is So Strong
The strength of true damage is not its raw number, which is usually modest. It is that the number never shrinks. Every other damage type loses value as the enemy itemizes. A 400 physical hit becomes 200 against 100 armor and 133 against 200 armor. A 400 true hit stays 400 at every armor value on the map.
This makes true damage scale inversely with the rest of the game. It is weakest in the early game when nobody has resistances anyway (true and physical do the same thing against a 30-armor target) and strongest in the late game against a tank who has spent three items on armor and MR. That is exactly when a Vayne or a Cho'Gath becomes a problem: the more durable the frontline gets, the larger the share of total effective damage their true damage represents.
How to Play Against True Damage
You cannot itemize against true damage. There is no stat to buy. The counters are health, shields, and positioning.
Build Health, Not Resistances, vs. True-Damage Carries
Against a percent-health true-damage champion like Vayne, stacking armor is wasted gold for that specific threat (her W ignores it) and HP is the only stat that helps, by raising the absolute number her percentage is taken from. You will still want armor against her basic physical damage, but do not expect resistances to do anything about the Silver Bolts portion. Against flat true damage like Ignite, raw health is the dilution: the more max HP you carry, the smaller the fixed burn is as a fraction of your bar. Knowing how much of the enemy team's output is true versus physical or magic tells you when resistances are wasted gold: LoLTheory's in-game item overlay breaks down each enemy's physical, magic, and true damage in real time.
Use Shields and Invulnerability on the Burst
Shields are the one item-based answer that works. A well-timed Locket, Lulu shield, or a personal shield item absorbs true damage at full value. Zhonya's Hourglass and other invulnerability effects block it outright. If you know a true-damage execute is coming (Cho'Gath Feast, Garen ultimate), the stasis or a shield bought you the window to deny it.
Range and Positioning Are the Real Counter
The most reliable counter to true damage is not taking the hit. Most true-damage carries are short-range duelists who need sustained contact to ramp their damage: Vayne needs three autos for one Silver Bolts proc, Twitch needs to stack Deadly Venom, Fiora needs to chase Vitals. Disengaging resets all of that. The strategic answer mirrors the answer to lethality assassins: deny the isolated fight, peel the carry off your frontline, and force the engagement on your terms rather than theirs. Range beats true damage because range denies the damage entirely. Damage that never lands needs no mitigation.
