Patch 8.23 Breakdown: Shutdowns and Bounty Changes

Bounties and shutdown gold calculations are changing in Patch 8.23. Champions will accumulate bounties based on CS and gold leads, and the bounties and base gold on kills are increased. All this gives the losing team more opportunities to get back into the game.

Patch 8.23 has brought a bevy of large systems changes that are sure to shape the meta. Minions are overhauled, major objectives have been buffed with increased spawn times, and towers are much harder to kill early.

This patch has also brought about a major change to how bounties and shutdown gold will function going forward. The gold is being shifted away from pure kills to also account for CS and gold leads. In addition, the major gold leads will result in much higher bounties that will carry over, making it easier for teams to rebound.

First, there was a major change to the basic kill bounties we are already familiar with.

"Kill Bounties1-3 KILLS: 0/150/300 gold (unchanged)4 KILLS: 375 gold ⇒ 400 gold5 KILLS: 450 gold ⇒ 500 gold6 KILLS: 500 gold ⇒ 600 goldADDITIONAL KILLS: +50 gold ⇒ +100 gold"

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Fairly straightforward here, kill bounties beyond the third are getting increased, meaning that it will be much more important to stay alive when you’re on a big kill-streak – and shut down an opponent who is godlike. Yes, this makes the game less snowbally and solo-carry oriented, but that is a good thing because it encourages those with big advantages to be more cautious. If you give away a death after a big killstreak, you deserve to be punished for it.

"Minimum Kill Gold0-5 DEATHS: 300/274/220/176/140/112 gold (unchanged)6 DEATHS: 90 gold ⇒ 100 gold7 DEATHS: 72 gold ⇒ 100 gold8 DEATHS: 58 gold ⇒ 100 gold9+ DEATHS: 50 gold ⇒ 100 gold"

This is a good change, making it so that no matter how much you are ahead getting kills won’t be useless. Yes, injecting more gold into the game could make it more snowbally, but these changes really won’t be noticeable until the mid-to-late stage of the game where gold increases won’t be too impactful. But if someone on your team is hard feeding in lane, unfortunately, their opponent is going to be much richer than before.

"Bounty Clarity[NEW] HIT LIST: Bounties over 150 gold are now visible in the scoreboard"

Great new change, making bounties visible on the scoreboard is a great addition. It not only highlights which teammates you need to protect, but which enemies you should focus. Any time Riot is able to provide players with more information to base their decisions on in-game, it’s a positive change.

"Minion & Monster Gold Bounties[NEW] BUY THE FARM: If, since their last death, a champion has earned 250 more gold from minions and monsters than the enemy team’s average* during that time, their bounty increases by 50 gold, plus another 50 gold for each additional 150 gold their advantage grows by thereafter.*Average is determined by dividing the enemy team’s minion and monster gold by four, rather than five, based on the four sources of income on Summoner’s Rift (top/mid/bot/jungle). Modes with smaller teams divide by the number of champs per team instead (ex. 3 for Twisted Treeline)."

This is the first big change, and in my opinion, it will really impact more passive players. No longer can you simply farm content with the fact that you’re building a sizeable gold lead. Unfortunately, those CS advantages might make you a target as a source of income. More shutdown gold available more often will allow rubberbanding and make games less snowbally, which surely won’t be controversial at all.

"Bounty Payout Modifications[NEW] REPUTATION: Bounties no longer increase mid-combat. If a champion earns multiple kills and then immediately dies, those kills will count toward their next death instead.[NEW] HEAVY LIFTING: Bounty payouts for killing members of the losing team are reduced, down to a minimum of 20% normal values if the losing team is massively behind[NEW] PAYOUT CAP: A single kill can no longer grant more than 1000 total gold to the killer. Any bounty gold past the cap rolls over to that champion’s next death."

Finally, bounties won’t give massive payouts no matter how fed a player is. Instead, there will be more overall gold available to the losing team, but they’ll have to earn it with multiple shutdowns on the fed member. That’s a great change, as is the reduction of bounties on the losing team.

Now, if you’re the fed member of a team that’s behind, you won’t have to worry that your every single death is taking the game out of your control. You’ll be able to make those risky or sacrifice plays to help your team out, knowing that your bounty won’t be as impactful as those that your teammates might be gaining.

It’s also great that these bounties won’t be stacking during fights since it’s possible for a player to grab three kills quickly and die without thinking that they might be giving up a big payout. In short, Riot is making it easier for people to identify and protect their bounties, or find the enemy to focus in the next fight.

dark. Next. Patch 8.23 Breakdown: Turret Changes

What do you think, will these changes make games more snowbally or will they make the ability to solo carry less impactful?

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