Riot Games’ starting 2XKO characters roster feels miserly

Riot Games is entering the fighting games sphere with 2XKO at a time when plenty of competition will be lining up ahead of them. However, you won’t be able to have access to the full selection of 2XKO characters upon release, but rather only a small handful, with other champions behind a paywall. In fact, on the 2XKO release date of January 21, you’ll only really have free guaranteed access to seven characters. 

This problem is exacerbated when you consider that the 2XKO roster will soon be up against the superheroic tag-team weight of Marvel Tokon, as well as the upcoming elemental heavy-hitter Avatar Legends. 2XKO should have an advantage by being free to play, but thanks to this miserly approach, the 2XKO roster is not the win it should be.

✓ VideoGamer Summary

• 2XKO has a lot of competition in 2026, and the 2XKO characters are going to be a key battleground.
• There will only be twelve 2XKO characters at release, and of them, only seven will be free.
• For the rest of the 2XKO characters, you’ll either need to grin or start working out how to get the most from the premium currency.
• Riot Games is a dab hand at free-to-play monetization, and we can look to League of Legends to work out 2XKO’s future.
• The cost surrounding the 2XKO roster isn’t that different from other fighters; it just feels there aren’t enough 2XKO characters to justify the cost.

   

Aching for more 2XKO characters

You absolutely can start playing 2XKO for free. Technically, upon its full release, most of the roster will actually end up being free, though with only 12 starting 2XKO characters, it’s very much faint praise.

Twelve starting fighters, with the release of Caitlyn as part of 2XKO’s Season One, feel extremely pokey for a tag team fighter. Classic tag fighters like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Fate of Two Worlds started with a roster of 36 characters before delving into the world of DLC. 

Beyond the initial six characters you have access to, you’re given a free champion unlock token to pick up one of the premium characters, and then can earn the right to unlock more by completing missions and building up the in-game Credits currency. 

If you’re really dedicated to the free-to-play experience, you don’t need to drop a single cent to experience the 2XKO characters. However, you’ll have one hell of a grind ahead. 

Hitting enough weekly quests to unlock one character might not take that long if you’re good enough, but you’ll be going through some effort to complete your collection if you don’t pony up. It doesn’t help that fan favourites like Jinx and Vi from the hit TV show Arcane and the charming Blitzcrank, voiced by Critical Role actor Taliesin Jaffe, are all locked content.

The 2XKO roster can get pretty pricey

You use the premium KO Points currency to unlock 2XKO characters, with each locked fighter costing 1000 KO Points. At the most expensive it’s 500 KO Points for $4.99 (£4.25), to the best deal of 11500 for $99.99 (£84.99). So a character can cost anywhere between $8.69 (£7.39) and $9.98 (£8.50).

After the seven free 2XKO characters, the remaining five to unlock upon the Season 1 release can cost between $43.45 (£36.95) and $49.90 (£42.50). Then there’ll be a new member of the 2XKO roster every new season, which Riot Games has said will be every “10-ish weeks a year”.

So every ten weeks, there’ll be another 1,000 KO Points to drop just for the character alone. There are bigger value bundles, such as their starter editions, that better package the cost, starting at four character unlock tokens and 2,000 KO Points for $29.99 (£25.49). 

Alternatively, you could pick up the new character with that month’s battle pass and some extra goodies for 3,500 KO Points.

There are all manner of ways to funnel your money into the 2XKO characters, especially if you’re not picking up new releases as you go. Between different avenues for premium currency, as well as adding in these extra value bundles, Riot Games has all manner of ways to turn you from a free-to-play enjoyer to a paying customer.

Lessons from League of Legends

This isn’t Riot Games’ first free-to-play rodeo, as they’ve been refining monetisation since League of Legends launched in 2009. We can look to how the current roster of 172 League of Legends champions is treated to see the future of the 2XKO characters.

League of Legends’ free-to-play offerings are on a rotation. Every week or so, a different selection of 20 champions is free, meaning you can try before you want to unlock anything. To secure a League of Legends champion to pick whenever you want, you’ll need to start messing around with the shop.

In League of Legends, that premium currency is RP, and costs, at its most expensive per unit, 575RP for $4.99 (£4.50) and, at its cheapest per unit, 60200RP for $429.99 (£385). While the 2XKO characters are currently at a set rate of KO points per fighter, League of Legends has a bit more fluctuation. 

Older characters like Darius only cost 260RP, while new characters like Yunara cost 975RP. So for any given character, your range is anywhere from $1.86 (£1.66) to $8.46 (£7.63). Any given cost is obfuscated behind these premium currencies, purchased at different costs and redeemed at different tiers.

The 2XKO characters could follow a similar path, with older characters moving down in cost as time passes, making it all the more enticing for a free-to-play player to actually put some money down. 

Violence has a cost

The monetisation surrounding the 2XKO characters mostly feels tight-fisted because of the limited initial roster. The actual cost of the fighters is pretty par for the course, not just for Riot Games, but for fighting games in general.

Street Fighter 6 is offering character passes with four extra characters for $29.99 (£24.99), making them just about $7.50 (£6.25) each, not that far off any of the 2XKO roster. However, Street Fighter 6 comes with 18 characters in the base package already, in that paid for at $39.99 (£34.99). 

Tekken 8 has a similar story to tell with its fighters individually priced at $7.99 (£6.99), but with an initial roster of 32 fighters for $59.99 (£49.99), you’ve at least got a full collection of characters before you need to start dipping into the extras. 

Riot Games should really consider taking a hint from Overwatch 2 and being more generous with their 2XKO characters. Overwatch 2 provides its heroes for free whenever they come out, relying on everything else to push money towards Blizzard.

2XKO has plenty of other avenues for monetisation between the legendary skins, the battle pass, and even the individual background stages; we don’t need to be rationing the 2XKO characters at this stage.

FAQs