League of Legends Preseason 2023: Jungle Pets & Jungle Changes Explained

Riot Games released a list of changes for the upcoming League of Legends Preseason 2023 in October. While most of the preseason changes are directed at improving communication and teamwork among players, the update will also include a number of quality-of-life changes to make the game more accessible to newer players. One of the biggest talking points of League of Legends Preseason 2023 was the jungle changes and the jungle pets that Riot Games is bringing forth. Notably, the Preseason 2023 changes including the adorable new jungle pets were introduced to the Public Beta Environment on 5th October and players have already tasted what’s to come in the next couple of patches in-game.

Jungle pets and other jungle changes in Preseason 2023

Riot Games introduced jungle pets and said, “The jungle is a dangerous place and it's dangerous to go alone, so take one of these jungle pets by purchasing them in the in-game shop as an egg!”

These pets will acquire “treats” through monster kills and will evolve and grow slowly over time as the game progresses. Once fully evolved, the jungle pets will give their owners “Avatar” buffs which will empower the jungler with different abilities.

There are three jungle pets currently:

• Noxian Embercat: It will provide slows and bonus damage for aggressive junglers.

• Ixtali Ixamander: It will provide a shield based on your health that provides bonus slow resistance and Tenacity when broken for frontline tankier junglers.

• Ionian Cloudleaper: It will provide bonus movement speed, great for overall lane pressure.

On 11th November, Riot Games posted a video featuring game designers Ezra “Riot Phlox” Lynn and Tim “Riot Truexy” Jiang. They talked about the jungle companions scurrying their way onto the Rift this Preseason and how they will help junglers old and new.

Phlox said he’s been a jungle main since Season 3 and that he finds the role “wildly too hard to learn to get to the point where you’re having fun.” Following this, Truexy clarified that the jungle pets are the new replacement for jungle items in Preseason 2023. He said, “You see your jungle pet, you want to feed it, you want it to grow up, and you’re going to get powerful.”

Phlox added, “The hope is that, at the end of the day, experienced junglers feel like they’ve got something new. They feel like the role is still for them and new junglers or junglers who are interested in the role, but were always pushed off for one reason or another, feel like they could approach and play the game.”

Apart from these jungle pets, Riot will be adding visual leashing indicators that will show how far camps can be pulled before their patience starts diminishing. If this is the case, then players, including Lee "Faker" Sang-hyeok, will understand how far back the camps can be pulled back. This will prevent junglers from having to stand on the perfect pixel in order to hyper-optimize jungle clears.

Soon enough, junglers will also get more help in the form of pre-determined jungle clear paths.

“These first clear paths were determined by gathering data from high-skilled junglers on their high mastery champs across the globe. Pathing recommendations are based on which routes most often led these players to a victory and will be updated each patch,” said Riot Games.

Notably, the current League of Legends patch is LoL Patch 12.21 and it is the last chance for players to climb the ranked ladder before the reset. The preseason patch is usually rolled out soon after the ranked season ends. According to the official patch schedule, players can expect the new changes, including the jungle pets, starting from 16th November with LoL Patch 12.22.