Riftbound Radiance: Ultimate Rare in ~1 of 167 Displays

Riftbound: Radiance launches on October 23, 2026, three days from now, and the most striking number in the set is 0.025 percent: that is the average chance, according to Riot Games, of finding an Ultimate Rare in a single booster pack. Scaled up to a 24-pack display, it comes to roughly 0.6 percent, or about one Ultimate Rare per 167 displays. This article sorts out what is officially confirmed, where sources disagree, and what pre-order prices look like in the United States, Germany and Poland on October 20, 2026.

Update October 23, 2026: Radiance is out. Launch-day prices in the US, Germany and Poland, the key set facts and a comparison with Vendetta are in Riftbound Radiance release: 9 Legends, displays from $129.99.

One clarification up front: we could not find any set called "Residence". The fifth Riftbound set, releasing on October 23, is called Radiance (abbreviated RAD), so that is what we cover. Everything about the game comes from the sources listed at the end; our own price data is labeled with date and measure.

Radiance launches October 23 as the first Riftbound set released simultaneously in English, French and Chinese

Riot's official schedule has three stages: previews from late September to October 9, Pre-Rift events from October 16 to 22, and the release on October 23, 2026. According to Riot, Radiance is the first set to launch at the same time in three languages: English, French and Simplified Chinese.

For collectors in Germany and Poland this matters in practice: no German or Polish edition has been announced. In the shops we track, Radiance shows up as the English edition, and in a few US listings as the Chinese one (a single Chinese booster was listed there for $9.88 on October 20, 2026). Those listings do not belong in a price comparison with the English ones, because price and print run differ.

The tournament season starts after release. The first Summoner Skirmish begins on November 9, 2026, the second on December 14, 2026. Winners receive a Skirmish playmat, and according to riftbound.gg the Top Cut and Champion prizes include an Ahri Confident promo.

Data: Riot's official announcement "The Radiance Overview" (playriftbound.com) and the riftbound.gg set overview, as of October 20, 2026.

The key dates in one place:

• September 25 to October 9. Card previews; according to riftbound.gg they started with RQ Los Angeles (September 25 to 27).
• October 16 to 22. Pre-Rift events with Pre-Rift Kits (five Radiance boosters plus a Pre-Rift pack for each of the nine new Legends) and the Heimerdinger, Academy Instructor promo.
• October 23. Radiance releases in English, French and Chinese.
• November 9 and December 14. First and second Summoner Skirmish.

Nine new Legends and five new rules elements change how the game plays

Radiance introduces nine new Legends, each with an Overnumbered variant, and the new rules revolve mainly around Gear and Battlefields. According to RiftCompare they are Ekko, Ziggs, Mordekaiser, Orianna, K'Sante, Seraphine, Evelynn, Jarvan IV and Riven. The display box shows Ekko and Seraphine, with Ziggs and Jarvan IV as supporting characters.

The new mechanics according to Riot and riftbound.gg:

• Deploy. A Gear card is played directly onto a Battlefield and stays useful while it is there. If your opponent holds that Battlefield, the Gear is destroyed.
• Show Off. Revealing a qualifying card from your hand or board unlocks an extra effect on the card you played. Riftbound.gg calls the mechanic "Reveal"; it is the same thing.
• Disarm. When you attack, it reduces an enemy Unit's Might, and several instances stack like Assault.
• Equipment Units. Orianna's Legend effect turns Equipment into Units. The Equipment is unequipped first.
• Bomb. A new token type: the more Bombs you play, the stronger the payoff.

Orianna has the most detail, though it comes from the fan site riftbound.zone, based on the official card reveal: Orianna, Lady of Clockwork is numbered 145/167, turns a Gear into a Unit with Might equal to the Gear's cost (cost 3 gives 3 Might, cost 6 gives 6 Might), costs 1 Energy every time, and keeps only one such Unit at a time. The precedent was Gear Units in Vendetta, introduced with the Patched Porobot.

On the collector side, Riot announces modern-style Overnumbered cards for Heartsteel, Special Alt Arts in a K/DA theme at about the same frequency as regular Alt Arts, and Alt Art Runes with a musical theme.

A booster has 14 cards, a display has 24 boosters, and we only know manufacturer prices for the US

A Radiance display holds 24 boosters of 14 cards each, and the US distributor MSRP is $120, which works out to about $5 per pack. Outside the US, RiftCompare reports no official prices, so we do not calculate percentage markups over an MSRP for euros or zloty.

Booster layout according to Riot:

1. 7 Commons and 3 Uncommons.
2. 1 foil slot (Common, Uncommon, Rare or Epic).
3. 1 Rare or Epic.
4. 1 slot for Rare, Epic, Alt Art, Special Alt, Overnumbered or Ultimate Rare.
5. 1 token, Rune or Alt Art Rune.
6. 1 information insert.

Data: Riot Games (product contents), riftbound.gg (Showdown Decks price), RiftCompare of October 10, 2026 (display and Vault Bundle price), as of October 20, 2026.

The smaller products already have pre-order prices too. In Germany the cheapest orderable Showdown Decks cost €32.50 (four listings) and the cheapest Vault €36; in Poland the Showdown Decks start at 129 PLN (three listings).

RiftCompare reports the Pre-Rift Kit at €34.99 to €42 in the eurozone, and on TCGplayer the Vault fell between September 24 and October 9 from about $134 to $53.83, the Showdown Decks from about $99 to $59.01. The MSRP is $34.99 for each, so the gap to the market price remains clear.

An Ultimate Rare appears in about 0.025 percent of boosters, roughly 1 in 167 displays

Riot puts the Ultimate Rare at about 0.025 percent of boosters on average, with at most one per pack. There is no guarantee in any pack, display or case, and the Ultimate Rare is meant to be rarer than the Baron from Unleashed. That rarity tier includes, among others, the Battlefield Packed Amphitheater.

Because this is an average, the table below is a simplified calculation: we assume every booster independently hits with 0.025 percent. The actual distribution inside cartons (collation) is not known, and if the set has several different Ultimate Rares, the chance of any one specific card is smaller still.

To reach a 50 percent chance you would have to open about 2,772 boosters, more than 115 displays. That is a good reason to treat the Ultimate Rare as a bonus, not as a purchasing plan.

A retailer opening 100 displays has about a 45 percent chance of at least one Ultimate Rare, and a collector with a single display about 0.6 percent. Riot states explicitly that there is no guarantee per pack, per display or per case, so even a larger purchase brings no certainty.

Tip: if you like testing such odds without spending money, the Riftbound pack simulator lets you open boosters virtually; it is entertainment, not a forecast.

Radiance has 167, 184, 224 or 235 cards, depending on what you count

The main set is numbered up to 167, and with 17 Overnumbered variants (168 to 184) that makes 184 cards, which is where the often-quoted "about 180" comes from. Riftbound.gg lists 180 cards including 66 Showcase, and a German retailer writes about 180 cards and more than 60 Showcase. RiftCompare counted 224 printings on October 15 and 235 in its gallery, because Alt Arts (18), Runes (12), SP cards (5) and signed Overnumbered (16) are added.

Our set page, based on TCGplayer data, shows 234 cards and 61 Showcase. All of these numbers hold up, because each counts a different layer of printings. When you read "how many cards does Radiance have", ask whether the main-set numbering or all variants are meant.

Data: RiftCompare (cards, as of October 15, 2026), riftbound.gg, CardPulse set page, as of October 20, 2026.

Asking prices of $1,600 to $3,500 for chase cards are not sales yet

The most expensive Radiance cards on offer carry prices of $1,600 to $3,500 before release, but these are "from" prices of listings, not transaction prices. RiftCompare published them on October 15, 2026, when no boosters had been opened; supply is tiny, and a few listings can set the price.

The takeaway for buyers is simple: until real sales are visible, these amounts say nothing about what the cards will be worth. RiftCompare notes that singles prices usually start appearing around Pre-Rift. We do not forecast whether they will rise or fall.

The spread is enormous: the most expensive Ultimate in the table ($1,600) costs about 41 times as much as the most expensive unsigned main-set card ($39.34). Seven of the eight priciest entries in RiftCompare's list are signed Overnumbered cards, of which that site counts 16 printings. With so few copies and no completed sales, "from" prices can change from one day to the next.

Promo chase cards also include Heimerdinger, Academy Instructor (a Pre-Rift participation promo, while supplies last) and Lulu, Whimsical in the refreshed Nexus Nights packs, which hold 24 cards from Radiance.

Three days before release, a Radiance display costs from $149 in the US, from €125 in Germany and from 560 PLN in Poland

The cheapest English Radiance display that can still be ordered costs $149 in the US, €125 in Germany and 560 PLN in Poland on October 20, 2026. The cheapest entries overall ($119.99, €99.99 and 549 PLN) are closed or sold out, so they do not set the real purchase price.

Data: lowest prices for the English Radiance display according to CardPulse, October 20, 2026, separately for the US (USD), DE (EUR) and PL (PLN). One entry with a placeholder price of $9,999,999 was left out. "Orderable" means listings marked as available, including as pre-order.

What moved recently: in Germany the lowest shop price fell on October 16 from €129.99 to €125 (−3.8%), in Poland on October 13 from 599 PLN to 560 PLN (−6.5%), and in the US it held at $149 from October 8 to 19 with one or two listings. The $149 is 24 percent above the $120 MSRP.

For comparison, the cheapest English displays of older sets that can still be bought cost more today than the Radiance pre-order. Vendetta and Unleashed stand at €149.90 and €149.99 in Germany (Radiance is 16.6% and 16.7% cheaper), at 649.90 PLN in Poland (Radiance 13.8% cheaper) and at $145 and $174.99 in the US (Radiance 2.8% more than Vendetta and 14.9% cheaper than Unleashed). Only a few copies of the older sets are available (2 to 5 listings), so the comparison is a rough guide.

Price per booster and Cardmarket

With the cheapest available listings, the display is cheaper per booster than single packs: in Germany €5.21 per booster (€125 divided by 24) against €5.99 per pack (−13.0%), in Poland 23.33 PLN against 24.99 PLN (−6.6%). Cardmarket shows a "from" price of €119 for the display (October 20, 2026), with a 7-day average of €128.32 and a 30-day average of €131.06. These are marketplace prices without shipping and under different sales terms than a shop, so they are not directly comparable.

RiftCompare measured the pre-order phase separately: the cheapest display on TCGplayer fell between September 24 and October 9, 2026 from about $227 to $149.97 (−34%), and in the eurozone the cheapest open display cost €119.95 with a median of €130 (17 of 20 listings open). That is a second, independent observation of the same effect: the markups at the start of pre-orders melt once it becomes visible how much stock there is. The cause is a hypothesis for now; we will check it against prices two weeks after release.

What to check before October 23: six concrete steps

Before release, language edition and product type matter more than price. This list is based on what we see in the listings.

1. Check the language. Look for "EN" in the listing title; Chinese editions land in the same categories as the English ones.
2. Tell the products apart. Display (24 boosters), Showdown Decks, Vault Bundle and Pre-Rift Kit are four different products with different prices.
3. Work out the price per booster. Divide the display price by 24 to compare it with single packs.
4. Ignore closed listings. In Germany and Poland only 3 of 11 and 3 of 10 display listings could be ordered on October 20.
5. Add shipping. Listing prices are product prices; shipping costs are shown in the shop.
6. Write down your target price. With a free account you can set a price alert on CardPulse.

Tip: listings far below the market (here €99.99 for a display) are often closed or sold out. Before buying, open the shop page and check that the order button works.

You can find the current offers on the Radiance Booster Display price page and an overview of the set in the Radiance guide. We collect the dates of upcoming sets in the Riftbound release calendar, and the whole Riftbound section starts at Riftbound on CardPulse.

Conclusion: what we know about Radiance for sure and what is still open

What is certain is what Riot has stated officially: dates (Pre-Rift October 16 to 22, release October 23), languages (English, French, Chinese), product contents, booster layout and the average 0.025 percent chance of an Ultimate Rare. Still open are the card count that depends on how you count, manufacturer prices outside the US, singles prices, and how display prices behave after the first cartons are opened.

So before release, compare listings and pick the language edition deliberately, instead of chasing the lowest price at a closed shop. We give no investment advice and no price predictions: two weeks after release we will look at the same listings again and check what changed.

Check the current Radiance display prices and set a price alert if you are waiting for a particular amount.