Stealth Ward

Stealth Ward is the free vision trinket in League of Legends: it costs nothing, every player starts with it, and in patch 26.22 it holds up to 2 charges that each place an invisible ward granting vision for 90 to 120 seconds. The charges recharge on a timer that shrinks from 210 seconds early to 90 seconds late, and the trinket can be swapped for an Oracle Lens or a Farsight Alteration at the shop.

What does the Stealth Ward do?

It gives you eyes. Place a charge in a bush or a river entrance (the classic spots are the same in every rank) and you see everything that walks through it for 90 to 120 seconds, invisible to the enemy unless they bring a Control Ward or an Oracle Lens.

The ward’s duration and the trinket’s recharge both scale with your level, so a level one ward lasts 90 seconds and a late-game one lasts 120, while the wait between charges falls from 210 seconds at the start to 90 by the end. Thing is, two charges is the number that matters: a player who keeps both charges in the trinket for ten minutes has wasted twenty minutes of ward time, and the first habit every climbing player picks up is to place a ward whenever the trinket shows a charge (the “wards placed” column on the scoreboard is the honest record of it). Is a Stealth Ward enough vision on its own? Never, which is why Control Wards exist, but it is the baseline every lane is built on.

Is it worth anything in gold?

It is free, so there is no efficiency to compute, and the sell price is also nothing. What the trinket is worth is the information: a ward that spots the enemy jungler walking toward your lane saves a death, and a death at ten minutes is worth 300 gold to the enemy plus the plates and farm you lose while dead.

Honestly, the Stealth Ward is the single best value item in the game by that measure, and the reason it is free is that Riot wants every player to have vision regardless of how the game is going. The cost is attention, not gold. Put simply, the question with the trinket is never whether to use it but where and when, and most players under Platinum use it far less than it allows.

Who uses it, and who swaps it?

Everyone starts with it. Laners keep it for most of the game, since a free ward every minute or two is exactly what a mid or top laner needs to see ganks coming. Supports swap it for an Oracle Lens early, usually at the first recall after their support item upgrades, because their job becomes clearing enemy wards once that item gives them free wards of its own. Junglers often swap to Oracle Lens too, to find and kill wards around objectives.

Who swaps to Farsight Alteration? Marksmen and some mid laners, late, when the long-range ward is safer than walking into a bush to place one by hand (a bush at thirty minutes is where carries go to die). In practice, the usual mistake is swapping too early: a Farsight at fifteen minutes gives up the two cheap charges for one long-range ward that enemies can see and kill.

How has the Stealth Ward changed over the patches?

Fifteen entries, every one of them a wording change or a rename, with the numbers tuned inside the text:

• Patch 3.14: First recorded as the Warding Totem trinket, with the trinket system.
• Patches 4.10 to 8.23: Seven effect text changes as charges, duration and recharge were tuned.
• Patch 10.23: Renamed from Warding Totem (Trinket) to Stealth Ward, with the 2021 item overhaul.
• Patches 12.16, 13.10, 14.12, 26.1 and 26.3: Effect text changed.

Funny enough, the two most recent entries are in the current season, patches 26.1 and 26.3, which means Riot adjusted the ward’s text twice this year; the current numbers above are from Riot’s data after those changes. For what it’s worth, the trinket has been free from the day it appeared, and no patch has ever put a price on it.

Where should you place it?

Where the enemy jungler has to walk to reach you. For a top laner that is the river bush or the tribush on the side the enemy jungler started; for a mid laner, one of the two river entrances, alternating with the trinket’s charges; for a bot lane, the river bush and the tribush, split between the marksman and the support until the support switches to Oracle Lens. Deep wards in the enemy jungle come later, when your team is ahead and the charges are refilling every 90 seconds. And if you are still learning which positions are responsible for which part of the map, the guide to LoL roles covers it, and the LoL items database lists the other two trinkets and the Control Ward that works alongside the Stealth Ward rather than replacing it.

FAQ

How much does the Stealth Ward cost?

Nothing. It is the free trinket every player starts with in patch 26.22, and it cannot be sold.

How many charges does it hold?

Up to 2, recharging one at a time on a timer that falls from 210 seconds early in the game to 90 seconds late.

How long does a ward last?

90 to 120 seconds, scaling with your level.

Can the enemy see the ward?

Not without help. The ward is invisible unless an Oracle Lens sweeps it or a Control Ward reveals it.

Can you swap it for another trinket?

Yes, at the shop, for an Oracle Lens or a Farsight Alteration. Swapping back is also free.

Was it always called Stealth Ward?

No. Until patch 10.23 the trinket was called Warding Totem.