Q: How many slots does the bench have, and is the item inventory part of it?

The champion bench has nine slots. It is the row directly below your battlefield, where unfielded units sit between rounds. The item inventory is not part of it. It is a separate sidebar and holds up to 20 entries. Consumables stack inside one slot rather than each occupying its own. Players use "bench" interchangeably for both. Note: The limits are independent. A full champion bench does not block item drops, and a full item bench does not block champion purchases.

Q: Do benched champions keep their stars and items when I move them on and off the board between rounds?

Yes. Moving a unit between bench and board is purely a positioning change . These all stick to the champion regardless of where it sits at round transitions: Star level. Equipped items. Any permanent stat-stacking that unit has accumulated. The bench is durable storage, not a reset zone. So benching a high-investment carry to swap in a counter-pick for one round is a real strategy, not a sacrifice. Note: The only time bench state changes outside your control is augment-driven. Slot-randomizing or transform effects explicitly say so on their tooltip.

Question 1

How many slots does the bench have, and is the item inventory part of it?

Accepted Answer

The champion bench has nine slots. It is the row directly below your battlefield, where unfielded units sit between rounds.

The item inventory is not part of it. It is a separate sidebar and holds up to 20 entries. Consumables stack inside one slot rather than each occupying its own.

Players use "bench" interchangeably for both.

Note: The limits are independent. A full champion bench does not block item drops, and a full item bench does not block champion purchases.

Question 2

Do champions on the bench take damage, fight, or activate traits?

Accepted Answer

No to all three. Benched units sit out of combat:

They don't take damage from enemy units.
They don't auto-attack or cast.
They don't contribute to your active trait counts.

Only the champions actually fielded on the battlefield fight and add to traits.

Note: When a patch note flags a benched unit that was incorrectly stacking a trait, it is framed as a bug fix. That is the strongest authoritative signal that the baseline rule is "bench does not count."

Question 3

What happens when the bench is full and I try to buy a unit?

Accepted Answer

It depends on whether the purchase would auto-combine.

If you already own two copies at the same star level and the shop offers a third, the buy still goes through. The two can sit one on bench and one on board, or both on bench. The three copies fuse into a star-up and never need a free bench slot. That is because the slot count drops by two on combine.

If you can't combine, the shop button is blocked until you free a slot. You do that by selling, fielding, or combining an existing unit.

Note: The bench is a hard cap on holding new singles.

Question 4

Do three same-star copies still auto-combine if some are on the bench?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Auto-combine fires whenever you hold three same-star copies of the same champion with at least one not actively in combat. Bench, board, or any mix all count.

The wiki rule adds two details:

Board copies are prioritized as star-up targets when valid.
Copies currently fighting are skipped, so a benched copy gets pulled into the merge if needed.

The visible result is the same single higher-star unit. You don't manually click anything.

Note: The freed bench slots open the moment the combine resolves.

Question 5

Is selling a unit from the bench worth the same as selling from the board?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Sell value is determined by the unit's cost tier and star level only, not by where it sits.

A 1-star sells for its full purchase cost.
A 2-star or 3-star refunds one gold less than the total invested.
Cost-1 units are the exception: they refund full at every star.

Items equipped on the sold champion return to your item inventory rather than being destroyed.

Note: Selling a benched holder of components is a clean way to free a bench slot without losing the items.

Question 6

Can I put items on a benched champion, and what happens to those items if I sell or combine?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You can equip items on any champion regardless of bench-or-board position. The equip rule is per-champion and caps at three items per unit. Items on a benched holder behave the same as items on a fielded one. They sit there until you sell.

When the holder is sold, all attached items return to the item inventory.
When three same-star copies combine, items on all three carry forward up to the three-item cap on the resulting unit.
Excess items from a combine return the same way.

Note: If the item inventory is full when items would return, they do not disappear. They drop on or near your board as a recoverable loot orb.

Question 7

If I pick a champion from the carousel with a full bench, what happens?

Accepted Answer

The picked unit lands on your battlefield as a temporary occupant that ignores the normal team-size cap. You have until the end of the next planning phase to make room:

Sell a benched unit.
Sell the picked unit.
Combine into a star-up.
Field it for real if your team-size cap allows.

If no space exists when planning ends, the game auto-sells the picked unit for its standard refund.

Note: Carousel picks never get silently destroyed. The worst case is a forced sale you could have avoided.

Question 8

Do benched champions keep their stars and items when I move them on and off the board between rounds?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Moving a unit between bench and board is purely a positioning change. These all stick to the champion regardless of where it sits at round transitions:

Star level.
Equipped items.
Any permanent stat-stacking that unit has accumulated.

The bench is durable storage, not a reset zone. So benching a high-investment carry to swap in a counter-pick for one round is a real strategy, not a sacrifice.

Note: The only time bench state changes outside your control is augment-driven. Slot-randomizing or transform effects explicitly say so on their tooltip.

Bench

Augments that grant or benefit from Bench slots (31)

Traits that grant Bench slots (1)

Wisps that grant Bench slots (15)

What enables Bench (15)

Frequently asked questions

Description

Augments that grant or benefit from Bench slots (31) #

Traits that grant Bench slots (1) #

Wisps that grant Bench slots (15) #

What enables Bench (15)

Frequently asked questions

Augments that grant or benefit from Bench slots (31)

Traits that grant Bench slots (1)

Wisps that grant Bench slots (15)