New To League/Gameplay/Minions and Towers

Minions and Towers

Monsters

Unit Attributes

Power Increases

Common Spell Effects

Vision

Champ Select

Minions[]

For full information on every type of minion, see here (takes you out of the New to League section).

Minions are AI-controlled units that have two ways of interacting with the map.

Moving. Minions are programmed to walk in straight lines down a lane until they encounter an enemy to attack. They then follow that enemy, unless the enemy moves too far out of their path. Then they go back to walking down a lane.
Autoattacking. Like champions, minions have a basic attack that they can use to deal damage to a target, one target at a time. Some minions are melee, and some are ranged. All minions deal physical damage only.

Generally, minions aren't very threatening to a champion, but if there are enough of them, then the champion does have to be careful. Primarily, a champion makes use of enemy minions in a positive way, because whenever you last-hit (deal the killing blow to) a minion, you gain experience and gold, both of which help you become stronger.

You do not have to deal the killing blow in order to gain experience, but you do have to be within a certain range of an enemy minion at the time of death.
You only gain gold if you were the person to last-hit the minion. Some support items that supports take also give additional gold for being close to minions when they die.

The process of last-hitting minions is known as farming or CSing, and the number of minion kills a champion gets is referred to as CS, short for Creep Score.

Types of Minions[]

Melee Minions[]

Melee minions have melee autoattacks. Three of them spawn per wave per lane. They deal less damage than ranged minions but have more health.

Caster Minions[]

Caster minions (aka Ranged minions) have ranged autoattacks. They deal more damage per autoattack than melee minions. Three of them spawn per wave per lane.

Siege Minions[]

Siege minions (aka Cannon minions) have ranged autoattacks. They deal more damage than caster minions and are also tankier than melee minions, but they don't spawn every wave. Cannon minions take reduced damage from turrets. If a team destroys an enemy inhibitor in a particular lane, then that lane's cannon minions will no longer spawn, and super minions will spawn instead.

Super Minions[]

Super minions do not spawn until an inhibitor has been destroyed. Then super minions replace cannon minions. Super minions deal a lot more damage than cannon minions and are have a lot more defense stats. They have melee autoattacks.

If all three inhibitors are destroyed at the same time, two super minions will spawn per wave. Also, super minions apply a buff to nearby allied minions to deal extra damage and take less. That buff extends to nearby super minions, but does not stack multiple times (i.e. two super minions together makes each one stronger, but adding a third does not affect the strength of the first two).

Voidspawn[]

Voidspawn minions are spawned exclusively from the item
Zz'Rot Portal. They act like other minions, but their health decays automatically over time, and they totally ignore enemy champions.

Minion Gallery[]

Blue Minions
Red Minions

Blue Melee Minion — Three melee minions.

Blue Caster Minion — Three caster minions.

Red Melee Minions — Three melee minions.

Red Caster Minions — Three caster minions.

Structures[]

Structures are AI-controlled units that have no way to move. There are three types of structures: towers, inhibitors, and the nexus. Look here for a list of structures, with their locations highlighted on the map.

Towers[]

There are 22 towers on the map, 11 per team. Each team has 3 towers in each of the 3 lanes and 2 more towers defending their nexus. As illustrated here, each lane has an outer turret, an inner turret, and an inhibitor turret. These can also be referred to as tier 1 (outer), tier 2 (inner), and tier 3 (inhibitor). "Turret" and "tower" are synonyms.

There are several words that all mean the same thing, which is to deal enough damage to a tower to remove it from the map:

Kill
Take
Push (or push down)
Destroy

Basic Information About Towers (Show all images and GIFsHide all images and GIFs)
Type	Locations On Map	Special Properties	Type of Attack	Position in Lane
All turrets		Harder to kill before 5 minutes (Does not apply to bottom lane). Attacks cannot be dodged. Harder to kill when no enemy minions are nearby. Has true sight. Damage increases with every consecutive shots fired and penetrate resistances. Will prioritize an enemy champion if that champion deals damage to an allied champion who is within a certain range of the turret. Turrets will continue to attack their current target until the target dies, leaves attack range, or becomes untargetable due to abilities or items.	Single-target individual shots.
Outer (Tier 1)	[Show Image]			[Show ]
Inner (Tier 2)	[Show Image]			[Show ]
Inhibitor (Tier 3)	[Show Image]	Regenerates health slowly up to the top of their current third.		[Show]
Nexus	[Show Image]	Regenerates health slowly up to the top of their current third.		[Show ]

Inhibitors[]

Inhibitors have no ability to interact with the map. There are 6 on the map total: 3 per team, 1 per lane per team. See locations highlighted here. Once an inhibitor is destroyed, the team that destroyed it starts to have super minions spawn in the lane in which the inhibitor was destroyed. Super minions are much more dangerous than other minions. Destroying all three of the enemy's inhibitors results in an extra super minion being spawned in each lane per wave.

An inhibitor cannot be targeted until all other turrets in the same lane are destroyed. (So for example, if the botlane inhibitor turret is destroyed but the midlane inhibitor turret isn't, the botlane inhibitor can be attacked, but the midlane inhibitor cannot.)

Like towers, inhibitors can be attacked by minions and also by champions using basic attacks. There are no spells that interact with inhibitors. If an inhibitor loses health, it starts to regenerate health slowly.

Destroying an inhibitor is NOT permanent. Five minutes from when an inhibitor is destroyed, it will respawn with full health, and though existing super minions are not affected, no future super minions will spawn from that lane unless the inhibitor is destroyed again. Killing an inhibitor for the second time is no different from killing it for the first time, and in fact an inhibitor can be killed any number of times and will behave the exact same way every time.

If a champion last-hits an inhibitor, they gain 50 gold; there are no other benefits associated with killing an inhibitor (aside from the super minions).

Nexus[]

The nexus, like the inhibitor, is a defenseless, stationary building that has no way to interact with the map. When a team's nexus is destroyed, they lose the game.

More Info: The nexus is only targetable when both nexus turrets are destroyed, and also there is a currently-destroyed inhibitor in one lane (it doesn't matter which lane). The nexus can be hit by minions and also by champion basic attacks. Last-hitting the nexus gives 50 gold to a champion and also ends the game. The nexus regenerates health over time. If an inhibitor respawns, the nexus becomes untargetable, but its health regeneration is unaffected. Spawning a turret with Azir's Sun Disc on a nexus turret spot will NOT make the nexus untargetable.