Ekko, the Boy who Shattered Time

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ekko_originalloading.jpg

"It's not how much time you have, it's how you use it."

Voiced by:
Antony Del Rio (English/Original)
Reed Shannon (English/Current: Tales of Runeterra- )
Umar "Thutmose" Ibrahim (English, singing voice, True Damage)
Jesús Barreda (European Spanish)
José Antonio Toledano (Mexican Spanish)
Tasuku Hatanaka (Japanese)
Marcelo Campos (Brazilian Portuguese, Normal)
Emicida (Brazilian Portuguese, True Damage)
Gyu-Hyuk Shim (Korean)
Alexander Zachinyaev (Russian)
Appears in: Legends of Runeterra, Tales of Runeterra, Arcane, CONV/RGENCE, 2XKO

"My devices work the best when they don’t work as intended. Which is most of the time."

A prodigy from the rough streets of Zaun, Ekko manipulates time to twist any situation to his advantage. Using his own invention, the Zero Drive, he explores the branching possibilities of reality to craft the perfect moment. Though he revels in this freedom, when there’s a threat to his friends he’ll do anything to defend them. To outsiders, Ekko seems to achieve the impossible the first time, every time.

Ekko is an Assassin champion who thrives in long skirmishes, whittling down his foes with mobility, crowd control and sustained damage, and rewinding back time if he gets in trouble.

His passive, Z-Drive Resonance, causes Ekko to mark enemies he damages with Resonance, stacking up to three times. When a target reaches three stacks, they are consumed to deal bonus damage and, if they are an enemy champion, grant Ekko Stolen Time for a few seconds, increasing his movement speed. The same target can't be afflicted by this effect more than once every few seconds.
With his first ability, Timewinder, Ekko throws a device in a target direction, damaging enemies it passes through. Upon hitting an enemy champion or reaching the end of its path, the device slows to a stop and creates a slowing field around it before returning back to Ekko, damaging enemies in its path again.
His second ability, Parallel Convergence, passively makes Ekko's basic attacks deal bonus damage to enemies below a certain health threshold, based on their missing health. When activated, Ekko summons an afterimage that tosses a device to a target location, creating a sphere of distorted time for a few seconds that slows enemies inside. Entering the sphere makes it explode, shielding Ekko and stunning enemies inside.
With his third ability, Phase Dive, Ekko dashes a short distance in a target direction. His next basic attack after dashing will deal bonus damage and make him teleport next to the target from a distance.
His ultimate ability, Chronobreak, passively creates a time-delayed afterimage that follows Ekko around at the location he was exactly four seconds ago. When activated, Ekko rewinds time, becoming completely invulnerable as he teleports back to the afterimage's current location, healing himself based on the damage taken in the last four seconds and releasing a powerful explosion upon arrival that damages nearby enemies.

Ekko's alternate skins include Sandstorm Ekko, Academy Ekko, PROJECT: Ekko, SKT T1 Ekko, Trick or Treat Ekko, True Damage Ekko, Pulsefire Ekko, Firelight Ekko, and Star Guardian Ekko. Legends of Runeterra exclusively includes Gilded Ekko, and Wild Rift exclusively includes Chromacrash Ekko & Psychic Detective Ekko.

In season 3 of Teamfight Tactics, Ekko uses his PROJECT: Ekko skin and is a 5 cost Cybernetic Infiltrator. With his Chronobreak ability, he freezes everyone on the map, becoming unkillable and striking enemies a number of times that increases with his star level. Each strike targets the enemy with the highest attack speed, dealing magic damage, applying on hit effects, and slowing the target's attack speed for an extended duration. He returned in season 6 using his base skin as a Tier 3 Scrap Assassin. His ability was changed to Parallel Convergence, which summons an afterimage that bats an expanding device at the largest cluster of units. Enemies hit take magic damage and have their attack speed slowed for a few seconds, while allies gain attack speed for the same duration. He gains the Innovator class in the Neon Nights mid-set update in addition to his existing traits. He returned in season 8 with his Star Guardian skin as a Tier 4 Star Guardian Aegis Prankster. His Star Diver ability has Ekko dash a short distance forward, shielding himself for a few seconds and taunting nearby enemies. When the shield breaks or expires, he deals magic damage and slows the attack speed of nearby enemies. In season 9, he returns with his base skin as a Tier 3 Zaun Piltover Rogue, using his Phase Dive ability to heal for a percentage of all damage he took in the last few seconds before striking his current target for magic damage. In season 10, he uses his True Damage Ekko skin and is a Tier 3 True Damage Spellweaver Sentinel. His Record Scratch ability deals magic damage and stuns enemies in a 2-hex radius while shielding Ekko for a few seconds. His True Damage Bling Bonus restores his health for each second his shield is active.

In Legends of Runeterra, Ekko is a 4-mana 4/2 Piltover & Zaun Champion with Quick Attack who creates a Fleeting copy of Time Trick in your hand when he Strikes (a 2-mana cost spell that predicts the next 3 cards in the deck and draws 1). After you Predict four times Ekko levels up, gaining +1/+1, creating 3 copies of Chronobreak (3-mana Slow spell that revives all allies that died during the current round and then grants a Rally) in the player's deck, and reducing the cost of the Time Tricks he generates to 0. His signature spell is Ekko's Called Shot.

Ekko is a supporting character in season 1 of Riot's first animated LoL series, Arcane. ^note For tropes about Ekko, exclusive to the TV series, see here.

He's also the central character of the action-platformer CONV/RGENCE: A League of Legends Story.

Ekko is part of the base roster for Riot's upcoming free-to-play 2v2 Tag Team Fighting Game, "2XKO"

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#-M

10-Minute Retirement: Briefly abandoned his Z-Drive in the CONV/RGENCE comic out of fear that he was starting to abuse it's power. Thankfully his friends retrieved it for him and gave Ekko a much needed pep-talk.
A Hero to His Hometown: To most Zaunites, Ekko is a good-hearted punk-genius who just wants to uplift his community and help keep it's people safe. Many Piltovans who are aware of him however either see Ekko as either a dangerous vigilante or a nuisance with the future potential to topple the current status quo between the two cities.
Actor Allusion: "I'm no angel" and "Yep, put an angel on the job. I could use a break,", as Ekko's voice actor, Antony Del Rio, also voiced Pit and Dark Pit in Kid Icarus: Uprising.
Afrofuturism: Strong elements of this; black, anti-authoritarian and building hi-tech gadgetry from street scraps.
Air Guitar: Likes to do this with his bat as seen in his MOBA dance animation and on his level 1 card splash art in LOR. One of his victory quotes in the card game's PVE mode is him making guitar riff noises with his mouth.
Anti-Frustration Features: Ekko's ultimate ability was initially going to work in the same way as it does in the Seconds cinematic, reversing time for other players and leaving Ekko with the same health pool he was at before he used said ultimate. However, playtesters found his ultimate too disorienting and frustrating to play against, and so it was changed before release to function in the way it does now, reversing Ekko to a previous location with a moderate heal.
Alternate Self: Comes with the territory for League of Legends and it's skin AU's, though Ekko's game has him teaming up with a possible future version of himself.
- Its also heavily hinted throughout the game from finding collectible journal entries that another version of Ekko from another alternate timeline is viewing the events of the game from afar & trying to get back to his own dimension.
Anti-Hero: CONV/RGENCE reveals both his good and bad traits. While he is a very loyal friend wants to do the right thing and dedicated to protecting Zaun, his distrust of all Piltovans and insistence on constantly rewinding time to make things right as he sees fit isolates him from his family and friends. It takes meeting (and eventually fighting against) his future self and seeing the kind of person he will become if he sticks to this mindset to finally break out of it.
Awesomeness by Analysis: His playstyle, and modus operandi. His time powers work by reversing time by a few seconds, or at most by a few minutes. However injuries received do not fully heal in the timeshift, meaning Ekko will continue to take damage over time. Ekko mitigates his weakness by being incredibly clever and quick witted, as evidenced by his fight against the Zaun thug in his reveal trailer. Ekko notices a cooling tube, heating exhaust ports and explosive vials all attached to his opponent, and in the coming loops learns to exploit them.
Beware the Nice Ones: Of the few hero champions of Zaun, Ekko's among the most affable and charismatic. But to those who pose a threat to the city & his loved ones he shows them just how fierce he can be with that sword-bat of his. Only to then rewind time with the Z-Drive to beat them up again if he wants:
Ekko: Won this fight already. Doing it again for fun.
Big Brother Instinct: CONV/RGENCE shows that Ekko's very protective of the younger members in his group like Lem. And he's implied to have had a similar relationship to his friend Ajuna before he was killed.
Black and Nerdy: He built his time drive. Nuff said.
Breakout Character: Following his release, Ekko quickly became a fan-favorite champion; relishing in a lot of mainstream exposure and popularity within not only the League of Legends MOBA game, but also the League of Legends IP as a whole. This includes it's extended spin-off games and other media outlets.
- He's the frontliner for the fictional hip-hop group True Damage, played by rapper Thutmouse, which is accompanied by a legendary skin.
- He's made subsequent appearances in Tales of Runeterra, Legends of Runeterra, Arcane, 2XKO, and is the star of his own spin-off action-platformer, CONV/RGENCE.
- Ekko also holds the distinct honor of being part of a select group among the game's 160+ champions roster that can be seen as, "poster children" for the League of Legends IP; appearing in many marketing promotions and merchandise.
Broken Pedestal: How he views Vi after she left Zaun and became a Piltover enforcer, considering it an act of her selling out and forgetting her roots.
Bullet Time: His timewinder device explodes into a damaging temopral field that slows whoever's caught in it to a crawl. Ekko however remains unaffected and can move around inside the field with ease.
Carry a Big Stick: Ekko's sword-bat is a little over half as tall as he is. Not surprising since it's a second-hand from a clock tower.
Cannot Spit It Out: His short story Lullaby has hEkko practicing to himself how he's going to tell his parents his choice of not leaving Zaun to attend a prestigious Piltover Academy that they've overworked themselves for years to send him to. Seeing their proud faces as they celebrate his birthday causes him to lose his nerve in telling them.
Chick Magnet: Taliyah, Rell, and Seraphine have voice line interactions with Ekko in the MOBA and card game that expresses their attraction towards him.
Taliyah: "Did the earth move for you too? Did I just say that out loud?"
Rell: "O...Oh. So your name's Ekko? That's... that's cool. I'm cool."
Seraphine: "Oh my gosh, he's so... cool."
- The splash art for the leveled up Gilded Ekko card in Legends of Runeterra shows him hanging out with friends at a party, while at the same time using his after images to successfully flirt with one girl & dance with another.
Clock of Power: His Zero-Drive is shaped like an hourglass, and allows him to manipulate time.
Combat Parkour: Ekko is incredibly agile both in and out of fights, from being able to traverse the complex industrial layouts of Zaun. Animated material shows him vaulting around terrain and outpacing his foes, all with carefree confidence since he can rewind as much as he wants. This even translates into League with his highly mobile kit that encourages darting around and striking at opportune times.
Constantly Curious: Has a naturally inquisitive mind and can't help but ask questions when experiencing the unknown.
- After meeting his future self in CONV/RGENCE, present day Ekko can't help but think about the effects of time travel and if doing something different in the present will affect Future Ekko or not.
- Present Ekko also can't help but ask a load of questions about the future from his future self.
Cop Hater: Has a severe dislike of Piltover enforcers given that they mostly help enforce the unjust status quo Piltover has over Zaun.
- Considered his childhood friend Vi joining them a betrayal of her roots.
Ekko when first encountering Caitlyn in-game: "Aw… who called the cops?"
Difficult, but Awesome: Ekko's kit is loaded with plenty of tools for an assassin, but as a tradeoff, it's especially delicate and reliant on setting up plays based on predictions of your enemies' moves than sheer force. Getting his passive off can be finicky due to the unorthodox design of his Timewinder and Phase Dive, but the damage and movement speed it grants when proc'd can make or break teamfights. Parallel Convergence requires a long delay and confidence in your positioning, but successfully activating one can be incredibly powerful. Chronobreak is flexible as it can be used to escape certain doom and/or re-enter the fight with a powerful surprise attack, but how and when you'll want to use it is greatly context-reliant.
Death of a Thousand Cuts: Some builds of his can work like this due to the auto-attacking nature of his two magic-damage-on-hit passives, but they aren't as favored unless you get a good lead with him. Either way, Ekko isn't as much of an all-in-powerhouse, and is more of an actual careful assassin who needs to pick off targets and/or whittle them down with his powerful utility.
Delinquent Hair: He's sporting a tall, white mohawk. Other iterations of his hair, such as in 2XKO & Arcane, have him with forward facing white dreadlocks shaped to mimic a mohawk with an undercut.
Determinator: His time machine may reverse time, but comes with the catch that he'll still be in the same state of health as when he reversed it. In his trailer, he receives a blow from a powerfist to his jaw, an abdominal injury, possibly cracked ribs, and his left arm gets smashed and pinned to the ground with his foe's Power Fist, possibly breaking it. Every time he resets time he ends up getting injured worse and worse while his foe's equipment gets repaired, yet he just tries again. At the end of the trailer, he even risks getting injured more to repair a monument that was torn apart in the fight. And in the comic, he rewinds time no fewer than 80 times, trying to prevent his friend's death, and does it 10 more times in clobbering the guy who was responsible. When Ekko talks about making every last second count, he means it.
Facial Markings: Wears face paint in the shape of an hourglass.
The Fettered: One of the running themes of CONV/RGENCE is Ekko coming to realize how his inventions could change him for the worse if he starts to abuse their power. After seeing his future self's flawed ethical code brought on by years of abusing time travel, present day Ekko resolves to never become him and temper himself when using his inventions.
Fragile Speedster: Ekko excels at kiting around enemies and going in for big damage when they leave themselves open. Phase Dive serves both as an evasion and engagement tool, letting weave around enemies and their abilities then strike them with a lot of power. The slows from Timewinder and Parallel Convergence make kiting and locking down even easier. And finally you have his ultimate which gives him an instant reposition and an even bigger burst of damage. The thing that keeps him in line is the precision required to pull this off, otherwise he'll be shut down quick if he finds himself in a bad position.
Full-Contact Magic: His passive, Z-Drive Resonance and his passive from Parallel Convergence allow him to inflict magic damage on his basic attacks. Also applies to his Phase Dive's attack which also applies on-hit effects.
Gadgeteer Genius:If his Z-Drive and Timewinder weren't already clear signs of Ekko's inventive nature, then it's probably best to note that his official bio states that he was making simple machines before he could even crawl.
Gameplay and Story Integration: His cinematic shows that he's squishy but wins fights by evading others and using his Awesomeness by Analysis to exploit their weaknesses. In-game Ekko is a Skirmisher who thrives in outmaneuvering and outplaying his enemies, exploiting their positioning, and attacking without being caught in a straight fight, since he's not tanky enough to take on most other fighters.
Gameplay and Story Segregation: In his promo trailer, Ekko can reverse time at will, and did so a lot in a span of one fight, implying it would revert himself and everything around him (i.e. his mural and the Zaunite thug) to their original status, but that any injuries he personally sustained would still be with him. In-game, using Chronobreak heals Ekko and resets his own position, and has no effect on the rest of the players. Riot DID try to have it behave more like it does in canon, but changed it after they found that it would've been incredibly disorienting and unfair.
Glass Cannon: His abilities focuses around catching enemies out of position and using a mix of basic attacks and abilities to catch enemies off-guard and go for a kill. However, he is still an assassin, and can still be easily bursted down. However, he can also be built as a Lightning Bruiser as well.
Good Parents: Yep, everything we've seen about them points to being this. It was confirmed in a Q&A that despite meaning they barely see each other as a result, they work very hard in Zaun's factories (and are alive). In Lullaby, we see more of them; they have a high, appreciative opinion of their son, want him to go to school in Piltover, and celebrate his name day with cake that they apparently can't reasonably afford.
Grin of Audacity: As seen in his base splash art, and across his other iterations, Ekko has a habit of sporting a confident smirk when faced with a daunting challenge or fight.
"Groundhog Day" Loop: His Zero Drive allows him to effectively create and control a small-scale version of this, however he keeps the pain from any injuries he sustains in one of the loop's iterations.
- In CONV/RGENCE when Ekko's sent forward in time to his future self's timeline he keeps rewinding in an effort to convince his parents to stay in Zaun despite how much more dangerous and inhabitable it's became. Experiencing how much damage his perfectionist behavior has done to his relationships with his loved ones in the future leads to a breakthrough of personal growth that makes Ekko realize that, despite his time abilities, he can't always change everything around him to fit his own views of what is right, and to accept the decisions of others even though it might be against his own wishes.
Homemade Inventions: Ekko usually goes scrapyard diving in order to find materials and resources for his inventions, as seen in the Tales of Runterra cinematic "True Genius" where he's able to build a motorized onewheel from the scrap lying around and a misplaced hextech core.
Identity Breakdown: Goes through a minor one during CONV/RGENCE after discovering what his future self's actual plans are with the syntixi and contemplates what caused his future self to turn into such a person and how to avoid it from happening in the present.
Improbable Weapon User: His "sword" is actually a hand from a clock.◊ He stole it from a Piltover clock tower.
Intergenerational Friendship:
- If Legends of Runeterra is to be believed, he's good acquaintances with fellow Time Master champion Zilean, who's at least several generations his senior.
- In Arcane, he strikes up a friendship with yordle scientist Heimerdinger, who is 300 years old.
- In CONV/RGENCE, he manages to establish a friendly rapport with Camille of all people and brings out her softer side.
Invisible Parents: His parents are alive, and do care for him. However, their long work hours at a Zaun Factory gives Ekko considerable free time on his own. We finally get to see them in Lullaby, and their interactions with Ekko. They also play major supporting roles in CONV/RGENCE, which goes into detail about their relationship with their son.
I Warned You: His in-game taunts really shows how much he likes to mess with this enemies with knowledge from the future.
Ekko: "Haha… you never see this coming."
Keet: If his battle quotes, jokes, and taunts is an indicator, he's usually upbeat and energetic in battle.
Kid Hero: Approximately 16-17 years old according to Riot.
Le Parkour: His lore states how he and his friends are always doing stunts and climbing to high places all over Zaun & Piltover. It only got worse after he told his friends about his Z-Drive with them realizing they could now perform even more dangerous & life-threatening feats knowing Ekko would always rewind time to save them.
Lightning Bruiser: It is actually possible to build Ekko tanky and deal sustainable amount of DPS thanks to his Z-Drive Resonance and Parallel Convergence passives as well as the shield from his Parallel Convergence. He's one of the few champions that can easily be built tanky with a mix of AP and attack speed at the same time in a similar vein like Diana.
Living on Borrowed Time: Having used his Z-Drive to escape certain doom countless times, he's constantly courting death. Even Kindred (the Champion pair who are one of the most prolific spirit incarnations of death on Runeterra) knows who he is and aren't pleased with his ingenuity.
Lamb: "We know your name, child, woven across countless almost-lives."
Logical Weakness: Since Ekko doesn't actually heal when he goes back in time, this means he can only really keep rewinding as long as his physical stamina holds out. As seen in his short story, he kept rewinding time until he exhausted himself and fell asleep.
- Also it's important to note that the Z-Drive needs to be activated manually by pulling it's lever and turning the dial on his glove. If Ekko's knocked out or worse before he can do that then he done for. It wouldn't have been pretty in his SECONDS cinematic if that Vigilnaught decided to pin his right arm that had the dial on it instead of his left.
- As scene in his "Chronobreak" short comic, the Z-Drive can be damaged and if that happens, Ekko's unable to use his time abilities until he repairs it.
MacGyvering: Ekko's capable of building complex machinery just with what he finds from scrapyard diving. This sense of innovation is common place in Zaun due to it being a necessity for survival for most who live there.
Manipulative Bastard: What he's in danger of becoming if he's uses the Z-Drive in the wrong way.
- In the CONV/RGENCE comic, he uses multiple rewinds until he's successful in manipulating his dad into getting augmentation surgery to save his eyesight.
- When he travels to the bad future in his game, Ekko's parents tell him how his future self stopped seeing people as people, and instead as objects for him to manipulate. Thankfully this lesson hits present day Ekko hard and resolves him not to abuse his power over time.
Meaningful Name: Ekko is Danish and Norwegian for "echo".
- The two "K's" in his name are meant to resemble the rewind symbol, alluding to his time abilities.
Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: Taken to a new level in Ekko's case since he utilizes what he learns from his mistakes and rewinds time to put those lessons into action to achieve a successful outcome, as shown in his premier cinematic, SECONDS against the vigilnaught goon.
Ekko: "I'd rather make mistakes than make nothing at all."
My Country, Right or Wrong: Played with. He's definitely pro-Zaun, having a general distaste for Piltover champions in general, particular making fun of Jayce's ego and Caitlyn's job as policewoman. However, he recognizes Zaun's dystopic elements and is contemptuous at best to champs he sees as embodying Zaun's worst qualities (i.e. most of them). His taunt towards enemy Mundo implies he'd like Mundo to be exiled. When he isn't reminiscing about Twitch reminding of his pet rat, he mentions that he thinks Twitch is a disgrace. Jinx has gone too crazy for his liking anymore (at least, on any feelings of love, but he still considers her an ally). Victor and Singed, he just flat out hates, as he feels they embody Zaun's negative stereotypes. He's a definite example of 'If right to be kept right, if wrong to be set right', as he loves Zaun as his home and wishes to improve it, but understands why Zaun isn't well regarded by outsiders. In CONV/RGENCE, he is forced to reevaluate his views on Piltover and it's people once he gets to know some of them on an individual level, and he is absolutely against the idea of his future self's plan that would've resulted in massive causalities for the citizens of both Piltover & Zaun.
Multistage Teleport: In CONV/RGENCE, Ekko can use his Phase Dive ability in quick successions both for combat and traversal as long as his Z-Drive has enough energy charges.
My Future Self and Me: In CONV/RGENCE, present day Ekko teams up with a much older version of himself from the future in an attempt to stop a incident from occurring that leads to a war with Piltover.
- When it's revealed how far future Ekko is willing to go to stop said future from happening it leads to a falling out between him and present Ekko, with the latter having to stop him.
My God, What Have I Done?: Has a brief one at the end of his trailer when he realizes his actions caused a brute to be knocked into a memorial, destroying it. Looks like he'll have to retry that battle again.

N-Z

Nerves of Steel: Helps when you have a time machine strapped to your back that allows you to know your opponents moves before they do and therefore constantly be 2 steps ahead of them.
Ekko: "Come on! Show me something new!"
News Travels Fast: While he tried to keep it a secret at first, Ekko's time manipulation exploits eventually became known to some of the most powerful, inventive, and dangerous figures in both Piltover and Zaun. This make's Ekko a "person of interest" to keep tabs on with some figures wanting to recruit him for their own agendas. While others are considering him a threat to their current & future plans.
- It seems most chembarrons that are aware of Ekko see him as a constant thorn in their sides since he stops most of their plans that could harm Zaun and it's citizens. While there are others, like Renata Glasc, who are more interested in getting Ekko to work under them in some way.
- Jayce has been interested in getting his hands on the Z-Drive to reverse engineer it & figure out how it works. He even once offered Ekko an apprenticeship under him, of which was flatly declined.
- In Legends of Runterra the Sting Officer card mentioned that the Piltover Enforcers have a file on Ekko.
- Even clan Farros are keeping tabs on Ekko; though it's not known if they want to exploit his inventions for their own uses or are waitng to see if he's a potential threat to their power and the balance of status between the sister cities.
Nice Guy: According to Riot staff member FauxSchizzle, he describes both Ekko and Ajuna as "kindred souls." This is evident in the comics where, instead of chasing the evil Piltie and trying to kill him, he decided to stay with Ajuna in his last dying breath and build a mural dedicated to his friend.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In CONV/RGENCE when Ekko discovers that the syntixi crystals he's been helping his future self collect for half the game is going to be used for a bomb that'll destroy the synitxi and hextech stashes 'and cause mass casualties in both Zaun & Piltover as collateral damage.
Not the Intended Use: While he does get played as the laning assassin Riot designed him for, in competitive play, he is almost always played as a tank jungler. In addition, AD bruiser Ekko builds are also a common build divergence from the traditional AP assassin thanks to his Z-Drive Resonance and Parallel Convergence passives applying on-hit effects from basic attacks, and Phase Drive applying both on-ability and on-hit effects in addition to applying critical strikes. With numerous nerfs to AD Fizz, many players expect Ekko to take AD Fizz's place in top lane (assassin being built as bruiser type character).
- It's revealed in his short story, LULLABY that Ekko's Timewinder device was originally suppposed to be called a "Flashbringer" and act as a flash grenade that was capable of pulling enemies towards its center like a gravity well. When he saw that it could both slow down and damage enemies in a temporal field before returning back to his hand he decided to keep the function as is.
Open Secret: Tried to keep the Z-Drive a secret at first; only telling his friends about it. Unfortunately they went about telling others they knew about the device.
Older Than They Look: He is about 16-17 years old, yet his appearance looks like he's about 14 years old. To put into perspective, his friend, Ajuna, is roughly around 12 years old. When he uses his time drive, he still ages normally through each rewind, and is actually older than normal.
Riot!Jaredan, Senior Narrative Editor: "Ekko ages in or out of time-travel. In fact, you might see him beat the tar out of someone and make it look like he saw everything coming, and made every move perfectly the first time. However, in that 30 seconds, Ekko actually experienced that same span of linear reality over 200 times until he got it right. In other words, in that 30 seconds, Ekko aged 1 hour and 40 minutes. Some things he can never get back..."
Only Known by Their Nickname: Ekko is the name his friends gave him. His real name isn't known, and he doesn't share it.
The Perfectionist:
- Most fighters would just wait for a new opening to attack an opponents weak points. Ekko instead reverses time back to the fights start and tries again with the knowledge of how things went the last time to attack a mechanized brute's Power Fist to cause it to overload. Then because said actions accidentally destroy a memorial wall and mural, he winces at his injuries, and takes a breath and readies himself once more, as he resets time again.
  Ekko: "If you can't make the most out of any given moment, you don't deserve a single extra second."
- His belief in this mindset gets heavily deconstructed in CONV/RGENCE. Because he refuses to leave things alone until it is perfect (or until it's perfect in his eyes), it strains his relationship with his parents when he won't accept their decisions, and overall makes him very inflexible to hearing out other people's ideas once he is set on his idea for what is right. Him constantly rewinding time to make things perfect means he doesn't truly learn from his mistakes on an emotional/psychological level, and only reinforces his belief that he's the only one who knows what's right for anything. It takes meeting his future self who has all the bad qualities of a perfectionist cranked to 11 for present day Ekko to break out of this mindset.
Parental Obliviousness: Has somehow managed to keep his Z-Drive and time shenanigans across Zaun a complete secret from his parents.
Patriotic Fervor:
- Still a proud Zaunite, and has little respect for Zaun's cleaner half Piltover, which is why he's friends with Vi and Jinx (well, he was before she "started talking to her gun"), but dislikes Jayce and Caitlyn and taunts every other Piltover champion (referring them as 'Pilties'), though he dislikes the more unsavory Zaun champions (read: most of them, especially Singed and Viktor). He also plays this for laughs, in consideration of the meme given to Garen... According to Riot, his pride with Zaun is more of the fact that he was born and raised in the slums of Zaun. His hatred towards Piltover is more of the fact that the man who killed his friend, Ajuna, was an evil Piltie.
  Ekko: ZAUUUUUUNNN!!!!
- Part of his Character Development in CONV/RGENCE is accepting that not all Piltovans are horrible people, and that judging all of them based on his losses to the more corrupt members prevents him from seeing the good.
Pet the Dog: In his animated teaser, we see him repeatedly duel (and get beaten by) a hextech powered cybernetically-enhanced brute. Before the brute ever deals a killing blow, Ekko turns back the clock to an earlier point in the fight, albeit with the same injuries he's been given. Once he finally pulls off beating the guy though, the brute's damaged Power Fist overloads and sends the guy crashing into a mural. We get a Fake-Out Fade-Out, wherein time is reset once more and the mural's pieces back together, implying that Ekko is risking doing the fight one more time rather than leave the memorial destroyed.
Power Crystal: His Zero-Drive is powered by just the shards of a hexite crystal he managed to salvage from the ruins of a factory.
Power Glows: Ekko's sword-bat, Timewinder, and Z-Drive all emit a greenish-teal glow along with floating sigils/runes that are a different from the normal blue glow from hex-tech powered devices. His Z-Drive also leaves a glowing trail behind him as he moves.
Pungeon Master: Not immune to throwing out time puns/jokes every now and again
Rage Breaking Point: In his short comic CHRONOBREAK, where after over 90 rewind attempts to make it to his dying friend, Ajuna in time to save him and failing, Ekko lets his anger and frustration boil over; deciding that if he can't save his friend, then at least he could make sure his murderer pays dearly.
Reset Button: His ultimate, Chronobreak, in a nutshell. Notable as it only affects him.
Revenge: As the comic shows, if saving his friends is physically impossible, no matter how fast he moves, then at the very least, he'll hunt down whoever hurt them and beat them to a bloody pulp. It's subverted that he decided to spend the last moments with his friend Ajuna over trying to hunt down the evil Piltie.
Save Scumming: This is effectively how he fights (or does anything difficult), using his Zero Drive to rewind time to a "waypoint" he sets beforehand to give it another try.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Comes with the territory of being a punk genius with a heart of gold. Doesn't matter if you're a gang member, Chembarron, or Piltover Enforcer. If you plan to hurt Zaun or it's people in any way Ekko will do whatever he can to shut you down.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong: His abilities in a nutshell. Ekko can regain lost HP and most importantly positioning if things go wrong, as well as doing damage in case he ends up in the middle of a group.
Sherlock Scan: Ekko utilizes his strong observation skills along with his Z-Drive to immense effect in combat.
- During his fight against the Vigilnaut in the SECONDS cinematic, Ekko dodges the goons blow and in that half second makes a mental note of 3 key weak points on his enemie's mechanized arm for him to exploit. From then on the fight is about Ekko rewinding until he deduces the correct sequence of actions to take the goon down using said weak points.
Ship Tease: Rell, Taliyah, and Seraphine have expressed their attraction towards Ekko. Ekko himself mentions once having a crush on his childhood friend Powder, the girl that would grow up to become Jinx, but that her transformation eventually caused him to shut those feelings down.
Shrine to the Fallen: He has one in Zaun with the faces of his friends he's lost. It's the same one that gets destroyed in his video and he rewinds time to save.
Stay with Me Until I Die: Between chasing the evil Piltie who killed Ajuna and trying to save Ajuna, he decided to spend his the last moments with his friend, as he does not want to see his friend die alone.
Street Smart: A necessity if one wants to survive and thrive in Zaun. Thankfully Ekko's intellect doesn't just apply to inventing and he's a natural at navigating the streets and alleyways of Zaun and dealing with it's denizens.
Street Urchin: Without any formal education system in Zaun, Ekko and his gang of friends are usually roaming around the streets and at times even hustling or pickpocketing wealthy Piltovan's. Though they are adamant to only take from those who can afford it.
Stone Wall: A VERY popular build for Ekko. Tank Ekko works very well in staying alive while being able to apply as much of his difficult-to-hand crowd control as often as possible, all while having decent base AP ratios (along with Parallel Convergence's passive damage boost) and allowing him to stay all-in for much longer than intended. Him using Chronobreak to stay alive for longer also drives the point home, thus Tank Ekko is often one of the best teamfight champions, despite the build being a bit counter-intuitive. However, recent nerfs to his base ratios with increased AP scaling make it not as overpowering, but it still works.
Stop Being Stereotypical: Zaun is where his heart lies, but he's not blind to its problems, and as a generally sane inventor, he hates Mad Scientist champions like Singed and Viktor for being everything that people hate Zaun for.
Super-Reflexes: Kinda comes with the territory of knowing your opponent's future moves before they do, but even without the Z-Drive Ekko has pulled off feats that show his reflexes are borderline super-human at times.
- CONV/RGENCE shows him capable of out pacing even the likes of Warwick all while diving and leaping through and around all sort of obstacles.
Technobabble: Slips into this every so often when trying to explain how his inventions work to others.
- Has a fun quote in Legends of Runterra when asked how it feels to time travel.
  Taliyah: "Ekko! What does time feel like to you?"
  Ekko: "Uh... how well do you understand inertia relative to time?"
- Future Ekko in CONV/RGENCE notes how nice it is to finally be able to talk shop about his inventions with someone else; who happens to be his younger self.
Teen Genius: One smart enough that he cracked time travel.
Temporal Duplication: His after images are normally visual checkpoints that represent past locations that Ekko can rewind back to; hence his Ultimate ability in the MOBA, "CHRONOBREAK". However his "Parallel Convergence" shows an after image being able to physically interact in Ekko's reality. Basically the move allows Ekko to "converge" a parallel timeline with his own, therefore creating a short lived paradox of himself that he utilizes in combat.
Ekko: "Uh… if anyone sees my paradox, ask him where I am."
Thou Shalt Not Kill: One of Riot's developers, FauxSchizzle stated in a Q&A that the reason the team gave Ekko a blunt weapon was to convey that the character was not a killer at heart.
- After defeating Warwick in CONV/RGENCE, Ekko is very unnerved when his future self tries to convince him to finish the wolf-man off for good, and proclaims there has to be another way.
Time Master: His abilities involve manipulating time, similar to the Prince.
Time Travel: Ekko's modus operandi of course.
Tricked-Out Shoes: CONV/RGENCE shows that he's installed special plating underneath his shoes that allows him to grind the rails and pipe systems of Zaun with ease. They're also magnetized enough for him to wall run on any vertical metal plating
Troubled, but Cute: Riot describes him as a young, smart, and brilliant boy, but emotionally broken at times.
Token Good Teammate: Zac's not the only Zaunite who's actually good now. And if Ekko's quotes are anything to go by, there are others who used to be - He has quotes relating to Vi, Jinx, and Twitch. He's not completely good (more of a trickster archetype than anything), but he represents the idealistic-yet-grounded side of Zaun and despises Viktor (who he sees as a slave to blind, aimless progress and the embodiment of the "do it because it can be done" stereotype that Zaun carries), Singed, and Mundo (both of whom are on his shitlist for practicing bad science and having zero regard for human life; in other words, he hates them for embodying the worst of Zaun's "sadism with a thin veneer of For Science!" stereotype). Also, according to Riot staff's Q&A, Zac and Ekko would actually make good friends since they both represent the "good" side of Zaun.
Uncommon Time: Ekko's login theme is built on ambiguous and irregular rhythms, switching between 6/4 and 5/4 times at odd times, giving the impression of certain melodies missing a single beat before abruptly restarting. Given Ekko's shtick as "The Boy Who Shattered Time", this seems to be entirely intentional.
Underestimating Badassery: A lot of foes that go up against Ekko tend to underestimate him, Most likely due to his youth & technically non-lethal weaponry. And the same applies to those who already know about his Z-Drive and his time manipulation abilities. Unsurprisingly, proving their misplaced assumptions wrong is one of the things Ekko enjoys most in a fight.
Ekko: "Doubt me. I love that."
Weaponized Teleportation: Ekko's "Phase Dive" ability allows him warp space and time around him to teleport short distances to his intended target even if there's a solid obstacle between them such as a wall or another enemy.
We Used to Be Friends: Used to be friends with Jinx and Vi, before Jinx went crazy and Vi got amnesia and ended up in Piltover.
What the Hell, Hero?: In Ekko's CONV/RGENCE tie-in comic when he finally meets Jayce face to face to get him to help stop Viktor's latest scheme in Zaun, he learns the truth of what actually happened during their last confrontation; in which Jayce absentmindedly let Viktor escape without to even bothering to look for him afterwards. Learning that this is the reason for the current situation, Ekko is properly pissed. He then proceeds to verbally tear into the "Hero of Tommorrow", stating that he doesn't deserve the fame and glory he received from that event since it's based on a lie; and in truth Jayce is a narcissistic man-child who's unable to clean up his own messes and leaves it to others to fix things for him. This causes Jayce to finally start genuinely behaving like the hero everyone already thinks he is.
- Earlier in the same comic mini series, some of Ekko's friends call him out a couple of times; accusing him of abusing the Z-Drive's time capabilities. Although these accusations came from a place of annoyance or jealousy, Ekko himself takes the words to heart because he knows they're not entirely wrong since he did previously use the Z-Drive's rewind function to convince/manipulate his dad into getting an experimantal treatment to save his vision. This even caused him to go briefly abandon the Z-Dive out of fear of what he might turn into if he kept using it. Fortunately for everyone this didn't last.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Sort of. While he's still emotionally broken at times, he believes that Zaun has a bright future ahead and hope people's lives in the slums would be better. His idea of a bright future, however, is seen as "un-experienced perception" in Riot's own words.

Characters / League Of Legends Ekko

Ekko, the Boy who Shattered Time

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