Thanks to Hextech, Vi’s gloves have a lot of power. Image: Netflix
It’s almost time: Arcane Season 2 premieres on Netflix on November 9, 2024. A total of nine episodes appear, three per week – after which the series is completed. Many fans have been looking forward to the next season for years, after all, it has been three years since the tragic story of Zaun and Piltover began.
In season 2, the conflict escalates, as the first trailers already reveal. They also show: Hextech will play an important role again. But what exactly was that all about? We’ll summarize what you should know before you start the new episodes.
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Arcane: In the new trailer for Season 2, the conflict between Vi and Jinx explodes
What does Hextech have to do with the story?
Hextech is one in the Arcane universe Mixture of technology and magic. It wasn’t reinvented for Arcane, but has been haunting the lore of League of Legends for a long time. Here we will focus on the type of game as it appears in the animated series.
Here Hextech is a very new invention and was developed by Jayce and Viktor during the first season. They manage to capture the unstable energy of Hextech crystals into blue spheres called Hextech jewels. They can then be used for a variety of purposes without them immediately blowing up in your face.
The blue tickling is caused by the energy of the Hextech drive. Jayce can also use his hammer as a firearm.
At first it seems like an incredible opportunity to improve the lives of thousands of people – for example, by powering hexgates that allow airships to travel from one end of the world to the other in a matter of seconds.
Viktor even tries to improve hextech so that it can save people from death. Not least himself, because he is terminally ill. The combination of Hextech and living material (his blood) creates the Hexcore – a powerful and dangerous artifact that no one fully understands. Viktor’s experiments bring him into conflict with Professor Heimerdinger and also with Jayce.
Hextech soon also powers deadly weapons: such as Jayce’s war hammer, Vi’s giant boxing gloves or Jinx’s cannon, which she uses to fire at the Piltover Council at the end of season 1. Here you can see it all again in quick succession.
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Arcane: Do you want to refresh the story before Season 2? Here is the official recap
So it’s a double-edged sword: On the one hand, Hextech allows incredible advancement and allows non-sorcerers to use magic. On the other hand, it has the potential to cause terrible destruction – as we saw in Season 1 with the sad death of Viktor’s assistant Sky.
It might be possible to completely control Hextech through the correct use of runes, but no one has really managed to do so yet. The hexcore remains unstable and mysterious.
The research at Hextech first brought Viktor and Jayce together and then brought them into conflict.
What role does Hextech play in Season 2?
We don’t know for sure yet, but several Hextech-powered weapons have been seen in the trailers shown so far. The sentence “The Arcane is waking up” was also mentioned – and the series isn’t called that for nothing. So something seems to be happening with magic and most likely the invention of Hextech is related to it.
We don’t even know how the inventors Jayce and Viktor are doing after the dramatic end of season 1 – can they continue their research? Will they overcome their differences? Or will Hextech perhaps fall into completely different hands? Hopefully from November 9, 2024 we will be smarter.
In the MOBA League of Legends there are numerous playable champions that have something to do with Hextech. The “robots” Blitzcrank and Orianna, for example, no longer even have natural bodies, but are powered solely by mysterious energy. But most use it as part of their signature weapon.
