The Second Ned Stark Kit Lands When a Banner Dies

Zynga will add Ned Stark as The Hand of the King in Game of Thrones: Legends on September 23, 2026, as a second kit of a Champion players already use. It is the last of three Stark drops, and it lands on the same date a banner that already sells the original Ned goes dark.

The official note does not call this a screen comeback. It calls it a new version of Ned Stark, sold with Brienne of Tarth and Lyanna Mormont so a Stark pack bonus only pays if you own the set.

Zynga Is Selling Ned Stark Twice

Sean Bean’s Ned last led Winterfell on HBO in 2011. In Legends he never left. The Warden of the North is a Protector with the ancestral sword Ice, and he has been on Stark ice teams since launch on July 25, 2024.

The new unit is titled The Hand of the King. Zynga’s August 24, 2026 post told House Leaders that winter was coming early with three Champions joining the Stark faction across August and September, starting with Brienne of Tarth, The True Knight, then Lyanna Mormont, the young Lady of Bear Island, and then Ned.

@GoTLegends posted that slate the same day, with almost no public argument under it. The louder posts still treat the date like a TV return. The live-ops calendar is doing something narrower: reprint the North’s most famous dead man as the closer of a paid trio.

Winter is coming early with three new champions joining the Stark faction in August – September!

Read everything here 🐺🛡️ https://t.co/AyBEWFx12T

— Game of Thrones: Legends (@GoTLegends) August 24, 2026

Players who already built around the Warden can stack that kit against a second Ned Stark kit on September 23 that Zynga is selling as support, not as a first look at the character.

He protects his allies by taking their burdens upon himself, restores those who fight loyally beside him and fills the battlefield with swift, punishing judgment.

Game of Thrones: Legends Team, New Starks Are Coming

That is the whole kit pitch. Take debuffs off teammates, heal the people who stay in the fight, then hit back. The Warden’s job has been to stand in front and make Ice teams harder to break. The Hand’s job is to keep that pack on its feet while the new fighter and the Bear Island girl do the rest.

The True Knight Banner Ends the Morning He Drops

Brienne of Tarth went live on August 26, 2026. The same morning, at 4 a.m. ET, Zynga opened a True Knight summon that already features Ned beside Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Catelyn Stark and Jon Snow. It takes Exalted Tokens, and it closes on September 23 at 2 a.m. ET.

That is the same calendar date as the Hand of the King launch. Spend a month pulling the original Ned on a Stark family banner, then watch that banner die hours before the new Ned is sold as a separate Legendary. The recommended team on Brienne’s own page still lists Ned Stark (Warden Of The North) in the core five with Catelyn, Jon Snow (King in the North) and Sansa.

From today, September 2, 2026, Brienne has been live for 7 days. Lyanna is 7 days out. The Hand kit is 21 days out. The True Knight window has the same 21 days left on the clock.

THE STARK DROP CALENDAR

1. August 24, 2026: Zynga posts that a new version of Ned Stark is coming with Brienne and Lyanna.
2. August 26, 2026: Brienne of Tarth, The True Knight, goes live and the True Knight summon opens at 4 a.m. ET.
3. September 4, 2026: The True Knight Proving Grounds close at 2 a.m. ET.
4. September 9, 2026: Lyanna Mormont, the Lady of Bear Island, is due to launch.
5. September 23, 2026: The True Knight summon ends at 2 a.m. ET and Ned Stark, The Hand of the King, is due to launch.

The span from Brienne’s launch date to Ned’s launch date is 28 days. That is a month-long North sale, not a one-night cameo. A rival Exalted Token banner, The Royal Treasury, runs until September 9 at 2 a.m. ET with Tyland Lannister, Otto Hightower, Aegon II Targaryen, Gwayne Hightower and Alicent Hightower, so the Lyanna morning is also when that Targaryen-Hightower pit closes.

What the Hand of the King Version Does

The original Ned is still the Warden of the North. In November 2025 Zynga put Ice on him as an Iconic Item once he hits Star Rank 3. When an ally uses a Skill, he gains Tenacity. At higher levels, if that ally is a Stark, he also gains Taunt, and if he is taunting at the start of the turn he grants all allies Durability for that turn, which is how he soaks area hits for the pack.

Ice also boosts his Health, Hit Chance and Tenacity. That is a front-line Protector who gets harder to shift the more his house acts. The Hand kit, by Zynga’s own blurb, pulls burdens off allies, restores the loyal and then applies “swift, punishing judgment.” One Ned stands in the door. The other cleans the status bar and pays the heal.

TWO NEDS AND THE NEW FIGHTER

A Brienne unit has been in the game since at least November 2025, when her Iconic Item, Oathkeeper, shipped with an HP Guard at 50% HP. The August 26 drop is Brienne of Tarth (True Knight), a Legendary Gold Fighter, so the “new Starks” wave reprints two household names and adds Lyanna as the fresh face in the trio.

Brienne of Tarth Is Already in the Fight

The live kit is not a cameo portrait. Her Skill, Two Quick Deaths, hits a target and the enemies beside them for Physical Damage, and each adjacent hit foe gets ICE. Her Trait, Step Aside Or I’ll Step Over You, raises her Critical Strike Chance and spawns True Knight Gems whenever she or a teammate applies ICE, then adds another Physical strike if that enemy is Brittle.

Her Leader line, Stand your ground!, gives the whole team a Defense buff when a True Knight Gem or Ally Gem is destroyed, with extra Stamina for Sansa and Arya, and an indefinite ATK buff whenever an enemy becomes Brittle. The official synergies point at Sansa, Arya and Jon Snow as the ICE engine that keeps those extra strikes firing.

That is why the original Warden is still on her best-team list. Ice teams already open fights with Ned as the tank, then feed freeze into a damage dealer. The new Hand kit does not replace that board. It is a second Ned sold into the same North identity after you have spent Exalted Tokens on the family banner that carries the first one. The game is free to play on the App Store and on Google Play, and the August 26 client was version 1.0.581.

Owning All Three Unlocks the Pack Bonus

Zynga’s own line is that the three are fine alone and better as a set. “Owning all three champions gives Starks a new play boost.” The post then assigns the jobs in order: Brienne savages the enemy, Lyanna keeps momentum and counters control, Ned inspires and protects while taking burdens onto himself.

THE NORTH PACK ZYNGA IS SELLING

• Brienne, The True Knight: Gold Fighter who spreads ICE, spawns True Knight Gems and extra strikes on Brittle targets.
• Lyanna, Lady of Bear Island: Rewards attacks in a set order, chains one hit into the next, and helps allies resist Silence, Restrain and Misdirection so a Stark leader can answer at once.
• Ned, The Hand of the King: Strips burdens off allies, restores the people who stay beside him, then adds his own punishing hits on September 23.

Lyanna is the hinge in that list. Her kit is built to keep a Stark leader ready to counter, which only pays if the leader you paid for is actually on the field. That is the trap in the 28-day calendar. Pull Brienne now, hold tokens for Lyanna on September 9, then spend again on the Hand kit two weeks later, or the boost the post keeps repeating does not switch on.

The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives.

Game of Thrones: Legends Team, official Stark announcement

They hung the sale on the house words. The lone wolf line is the product copy for a three-Champion ownership gate, not a lore drop. You can run Brienne with the Warden you already have. The play boost they are advertising is for the new trio.

110 Million Deaths and a Protector Named Ice

Zynga already knows which Ned players use. For the game’s first anniversary on July 25, 2025, the studio said Ned Stark was the most-used Champion of year one and that he had died 110 million times in battle. Jon Snow and Beric Dondarrion had been resurrected more than 16 million times. House Leaders had finished more than 161 million raids, and more than 1.3 million dragons had been slain in Alliance Legendary Assaults, with Daenerys ordering Drogon to “Dracarys” more than 289 million times.

NED STARK IN YEAR ONE

• Most used: Ned was the most-used Champion in the first year after the July 25, 2024 launch.
• Deaths: He died 110 million times, which is the job of a Protector who stands in front of Ice teams.
• Spend: AppMagic put first-year player spending at $23.6 million on the App Store and Google Play.
• September peak: That firm’s tally had a $2.9 million month in September 2024, with $126,000 on September 21, 2024, after $1 million in the first 14 days.

A Champion who dies 110 million times is not a missing face. He is the default tank. Selling The Hand of the King on September 23, 2026, after a summer of Targaryen names, is a bet that the original series’ most famous dead man still moves Exalted Tokens harder than last month’s dragon banner. The official newsroom spent June and July on Daemon Targaryen, Seasmoke, Viserys I Targaryen, Ser Gwayne Hightower and Tyland Lannister. House of the Dragon Season 3 launched on June 21, 2026, with dragons cleared for PvP. Then the calendar snapped back to Winterfell.

How Exalted Tokens Gate the North Pack

True Knight is not a gold pity. It requires Exalted Tokens, the same premium summon currency as The Royal Treasury, which Zynga scheduled to end on September 9 at 2 a.m. ET, the Lyanna morning. Anyone who chased Tyland, Otto, Aegon II, Gwayne or Alicent through early September hits the Stark pack with a thinner token pile. Kingsroad: Raven’s Choice, a Bran Stark season, runs from August 17 at 3 a.m. ET to September 14 at 2 a.m. ET, so the middle of the North sale is also a direwolf battle-pass window.

Legends is Zynga’s puzzle RPG in which you match gems to charge Champions from Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, plus A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, then send them through raids, PvP and Alliance Wars. The Warden of the North is already in that pool, Ice and all. The Hand of the King is a second portrait of the same man, timed to the hour a banner that sells the first portrait shuts.

On September 23 at 2 a.m. ET the True Knight summon ends. Later that date the Hand kit is due to go live, and the pack bonus Zynga wrote into the August 24 post will finally have all three names in the shop at once.