League of Legends Skins Guide

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Jesús' story on League of Legends started thanks to his friends, who introduced him to the summoner's rift just because it was an excuse to get some bonding besides school hours. When he got on the League of Legends' world, he got fascinated because every match was way different from each other; every match could be resumed in a great story, and imagining great beasts fighting against fierce warriors, or deities battling against wizards or vampires was some imagination fuel for Jesús.

Quality Tiers

Not all the skins are the same. Some are just like a dress change for a Champion, while others completely change the Champion’s model, voice and animations. So, depending on the changes they add to a Champion, the skins will have a price in the store and be categorized in a tier. Let’s check it:

Standard Skins (from 390 to 975 RP, from $3 to $7)

These are the most basic skins available in the game and are more like a dress change for a Champion. The 390 RP skins just change the basic model of a Champ and feel more like a Chroma, while there are some other Skins that cost 460, 520, or 750 RP but don’t add very much, just some model changes, and lastly, 975 RP is the fixed price from the Standard Skins from now on, and those include slight model changes.

Epic Skins (1350 RP, $10)

These skins add slight changes to the animations of a Champ, as well as changing SFX, model textures, and sometimes, voice effects. Riot Games are constantly releasing these skins, which, in my opinion, are very expensive, and it would be nice if they also release Standard Skins more often.

Legendary Skins (1850 RP, $20)

Normally, these and the Epic Skins are the same, but on these, there will always be new voice effects and even a complete dialog change. For $20, it isn’t worth it at all.

Ultimate Skins (3250 RP, $35)

These are the best skins on the game, and as well as including all the perks from the Legendary Skins, they can also include interactivity mid-match. There’s an exception on these skins, exactly, Gun Goddess Miss Fortune, that is tagged as Ultimate Skin but costs 2775 RP. This happened because the community argued a lot about the skin price compared with the new perks of the skin.

Mythic Skins (Only available through Gems, Prestige Points or Events)

These skins are the same as the Legendary Skins and don’t bring something else to the table, but they are exclusive because of the method to get them; through Gems (that can be obtained through Chests), through Prestige Points (which can be obtained through a battle pass) or through events (Like Annie-Versary, the latest skin that Riot gifted).

How to Get a Skin?

As you can see, the skins have a price, which means that you can buy them with real money in the store by buying RP (Riot Points). But that’s not the only method to get Skins in the game; some methods are free, but you’ll have to have a lot of luck to get your desired skin. So let’s check the methods:

Buying RP

If you want a specific skin and have the money, you can buy it in the store by charging RP on your account. Also, you can wait for the “Your Shop” discounts, these appear periodically, but you have to be lucky enough to have a discount available for a specific skin. Then, you can buy the RP on the store (1380 RP for $10, 3500 for $25, and 7200 for $50), or go to certain stores like Walmart, Walgreens, Target, Gamestop, or 7-Eleven to buy cards for the same price.

Through Hextech Crafting

The Hextech Crafting is a reward system that will help you get free skins, but if you want a certain skin, you’ll have to have a ton of luck.

Hextech Chests

The Hextech Chest system is based on Chests and Keys, and you’ll get them by playing and being excellent in matches or buying Chests on the store with RP.

So, you can buy a Hextech Chest for 125 RP, a bundle of a Hextech Chest and Key for 195 RP, a bundle of 5 Hextech Chests and Keys + 50 of Orange Essence for 975 RP, and a bundle of 11 Hextech Chests and Keys for 1950 RP.

But there’s another way to get Hextech Chests and Keys. You’ll have a chest available per Champ, and you’ll have to get S- or superior in a match with that Champ to unlock the Chest, and the Hextech Chest availability will reset every season. Also, you’ll get Key Shards by constantly giving Honors after matches. You’ll need three Key Shards to build a Key.

Of course, the Hextech Chests’ rewards are luck-based, so here’s a table of what you can get through Hextech Chests and their probabilities:

Chance	Reward
50%	Skin Shard
25%	Champion Shard
11.5%	Ward Skin Shard + 150 Orange Essence
10%	Emote
3.5%	Summoner Icon Shard + 150 Orange Essence.

But the Hextech Chests also have extra rewards that can help you get more skins:

Chance	Extra Reward
3.6%	Gemstone
0.04%	Permanent Mythic Skin
10%	Hextech Chest and Key.

With Skin Shards, you can do a lot of things:

You can create a random permanent skin with Three Skin Shards that will unlock if you have the Champion unlocked and will be in your inventory until you unlock the Champion too.
You can disenchant the Skin Shard to convert it into Orange Essence. The Shard will give you 20% of the RP cost of the skin in OE.
You can rent the skin for seven days, consuming the Shard. However, I don’t recommend doing this as you’ll lose the Shard forever.
Lastly, you can convert the Skin Shard into permanent skin by consuming your Orange Essence. The cost will be the same cost of the skin in RP – 300, in OE.

Masterwork Chests

The Masterwork Chests are slightly different from the Hextech Chests, as they can only be purchased, but they give Skin Shards more often. You can buy a Masterwork Chest for 165 RP, a set of a Masterwork Chest, a Key and a Prestige Point for 225 RP, a set of 5 Masterwork Chests and Keys and 6 Prestige Points for 1125 RP, and lastly, 11 Masterwork Chests and their Keys and 13 Prestige Points for 2250 RP.

Here are some tables of the loot you can get through the Masterwork Chests:

Chance	Reward
70%	Skin Shard
10%	525 Orange Essence
10%	Emote
10%	Ward Skin + 150 Orange Essence

And here’s the extra loot you can get from Masterwork Chests:

Chance	Extra Reward
3.6%	Gemstone
0.04%	Permanent Mythic Skin
10%	Hextech Chest and Key.

But Skin Shards aren’t the only thing you can get through the Chests, as you can also get Gemstones.

Gemstones

The Gemstones are part of the extra loot of a Chest, and they can unlock certain items for us. You can do two things with the Gemstones; change a Gemstone for a Masterwork Chest, or you can get one of these skins for 10 Gemstones:

Hextech Alistar, Amumu, Annie, Jarvan IV, Kassadin, Kog’Maw, Malzahar, Nocturne, Poppy, Rammus, Renekton, Sejuani, Swain, Tristana, or Ziggs.
Dark Star Cho’Gath.
Dreadnova Darius.
Lanzer Zero Hecarim.
Soulstealer Vayne.

These are tagged as Mythic Skins in the Quality Tiers.

Through Mystery Tokens

The Mystery Tokens are special items Riot Games only gives through missions, but this doesn’t happen very often. There are Tokens for Champions, Ward Skins, and Icons, but the Tokens we need for getting skins are:

Skin Shard Token.
Epic Skin Shard Token.
Permanent Skin Token.
Permanent Legendary Skin Token.
Gemstone Skin Token (Gives you one of the Mythic Skins listed above).

Through Events

Riot Games is constantly doing events to celebrate new skin sets or special moments in the community, and the Events are a great moment to get a skin. The first thing you’ll see during Events are missions; the missions will give you a certain amount of Event Tokens, and you can use the Event Tokens to buy Event Orbs.

Also, the Events come with an Event Battle Pass, which will give you more missions (so you’ll get a lot more Tokens) and Event Capsules.

Event Orbs

The Event Orbs will always give you a Skin Shard, but it has extra loot, which works like this:

Chance	Extra Reward
8%	Another Random Skin Shard
4%	Event Bag or Jackpot
0.06%	Mythic Skin
5.4%	Gemstone

Event Capsules

The Event Capsules grants you three random Skin Shards, as well as some extra loot:

Chance	Extra Reward
4%	Event Bag or Jackpot
0.06%	Mythic Skin
5.4%	Gemstone

As you saw, the Event Capsules and Orbs give something named Event Bags, also known as Jackpots. The Jackpots don’t have a defined loot to give, so every Event Bag will tell you your rewards for opening them.

Through Prestige Points

The Prestige Points works like the Event Tokens, but they give exclusive skins available during some time set by Riot Games. The Prestige Points expire after the set time, and you’ll need to get more. Every Skin in the Prestige Points Shop costs 100 Prestige Points.

The only way to get Prestige Points is by buying Masterwork Chests or buying the Event Battle Pass. In my opinion, these skins are just a waste of time as they don’t give anything special and are just golden and expensive Chromas for Epic or Legendary Skins.

They work only for a certain part of the community and are very famous in China, but they are very expensive if you compare the extra content given from the skins with the price you have to pay for having one of them. The only good perk of the Prestige Edition Skins is that they are exclusive for a certain amount of time, and then you can’t get them in any way, but that’s all.

Chromas

The Chromas are color palette changes for existing Skins or base models. These were added to give a certain skin more personality and give the players more color options if they don’t like the color palette but like the new model or concept when purchasing a skin.

You can find a list of all the available chromas in the store, and every Chroma costs 290 RP (around $1.5), but you can also wait for the Essence Emporium.

The Essence Emporium is a temporal shop where you can buy Chromas, Icons, and Urfwick with Blue Essence. They are randomly set, but Riot always notify the players when an Essence Emporium is arriving, so if you want to buy some Chromas, keep an eye on the news!

The only downside of the Essence Emporium is that not all the Chromas are available every time an Emporium is up, so you can be unlucky enough not to have your desired Chroma available during an Emporium. Still, you can buy the Chromas for 2000 of BE.

Some exclusive ones are more expensive but are great, like the Partner Program Chromas, which are exclusive emerald green-like Chromas that are available only for the Partner Program members, and you can buy them for 10000 BE.

Legacy Skins

If you thought that the store had all the available skins in the game, you are wrong, as some are tagged as Legacy Skins. These are more exclusive as they were in the store for a time but got out of there, and normally is because they are part of a certain event. Of course, Riot can put some of them available again in the store for a while, but this won’t happen unless there’s an event running.

Still, you can get Legacy Skins; the only change between these and the normal skins is that they aren’t available in the store (so you can’t buy them with RP directly), but all the methods explained before are valid for getting Legacy Skins. There’s even a Mystery Token that can give you a Legacy Skin, named Legacy Skin Token, and My Shop discounts can also include Legacy Skins.

Best Skin Sets

Now, I’ll give you a list of my favorite Skin Sets. These are, in my opinion, the most polished Skins, and probably you’ll find a great skin that you didn’t know or even start playing a Champ because of a specific skin on this list! Let’s go.

Blood Moon Set

The Blood Moonset is probably one of the most creative yet simple skins in the game, as Riot took the concept behind Ionia as a country and gave it a complete twist (literally, as the Blood Moon shield is the Lunari shield but upside down and in black and red colors).

Champions with Blood Moon Skins:

Aatrox
Akali
Diana
Elise
Evelynn
Jhin
Kalista
Katarina
Kennen
Master Yi
Pyke
Shen
Sivir
Talon
Thresh
Tryndamere
Twisted Fate
Yasuo
Zilean

Of course, these skins have lore. In their universe, Blood Moon Twisted Fate is the leader of the Blood Moon cult, and he has helpers like Shen, Akali, Sivir, Elise, or Yasuo to execute some cults and invoke demons like Zilean, Kalista, Kennen, or Pyke. All the Blood Moon demons are ruled by Aatrox.

These skins’ colors and design are around Black, White, and Red tones, and all of the splash arts from these skins are happening during the Blood Moon nights.

High Noon Set

If you are an Old West fan and you play League of Legends, of course, you have to pass through this classic and rebooted set. At the start, this set was inspired in the Old West, but thanks to High Noon Lucian, the set took a turn to get inspiration from Lucian’s concept, including angels and demons. I think that it’s a clever twist that I haven’t seen in any other game and can be exploited perfectly.

High Noon Set Skins:

Bandito Fiddlesticks
Cowgirl Miss Fortune
Desperada Cassiopeia
Longhorn Alistar
Sandscourge Skarner
Sonoran Kog’Maw
Sheriff Caitlyn
High Noon Ashe, Darius, Hecarim, Irelia, Jhin, Lucian, Senna, Thresh, Twisted Fate, Urgot, Yasuo.

The High Noon Set started with the first few skins, and the concept was rather simple; cowboys, sheriffs, and some sandy-like creatures, but then, when the Skins Multiverse started, and Riot Games added the High Noon Skins, the complete set got a turnaround, where Lucian fights against Thresh to recover Senna’s soul, while Ashe and Darius team up to fight Hecarim.

Mecha Set

Of course, I can’t list the best skin sets without adding the Mecha Set, which is based on Mechas. The Mechas’ lore says that three scientists joined to create a group of Mechas to protect the world against the big Kaiju known as Crabgot.

Mecha Set Skins:

Giant Enemy Crabgot
Mecha Aatrox, Aurelion Sol, Kha’Zix, Malphite, Rengar.
Mecha Zero Sion.

Odyssey Set

Do you love Guardians of the Galaxy? Well, the Odyssey set is wonderful for you. I have a special memory about the Odyssey set because it was one of the last skin sets with an exclusive event with their game mode.

In the Odyssey universe, the Demaxian Empire took control of most of the planets, systems, and galaxies, searching Ora, the fuel of this universe. But the Demaxian Empire isn’t the only one behind the precious Ora; some crews are trying their luck invading and taking Ora from the Demaxian Empire; these are the Morning Sun Crew, formed by Jinx, Malphite, Sona and Yasuo, the Wildcard Crew, formed by Kha’Zix, Sivir and Twisted Fate, and a Criminal Syndicate ruled by Aatrox. Kayn controls the Demaxian Empire’s defense.

Odyssey Set Skins:

Galaxy Slayer Zed
Odyssey Aatrox, Jinx, Karma, Kayn, Kha’Zix, Malphite, Sivir, Sona, Twisted Fate, Yasuo, and Ziggs.

Event Horizon Set

The Event Horizon is such a great set with some interesting stories. The best part of this set is that it is divided into three parts, the Dark Cosmic beings, the Dark Star beings, and the Cosmic beings.

All of these three groups coexist in their universe; the Cosmic beings have a court where they decide about the faith of their universe, while the Dark Cosmic beings were part of the Cosmic Court but got out of there because of the corruption of the Dark Star power. In contrast, the Dark Star beings are terrible beasts that want to consume the universe.

Dark Cosmic Skins:

Jhin
Lissandra
Lux

Cosmic Skins:

Cosmic Lux
Cosmic Blade Master Yi
Cosmic Charger Hecarim
Cosmic Dawn Rakan
Cosmic Defender Xin Zhao
Cosmic Destiny Nami
Cosmic Devourer Vladimir
Cosmic Dusk Xayah
Cosmic Enchantress Lulu
Cosmic Flight Anivia
Cosmic Hunter Varus
Cosmic Huntress Nidalee
Cosmic Invoker Illaoi
Cosmic Queen Ashe
Cosmic Reaver Kassadin
Cosmic Sting Skarner

Retired Skins

Some skins got completely retired from the Legacy Skins, mostly because these were skins from specific IRL events like the PAX, or skins that are rewards like Annie-Versary or the Victorious skins.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to get these skins right now, and you can only see them with hacks (which isn’t recommended at all) or by being part of the PBE. So, here’s the list of the retired skins and their way to obtain them:

Annie-Versary: Gifted to all the players on the 10th anniversary of League of Legends.
Unchained Allistar: Given to all the players that subscribed to the Riot Games YouTube Channel from 2009 to 2018.
Rusty Blitzcrank: By buying for 520 RP. It got retired in 2010.
UFO Corki: Given to all the IGN and Gamespy Reader’s Choice Awards’ public in 2009.
PAX Jax: Given to the attenders of the PAX East of 2010 and 2011 and the PAX Prime of 2010.
Judgement Kayle: Given all the accounts that existed from Season 1.
King Rammus: Given to all the Closed Beta Testers of the game.
2012’s Championship Riven: By buying it for 975 RP during the Worlds 2012.
Riot Squad Singed: Attending PAX East and Prime 2010, Gamescom 2010, CeBIT 2011, EPS 2011, or Siggraph 2011.
PAX Sivir: Attending PAX Prime 2011.
PAX Twisted Fate: Attending PAX Prime 2009.
Riot Girl Tristana: Visiting the Riot Games’ Facebook webpage from 2009 to 2018.
Silver Kayle, Young Ryze, and Black Alistar: Gifted to all the players who bought the League of Legends’ Collector Edition.
Victorious Jarvan IV, Janna, Elise, Morgana, Sivir, Maokai, Graves, Orianna, Aatrox: Gifted to all the players who got Gold or superior in the Ranked Matches.

As I said, none of these skins can be bought or obtained through Hextech Crafting, so if you have one of these skins, you can feel lucky!

FAQs

Question: Why did Rusty Blitzcrank and Championship Riven get retired from the store?

Answer: Rusty Blitzcrank was the skin that accompanied Blitzcrank in his release, and Riot Games quickly retired it from the store because people back then were very unhappy with the skin’s changes. Meanwhile, Championship Riven got re-released in 2016 during the 2016 Worlds, but that’s all. So there’s no reason why this skin is retired from the game.

Question: Is there a way to get one of the retired skins?

Answer: No, there’s not a way to get them. There are some Reddit posts of people that got Rusty Blitzcrank after buying all the available skins in the store, but that’s a lot of money. Also, of course, I don’t recommend you use one of those online shops where you can buy an account with the skin unlocked as it is illegal, and you can get easily scammed.

Question: Why does the Legacy Skins exist?

Answer: Riot started a campaign where they would retire their oldest skins and put some limited edition skins on a list named Legacy Skins to make the newer players able to have those skins, but they would not be in the store to make room for newer and better skins. That happened in 2011, and the system is still up, making the Legacy Skins a collectible thing.