The Rarest Skins In League Of Legends

League of Legends is one of the biggest games in the world with millions of active players and just about as many skins (not really). Currently there are 141 champions and nearly a thousand skins, but that number just keeps on increasing. Since Riot Games announced the game in 2008, the diverse designs of the Champions of the Summoner's Rift have kept on shapeshifting into all new forms. Some are more rare than others, and others are even rarer than those.

Diehard fan? Discerning collector? Good luck. To obtain some of the skins listed here, LoL players would have to strain their wallets, patience, and perhaps benefit from a time machine, because some of these super rare skins were only awarded to the most OG of players who have been with the game since the beginning. Others are all up to chance, and those odds aren't always in the player's favor. But what is for sure is the allure of the ultra rare, and that some of these skins are worth the journey — through time, budget, or temper — that it takes to get them.

Video games love to reference other video games, and League of Legends is no exception. Before it even launched, Rammus was subtly recolored to give participants of the closed beta their very own koopa king, King Rammus. With minimal effort, the usually blue Armordillo gets an upgrade and becomes a much more familiar face. With a spiky green shell and scaly yellow skin, the newly crowned King Rammus is a dead ringer for Mario's mortal enemy, Bowser.

It's not a dramatic change. This skin doesn't have any additional effects, voicelines, or animations that would suggest that it was anything more than a simple recolor. But this was the early days of League, and because of King Rammus' very limited availability, it is perhaps the rarest of all the skins in the game. King Rammus was gifted to those who were running around the Summoner's Rift before the game was publicly available in 2009. In those ancient times, there were no codes for players to sell or exchange skins, so the only accounts with this skin were those who are the ultimate OGs and were working out bugs in the closed beta.

Those who pre-ordered League of Legends in 2009 couldn't have possibly known how massive the game would become, or how intensely rare the skins they were rewarded with would become. The three skins bundled with the pre-order of the collector's edition of the game seemed humble, lackluster even. Just 60,000 people received them, a number that might've been the pride of Riot Games in 2009, but is now minuscule compared to the millions who play the game and buy skins every day.

The Black Alistar skin is just that: the Alistar skin, except darker and with an orange mane. The recolor isn't amazing, but remains rare and a favorite of some professional players lucky enough to have it. The Silver Kayle skin is marginally more impressive, going for a silver look rather than the usual golden armor. Young Ryze got an entirely revamped look in 2015, reworked from a plain recolor dubbed "Human" Ryze. When Ryze was a young man, he wasn't quite yet purple and he still had some hair on his head, making the Young Ryze skin noticeably different from the base skin.

Goth Annie was also part of this bundle, but was later added to the store. Black Alistar, Silver Kayle, and Young Ryze are entirely unavailable, their codes disabled in 2014. Unless a diehard collector wants to purchase an old account with these skins, there is no way to collect these collector's items.

Another early addition to League's extensive collection of Champion skins, Rusty Blitzcrank became something of a legend in its own right. Blitzcrank is the "Great Steam Golem," so it would make sense that even his shiny copper chest would gather some rust if left out in the rain. Perhaps following that logic, Riot released the Rusty Blitzcrank skin in November of 2009 when League was new and still working out the kinks in what would later become one of the most popular games worldwide. However, Rusty Blitzcrank was there and gone, apparently deemed as one of those wrinkles to smooth out. The skin was removed from the store quickly, and without explanation.

Rusty Blitzcrank is the only non-legacy skin to be removed from the store. It wasn't particularly expensive, or really even that attractive of a skin. Other than taking on a brown, rusted look, the Rusty Blitzcrank skin had no new animations or effects. Some theorize that this is why the skin was removed. It was nearly identical to the default Blitzcrank skin, and thus embarrassing on Riot's part to ask for payment for a cheap recolor. This incident goes to show that oftentimes the splash art is much more attractive than the actual skin. However, because of this quiet fiasco in the early days, the Rusty Blitzcrank skin remains one of the rarest skins in League.

Initially, Riot wasn't putting a whole lot of effort into designing skins. The game was new, the amount of champions small, so designers were more concerned with creating all new characters rather than new looks for existing ones.This is why many of the first skins released in the early days were simple recolors: minimal effort but nevertheless something new for the burgeoning player base to enjoy. UFO Corki broke this cycle, sporting a whole new look for an already interesting champion.

This rare skin is more than a new paint job: Corki has traded his signature chopper for a monster-faced spaceship. Despite this skin lacking any new alien-themed sounds, the glowing blue hover of the craft speaks to some additional effort. UFO Corki lives up to the splashart and was gifted to players as a promotion to those who were registered with the game before January 14th, 2010.

This made UFO Corki exclusive to the early adopters of the game. Considered by many collectors to be the first ever legendary skin, those in search of UFO Corki can only obtain this skin through buying accounts that have already redeemed it years ago.

Perhaps it was destiny for the lucky few who can claim to own this skin. In 2017, LoL boasted over 80 million active, monthly players. In 2009, Riot couldn't yet dream of those numbers, let alone the fact that their humble MOBA would become one of the most played PC games worldwide. Thus they pushed hard to garner attention, and maybe thought it generous to pass out 20,000 PAX Twisted Fate skins at the Penny Arcade Expo in 2009.

PAX Twisted Fate isn't the most revolutionary of skins. Ditching the normal black and gold look, PAX Twisted Fate is PAX-themed: all white, blue, and black. The PAX '09 logo on the back of his cloak might be a little gaudy, but that logo is now a testament to the rarity of this skin. Out of the millions of people playing LoL, only a tiny percentage who happened to be at PAX that year received this skin.

What's more is that in later years, Riot disabled the codes for PAX Twisted Fate so that it could no longer be traded. The only way to play with the black and blue Card Master now is by purchasing an account that already redeemed the code. The odds of finding such an account? Slim to none.

The next year, Riot followed up the previous PAX's handsome skin with a homage to one of the founders of Penny Arcade. PAX Jax both rhymes and fits in perfectly within the PAX aesthetic, this skin being something of a cosplay. PAX Jax is based on the Cardboard Tube Samurai, the wandering warrior and alternate ego of Jonathan Gabriel.

Usually, Jax wields a lamppost, a statement to the fact that he can turn anything into a deadly weapon. A cardboard tube then would fit perfectly within the established lore. PAX Jax also wears same yellow gi that the Cardboard Tube Samurai sports, complete with Pac Man-esque emblem on the front and the cloak on his back. As with PAX Twisted Fate, there were a very limited amount of PAX Jax skin codes given out at the expo in 2010. Also like previously mentioned skins, 2014 saw Riot disabling previous codes for these rare skins, making this one nearly impossible to obtain today. Listings for accounts with PAX Jax on eBay and skin-selling sites (which is less weird than it sounds, promise) can range anywhere from $50 to $200 depending on how desperate players are to thwack each other with cardboard tubes in game.

The following PAX in 2011 saw PAX Sivir, who was appropriately Tron-themed in glowing biker gear and wielded a dead D-pad. PAX Sivir only gets an honorable mention here because the skin was later re-released into the store with an updated design.

If your friendships can survive a few rounds of League, then Riot wanted to reward and encourage players to get their friends into the Rift. They did this through the Refer-a-Friend feature, which incentivized players to invite their friends to play with them by giving them exclusive, medieval-themed skins. To get both Grey Warwick and Medieval Twitch, players had to have more than just a few buddies. In the original version of Refer-a-Friend, players could get the behemoth werewolf Warwick with an enchanted, glowing sword if they got fifty friends to give LoL a try.

Just playing a few rounds of the game wasn't enough, however. To redeem the terrifying Grey Warwick skin, these friends would have to get to summoner level five, which depending on the player's patience, could be rather time-consuming, which isn't to say that convincing fifty people to play isn't time-consuming to begin with.

Medieval Twitch was even more of a challenge, and thus the more rare of the two. Today, these skins can be randomly received through honor capsules, but the true honor went to the two players back in 2010 who first reached the goal of 350 friends referred. For their efforts, they were able to design Medieval Twitch. Later versions of Refer-a-Friend made it easier to get these skins by referring just 25 and 50 friends respectively before the function was shut down in 2015. Rare drops now, but nearly impossible to get before.

With this Singed skin, Riot Games paid homage to ... Riot Games. Riot Squad Singed both represents the studio and looks like he is part of a literal riot. With this skin, the Riot logo is emblazoned across his chest and riot shield, having traded in his usual, more more lethal-looking shield. Rather than a flask of poison on his back, he sports a canister of tear-gas, casually tossing about flash grenades.

This rare skin was one of several Riot Games riot-themed skins that followed suit such as Riot Blitzcrank and Riot Graves. Those two skins were available in the shop, however, making them much more attainable than Riot Squad Singed ever was. Riot Squad Singed is a retired legacy skin that was gifted out at 2010 and 2011 events. Like most skins that were bonus gifts, the codes for Riot Singed were disabled in 2014, instantly making this skin scarce.

There are a slew of skilled players in League of Legends, which makes these two skins not ridiculously rare, but additionally all the more rewarding if a player earned them. Victorious skins are given to players who reach Gold before the end of that season of play. In season one, the laureled Victorious Jarvan IV skin was granted to these skilled players; in 2012 came the Demacian armored Victorious Janna.

Players who can boast these skins are indeed victorious. They were playing the game when League of Legends had its historically smallest player base, and were among the most skilled of players at the time. While Gold today includes the top 13% of players, in the early days of LoL, Gold was harder to reach, the ranking system being much different at the time. Players eligible for the Victorious skins then were in the top 3% of players. You can't trade these skins; they can only be won through blood, sweat, and victory.

Considering how tiny that 3% was at the time, and a significant portion of those who played back then aren't playing anymore, Victorious Jarvan IV and Victorious Janna are golden, shining, and super rare.

Of the aforementioned rare skins, Hextech Crafting skins are perhaps the least rare, but the most frustrating to find. So far there are nine Mythic skins, and some of them aren't even of the alchemical, steampunk-themed Hextech flair. What makes theses skins Mythic is that you have a near mythical chance at obtaining them: it's all up to chance.

If there's one thing gamers love, it's loot boxes, right? For a chance at the Mythic skins, players can gather Hextech chests and their corresponding keys through playing the game or simply by purchasing them in the store. Once opened, LoL players might find gemstones, blue essence, skin shards, ward shards, emotes, icons, or even another chest. When it comes to Hextech Crafting, players would be after the gemstones or the 0.04% chance at the chest containing a Mythic skin. Gemstones drop at a 3.6% frequency, and it takes ten to roll together to craft a Mythic skin.

Thus it can be maddening and expensive to try for these skins. But they're cool, especially for those looking to complete a collection. This was the case when streamer Annie Bot was on the search for Hextech Annie. He opened 328 chests before he had gathered enough gemstones to get the skin, approximately $500 in chests. Because of situations like this, some in the community consider these skins too much of a hassle to obtain for what would otherwise be a typical $10 skin if not for the exclusivity associated with them.