Half of the fun of League of Legends comes from looking at all your shiny skins in Summoner's Rift and lording it over the peons who are stuck sporting basic digs. Riot's free-to-play juggernaut is about to celebrate its 10th birthday, and it's frankly incredible that the company has built itself into a multinational empire largely on the back of fresh skin sales. But that combination of desire to don the coolest skins and the mists of time has made it so that some LoL skins are exceptionally rare. Here are nine of our favorites.
Silver Kayle
Expect to pay: $100 - $130
This might blow your mind, but there was a moment, years ago, where League of Legends got a retail release. Seriously, imagine going to Best Buy and coming home with a copy of League. If you were one of those lucky few who made that purchase back in 2009, you'd get access to a custom Kayle skin that decks the famed Judicator out in silver-plated armor. So yes, not the most audacious skin ever released but obviously extremely rare considering how scarce those physical copies are these days.
Young Ryze and Black Alistair
Expect to pay: $180 for Young Ryze, $220 for Black Alistair
This pair of highly sought-after skins were only available to those who preordered League of Legends—the only thing even harder to imagine than actually buying it. That risk paid off, though, as these two make a pretty awesome bounty for long-time players. It's crazy to see Ryze stomping around Summoner's Rift in his nubile, twenty-something form. Maybe someday these two skins will return to the store page, but until then, salute anyone you see rocking them. They earned it.
UFO Corki
Expect to pay: $90
This one is a little more reasonable since you didn't need to buy or preorder a retail copy of League of Legends to get UFO Corki. Instead, all you had to do was create a League account before January 14, 2010. If that isn't you, well, you're kinda screwed and will never have the pleasure of floating over Summoner's Rift in a tiny, built-for-one spaceship unless you pony up the cash to buy an account that was created before then.
PAX Jax
Expect to pay: $150 - $200
There were a couple of PAX exclusive skin codes handed out on physical cards to con attendees back in 2010 and 2011, but we'll highlight PAX Jax specifically because it rhymes and it makes Jax look like a yellow samurai with a Pac-Man logo on his cape. These ones were (at least at one point) more attainable than some of the other skins on this list because the codes flooded eBay after the show, sometimes fetching as much as $400. But Riot made it so those codes would eventually expire, all but killing the secondary market except for those willing to sell their entire account.
Rusty Blitzcrank
Expect to pay: Varies wildly, but est. $200+
Rusty Blitzcrank is kind of a garbage skin. It didn't make Runeterra's favorite mech look significantly different from his base model, which is why Riot presumably pruned it from the store back in 2010. However, if you picked it up back when it was available, congratulations. It's unappealing design has now become one of the rarest variants in League of Legends history. I guess one person's trash is another's treasure?
Pumpkinhead Fiddlesticks
Expect to pay: $50
Want to play as Fiddlesticks with a pumpkin on his head? Well, you best have been around in 2010 during the League of Legends Halloween event, because that was the only time you could reliably bind this skin to your account. Pumpkinhead Fiddlesticks still pops up here and there as a legacy skin, so if you manage to uncork one, you ought to feel very, very lucky.
Grey Warwick
Expect to pay: Unknown, since so few people sell it
This is the closest Riot ever came to instituting a full-blown pyramid scheme to their skin game, because the only way you could unlock Grey Warwick was by recruiting 50 other players to League of Legends, (each of whom had to hit at least level 10 on their accounts.) The recruit-a-friend feature no longer exists, but the legend of Grey Warwick will live forever in the hearts and minds of fervent completionists.
Championship Riven
Expect to pay: $200
This awesome, Blitz Ball-looking Riven skin was handed out to all attendees of the season 2 world championship, which, as you can imagine, stoked quite the fervor on the secondhand market with some codes reportedly going for $400+ online. Riot actually reintroduced the skin during the 2015 title games, to any player who correctly picked every single winner throughout the championship. According to LoL Smurfs, only one player actually filed a perfect score, which means that Championship Riven remains one of the rarest skins in game.
King Rammus
Expect to pay: $100
King Rammus was a gift given to players who participated in the closed beta test of League of Legends a million years ago. Essentially, it morphs Rammus into… well, let's just call it like it is: It makes Rammus look like Bowser. It's hard to imagine Riot toeing the copyright line quite as blatantly today, now that they're a mega-corporation with offices all over the world. Sadly, for such a rare skin, King Rammus is a bit of a disappointment by today's standards. It's mostly just a recolored version of the original skin and doesn't come with any modified abilities or particle effects. Still, its limited availability means anyone rocking it is sure to turn a few heads.
