If you were wondering about how to get free skins in League of Legends, then we might have some answers for you. Generally, skins are the only payable feature in League of Legends that all players are interested in. Yes, you can buy champions, a name change, or an account transfer with real money, but skins get all the highlights in the world of LoL.
But, there is a crucial reason why players seek skins in League of Legends, especially if they’re free. In this game, skins aren’t just cosmetic versions of the characters we play every day. Most of the time, they’re enhanced weapons that boost our performance on the same character.
Let us explain. A famous example of this is Star Guardian Zoe. If you compare the width of the spell animations on the base Zoe appearance and the Star Guardian Skin, you can clearly see a difference. Of course, the skin doesn’t affect the hitbox of ability, but it helps us aim much better. The case is quite similar to iBlitzcrank. People claimed that his grab animation was longer than the base one for a very long time. And it got to the point where the skin was banned in professional play!
But even if it’s just a cosmetic thing and not a game-changing bug, we still want skins for our champions in League of Legends, and we want them free! Luckily for us, Riot Games have made a decent system where we could get a couple of free skins in LoL without paying for them. This is quite contrary to the past when the only way to acquire skins was to spend real-life money.
So, let’s check out all the ways you can get free skins in League of Legends!
Also read: 10 Most Banned Champions in League of Legends
How to Get Free Skins in League of Legends?
1. Loot System
The loot system may have its downsides, but it’s still the most effective method of getting free League of Legends skins. Yes, it works on RNG, and at times it can feel quite frustrating because we receive skins for champions or roles we don’t usually play. But regardless, it gifts us free skins for just playing League of Legends, which is always welcomed.
The loot system works with skin shards, chests, keys, and orange essence. When you or one of your party friends plays an excellent game and receives S-, S or S+ for the performance, you’re all gifted a chest. This chest can be unlocked with a key, which you can create with three key fragments. The key fragments are randomly given to you, but it’s proven that receiving more Honor grants more key fragments. Here’s a tutorial on how to get more key fragments in League of Legends.
Now, when you open up a chest in the loot system, you receive a skin shard. This skin shard’s worth is measured in orange essence. And it can be converted into a permanent skin on your account for the amount of orange essence it is estimated for. Higher quality skins (Elementalist Lux, for example) demand more orange essence than ordinary ones (Tundra Fizz). And lastly, you acquire the orange essences by disenchanting the skin shards you don’t necessarily need or want.
Although this might sound confusing, the idea here is simple. You play the game as you normally would until you receive a chest and a key. Upon opening, you’ll see whether you want the skin you’re given or not. If not, you can destroy it for orange essence, and if you do, you can keep it for when you have enough orange essence. Or, you can simply combine three skin shards in your inventory to get a random permanent one.
Also read: How To Get Chests in League of Legends
2. End of Season Rewards
As you might know, when a ranked season ends in League of Legends, Riot Games gives a free skin among the other rewards. This free skin is called Victorious, and each season a new champion is brandished with it. The rules are simple: the champion that characterized the meta the most throughout the season gets the Victorious skin in the end.
By now, we have a couple of notable Victorious skins. Victorious Morgana, Victorious Graves, Victorious Maokai, and the latest is Victorious Lucian. These skins are designed around silver, blue, and gold colors, which symbolizes the League of Legends’ logo and the Summoner’s Cup.
You acquire the Victorious Skins by finishing the season in Gold on the ranked ladder or higher. All players who manage this are gifted the skin of the year entirely for free. The Victorious skins aren’t the rarest, but they’re precious because they can’t be purchased with money later on.
And while we’re speaking of rewards at the end of the season, know that your Honor level can be a source of free skin in League of Legends too. If you succeed in finishing the year with a level 5 Honor, you’ll be gifted one of two skins: Grey Warwick or Medieval Twitch. You can’t get both of them at once, but rather one this year and one the next.
3. Promotions
Occasionally, Riot Games host promotions that result in the players receiving skins for free. This has been the case way before the loot system was in place, so many experienced LoL players have already collected these rewards. However, if your account misses some of these free skins, then here is how to get them.
Riot Girl Tristana can be acquired by liking the official League of Legends page on Facebook. Next, Unchained Alistar can be your if you subscribe to the official League of Legends YouTube channel. And lastly, Dreadknight Garen is rewarded by following League of Legends on Twitter. Quite recently, though, Riot Games removed these methods of acquiring the skins. That doesn’t mean that you can’t get them anymore, but you’ll have to do a bit more work.
If you want to get any of these skins, you’ll have to do the activity mentioned here and make a screenshot of it. You’ll then want to contact Riot support and open up a ticket with them if you have to. You’ll need to tell them the situation and send the screenshot. They will (most likely) take a look at your account and gift you the skins for free.
Also read: How to get more Blue Essence?
Final Words
It is quite likely that this format of getting League of Legends skins for free won’t change for years and years. Riot had a clear plan when they introduced the loot system in the game. It was the best solution to reward the majority of the players for their loyalty while also dealing with the illegal cheats/mods that granted free skins. On top of that, we have the one free skin at the end of every season.
So, an average League of Legends player can get 10-15 free skins every year without paying a single cent for it. And if you’re lucky, you might get the skins you really want to have. We think that this is a super cool state for the game, and we hope it continues in the future as well!
