The Rarest Skins in League of Legends You Can't Buy Anymore

What "rare" actually means in League of Legends

League of Legends has released well over a thousand skins since 2009, but only a small handful are considered truly rare. Riot separates skins that are no longer sold into two buckets. Legacy skins can return during sales, bundles, Hextech Crafting, or Mystery Gifting. Limited skins are different. Riot states that Limited skins are not intended to return, which is the category most of the rarest cosmetics fall into.

The skins below are the ones that have stayed permanently out of reach for the vast majority of the playerbase. A few were tied to conventions that happened more than a decade ago. Others were locked behind pre-orders, seasonal achievements, or the closed beta. None of them can be bought in the current League store.

King Rammus

King Rammus was given to players who participated in the League of Legends closed beta, which ran from April 10 to October 21, 2009. It is a clear nod to Bowser from the Super Mario series, with a green shell and a crown.

There was no purchase code attached to it. Riot simply added the skin to qualifying accounts after the beta ended, which means it has never been tradable. It has never returned to the store and does not appear in any loot system.

PAX Twisted Fate, PAX Jax, and PAX Sivir

The PAX skin line is built around the first three Penny Arcade Expo events that League attended. PAX Twisted Fate was handed out to attendees at PAX 2009 and is widely regarded as the rarest of the three. PAX Jax followed in 2010, and PAX Sivir arrived in 2011.

Each skin was distributed through physical redemption codes collected at the event. Riot permanently disabled those skin codes in 2014, so any unused PAX code from a storage box is no longer usable. Neo PAX Sivir and Neo PAX Jax are newer re-imaginings with different color schemes and availability, so they do not make the originals easier to obtain.

Black Alistar, Silver Kayle, and Young Ryze

These three skins formed the original Collector's Edition bundle at launch.

• Black Alistar was tied to the Digital Collector's Edition. It released on June 13, 2009.
• Silver Kayle was included with the Retail Collector's Edition.
• Young Ryze, originally called Human Ryze before Ryze's 2016 rework, was given to players who pre-ordered the Retail Collector's Edition.

Since the physical boxes have not been reprinted and Riot disabled skin code redemption in 2014, none of these can be acquired through normal means anymore. They are not in Hextech loot pools and they are not eligible for Mystery Gifting.

Rusty Blitzcrank

Rusty Blitzcrank had a short, unusual run. It launched in 2009 and was pulled from the store in January 2010 after it was widely criticized for looking too close to classic Blitzcrank. Riot has stated the skin will not return, which makes it one of the smallest owned skins in the game.

Its rarity does not come from prestige or a famous event. It comes from how few people bought it in that short window before it was removed.

Judgement Kayle

Judgement Kayle was the first season-end reward skin of its kind. Riot gave it to players who completed at least ten games during Season 1, which took place in 2010 and 2011. It has never been offered again through the store or through loot.

Because Season 1 happened when the playerbase was a fraction of its current size, the pool of owners is small, and it shrinks over time as old accounts go dormant.

Victorious Jarvan IV

Victorious skins are still given out every year to players who reach Gold or higher in ranked. What makes Victorious Jarvan IV special is that it was the first one ever, awarded at the end of Season 1. Since each Victorious skin is tied to a specific season, it cannot be earned again in later years.

Every Victorious skin is technically unobtainable after its season ends, but Jarvan's version is the original and sits on the smallest number of accounts.

Championship Riven (2012)

The original Championship Riven celebrated the 2012 World Championship and briefly appeared in the store during Worlds that year. It is the only Championship skin classified as Limited Edition rather than Legacy, which means Riot considers it permanently off the market.

In 2016, Riot released an updated "Championship Riven" model to celebrate that year's Worlds and gave the original 2012 owners a visual refresh plus a special loading screen border to preserve the status of the original purchase. The 2012 version, sometimes referred to now as Reignited or 2012 World Championship Riven, still stands on its own as a Limited skin.

Urfwick

Urfwick is an unusual case. It is not truly unobtainable, but it is still one of the rarest skins in practice.

Riot released Urfwick on November 8, 2017, during the Essence Emporium. It is the only skin in the game that can be bought with Blue Essence, and it costs 150,000 BE. The Essence Emporium only opens for short windows, and Riot has put it on hiatus before, so players have to time the purchase carefully.

It should not be confused with Urf the Manatee, which was a 2010 charity skin that has never been re-released and remains genuinely unobtainable.

Riot Squad Singed

Riot Squad Singed was distributed at Gamescom 2010 in Germany. It puts Singed in riot police gear with a gas mask and a shield. It was briefly available through a few other promotional channels after the event, but codes for it were discontinued not long after Gamescom, which left the skin largely frozen on the accounts that had already redeemed it.

Quick reference table

Can you still get any of these today

For the majority of the skins on this list, there is no legitimate in-game path. Riot has confirmed that codes were permanently disabled in 2014, and Limited skins are specifically excluded from Hextech loot, Mystery Gifting, and chest rolls.

Urfwick is the only exception that is still officially purchasable, and only during an active Essence Emporium. For every other skin here, the options are narrow. Players who want these cosmetics typically look at the secondary account market, which has its own tradeoffs in terms of price, account safety, and Riot's terms of use. Account sharing and account buying violate Riot's Terms of Service, so anyone considering that route should understand the risk of losing the account entirely.

Final thoughts

The rarest League skins are not always the most visually impressive. Most of them are simple recolors from the earliest years of the game. Their value comes from context. They mark players who were in the beta, who showed up at PAX, who pre-ordered a physical copy of a game nobody had heard of yet, or who grinded ranked when the ladder was still finding its shape.

If you ever see one of these skins on the Rift, you are almost certainly looking at an account that has been around since the game was brand new. That is really what rarity means in League. It is less about the art and more about being there.

Sources

• Riot Support: Guide to Legacy and Limited Skins
• Riot Support: Essence Emporium FAQ
• League of Legends Wiki: Collector Edition Skins
• League of Legends Wiki: Rammus Cosmetics
• League of Legends Wiki: Twisted Fate Cosmetics
• League of Legends Wiki: Riven Cosmetics
• Dot Esports: The Rarest Skins in League of Legends
• 1v9: The 10 Rarest Skins in League of Legends
• Riot Games Terms of Service