If there’s one thing I’ve been excited about all year long, it’s League of Legends‘ upcoming Redeemed Star Guardian Xayah and Rakan skins. While I was initially over the moon for Senna’s Sailor Moon-style look finally making it into the game, it left me a little out in the cold as I wasn’t a huge fan of the splash art or its animations. Xayah and Rakan were set to redeem (ha ha) the Wild Rift Star Guardian ports for me, but a new find from LoL YouTuber ‘SkinSpotlights’ has dampened my excitement a little.
Redeemed Star Guardian Xayah and Rakan dropped yesterday as part of League of Legends patch 13.20, which also added most of the MOBA‘s new spooky Coven skins. However, it turns out Xayah and Rakan’s new looks are effectively chromas, as SkinSpotlights has confirmed that they function exactly the same way as League of Legends‘ pre-existing Star Guardian Xayah and Rakan skins.
In response to League of Legends community manager Caden ‘Sakaar’ House writing that porting the cosmetics was “actually a lot more work than expected,” SkinSpotlights shares an image showing both skinlines’ coding side-by-side. According to their analysis, the two files are apparently “identical.” As a result, they claim that the models have simply been “copy-pasted.”
Given that each skin falls into the Legendary category, coming in at 1820RP (~$16 / £15.50), and now cannot be bundled together for a discount, that means you’re effectively playing $32 / £31 for two chromas – and that’s quite a lot of cash.
In the wake of the issues with both Coven Syndra and the now infamous $200 Dark Erasure Jhin chroma, this isn’t exactly the news we all wanted. While the latter was, to borrow League of Legends producer Jeremy ‘Brightmoon’ Lee’s words, “an exploration to fill this ‘rarity’ ask,” Xayah and Rakan’s skins seem, on the surface, to just be new run-of-the-mill cosmetics.
In response, the community has called the skins “sh*tty chromas,” claiming Riot is “trying to milk this for as much as possible and put as little man power into it as they can so they can make the most they want off these skins.”
And it’s something I can’t help but empathise with. While I’ll probably still pick up Rakan to play with my lovely partner and long-suffering ADC, this has dampened some of the magic on these skins. Hopefully Riot makes a few changes here and there to make them feel more unique, but it’s all a bit disappointing.
PCGamesN has reached out to Riot Games for comment, and will update this story with further information.
There are a whole lot of League of Legends skins to choose from, but if you don’t fancy splashing the cash then it’s worth checking out what’s coming up in the League of Legends Mythic shop – especially if you’re a Seraphine main like me.