What is a Variant skin?

Riot Games has announced a new type of cosmetic for League of Legends. It’s like a skin that you know and love, but just a little bit different.

Starting with the Pajama Guardian skins and the Solar and Lunar Eclipse skins for Leona, Riot is testing out Variants.

What’s the difference?

Variant skins may use the same particles, recalls and themes as other skins, but vary enough to not be a chroma. The Pajama Guardian skins use the same particles and recalls as the original skins, but they have new models, textures and a shared splash art. The Eclipse Leona skins both have different recalls, visual effects, splash art and even voice lines. The only thing those two skins share are an animation set as well as similar models.

That being said, the difference in future Variants can be anything, though the theme and some bits of it tend to be the same.

How much do they cost?

If you own one Variant skin, the other one is 45 percent off. So if you own Star Guardian Ezreal, Pajama Guardian Ezreal will be 742 RP. This also works the other way around — so if you own Pajama Guardian Ezreal, you can get the original skin at a discounted price.

Riot Games

Thanks, I hate it!

Riot is listening to your concerns and since is the first run of Variants, Riot I am Carlos notes that if people hate them, they just won’t release more.

I am Carlos originally noted that the price on these skins remained higher than chroma skins due to the much larger amount of work the skins team has to do for these, rather than just recoloring a texture. Since then, he has updated everyone saying that the discount will be bumped to 45 percent off from 30 percent off.