Two months after the League of Legends community crucified Riot Games for releasing a $500 Faker skin, the developers have dipped back into the “gacha” well with two more Mythic Chromas that will cost $200 each.
The League chromas in question are for God King Darius and God King Garen. There’s no denying the skin alternates are incredible, with Darius now appearing in gold and white armor and Garen heading the other way with very un-Garen-like black and purple trim—but the awesomeness of the chromas is part of the problem.
The big issue is these extraordinary skin changes are locked behind a very lofty League paywall. To unlock Mythic variants, you need to buy up to 30 event capsules. Players could get lucky and crack one of these new designs in capsule one, of course, but it’s more likely you need the 30-capsule guarantee to kick in.
Basically, to assure you get your hands on one of the God King alternates, it’s going to set you back the cost of 30 League event capsules, or $200.
This is particularly wild considering Riot actually pledged to “keep the number of luxury goods low” before League’s 14th season; a promise sparked by the widespread “gacha” outrage over a similar Jhin skin first released last year.
The League developers are also coming hot off the near-universal backlash over Faker’s memorial skin and its frankly ridiculous $500 pricetag. A whole pile of angry League players actually walked away from the game after that debacle, though with Riot admitting “the majority of revenue comes from a small, single-digit percentage” who pay for these cosmetics, more does make a little sense.
These Darius and Garen skins are releasing alongside several cool new Battle Queens cosmetics that will run you up a far cheaper 1,350 Riot Points ($11 or so). The returning skinline is now welcoming Annie, Fiora, Miss Fortune, and Gwen.
League players can also still buy the base God King skins for Darius and Garen. They each cost a slightly more affordable 1,820 RP (around $24).
