Umair
Once upon a time, Mythic Variants were League of Legends‘ most controversial cosmetic. Only available to those who purchased 30 event-specific capsules – or those with some serious luck – you’d have to drop $200 to buy a slightly fancier recolor of an existing skin. But then there was the Faker Ahri skin, and then the three-form Exalted skins, and then the issues with the battle pass’ Blue Essence output. LoL’s monetization certainly ramped up in 2024, and 2025 appears to be continuing that trend.
Coming into Welcome to Noxus, Riot confirmed that it was scrapping Hextech and Masterwork Chests in an attempt to streamline League of Legends‘ rewards systems. Given that you could only get Mythic Variants from event-specific orbs on the Masterwork track, however, that raised questions about how we’ll be acquiring Mythic Variants going forward.
In a blog post breaking down the MOBA‘s various skin tiers, Riot has now confirmed that Mythic Variants will be added to the game’s rotating Sanctum, which was introduced with the Exalted Arcane Fractured Jinx skin. The system works similarly to the ones we see in gacha games like Genshin Impact, and requires purchasable Sparks (priced at 400 RP, ~$4.99 / £4.49 each) in order to make ‘pulls’ (or rolls) towards getting the skin. Each of these cosmetics are available for a limited time (or ‘banner’), then are removed from sale.
Pity, however, is an integral part of the Sanctum. After a certain amount of pulls, you’re guaranteed to get the cosmetic you’re looking for. In this instance, it’s 80 pulls (~$400 / £350) to get an Exalted skin (Radiant Serpent Sett is the current ‘banner’), but the amount of pulls required for the Mythic Variant is unclear. I’ve contacted Riot Games for more info.
While this feels like the most logical way to replace the Masterwork/Orb system, Riot does note that “pulls made on the Exalted Banner do not count toward the Mythic Banner, and vice versa.” This means that – unless you’re lucky – you’ll have to do a full run of pulls to guarantee that you get both skins.
According to PCGamesN’s resident gacha expert Aaron, in games like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, Pity accumulates when you pull on any premium banner, regardless of which character you’re going for. If we use the Sanctum system as an example, if it were in Genshin, you’d be using the same currency to roll for both the Exalted skin and Mythic Variant, generating Pity on both. You’d therefore guarantee one or the other at the 80 Spark threshold, regardless of how you’ve split your pulls.
This isn’t the case in The Sanctum, however, as you’ll have to burn through the maximum Pity on each banner to guarantee that you get the cosmetic. This is likely because the skins are two completely different tiers, so you’re pulling for two items of differing value – something Aaron says is more akin to pulling on the premium and standard banners in a HoYo game, even if it is more of an apples to oranges comparison.
As expected, this has caused a wave of backlash. On a ‘SkinSpotlights’ X post discussing the issue, players have been quick to call Riot “scummy” and “greedy,” with one noting that “not even gacha games are that restrictive.”
When I spoke to League of Legends’ game director Pu ‘Pupulasers’ Liu at Riot HQ last year, he told me that high-end cosmetics will be a “very small minority” of skins, noting that “the majority of our revenue comes from a small, single digit percentage of players” while most players “play League, watch esports, enjoy all the content, cinematics, and music for $0.” It certainly feels like monetization has ramped up across the board, dividing opinion along the way.
If you’re looking to pick up some new cosmetics but don’t want to break the bank, here’s a list of all the League of Legends skins that are on sale right now. Alternatively, if you want something a little more flashy, here’s the current League of Legends Mythic shop rotation.
What do you think about the Sanctum system, and microtransactions as a whole? Let us know on Discord. You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews.
