What better way to tell the enemy team you’re not to be trifled with than by having a nice skin to accompany your main. It doesn’t matter if you have the skills to back that up, it’s the fear in their eyes that counts. But for that, you’ll need to get some skins first. Most cost money but how about free skins? While you probably won’t get any highly advanced animations or quirky sound effects, free skins are still great-looking. Here’s how to get free LoL skins and make those Victorious skins an insta-choice when entering a match!
There are 7 primary methods of getting free League of Legends skins. Most of them require you to play the game.
Riot Games changes the process every few years, with some negative decisions being rolled back due to community backlash.
You can receive almost a dozen free skins in LoL in one year.
The process of getting LoL skins for free has changed a bit over the years but nowadays, it comes down to 7 primary methods. All but two will require you to actually play the game. They are as follows:
As long as you play the game, you’ll start gathering skin shards one way or another. There are many ways with which you can get them, including:
Let’s say you’re crazy about League of Legends and are both an active esports viewer and player. You’d start getting skin shards pretty regularly so rerolling every once in a while wouldn’t be a problem. Of course, their primary purpose is to help you get multiple of the same skin shard so you can unlock that specific skin permanently. However, since there are 170 champions in the game and more than 1,780 skins.. Well, you can see why it’d be problematic to get three exact same skin shards.
Image Credit: Reddit
So most players choose to reroll them because all you need are 3 different shards. You can get free skins on LoL via shards like this:
Hextech Chests are filled with various in-game items, from skin shards to summoner icons and emotes. Your primary goal would be skin shards (and ward skin shards if you want to make your wards stand out) which won’t be difficult to attain since the drop rate is pretty high. Here are the percentages:
| Reward Type | % of Getting |
|---|---|
| Skin Shard | 50% |
| Champion Shard | 25% |
| Emote Permanent | 10% |
| 150 Bonus Orange Essence | 11.5% |
| 150 Bonus Orange Essence | 3.5% |
| 10 Mythic Essence (BONUS) | 3.6% |
| Hextech Chest + Key (BONUS) | 10% |
You can earn chests through the Season Pass (up to 8) and Honor (up to 2) per Act. The more you play the game, the more you’ll progress through the Season Pass. In total, Riot Games says you can get a maximum of 60 chests per year! At least the Hextech Chests have returned to LoL; we could have had a world where they were GONE but the fan backlash was too strong. Thank you LoL community!
Image Credit: Riot Games (YouTube)
Keep your cool and motivate your allies to receive commendations and points toward your Honor Level. We know that it’s tempting to write ‘gg ez’ after a win but this will only enrage people and you won’t get any Honor (and may even lose some). If you’re diligent and respectable, eventually you’ll reach Honor Level 5 which gives you a skin for free at the end of the season. Regardless of LoL skins, you should always aim for the highest Honor level because certain features (all chat, targeted ally pings, XP boosts & Ranked Season Rewards) won’t be available to you unless you are (or at least level 3).
The Ranked Ladder has been reworked in 2025 and now crosses three seasons (that are part of one Year). Your progress will continue through each season but will reset at the end of the Year. In the past, you had to reach a certain rank to receive Victorious skins but this entire process has been simplified. All you have to do is win 15 ranked games and you’ll receive the Victorious skin! This applies for each season so you can earn up to 3 Victorious skins per Year.
Keep in mind that your Victorious Skin Chroma will depend on which rank you finish with, so you’ll still have to aim for the highest rank if you want the best-looking skin!
Image Credit: Riot Games
Clash is highly competitive and it can be difficult to get free LoL skins with this method. But that’s part of the fun! Gather enough friends and put your teamwork skills to the test. Progress far enough on the ladder and you’ll get Orbs and Capsules. You will have to use tickets to access Clash but other than that, ward and champion skin shards are free (or rather, based on your success).
The full clash schedule has already been released by Riot and it features ARURF which will be.. chaotic to say the least.
It’s time for the first skin-earning method that doesn’t require you to play the game constantly. Twitch Drops are a form of reward for accumulating enough viewing time for a specific stream. In the case of League of Legends, drop campaigns happen when there’s a major tournament, especially during the World Championship. As for what you can get, that’s up to Riot but you can expect some in-game items that’ll give you skin shards, or skin shards themselves. Keep an eye out on the esports tournament schedule so you don’t miss the drop campaign!
Finally, there’s the Pick’em’s path for getting LoL skins for free. This method is the least frequent and least consistent since it’s only available when it’s time for Worlds and the rewards themselves are randomised for each competitive year. However, Riot always gave out some sweet skins to players who performed the best so it’s safe to say that this trend will continue indefinitely. Make sure to check the Pick’em section of the official LoL site when it becomes active to see what you’ll get if you achieve a high finish!
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