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 ' 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 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 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'), and Riot has since confirmed to PCGamesN that you'll require 30 pulls (~$149.7 / £134.7) to get a Mythic Variant.
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 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 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 Mythic shop rotation.
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