The Ultimate Guide to League of Legends Chromas: Everything You Need to Know
Chromas were released in 5.8 as yet another way to customize your champion's appearance in League of Legends. Still, they seem to remain a relatively obscure part of the game. If you’re aiming to be more of a completionist, though, and get every associated asset to your favourite champion, then it may be important to learn about chromas and how you can get more of them.
What Are Chromas in League of Legends?
Chromas are special color variations of champions and skins in League of Legends. They give players more options to customize the look of their favorite champions, going beyond the classic skins by offering a range of unique color palettes.
Chromas can be applied to both a champion’s classic skin and any other purchased skins, so you can mix and match styles and colors to sport a look that’s entirely your own.
There are currently (as of Patch 13.24) a total of 5,146 chromas in the game, including limited and unavailable chromas.
Obtaining Chromas
There are multiple ways to obtain Chromas in League of Legends, giving players flexibility depending on their playstyle and preferences. Here are some ways you can get Chromas:
- Buying Individual Chromas: Chromas are available for purchase in the in-game store for 290 RP (Riot Points) each. In the Blue Essence Emporium sales, they’re optionally up for 2000 BE.
- Chroma Bundles: Bundles, such as Chroma Packs, allow you to purchase the full set of Chromas for a specific skin at a discounted price. If you're out for completionism, they're the most efficient way to get all the chromas for a specific champion or skin.
Buying a Chroma Pack or Bundle will also sometimes give you a bundle-exclusive Ruby chroma.
- Event Participation and Limited-Time Offers: Riot regularly hosts limited-time events, where special Chromas can be earned by completing missions, collecting event tokens, or crafting them through Hextech Crafting. These event chromas are unique and often cannot be obtained once the event ends. For example, 24 out of 25 of the chromas for Worlds 2018 Kha'Zix are only obtainable by purchasing their icons on the store.
- Ranked Rewards: Each Victorious skin has a chroma for each rank, which is unlocked for free if you achieved that rank during the season you got the Victorious skin.
Blue Essence Emporium
If you're looking to stock up on chromas and don't mind burning Blue Essence for them, the Blue Essence Emporium is the place to go.
The Emporium is a Blue Essence sale that happens for one month, twice a year, usually once during the pre-season and once again in the mid-season.
Whenever the Essence Emporium opens its doors, you'll be able to partake in the following deals:
| Product | Cost |
| Mystery Icon | 1,500 BE |
| Chromas* | 2,000 BE |
| Mystery Minis Icon Box | 2,500 BE |
| Baron Hat Poro Icon | 4,000 BE |
| Mystery Ward | 4,900 BE |
| Essence Collector Ward Skin | 6,000 BE |
| But Why? Emote | 25,000 BE |
| Make It Rain Emote | 50,000 BE |
| Money Bags Emote | 75,000 BE |
| URFWick Skin | 150,000 BE |
| Blue Essence Banner | 250,000 BE |
* Excludes Limited/Legacy/Seasonal chromas. Available chromas change depending on the time of year. The end-of-season Essence Emporium has chromas launched between January and June, while the midseason Emporium has chromas launched from June to December.
Events and Activities
Special events in League of Legends often feature Chromas as rewards, adding exclusivity to some variations and encouraging players to participate in these limited-time opportunities.
Riot frequently releases Chromas exclusive to certain events. You can earn these Chromas by completing event missions or crafting them with event tokens. Sometimes, although rarely, these are locked behind the season pass for the respective event.
These chromas are often only available during the event. Every now and then, events will reappear, especially for big skin lines like PROJECT or Spirit Blossom, where these special chromas can be purchased again with the event’s corresponding currency or with the season pass.
Chroma Customization and Management
Equipping Chromas in League of Legends is simple and allows you to swap between color variations for your favorite champions. To change your chroma during champion select, first select the champion or skin belonging to that chroma, then click on the Chroma button to see all available Chromas for that skin. Choose the Chroma you want, and it will be applied to your champion in the match.
Rare Chromas
Some chromas are rarer than others.
- Some chromas are a part of events and only unlockable through Hextech Crafting and will have special names such as Night Blossom and Emberclaw.
- As mentioned before, Ruby chromas are only available to players who purchased the respective Chroma Pack.
- Emerald chromas (with some exceptions) are a part of the League Partner Program which was implemented alongside the launch of patch V8.20. This program gives extra benefits to video content creators partnered with Riot Games to create League of Legends related content on social media.
Chroma Splash Arts
In the Chinese version of the game, distributed by Tencent, certain chromas are presented in the client as entirely different skins from their original skin variant and its chromas, and they are priced separately and outside of regular chroma bundles. In essence, these chromas are distinct or modernized realizations of the base skin in a new splash art. After selecting the base skin during Champion Select, these chromas can be swapped to through a separate "Chroma" button which is located higher up on the screen.
Some examples include:
Rose Quartz Star Guardian Orianna (by Qi Mang)
Rose Quartz Galaxy Slayer Zed (by 阳蛊 Zane)
Ruby Star Guardian Xayah (by Eunice Ye)
Citrine HEARTSTEEL Kayn (by Pandart Studios)
Chromas in Wild Rift
Chromas in Wild Rift work much like they do in League of Legends, mostly palette swaps of existing champion skins. Some, however, exist as more than just colour changes, coming with entirely new VFX and changes to the model.
Chroma Orbs and Tickets
Each Chroma Orb contains a random Chroma skin, with a 5% chance of it being a secret design and a 15.83% chance of it being a standard design. Every standard design has the same drop rate (15.83%). These can be opened by using Chroma Orb Tickets, which can be purchased with Wild Cores.
Chroma Orb sets consists of six Orbs, with each Orb containing a different Chroma skin.
Each Chroma Orb set has a unique ID. Refreshing it returns the set to the server, allowing another player to draw and purchase it.
Duplicate Chroma skins are automatically converted into Poro Energy.
