Since her introduction back in December 2011, Ahri has quickly risen to prominence as one of the most popular Champions in League of Legends. The nine-tailed fox motif had been popular for years, and her design, voice, and performance skyrocketed the player base’s love for her.
While it’s her vulpine features and beauty that first catches the eye, the innate vastayan magic flowing through Ahri’s veins charms and steals the very life essence of those around her. Her targets’ memories and emotions are laid bare before her and she’ll take what she wants and needs from them. To those interested in pursuing her, beware — under all that charm of a beautiful maiden lies a cunning fox who refuses to be prey.
Unsurprisingly, all of this has led to Ahri gaining a whopping fourteen skins, plus a prestige edition! But what’s the best Ahri skin available right now?
With all her traits in mind, we’ll be going over all of Ahri’s skins and ranking them from worst to best. We’ll be judging each skin on how well it conveys her theme as an essence-stealing seductress, how much it changes her abilities, and obviously how good it looks in both splash art and gameplay.
Let’s get started!
14. Classic
Cost: 4800 Blue Essence or 880 RP | Unique SFX: No | Chroma: No
For the sake of simplicity, we’ll be putting her default Classic skin at the bottom of the list. We’re not remotely saying it’s a bad look, as her iconic red kimono is one of first things people will recognize.
Naturally, it sets the baseline standard for how fox like Ahri looks in all of her other skins. Her default appearance does an excellent job of highlighting her fluffy white tails and fox ears.
This skin is also the most similar to the typical folklore surrounding Asian kitsune spirits tricking men into ruin by turning into beautiful women. Likewise, the blue flames associated with her abilities are based on superstitions that they represent the lingering spirits of the dead — fitting for someone who is capable of devouring others’ life essence.
13. Dynasty
Cost: 975 RP | Unique SFX: No | Chroma: No
One of the Ahri skins available upon her release. This one garbs her in a traditional hanbok (Korean dress) befitting someone born into the privilege of a wealthy dynasty. Her hair is put up into a bun complete with a sideways hair pin. It’s easy to imagine her drinking tea while examining the latest fashions.
As one of the earlier skins in the game, it lacks anything particularly special. The reason we’ve placed it so low on the list, however, is that the skin turns her tails into a somewhat ugly shade of grey (when not ulting), clashing horribly with the rest of her vibrant color scheme.
12. Academy
Cost: 750 RP | Unique SFX: No | Chroma: No
Ignoring the professor, texting during class, charming the disciplinary staff during interventions — yep, she’s just a regular high school girl.
Ahri’s Academy skin dyes her hair magenta and dresses her up in a South Korean schoolgirl’s uniform. At least she’s wearing her backpack. Surprisingly, her tails take on a much more realistic color of brown with white tips.
With no real special effects, and how ordinary looking this skin is, it sits rather low on our list.
11. Midnight
Cost: 750 RP | Unique SFX: No | Chroma: No
The other skin that came with Ahri on her release. This one certainly lives up to its name, as Ahri’s wardrobe is dark as midnight. A black fur coat and jet black boots make up her outfit, and even her tails take on a darker blue hue. However, the silver crown she wears shines like the full moon piercing the darkness.
Unfortunately, despite the splash art being quite fancy and mysterious looking, the in-game model looks like she’s wearing a form-fitting cowl. This kind of makes her look like she’s wearing Catwoman’s hood from Batman…but only the hood. It looks a bit strange.
10. Challenger
Cost: 975 RP (Legacy) | Unique SFX: Yes – Minor | Chroma: Yes (1 in total)
Released as part of the Challenger series to celebrate the start of the 2015 season, this skin has Ahri donning metallic red battle armor. Her hair takes on a white tone complete with a ponytail, her tails turn blood red, and her spirit orb takes on a chromatic tone.
Besides a few visuals, not much changes with this skin. If you’re interested in picking up this skin, you usually have to wait until an official LoL tournament bracket begins before she’s available again in the shop.
9. Foxfire
Cost: 975 RP | Unique SFX: Yes – Moderate | Chroma: No
Foxfire is one of the four skins that makes up the Internet Browser skin series, and Ahri represents the single best one (we swear we’re not sponsored by Mozilla Firefox). As the name suggests, Ahri takes on a fiery red appearance.
While the splash art is a bit dated, the in-game model looks fantastic. Her tails have a blazing aura around them, while her spirit orb glows like a miniature sun. Her abilities switch to burning orange instead of her usual blue flames and leave brief smoldering traces in their wake.
8. Coven
Cost: 1350 RP | Unique SFX: Yes – Moderate | Chroma: Yes (9 in total)
The latest skin to be released for Ahri. This time, she’s taking on a malevolent role as one of the masterminds in the witches’ coven. Her victims’ souls are sucked out and offered to her dark masters. With enough time, they shall be unleashed upon the world once more.
In this form, Ahri’s main color scheme is a sinister purple. Her tails are infused with corrupting magical energy with the symbols of the coven attached to her abilities. Her abilities emit a hollow sort of sound to indicate how devoid of life they are. Her recall animation has her offering up souls to her master before disappearing to collect more.
7. K/DA
Cost: 1350 RP | Unique SFX: Yes – Minor | Chroma: No (But there is a prestige variant)
Five years after her sudden debut and subsequent departure as a Popstar, Ahri has returned as the leader of the K/DA band. Composed of herself, Akali, Evelyn, and Kai’sa, the band has taken the world by storm.
An actual song called Pop/Stars was made to mark Riot’s first true foray into making LoL more than just a gaming franchise. Even if you don’t plan on getting the skin, watch the video!
While the skin is lacking in notably different SFX, her recall animation has her perform the dance from the music video. There is also a prestige variant, where Ahri’s hair is shortened and her outfit’s theme switches to gold.
6. Popstar
Cost: 975 RP | Unique SFX: Yes – Moderate | Chroma: Yes (6 in total)
Ahri’s first venture into the music industry. This skin is based off the real life K-Pop band “Girls Generation” and was added to the game after the fans asked Riot for one non-stop. However, unlike the real life band, Ahri’s outfit is considerably pinker.
Her orb has music notes constantly playing from it, her tails take on a sparkly pink shine, and she gains a new recall/dance animation based off Girls Generation’s Genie dance. The blue buff golem also dances with her!
While fans of the band were initially disappointed Ahri wasn’t wearing the iconic black and white colors, Riot added a chroma that gives her a nearly exact match. Thus the fandom did rejoice. If you’re a fan of Girls Generation, you must get this skin.
5. K/DA ALL OUT
Cost: 1350 RP | Unique SFX: Yes – Moderate | Chroma: Yes (8 in total)
The follow-up skin to the first K/DA one. The band incorporated Seraphine into their roster and updated their look to a more vibrant blue crystal theme for the release of their new single, ALL OUT.
As for her abilities, they’ve taken on a much more crystalline appearance. Compared to the first K/DA skin, her tails are even more translucent and crystal-like. Her charm has become a massive pink crystal heart, and her flames have become stage glitter.
Her dance animation has been updated to reflect the band’s newest song, and her recall animation has her ascending crystal stairs before sitting on a throne as the queen of pop.
If you were a fan of the first K/DA skin, you’ll probably love this one as well.
4. Arcade
Cost: 1350 RP | Unique SFX: Yes – Major | Chroma: No
Joining the side of the heroes in the gaming world, Ahri has gained the title “Queen of the Arcade” as she racks up high score after high score in any game she plays. As the owner of the six-million-point high score in Demacia Vice, she’s no stranger to deleting any boss that gets in her way.
All of her abilities take on a retro 16-bit appearance, complete with matching sound effects! Her tails also constantly cycle through the RGB spectrum. Best of all, her dance gains a plucky 8-bit soundtrack, and her recall has her furiously mashing away at an arcade machine before diving into it.
3. Elderwood
Cost: 1350 RP | Unique SFX: Yes – Moderate | Chroma: Yes (8 in total)
Embodying a trickster fey, this version of Ahri lives to create mischief in her forest home. Though her heart may be giddy while playing in the woods, it has hardened in response to the encroaching corruption that threatens her lands.
As one would expect from one of the fey-folk, Elderwood Ahri dresses in the garb of the forest, including a top and skirt made from flower-like material. She also takes on a mystical pink look about her.
Her abilities all have a nature-themed touch added to them. A flower blooms within her orb, she throws smaller petals instead of blue wisps, and she surrounds herself with the forest’s leaves during her ult.
Overall, the skin is really pretty and much less suggestive in-game than the splash art implies. Plus, her recall animation is changed to her trying to catch a butterfly!
2. Spirit Blossom
Cost: 1820 RP | Unique SFX: Yes – Major | Chroma: Yes (5 in total)
As the shepherd of souls that have met their end, Ahri guides the departed to their intended destination in the Spirit Realm. Should a soul stray from the path she has laid out before them, she shall not intervene, for she can only save the willing.
With much stronger ties to Japanese folklore, Ahri is dressed in an elegant and beautiful kimono with hair that matches the pink spirit blossoms surrounding her.
Her abilities are updated to reference her role as a spirit guide and have spirit petals blooming from them. When she ults, she turns into her true kitsune form as an ethereal white fox. All of her emotes are updated to reflect her nature as a spirit as well, and her recall animation has her turning into her fox form before warping away.
This skin is incredibly high quality, and if you’re a fan of Japanese mythology, then it’s the best Ahri skin for you.
1. Star Guardian
Cost: 1820 RP | Unique SFX: Yes – Major | Chroma: No
Ahri was the leader of the Star Guardians that came before Lux’s group. After two of their teammates were lost to a horrible tragedy, the jaded and heartbroken team disbanded. Ahri left with a warning to Lux that being a Star Guardian only leads to misery.
Despite her words, Ahri maintains her Star Guardian role and all the magical girl abilities you would expect from it. All of her emotes have been replaced with cutesy new ones that fit the genre. Most notably, her recall animation turns into the magical girl transformation. If you’ve watched anime, you know exactly what we’re talking about.
Additionally, her abilities summon little celestial figures to help her out. Her floating companion, Kiko, serves as her orb, and she enters her transformation stage during her ult.
All in all, this skin is absolutely amazing and a faithful homage to anime magical girls. Plus she has the haughty noblewoman laugh down to a tee. All these factors make us choose this as the best Ahri skin.
Become a High Grounder
And that’s it for our roundup of best Ahri skins. If your favorite skin deserves more love, let us know in the comments below. As always, stay tuned for the latest gaming news and guides by subscribing to our email list.
Happy gaming!
You must sign in to comment.
Don't have an account? Sign up here!