With Hecarim entering the meta at least once per season, there’s never a bad time to pick up the “Shadow of War.” His long time presence and consistent popularity has also introduced a plethora of great skins for you to choose from – so he can look great while you stride into battle. But just like his jungle matchups, there are some you might want to avoid too. And I’m here to help you do just that, with all of his skins ranked from worst to best!
10. Blood Knight Hecarim
Released: April 17th, 2012 Price: 975 RP As a legacy skin, there’s an argument to be had about the actual value of this thing on its own. But its rarity is its only saving grace. So many legacy skins, especially graphically updated ones, are badges of honor for their collectors. But Blood Knight Hecarim is just ugly. To start, the splash art is easily the least cool of any of his skins, including his base. It also doesn’t accurately portray just how badly the color palette clashes with his particle effects. The skin itself looks like a bunch of scrap metal glued together on our poor horse buddy, so I could totally understand the concept if they branded it as a Zombie Slayer skin… But it is most certainly not “Blood Knight.” There’s not even a drop of red outside of his weapon! At 975 RP, we shouldn’t expect anything special. But there are so many better options that it’s almost insultingly priced.
9. Worldbreaker Hecarim
Released: November 10th, 2016 Price: 750 RP I think you would really have to enjoy the blue/gold/teal color palette to appreciate this skin. Going into it, the splash art is pretty cool. But it’s a shared splash art with Nasus, so that should trigger some red flags for skin aficionados right away. And while the splash art definitely clues you into the heavy blue hues, it completely hides the teal of the weapon. I’m not a big fan of this pairing – but if you are, more power to you. For those that like it, you’ll be glad to know this is the cheapest Hecarim skin at 750 RP. But that also comes with a caveat: The cheapness shows, as his armor clips his body during his dance emote, a rather uncharacteristic mistake from Riot.
8. Reaper Hecarim
Released: April 17th, 2012 Price: 975 RP Reaper Hecarim is a perfect example of what old skins were like. Thematically, it fits perfectly with Hecarim. So fans of the original could get some spice without going overboard like some of the later skins do. Best of all, his scythe looks wonderful here – especially after landing a couple Qs and seeing it empowered. Overall this is a solid choice for base Hecarim fans, although you won’t be getting much bang for your buck at 975 RP, in my opinion.
7. Lancer Zero Hecarim
Released: August 16th, 2017 Price: 100 Mythic Essence If you’ve seen or played any of the skins from the Mecha line (and liked them), chances are you’ll like this one too. It’s clean and smooth, and as the price point of 100 Mythic Essence would suggest, it also has new audio sounds to go with its unique visuals. Hecarim benefits from this a lot, as his E charge up time is kind of hard to hear with his default audio. And these crisper sounds go a long way to help time out your ganks. I do factor this into my later rankings too. One strange thing about this skin (for me) is that I can’t bring myself to rank it higher, despite it being good. The problem, I think, is that it just doesn’t have a unique identity like every subsequent skin on this list. It’s not helped by the fact that there are so many other amazing gemstone skins. It’s just too hard to justify picking this over another one of Hecarim’s options.
6. Arcana Hecarim
Released: April 14th, 2022 Price: 1350 RP First off, let’s just acknowledge how amazing that splash art is. It gives off strong “final boss” vibes and is an excellent way to terrify the enemy team before even getting into the game. However, the in-game model doesn’t fully live up to the hype. Although the armor is pretty sick (especially the faceless mask), your weapon just looks flimsy. And as far as animations go, it’s a mixed bag. For example, the backing animation is simply amazing (as one would expect from an Arcana skin). Your new ult also feels extremely impactful. Plus this skin probably has the cleanest W design of them all. However, the Q and E just come off as disappointing. They’re missing a lot of the oomph that later skins have in spades. The skin also comes with some chromas, but besides the fact that the Catseye chroma turns you into the Tree Sentinel, I wasn’t too impressed. Overall, this skin is very similar to Lancer Zero – in that it isn’t necessarily bad, but just misses that “wow” factor that would really hook you in.
5. Headless Hecarim
Released: October 26th, 2012 Price: 975 RP Headless Hecarim is great for its price of 975 RP, although it’s only available during the Harrowing event around Halloween, in case you couldn’t tell from its motif. The Harrowing skins are a personal favorite of mine. And Hecarim in particular is the perfect pick for a Runeterran Headless Horseman. His flowing coattails, fiery trails, and dangling skulls all work together as a strong visual medium, through which that old tale can be seen. Even more than that, Hecarim’s abilities are given a nice makeover with fiery orange effects rather than his standard ghostly blue – which contrast really nicely with the black to create that bewitching and oh-so recognizable Halloween palette. The splash art is also one of the best of Hecarim’s skins, easily distinguishing him in his spooky glory, without being too busy or too plain in the background.
4. Elderwood Hecarim
Released: November 25th, 2015 Price: 1350 RP The biggest disappointment of this skin is the weapon translation from splash art to in-game. Because it could’ve looked so much better with a bigger, sharper blade. With that qualm out of the way, the rest of this skin looks incredible. From the occultish and almost witchy wooden head, to the pieces of what look like ruins covering his flanks, this skin tells a story that’s both captivating and cool. The new visuals here are also incredible, accenting every ability with faerie fire, leaves, and vines, and adding familiar sounds of nature to match.
3. High Noon Hecarim
Released: October 9th, 2019 Price: 1350 RP The High Noon skin line is a pretty eccentric mix of Wild West and Demonology. So naturally a horse would be the perfect fit, right? Well, if the skin wasn’t titled “High Noon” then I’m not so sure I’d get the Western part, outside of a detail or two. And that just seems strange to me. With that said, this skin has a bunch of high notes. It’s incredibly crisp, owing mainly to the very angular design of the bones, and fire of his armor and abilities respectively. For this reason, it’s easy to recommend it to fans of the base skin’s edge who just wanted a little more. I particularly enjoy the treatment they gave his W ability – accenting it with little prongs on the outside ring and manifesting tumbleweeds adds innovation that his other skins are sorely lacking. The same could be said of his ultimate, although the tumbleweeds there aren’t as impactful as they follow him to the end of his charge. Speaking of not being impactful, the sound on this skin may or may not harmonize with you. Every single effect is more muted, though there are a few things that are reminiscent of that “Western feel” like I mentioned before. Stuff like a whip cracking on his E startup. I can’t tell exactly what Riot was going for, considering how heavy hitting most of Hecarim’s skin’s sounds are. So in a way, I’m left wanting more here. To this skin’s credit, though, it does evoke a sense of being isolated in a dust storm – which works in a weird way to create a sense of dread. So definitely judge it for yourself to see what you think.
2. Cosmic Charger Hecarim
Released: November 24th, 2020 Price: 1350 RP Celestial themes will always be some of the most impressive and well-beloved designs in gaming. And Riot does right by this trend as you’d expect – because Cosmic Charger is a beautiful skin. For those of you drawn to Hecarim’s natural blue color scheme, this will undoubtedly be attractive to you. The cosmic blue and gold do a much better job meshing well together than Worldbreaker. And while yes, Cosmic Charger is 2 price points higher at 1375 RP, if you’re going to splurge you might as well splurge for something worthwhile. More than that, Hecarim’s abilities are the true winner with this skin. They all recieve incredible special effects, and all of them have been given a beautiful blue and purple trail effect with stars to accent them. They’ve also all been updated with a new sound effect that mimics the emptiness of space. The result is a much deeper and more visceral feeling which makes the warhorse that much more satisfying to play. With that said, I do have some gripes with Cosmic Charger. I think the skin texture is a little disappointing. Hecarim’s body is a little too solid for a cosmic entity. And Riot has already proven they can do it better on skins like Dark Star Jhin and Mordekaiser. He also has an arrow quiver for some reason, which doesn’t even show up on the splash art. So it just seems out of place and unnecessary. Still a very cool skin for sure.
1. Arcade Hecarim
Released: August 21st, 2013 Price: 1350 RP As one of the first of the Arcade line, this one lacks certain nuances that came later on – but it still has plenty of that same charm. In fact, for only 1350 RP, it’s hard to not to recommend this skin, just based on the sheer amount of stuff they’ve crammed into it. The design itself is incredibly sleek, being nearly all metallic steel except for the rainbow mane and tail – which have always been Hecarim’s most distinctive features. There’s also the weapon, which is a reference to one of my favorite games of all time: Guitar Hero. I’d say the auto attack and Q trail are a little bit on the weaker side compared to most skins in this line. But if you’re already in it for the rainbows, you’ll still be happy. His empowered state (that happens after landing 2 Qs) is one of my favorites in this skin. His weapon gets covered in pixelated lightning, which is a clear reference to Guitar Hero’s Star Power. And his W circle is more of what you’d expect, but with the added bonus of having pixel hearts appear around enemies which drain down based on duration – a very cool graphic that’s notably missing from any of his other skins. His E speed-up is also superb, paying homage to racing games of the past with those iconic speed strips appearing every time he hits a new speed threshold. And to talk about his ultimate just a little: you of course get more rainbows with his apparitions each being a different color. But there’s also a neat and easy-to-overlook effect on the fear symbol, which gets pixelated just like everything else. It’s very similar to the regular fear effect, probably for visual clarity, but it’s still worth pointing out to appreciate the details that were lovingly crafted into the skin. Oh, and he gets a voice filter that’s a total throwback to those distorted arcade cabinet announcers of yore. So yeah, if you like video games (and I can only assume you do, all things considered…) then definitely check out Arcade Hecarim. Note: this content was created under Riot Games’ “Legal Jibber Jabber” policy using assets owned by Riot Games. Riot Games does not endorse or sponsor this project.
