What are skins and how do I get them?

Skins are diffident looks for you champion, some are given out as promotion or reward from events but most of them are bought with Riot points (the points you need to spend real money on to get). There are two skins that are unlocked from the referrals program and if you reach 5000 referrals you permanently unlock all skins that re not exclusive award from tournaments.

For the most part it is just a cosmetic thing but there is atleast 1 exception, any skin that has sunglasses takes reduced damage(1 less damage) from Leona's Sunlight ability, this is one of the hidden passives in the game.

The free promotional skins that I know of is:

Unchained Alistar from Youtube promotion Riot girl Tristana from Facebook promotion

(If the log in doesn't work make sure the link directs you to the correct region for your account)

Skins are completely cosmetic items. While they have no effect on your ingame effectiveness, there are some skins called "Legendary Skins" which are complete reskins of champions, which have custom animations and particle effects.

In general, they are only purchaseable by using Riot Points, and are not available to be purchased with IP. There are two free skins available that let you open up their respective champions, Riot Girl Tristana from "Liking" Riot's Facebook page, and Unchained Alistar from subscribing to their youtube channel.

Skins only have aesthetic value and serve no other purpose.

And yes skins can only be bought with riot points.

The only skin which you can get for free at this time is Riot Girl Tristana. you can get her by going to depending on your location:

https://na.leagueoflegends.com/facebook https://euw.leagueoflegends.com/facebook https://eune.leagueoflegends.com/facebook