Star Guardians skins for Neeko, Rakan, Xayah, and Zoey coming to LoL

New Star Guardians skins are coming to League of Legends.

After teasing an expansion to the line on Twitter, Riot Games has confirmed that Neeko, Zoey, Xayah, and Rakan are getting new looks. The new cosmetic items were added to the PBE alongside patch 9.18.

The new Star Guardians have many of the same themes and accessories that one would expect from the series. Music plays during a recall, and each one has a pet familiar following them around, including owls for Rakan and Xayah, an octopus for Zoey, and a chubby frog for Neeko.

But fans were quick to notice that most of these new skins look quite different than their Star Guardian counterparts.

Though the new look for Neeko fits in right alongside the previous, brightly colored installments, the Star Guardian versions of Xayah, Rakan, and Zoey are considerably darker than one would expect.

New Xayah, Rakan, and Zoey Star Guardian LoL skins have lore implications

Riot’s senior visual effects artist Beardilocks explained the reason for the new direction on Twitter and had a fairly lengthy discussion on Star Guardians lore.

“Ahri was on a team with Miss Fortune, Neeko, Xayah, and Rakan. Zoe has corrupted Xayah and Rakan, but Neeko escaped corruption, biding her time and waiting for a chance to free [them] from Zoe,” he said. “You can see in some of their spells that they transform back to Light form at some points.”

He also confirmed Rakan and Xayah’s skins to be legendary, and noted that they include unique animations and voice lines.

League of Legends’ Star Guardians universe shares a number of similarities to the Sailor Moon franchise in terms of both story and aesthetics. It follows the story of a group of high schoolers led by Ahri that are enlisted to battle Zoe’s evil, celestial forces who are looking to bring darkness across the universe.