Snow Day Graves

First time I saw Snow Day Graves load in, I thought someone modded the game. Graves holding a massive snowball cannon instead of his shotgun. Looked ridiculous in the best way. Been running this skin on and off since it dropped in late 2016 and honestly not gonna lie, it hits different during the winter months when you want that seasonal vibe in your ranked games.

What Snow Day Graves actually brings to the Rift

So this is an Epic tier skin at 1350 RP, which means you get new VFX and a new recall animation. Voice lines stay base. No new VO. The auto attacks fire snowballs instead of buckshot, and the Q feels chunkier visually with the snow particle effects. Watching the snow burst on impact during a teamfight is satisfying, especially when you land a clean Q into the wave and see the white particles scatter.

The W smoke screen becomes this blizzard cloud. Kinda feels like an actual whiteout dropped on the enemy backline. E dash has subtle snow trail effects, nothing crazy but enough to notice. The R is where it really shines though. Big snowball projectile that explodes into a shower of snow and ice on impact. Caught their Jinx with it last week near dragon pit, the explosion looked clean against the river terrain.

Recall animation has Graves building a snowman. Simple concept but the execution works. He looks genuinely annoyed while doing it, which fits his personality perfectly. The whole skin leans into that grumpy outdoorsman aesthetic. Graves in a winter coat, beanie, the whole deal. His cigar got swapped for what looks like a candy cane or something similar. Small detail but it sells the theme.

The Snow Day line and where this skin fits

Snow Day dropped December 14, 2016. Season 6 ending, preseason 7 chaos. Esben Lash Rasmussen nailed the splash, Graves standing in the snow looking like he’s about to ruin someones snowball fight with actual shotgun-level force. The Snow Day skinline is one of Riot’s seasonal collections alongside Bard, Syndra, Malzahar, Gnar, and Ziggs. Graves fits the line naturally because the shotgun-to-snowball-launcher swap just works mechanically.

There’s 1 chroma available: Golden. It shifts the coat and overall palette to a warm gold tone. Not my favorite honestly. Think the base blue and grey color scheme reads better on the Rift. Could be wrong here but the Golden chroma feels more like a collectors thing than a practical upgrade. (Random aside: I keep this splash as my Discord avatar every December, the art is that good.)

Legacy vault skin, so you cant just grab it whenever. Gotta wait for the winter event shop rotation or get lucky with Hextech crafting. Seen maybe 4 or 5 of these in my Diamond games all last season, which is a shame because it deserves more play.

Is Snow Day Graves worth 1350 RP?

Real verdict: if you main Graves jungle or play him bot lane, this is a solid pickup at 1350 RP. The VFX changes are noticeable without being distracting, the theme is fun, and it ages well. Played this through maybe 30 games last January and the animations still felt fresh.

Competition is tough though. Pool Party Graves exists. Porcelain Graves exists. Battle Professor is flashier. But Snow Day has this cozy, seasonal charm that none of the others touch. Best executed winter skin for Graves, no question. The snowball autos alone carry it.

Skip this if you only play Graves occasionally. But for mains and one-tricks who want variety in their skin rotation, especially during ranked sessions from November through February, 1350 RP feels fair for what you get. Just remember its Legacy so if you see it available during a winter event around 2 AM on a Tuesday night, dont sleep on it. That vault closes fast.