Gangplank Skins

Gangplank is one of those champions where the skin collection tells a story about how Riot figured out what to do with him. Twelve skins spanning from 2010 to 2024. Not a massive catalog but theres enough range here to keep GP mains happy. Been playing him on and off since season 4, mostly top lane sometimes mid when I'm feeling spicy, and I've tried every single one of these skins in ranked. Some hold up. Some really dont. The pirate fantasy is strong with this champion and the skins either lean into it hard or go completely sideways with the theme. Both approaches can work.

How Gangplank's Skin Collection Shaped Up Over the Years

Twelve skins total. Seven Standard tier, five Epic at 1350 RP each. No Legendary. No Ultimate. Kinda feels like Riot never gave GP the prestige treatment he deserves, but the Epics carry the catalog hard enough that it doesnt sting too much. The oldest skin, Minuteman Gangplank, dropped back in 2010 when the game was barely out of beta. Wild to think about.

The early skins are what you'd expect from that era. Spooky Gangplank, Sailor Gangplank, Toy Soldier Gangplank. Texture swaps with maybe a hat change. They have that charming early League jank where the model looks like it was sculpted from clay by someone in a hurry. Not gonna lie, I still lock in Toy Soldier around Christmas because the nostalgia hits different (sidebar: I have a screenshot of me getting a penta with Toy Soldier GP from season 5, terrible quality but I refuse to delete it).

The real turning point was the 2015 rework. Captain Gangplank came out of the Burning Tides event and suddenly GP felt like a real champion with a real identity. Everything after that point sits at Epic tier. Dreadnova in 2017. Pool Party in 2018. FPX in 2020. Gangplank the Betrayer in 2022. PROJECT in 2024. Five Epic skins in seven years. Decent pace for a champion who isnt exactly the poster child of League.

Could be wrong here but I think GP has one of the more balanced collections in the game. No filler Legendary that phones it in. No rushed Prestige cash grab. Just solid Epics and nostalgic Standards. The floor is low with those early skins but the ceiling is genuinely good.

Best Gangplank Skins Worth Locking In

Dreadnova Gangplank. Full stop. This is the skin. Released 2017 and it still looks modern. The space pirate concept sounds goofy on paper but Riot executed it clean. His barrels get this metallic sci-fi coating, the Q has a laser pistol sound that's so satisfying to spam in lane, and the ult rains down orbital strikes instead of cannonballs. Played maybe 150 games with Dreadnova across season 8 and 9. The recall animation where he warps onto a ship is chef's kiss. 1350 RP and it earns every point.

Pool Party Gangplank is the fun pick. Water gun Q. Beach umbrella barrels. His ult drops a wave of pool water across the map. Might be overthinking it but I think Pool Party GP has the cleanest barrel VFX in the entire collection. The orange W becomes a literal orange slice and thats just good design. Took this into ranked last summer during a heatwave and went on a seven game winstreak. Coincidence? Probably. But I'm superstitious about it now.

FPX Gangplank carries the Worlds skin energy. The red and gold color scheme pops on the Rift, especially in teamfights where your ult blankets an area and everything turns crimson. Not sure if it's just me but FPX GP feels smoother to play. The barrel chain timing seems easier to read with those particle effects. 1350 RP for a Worlds skin is standard pricing.

Gangplank the Betrayer goes dark. Real dark. The lore angle with Burning Tides gets pushed further and the whole aesthetic screams villain arc. His barrels look corrupted, the E placement feels weighted differently even though it's the same hitbox. Been running this one in my Diamond games this split and the splash art alone intimidates people in champ select. Good skin. Might be his second best after Dreadnova.

PROJECT: Gangplank is the newest, dropped 2024. Full cyberpunk treatment. The Q becomes a railgun shot, barrels turn into tech grenades, R calls down a drone strike. Fresh. The VFX are sharp and the sound design hits hard. Still forming my opinion on this one honestly. Need another 50 games before I commit to a ranking but early impressions are strong.

Skinlines and Where Gangplank Fits

GP shows up across a wild spread of skinlines. Trick-or-Treat with Spooky Gangplank. Day Job vibes with Sailor. Toy Box for Toy Soldier. Commando line with Special Forces. Wonders of the World through Sultan. Then the bigger thematic lines: Bilgewater Burning Tides, Dreadnova, Pool Party, FPX Worlds, and PROJECT.

The ones that fit his fantasy best? Burning Tides and Dreadnova. Not even close. Captain Gangplank IS the champion's identity post-rework. The lore event built around him losing his ship, getting scarred, coming back harder. Thats not just a skin, thats a character arc. Dreadnova takes the pirate concept and launches it into space which sounds ridiculous but works because GP's kit translates perfectly to sci-fi. Barrels become mines. Pistol becomes blaster. Cannonballs become orbital bombardment. Clean thematic mapping.

Pool Party is the outlier that works anyway. A pirate at the beach makes sense. He's already on water half the time in his lore. The Toy Box and Trick-or-Treat entries feel dated but they had charm for their era. Real talk though, Special Forces Gangplank is the one skinline placement that never clicked for me. Military GP without the pirate swagger just feels like a different champion (random aside: I forgot I owned Special Forces until I was scrolling my collection last Tuesday looking for something to play in ARAM).

Budget Picks vs the Premium Epics

No Legendary in the catalog so the price ceiling is 1350 RP. Good news for your wallet. The budget Standards range from 520 to 975 RP and some of them genuinely hold up.

Sultan Gangplank at 975 RP is the budget king. Great model, different silhouette from base, the turban and robes give him a completely distinct look on the Rift. For a Standard skin it punches way above. Maybe just my experience but Sultan GP gets more compliments in post-game chat than some of the Epics. Captain Gangplank is technically free if you played during the Burning Tides event back in 2015, and it's his canonical post-rework look. Hard to beat free.

But if you're spending money? Dreadnova or Pool Party. Both 1350 RP, both worth it. The Standard skins are fine for spamming in normals but the Epic tier is where GP's VFX actually get interesting. Barrel chains with custom particles, unique ult visuals, different Q sounds. Thats the stuff that matters when you're grinding 200 games a season on one champion. Fair price for the package either way.

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