Forgotten Depths Skins

Forgotten Depths is one of those skinlines that flew under the radar for most players, and I think thats partly because Riot never really marketed it as a cohesive set. Eight skins spread across six years, all pulling from the same deep-ocean horror aesthetic. Lovecraftian meets the Mariana Trench. Been playing League since season 2 and I remember picking up Deep One Kassadin back when nobody even thought about skinlines as a concept. The whole vibe is dark water, bioluminescence, coral growths, and creatures that look like they crawled out of somewhere you dont want to visit. Works better than it has any right to for a budget line.

What Sets Forgotten Depths Apart from Other Skinlines

Not gonna lie, the ocean theme in League is crowded. You got Pool Party for the fun side, Ocean Song for the pop music angle, and Bilgewater stuff for the pirate fantasy. Forgotten Depths sits in a completely different corner. This is the creepy ocean. The "what lives at 10,000 feet below the surface" ocean. No beach balls, no surfboards.

The shared visual language across the line is surprisingly consistent for something Riot built piecemeal over half a decade. Deep greens, murky blues, coral textures on armor and weapons, bioluminescent accents that glow in darker parts of the Rift. Every champion in the set looks like they've been submerged for centuries and evolved into something else. Kassadin's void aesthetic gets redirected into deep-sea horror. Malphite literally becomes a living reef. Thresh's lantern looks like an angler fish lure.

Could be wrong here but I think the reason this line works is because it leans hard into body horror without going full Coven-dark. There's something unsettling about Kog'Maw covered in barnacles and coral, but it still reads as a League skin and not a different game entirely. The color palette stays in that teal-to-dark-green range with occasional orange-red coral highlights. Consistent across all eight skins even though the earliest ones dropped in 2010 and the latest came in 2016.

(Random aside: I used to run Deep One Kassadin in ranked around season 4 and my duo partner thought it was a custom skin because he'd literally never seen it before. That's how underground this line was.)

Compared to something like Dark Star which goes cosmic horror, Forgotten Depths keeps things grounded. Terrestrial. Aquatic, technically. The horror comes from real deep-sea biology twisted onto champion silhouettes. Anglerfish elements on Thresh. Nautilus looking like a diving suit that got consumed by the ocean floor. Syndra's orbs becoming deep-sea organisms. Real talk though, its the kind of thematic commitment that Riot used to do with cheaper skins before everything became a 1350 RP event skin with a trailer.

Best Forgotten Depths Skins Worth Picking Up

Okay so ranking these. Eight skins, mostly budget tier, one Epic. Here's where the value actually sits.

Deep Sea Nami is the crown jewel of the line. Full stop. Only Epic in the set at 1350 RP and it earns that price tag. Her abilities get a complete underwater horror makeover. The W bounce looks like bioluminescent plankton transferring between targets. Ult becomes this massive deep-sea wave with dark undertones instead of the usual clean water. Been spamming this in Diamond on my support games and the visual clarity is actually solid despite the darker palette. Might be the best Nami skin depending on your taste, and I've tried most of them.

Deep Terror Thresh comes in second for me. Kinda feels like this is what Thresh would look like if he was a boss in Subnautica. The hook becomes a tentacle, the lantern has that angler fish glow, and the flay animation reads like something dragging you into the abyss. Played maybe 80 games with it last season. At 975 RP its a steal for what you get visually.

Atlantean Syndra is a sleeper pick. Her orbs become these pulsing deep-sea creatures and the whole silhouette shifts to this ocean sorceress vibe. Not the flashiest skin she has, nowhere close to the Legendaries, but for 975 RP back in 2014 it delivered. The scatter the weak animation with the sea-creature orbs flying everywhere looks clean in teamfights.

Deep One Kassadin holds a special place. One of the oldest skins in the line, released way back in 2010. The Lovecraft reference is obvious. Cthulhu-adjacent Kassadin with tentacle face, deep-sea armor, the whole package. Its showing its age for sure. No new particles, no new animations, just a model swap. But at 520 RP? Hard to complain. I keep it in rotation for nostalgia, not gonna lie.

Atlantean Fizz rounds out my top five. Fizz already has an aquatic kit so the thematic overlap is almost too perfect. His shark ult becomes something darker, more predatory. The trident gets coral treatment. At 975 RP from 2013 it was solid value. Not sure if it holds up against his newer skins like Fuzz Fizz or Cafe Cuties, but for the Forgotten Depths aesthetic specifically, it fits like a glove.

Which Champions Made It Into Forgotten Depths

Eight champions total across the line. The roster makes sense for the most part, with a couple picks that feel inspired and one or two that feel like Riot just needed to fill slots.

Nautilus is the most obvious fit. Dude is already a deep-sea diver consumed by the ocean. Abyssal Nautilus just leans harder into what his base design already implies. Feels like cheating almost. Like putting Leona in a sun-themed skinline. The execution is solid though, heavy barnacle and coral textures on the diving suit, anchor looks like it was dredged from a shipwreck. Locked in this skin for a solid stretch in season 5 when I was grinding Nautilus support.

Malphite as Coral Reef Malphite works surprisingly well. Living rock becomes living reef. The color shift from grey stone to vibrant coral greens and oranges is dramatic. One of those skins where the concept carries hard even without particle changes. At 520 RP released in 2010 you cant expect much, but the model work holds up okay.

Syndra and Nami were later additions, 2014 and 2016 respectively. They brought more polish to the line. Nami especially since she got the Epic treatment with new particles and sound effects. Syndra's orbs becoming deep-sea organisms was a creative choice that paid off.

Kog'Maw covered in barnacles is equal parts gross and perfect. Deep Sea Kog'Maw leans into the "horrifying creature from the depths" angle and honestly Kog's base design is already halfway there. The bio-artillery void puppy covered in coral and sea growth. Works.

Fair warning, if you're expecting modern skin quality from the older entries in this line, you'll be disappointed. Most of these are texture-only changes from 2010-2013. Nami and Thresh are the exceptions. The earlier skins carry the theme through model changes alone, no new VFX or voice lines. Standard voice, no new lines across the board except Deep Sea Nami gets some aquatic sound effects on abilities.

Who should Riot add next? (Sidebar for theorycrafting: Pyke seems like the most obvious miss. Deep-sea horror assassin who already has water themes in his kit. Illaoi with tentacle god worship would be thematic perfection. Renata Glasc with deep-sea chemical weapons could work too.) Might be overthinking it but this line deserves a modern revival with 1350 RP skins and full VFX treatment.

Tier and Price Breakdown for Forgotten Depths

Here's the thing about this line. Seven out of eight skins are Standard tier. Prices range from 520 to 975 RP for those seven, with Deep Sea Nami sitting alone at 1350 RP as the only Epic. No Legendaries. No Mythics. No Ultimates.

That tells you exactly when this line was being developed. 2010 to 2016 was Riot's "throw a model swap at 520-975 RP and move on" era. Before every new skin needed to be an event-tier production with a cinematic trailer and Twitter campaign. There's something honest about it. You pay 520 RP for Coral Reef Malphite and you get exactly what that price point promises. New look, same everything else.

Nami carrying the Epic flag solo is interesting. She got the full treatment in 2016 towards the end of the line's run. New particles, new sounds, recall animation. If you're only buying one Forgotten Depths skin, thats the one. 1350 RP well spent for Nami mains specifically.

The budget nature of the line is actually a strength in one way. You can collect the entire set for less than two Legendary skins cost. Probably around 6,000 RP total for all eight if they're in the shop. Some might be in Legacy vault rotation though, so availability varies. Been checking the shop last Tuesday around midnight and most were available but I'd double-check before planning a haul.

Real talk though, the lack of any Legendary entry hurts the line's visibility. Skinlines that have at least one 1820 RP showpiece tend to get remembered. Forgotten Depths lives up to its name in that regard. Forgotten by Riot, forgotten by most players, lurking in the depths of the skin catalog. That ranked game where my Nami one-trick friend locked in Deep Sea and our whole team had no idea it existed until loading screen. Thats the Forgotten Depths experience.