Invaders Skins

The Invaders skinline is one of those weird relics from early League that most players have never even seen in a real game. Two skins. Two champions. Both from 2010. Corki in a UFO and Heimerdinger doing his best little green man impression. Not gonna lie, there's something charming about how low-budget and committed to the bit these skins are. The alien invasion theme was goofy before Riot figured out what "thematic cohesion" even meant, and I think thats part of why the line has stuck in my memory across all these seasons of ranked.

What Makes the Invaders Line Stand Out

Kinda feels like Riot made two skins during a lunch break and said "yeah, aliens, lets ship it." And honestly? Good for them. The Invaders skinline leans hard into retro sci-fi. Think 1950s B-movie flying saucers, not Mass Effect. The color palette is all greens and silvers and weird metallic textures that look like they belong on a prop from a drive-in theater double feature. No sleek modern particle work here. No fancy evolving VFX. Just two champions cosplaying as extraterrestrials on the Rift.

The visual signature tying these two skins together is the UFO motif. Corki literally pilots one. Heimerdinger becomes the alien himself, complete with the oversized head and antenna turrets. The shared aesthetic is campy space invasion, and it works because neither skin takes itself seriously. Compare this to something like Dark Star where every skin is trying to look more cosmically threatening than the last. Invaders goes the opposite direction. Playful. Silly. A bit janky by modern standards.

Could be wrong here but I think the splash art style from 2010 actually adds to the charm now. The older art has this hand-painted quality that modern splashes lost somewhere around season 5 or 6. Heimerdinger's Alien Invader splash in particular has this Saturday morning cartoon energy. You look at it and you know exactly what the skin is about in half a second. No lore essay required.

The thing that separates Invaders from other joke skinlines like Definitely Not or Food Fight is the commitment to a single narrow concept. Aliens. Thats it. No subgenres, no variations, no "dark" version. Two skins, one joke, executed with zero pretense. (Random aside: I genuinely wonder if anyone at Riot in 2010 thought this would become a collectors item fourteen years later.)

Best Invaders Skins

With only two skins in the entire line this section writes itself. But there's actually a real conversation to be had about which one holds up better after all these years of League evolution.

Alien Invader Heimerdinger is the clear winner. Legendary tier. Been playing Heimer on and off since season 3 and this skin still gets comments in lobby chat when I lock it in. The model rework gives him the full alien treatment. Green skin, massive cranium, turrets that look like they're straight out of a Spielberg knockoff. The auto attacks have this sci-fi laser feel that base Heimer cant match. Real talk though, the skin was made before Riot standardized what "Legendary" meant, so dont expect new voice lines or the production value of a modern 1820 RP skin. It's Legendary by 2010 standards. Big difference.

The animations are where Alien Invader Heimerdinger earns it. His turrets deploy with a different cadence, and the rockets on W have this green tracer effect that reads cleaner in teamfights than you'd expect from a twelve-year-old skin. Spammed this in maybe 40 ranked games last season and the clarity was never an issue. Could be coping but I think the older VFX actually telegraph better because they're simpler. Less visual noise.

UFO Corki is the other half of the lineup and it's a completely different story. Standard tier. You cant buy this one. It was a promotional skin given to players who created their accounts before January 14, 2010. If you have it, you've been around since before League was League. The skin itself is modest. Corki's plane becomes a flying saucer. Model swap, no new particles or sounds. Simple change - huge impact on the nostalgia factor though.

Not sure if it's just me but seeing a UFO Corki in game hits different than seeing any other rare skin. It's not flashy. It's not impressive from a technical standpoint. But it means that player has been on the Rift since the absolute beginning, and in a Diamond lobby at 1 AM on a Wednesday, that commands a weird kind of respect. Saw one maybe twice all of last season. Might have been the same person honestly.

The Invaders Champion Roster

Two champions. Thats the whole roster. Corki and Heimerdinger. Smallest skinline in the game tied with a handful of other forgotten micro-lines from the early days.

Heimerdinger fits the alien theme naturally. He's already the eccentric inventor with a big head. Slap some green skin on him, swap his turrets for alien tech, and the concept sells itself. No stretching required. His kit translates perfectly because turrets become alien sentries, rockets become lasers, and the ult enhanced versions of everything just amplify the sci-fi vibe. If Riot ever revisited this line (they wont, but hypothetically) Heimerdinger would still be the poster child.

Corki's inclusion makes sense from a different angle. He already flies a vehicle. Swap the plane for a UFO and you're done. The thematic logic is "characters who pilot things" which is a narrow but functional roster criteria. Fair warning, this means the Invaders line basically requires champions with a vehicle or a gimmick that maps to alien tech. Not many candidates left.

(Sidebar for the theorycrafters: Rumble could work. Mech becomes a UFO. Vel'Koz is literally already an alien. Bel'Veth has the interdimensional thing going. But Riot hasnt touched this line since 2010 and I'd bet my LP they never will.) The two-champion roster is part of the identity at this point. Expanding it would break the relic charm. Some skinlines are better left small.

Might be overthinking it but the Corki and Heimerdinger pairing also works because both champions have that "old guard" energy. They were both in the original launch roster. They both have dedicated one-trick communities who've been playing them since beta. The Invaders line is a time capsule for a specific era of League, and the champions in it reflect that perfectly.

Tier and Pricing Breakdown

The tier split here is unusual. One Standard and one Legendary across two skins. No Epics, no Mythics, nothing in between. Alien Invader Heimerdinger carries the Legendary banner at 1820 RP. UFO Corki is Standard tier but functionally priceless because you cannot purchase it. Legacy doesnt even cover it. Its a promotional exclusive from 2010 that Riot has never re-released.

For Heimerdinger's skin specifically, 1820 RP in 2010 got you a model rework and modified animations. By today's Legendary standards that would barely qualify as Epic. But the price has never been adjusted. You're paying modern Legendary rates for season 1 production quality. Worth it if you main Heimer and want the flex. Overpriced if you're comparing feature-for-feature against something like Spirit Guard Udyr or Elementalist Lux.

Been maining Heimer with this skin on and off for three seasons now. Honestly the lack of new voice lines is the biggest gap. Modern Legendaries ship with full VO reworks, unique interactions, kill quotes, the works. Alien Invader Heimerdinger has none of that. Same base voice lines. Same callouts. The visual package does enough heavy lifting that I dont mind, but it's something to know before you drop the RP. No refunds on disappointment.

The Invaders line as a whole sits in this weird pricing limbo where one skin costs real money and the other costs having played League before most current players were even aware the game existed. Wild spread for a two-skin collection.

Frequently Asked Questions About Invaders Skins