Three Honors Skins

Three Honors is one of those skinlines that flies completely under the radar because you cant buy any of them. Riot tied these to the Honor system rewards, so you either grind out being a decent human in ranked or you never see them in your collection. Been playing since season 6 and I only started paying attention to Honor skins when they dropped the Malzahar one back in 2022. The whole concept is clean: reward players who dont flame, give them something exclusive. In practice, most people forget these exist until they randomly show up in their loot tab after a season reset. Three skins total in the line so far, all Standard tier, all tied to Honor milestones. Small collection but it hits different when you know you earned it instead of swiping a credit card.

What Makes the Three Honors Line Stand Out

Not gonna lie, the Three Honors aesthetic is subtle compared to something like Empyrean or Arcana. There's no giant thematic overhaul here. No alternate universe lore dump. These skins take the champion's base design and layer on this golden-white honor motif. Think ceremonial armor vibes with warm golds, soft whites, and these faint glowing accents that read like "this player didn't int your promos."

The splash arts share a consistent palette. Warm tones. Dignified poses. Each champion looks like they just got knighted by Riot's behavioral systems team. Could be wrong here but I think that's intentional. The whole point is these skins feel earned, not flashy. You're not trying to show off in lane, you're quietly flexing that you maintained Honor 5 through an entire season of solo queue. Anyone who's climbed through Diamond knows how hard that actually is when your jungler locks in Teemo for the third game in a row.

What ties the line together visually is the golden particle work. Its not heavy-handed like Prestige editions where everything is dripping in gold. More restrained. The gold accents sit on top of each champion's existing color scheme and complement it rather than replacing it. Shen keeps his ninja silhouette but gets this regal overlay. Malzahar's void purple mixes with the honor gold in a way that shouldn't work but does. Akshan's roguish design picks up the ceremonial elements without losing his personality.

Compared to other reward skinlines like Victorious (which is ranked-gated) or Challenger (limited run), Three Honors occupies this weird middle ground. Victorious skins feel like trophies. Three Honors skins feel like medals of good conduct. Not as prestigious in the community's eyes, honestly. I've seen maybe 5 Three Honors skins in my games total across three seasons. Most players either dont reach Honor 5 or they just dont equip the skin because they have flashier options. Which is a shame because the craftsmanship on these is solid for Standard tier.

(Random aside: the fact that Riot rewards non-toxic behavior with free skins and people still flame in champ select tells you everything about the playerbase.)

Best Three Honors Skins Ranked

With only three skins in the collection, ranking them is quick. But there's a clear order in my mind after seeing all three in game.

Three Honors Malzahar takes the top spot. Dropped in 2022 as the first entry in the line and it set the standard. The voidlings pick up the golden tint which looks surprisingly good against Summoner's Rift terrain. His Q shimmer and the E space aids visual both get touched up with that warm honor glow. For a Standard skin with no new VO, the visual changes carry weight. Been running this one in ARAM specifically because Malzahar mains are rare enough that people actually notice it and ask where I got it. Real talk though, the recall animation is where it shines. Simple but clean.

Three Honors Shen comes second. Shen's design already leans into that disciplined warrior fantasy, so the honor theme fits him like a glove. The spirit blade picks up golden traces and his W zone reads beautifully in teamfights. I think Shen was a smart champion choice for this line because his whole lore is about duty and sacrifice for others. Thematically perfect. In ranked games where I'm peeling for my ADC with Shen ult, having this skin on feels weirdly appropriate. Like yeah, I'm the guy who protects you AND doesn't flame. Played maybe 40 games with this skin last season and the taunt particles with the gold edge are genuinely satisfying.

Three Honors Akshan sits third. Not because its bad but because Akshan's whole personality is cocky and playful, which clashes a bit with the dignified honor aesthetic. Kinda feels like putting a suit on a skateboarder. The swing animation with gold trails looks nice and the Q boomerang gets a warm shimmer, but the champion's base energy doesn't mesh as naturally as Shen or Malzahar. Released in 2025, making it the newest addition. Still growing on me after about 15 games but I keep going back to his other skins for ranked.

Might be overthinking it but the best Three Honors skin is whichever one matches a champion you actually play. These aren't flex picks for your collection. They're daily drivers for mains who happened to stay honorable.

The Three Honors Champion Roster

Three champions. Thats it. Malzahar, Shen, and Akshan. Smallest skinline roster you'll find outside of one-off event skins.

The champion selection tells a story about what Riot thinks "honorable" looks like. Shen is the obvious pick. Protector archetype, literally shields allies, whole kit revolves around helping your team. No notes there. Malzahar is interesting because he's a midlane mage who zones and controls space. Not the first champion you think of when someone says "honor" but maybe Riot's angle was that consistent team-oriented play in lane phase deserves recognition too. He's the guy who silences the enemy assassin before they can dive your backline. Honorable in function if not in lore.

Akshan is the wildcard pick. Grappling hook marksman with a revive passive. The honor connection there is probably the resurrection mechanic, bringing teammates back from the dead. Fair enough. But his voice lines are all swagger and one-liners which creates this tonal disconnect with the skinline's vibe. Not a bad skin, just a weird fit.

Who should be next? I'd argue Braum. Literally the most honorable champion in the game's lore, protects the weak, has a mustache. The fact that Braum doesn't have a Three Honors skin yet feels like an oversight. Thresh would be another solid pick since he's a support staple and the hook-into-lantern combo is peak team play. Could also see Bard working here with the celestial wanderer angle. (Sidebar: if Riot ever puts a Yasuo or Draven in this line I'm uninstalling. Those champion mains and honor dont belong in the same sentence.)

Three skins over three years means Riot adds roughly one per year. Slow rollout. Makes sense given these are free rewards, not revenue generators.

Tier and Pricing Breakdown

Every single Three Honors skin is Standard tier. No Epics. No Legendaries. No Mythics. All three sit at the base level of skin quality, which means texture and color changes with minor particle adjustments. No new voice lines, no new animations beyond recall, no transformations.

Here's the thing that makes this line unique though: you cannot buy these with RP. Zero pricing. They're Honor system exclusives. You earn them by maintaining high honor levels throughout a season. Which means their "cost" is measured in games played without getting reported, not in Riot Points spent. Depending on your solo queue experience, that might be more expensive than any Legendary.

The Standard tier classification is fair for what you get visually. These aren't 1350 RP Epics competing with Project or Star Guardian. They're cleaner than most 520 RP skins though. The particle work on abilities puts them solidly in the 750-975 range quality-wise if you had to compare. Decent value for free. Amazing value if you consider some people spend 3250 RP on Ultimate skins and play them less than I've played Three Honors Malzahar.

Not sure if it's just me but I appreciate that Riot keeps these at Standard. Bumping them to Epic would create weird expectations for a free reward. Standard says "here's a nice thank you" without overpromising. Keep it humble. Like the honor system itself.

Should You Care About Three Honors Skins

Real talk. If you're already Honor 5, you're getting these whether you want them or not. The question isn't "should I buy" because you can't. The question is whether they're worth equipping over whatever's already in your skin rotation.

For Malzahar mains specifically, yeah. Three Honors Malzahar competes with his other Standard and Epic options and holds its own. The golden voidlings are distinctive on the Rift. I've had people in post-game chat ask about it more than once, usually around 2 AM in those weird late-night ranked sessions where everyone's chatty. For Shen one-tricks, it's a strong option if you like the cleaner aesthetic over something like Pulsefire or PsyOps. And Akshan mains have enough other choices that this one's more of a novelty.

The real flex isn't the skin quality. Its the exclusivity. You cant buy Honor skins with money. You cant trade for them. You either earned them or you didn't. In a game where 90% of cosmetic flex is about spending money, having something that represents behavior is kinda refreshing. Last Tuesday I was in a Diamond 2 game and my support had Three Honors Shen equipped. Immediately felt better about the game. Placebo? Probably. But still.

Three Honors won't win any skinline awards. It's not Coven. It's not Star Guardian. But it does something no other line does: it rewards you for not being terrible to your teammates. In League of Legends, that's basically a superpower. Three skins in three years, all Standard tier, all free, all quietly solid. If Riot keeps adding one per year and picks the right champions (Braum please), this line could build into something genuinely cool for the long haul.