Battle Boss Malzahar

First time I saw Battle Boss Malzahar load in, I thought someone modded an old arcade cabinet into the Rift. The whole 8-bit villain aesthetic just works for a champion whose kit is basically “stand still and delete someone.” Been running this skin in Diamond for a solid chunk of season 7 and beyond, and it still holds up. Pixel art Voidlings? Sold.

The pixel Void treatment

Malzahar’s entire model gets reworked into this blocky, retro game boss look. Think final boss from a side-scroller you’d pump quarters into at an arcade in 1992. The cape has these sharp geometric edges, and his mask gets redesigned into something that looks straight out of a Mega Man villain roster. Clean execution for an Epic tier skin at 1350 RP.

The VFX carry this hard. His Q, Call of the Void, opens up with pixelated purple energy that splits across the ground. Looks crisp against the standard Rift colors. W summons Voidlings that are now tiny pixel minions – honestly one of the best Voidling redesigns across all Malzahar skins. They waddle around with that chunky sprite animation and its genuinely fun to watch them swarm a target.

E, Malefic Visions, gets the retro treatment too. The debuff visual on enemies reads like corrupted game data spreading across their model. Not gonna lie, it actually makes tracking the bounce easier in teamfights because the pixel effect stands out more than base. Might be overthinking it but I swear my cs improved slightly just from better visual clarity on the bounce.

His R, Nether Grasp, turns into this beam of arcade energy locking someone down. Played maybe 40 games with this skin last month in ranked and every time I ult their ADC under tower, the suppression beam just looks satisfying. The recall animation has Malzahar playing a little arcade game. Cute touch. No new voice lines though – voice stays default, which is fine because Vic Mignogna’s base VO works well enough with the theme.

Arcade Battle Bosses and when this dropped

Released August 8, 2017. Mid-season 7. Kelly Aleshire nailed the splash – Malzahar floating above what looks like a corrupted game world, Voidlings rendered as pixel creatures flanking him. The composition sells the “final boss” fantasy hard.

The Arcade: Battle Bosses skinline is one of Riot’s more creative thematic sets. You got Battle Boss Brand, Battle Boss Blitzcrank, Battle Boss Ziggs in there. Malzahar fits the villain archetype naturally because his whole gameplay pattern is “you walked into my zone, now you die.” That’s literally every arcade boss ever. The skinline leans into bright neons and retro gaming references, and Malzahar’s version balances that with enough menace to not feel like a joke skin.

No chromas on this one. Zero. Which is a shame because I think a monochrome black-and-white variant would’ve gone crazy. Or a green Game Boy palette. Missed opportunity from Riot there. (Random aside: I keep this splash as my Discord server icon for our ranked five stack and nobody has complained yet, which means it goes hard.)

Where Battle Boss Malzahar sits in the lineup

Malzahar has a decent skin catalog now. Hextech Malzahar exists for the crafting crowd, Beezahar is the meme pick, Snow Day is solid but seasonal. Battle Boss Malzahar sits comfortably in the top three. The VFX rework gives it genuine gameplay feel differences even though the hitboxes are identical. Real talk though – if you’re a Malzahar one-trick climbing through Diamond, this is the skin that makes spamming E-W on the wave feel less autopilot.

Could be wrong here but I think the pixel Voidlings alone justify the purchase. In a late-game teamfight around Baron last Tuesday, I had six Voidlings swarming their Jinx and the visual chaos of tiny pixel creatures chewing through someone is genuinely hilarious. My jungler pinged the Voidlings with a question mark. Worth.

Shop has it. Permanent availability, 1350 RP, standard Epic pricing. For what you get – new model, full VFX overhaul, new recall – 1350 RP feels fair for what you get. Compared to Overlord Malzahar or Shadow Prince which are basically recolors, the value gap is massive.

Should you buy it?

Verdict time. Battle Boss Malzahar is the best mid-range Malzahar skin if you’re not trying to drop Mythic Essence on Hextech. The retro arcade aesthetic gives him personality that his base model lacks, the Voidling redesign is S-tier among his catalog, and the VFX changes make ability tracking slightly cleaner in lane. Overpriced? No. This is one of those 1350 skins that actually delivers the full package.

Skip it only if you already own Beezahar and want the meme factor more than the arcade aesthetic. For everyone else maining Malzahar this season, especially if you’re grinding mid lane and want something that looks good without being distracting – lock this in. Been daily driving Battle Boss Malzahar for years at this point and I keep coming back. Top pick for Malzahar mains, no question.