Commando Garen

First time I saw Commando Garen was back in like season 1 or 2, cant remember exactly. Some top laner on the enemy team just locked it in and I remember thinking “wait, Garen has a military skin?” Been running it on and off ever since when I want that no-nonsense look in ranked. Not flashy. Not trying to be. Just a dude in tactical gear spinning to win.

What Commando Garen actually looks like

This is a texture swap and nothing more. Garen trades the full Demacian plate armor for green military fatigues with a beret. Solid look. The sword gets a slightly different color treatment but honestly in the middle of a teamfight you barely notice. No new VFX on the Q, no different particles on the E spin, and the ult sword drops the same way as base. Voice lines stay base too.

Not gonna lie, for 520 RP in 2010 this was pretty standard. You got a new model and that was the deal. Could be wrong here but I think the Commando line was one of Riot’s earliest attempts at a cohesive skinline across multiple champions. Garen, Lux, Jarvan, Galio, Xin Zhao all got the treatment. Military squad vibes.

The beret is honestly the best part. Played maybe 40 games with this skin last month in Diamond and every single time someone in champ select comments on it. “Beret Garen” they call it. The green color palette reads clean against the Rift, especially in top lane brush. Simple change – huge impact on the silhouette compared to his default blue and gold.

The Commando skinline and release context

Commando Garen dropped September 8, 2010. Early League days. Zhang Ji did the splash and it captures the military fantasy well enough for that era. The whole Commando line has this special forces aesthetic that honestly aged better than some other early skinlines.

No chromas available for this one. 520 RP price tag which is about as cheap as skins get these days. Shop has it permanently so you can grab it whenever. (Random aside: I keep this skin specifically for when I want to tilt the enemy laner by looking like I dont care about cosmetics while I run them down with Q.)

The Commando squad is one of those skinlines Riot never really revisited after the initial batch. Kinda feels like they moved on to bigger themes. But there’s something about the simplicity that works. Season 3 I think, I had a stretch where I played nothing but Commando skins across all five roles in flex queue with friends. Good times.

Should you pick up Commando Garen?

Real verdict: this is a nostalgia skin. If you started playing League before season 3 theres a decent chance you’ve seen this in your games. For modern standards its pretty bare bones. No new recall animation, no VFX updates, base voice pack. Standard tier through and through.

But here’s the thing. 520 RP is basically nothing. If you main Garen and you want every skin in the collection, this is a cheap box to check. I wouldn’t recommend it over God-King Garen or even Steel Legion if you want actual visual upgrades. Those skins change how abilities look and feel in lane. Commando Garen just changes how you look standing still.

Skip this unless you’re a Garen one-trick building the full collection or you specifically want that military look. For everyone else climbing ranked, your RP is better spent on skins with actual gameplay feel differences. Last Tuesday around 2 AM I was scrolling through my Garen skins before a late night ranked game and picked this purely for the meme factor. Won that game too. Maybe the beret is lucky. Worth 520 RP if you main Garen, overpriced if you dont.