Old God Nocturne

First time I saw Old God Nocturne load in on the enemy team I genuinely paused. Not gonna lie, the splash alone had me reaching for my wallet before I even checked the price. Something about turning the Eternal Nightmare into an ancient eldritch horror just works on a level most Epic skins dont hit. Been running this as my default Nocturne skin since late season 9 and I keep coming back to it over everything else in his catalog.

What the Old God treatment does to Nocturne

The model rework here is serious. Nocturne goes from shadowy wraith to full cosmic-horror deity with antlers, bark-like armor plating, and these trailing tendrils that look like corrupted roots. The color palette shifts to deep purples and sickly greens. Gross in the best way.

VFX got a complete overhaul for this 1350 RP tier. His Q leaves a trail of twisted dark energy that reads way cleaner on the Rift than base. The W spell shield has this eerie green glow, almost like runes activating around him. Could be wrong here but I think the E tether looks thicker and more menacing too, which actually helps in teamfights because your target can see exactly how screwed they are. Paranoia (R) is where it peaks. The screen goes dark with these ancient symbols flickering at the edges. Locked this in during a ranked game last October around midnight and my duo literally said it felt different getting ulted by Old God versus base.

Recall animation is clean. Nocturne channels some kind of ritual with roots and dark energy swirling around him. Short and sweet. No new voice lines, kept the base VO, which is fine because Jason Wishnov’s original Nocturne voice already sounds otherworldly enough to fit the Old God fantasy.

(Random aside: the idle animation where the tendrils shift around him is genuinely unsettling if you stare at it long enough in practice tool.)

The Elderwood and Coven connection

Old God Nocturne dropped August 29, 2019. Season 9. Choe HeonHwa nailed the splash, the composition with those massive antlers against a blood-red sky is one of the better pieces in the entire Elderwood/Coven universe. The skin sits at the intersection of both the Elderwood and Coven skinlines, which Riot started building out as a shared dark fantasy setting around that time.

Kinda feels like Nocturne was the perfect champion for this thematic. He’s already nightmare fuel in base form. Making him an ancient corrupted god of the forest is just leaning into what the champion already does. Compare that to some of the weirder Elderwood picks and Old God Nocturne feels like it was designed first and the skinline grew around it.

8 chromas total if you want to mix it up. Obsidian is my pick, goes full shadow demon with the dark tones. Sapphire turns him into something that looks like it crawled out of the ocean floor, surprisingly good. Pearl exists for people who want a “purified” Old God which feels contradictory but hey it works. I played maybe 30 games with Sapphire before switching back to base Old God because the original green-purple palette just reads better in lane.

Is Old God Nocturne worth 1350 RP?

Real verdict: this is the Nocturne skin if you can only own one. Straight up.

For 1350 RP you get new model, full VFX overhaul, new recall, and a thematic that actually elevates the champion fantasy. Eternum Nocturne used to be the go-to but Old God overtook it for me after about a week. The mecha-horror thing Eternum does is cool but Old God fits Nocturne’s identity as a predator in the darkness way harder. Shop has it, no vault nonsense, just buy it.

Might be overthinking it but I think this skin also has a slight psychological edge in solo queue. When that Paranoia darkness hits and your enemies see those Old God particles, theres something extra intimidating about it. Been spamming this in Diamond for multiple seasons now and I swear people flash earlier when they see the Old God R coming. Maybe just my experience but the jungle clear animations feel smoother too, the Q trail on camps is satisfying to watch during those pre-6 full clears. Worth 1350 if you main Nocturne. Worth it even if you just play him occasionally for the ganking fantasy. Skip Hextech, skip Broken Covenant, get this one first.