Sanguine Garen

Not gonna lie, first time I saw Sanguine Garen in a loading screen I thought someone had a custom skin installed. This is old school League at its finest. Red armor Garen from 2010 just sitting in the Legacy vault, and most people have no idea it exists. Been playing Garen on and off since season 3 and I didnt even know about this one until maybe season 7 when a random top laner on my team locked it in.

What Sanguine Garen actually looks like

Real talk though, this is a texture swap and nothing more. Garen’s default blue and gold Demacia armor gets replaced with a deep crimson red and dark silver color scheme. Think blood-soaked knight vibes. No new VFX on his Q, W, E, or R. No VO refresh. Base voice lines, no changes. The spin-to-win looks exactly the same as default except you’re wearing red while doing it.

The model itself holds up okay for a 2010 skin. Garen’s had visual updates since then so the base model carries the weight. Sword gets the red treatment too. Kinda feels like Garen went full Noxus instead of Demacia. (random aside: my duo partner calls this “evil Garen” every single time and it’s been four years of this.) The cape stays dark which works with the blood knight aesthetic they were going for.

Played maybe 30 games with this in Diamond last season. Nobody in lane chat ever comments on it. Most people probably assume it’s just default Garen with weird monitor settings. Simple change – big difference if you actually pay attention to your champion model while CSing top lane.

The history behind Sanguine Garen

Released April 27, 2010. That’s pre-season 1 League of Legends. The game barely had a ranked ladder back then. Sanguine Garen dropped at 520 RP which was standard pricing for recolor skins at the time.

This sits in the Legacy catalog now. You can’t just walk into the shop and grab it. Vault rotation skin, so you either wait for Riot to open the Legacy vault during special events or you get lucky with Hextech crafting. Could be wrong here but I think the last time the vault opened with these old skins available was around late 2023 or early 2024.

The Legacy skinline is basically Riot’s way of saying “we made this ages ago and it’s too simple to sell permanently.” Fair enough. Garen has way more impressive options now like God-King Garen or Mecha Kingdoms Garen. But there’s something about rocking a skin from 2010 in a ranked game in season 14 that just hits different.

Should you chase Sanguine Garen?

Straight talk: this is a Standard tier recolor from the earliest days of League. 520 RP worth of content, meaning a texture change and nothing else. No new recall animation. No new particles on your ult. No chromas either since this predates the chroma system by about five years.

If you’re a Garen one-trick who wants every skin in the collection, sure, keep an eye out for it during vault openings. I had a last Tuesday around 2 AM reroll session where three Legacy skins dropped and Sanguine Garen was one of them. That’s honestly the best way to get it. Not worth specifically hunting unless you’re a completionist.

Skip this if you want actual gameplay feel changes. Garen has Legendary and Epic options that completely transform the champion. But if you want flex value in the loading screen, showing up with a 2010 Legacy skin tells your lane opponent you’ve been around the Rift longer than most. 520 RP feels fair for what you get, assuming you can even find it. Collector piece, not a main rotation skin.