League of Legends is introducing a series of eye-catching new "Terminator" animations in the core game modes of Summoner's Rift and Crying Abyss. Riot Games is testing these VALORANT-style collectible cosmetic effects this week in League of Legends' North American test server environment.
These "Terminator" effects were first discovered by League of Legends data miner SkinSpotlights after the 14.19 version of the content was released on beta. He expects the first celebratory animations to focus on the explosion effect of the Base Crystal, which is included in the code, as well as a codename and "Total Owned" count hinting at more to be added in the future. To put it simply, League of Legends wants to add the "Base Explosion" finishing effect as a new personalized content.
Details are still scarce until Riot Games officially releases information about the League of Legends Terminator, but the leaked cosmetic effects seem to be similar to the eponymous gun anime from Valorant. Riot Games has added some fun special effects to this shooter to enhance the game's experience.
The Terminator effect triggers when the player completes the last kill of the round, giving the player more opportunities to show off and providing great emotional value. While these animations are usually short-lived, they are always closely tied to the skin pack theme they belong to and continue until the map resets. For example, in early skin packs, the Terminator would summon a wolf head that would bite down on a defeated enemy. And in the more advanced skin packs, the entire skybox will even be filled with rainbows when exclusive music is played.
Valorant's champion skins and high-quality skins are the main selling points of the Terminator effect. Therefore, Riot Games is capable of introducing similar special effects in League of Legends. The leaked code doesn't mention anything other than killing heroes or base crystals, but it's foreseeable that these cosmetic effects won't be limited to the final moments of League of Legends games.
This isn't the first time League of Legends has introduced Terminator-style animation. While these flashy effects aren't yet available in Normal and Ranked Modes in Summoner's Rift, they did appear in League of Legends in a limited-time Infinite Firepower mode in 2015. These modes include Orbital Laser, Heartsplosion, and Spooky Urf, which are activated by equipping a 35-bond icon.
But since these icons with their own effects were first introduced, these iconic Terminator animations haven't been seen again. In addition, some League of Legends skins, such as Lux, Queen of the Dark Star, Li Qing, Dragon Venerable, and Faker's $500 Hall of Fame Ahri skin, already have Terminator animations built-in. The R skill of the Supreme Pike skin will also trigger a huge explosion after the player has five kills. Obviously, the skin team used the technology of the year to create the relevant Terminator animation special effects.
Perhaps in the near future, we will already be able to purchase League of Legends defeat effects for an additional fee. Over the years, there has been a lot of demand in the player community for adding Terminators to special defeats (whether it's a first kill or multiple kills), and many people believe that tying this feature to the base crystal victory animation will make these Terminator effects less likely to be used, and other players may not notice, resulting in fewer use cases, after all, some people cut the screen without watching the crystal explosion animation.
But there are also those who advise the skin team to keep the effects simple so as not to overcomplicate the gameplay. After all, Riot Games did not let the 3 icon effects of the infinite firepower mode continue to be used in the game, just to avoid the light pollution of team battles, we can imagine that 10 players all brought similar terminator animations, and the team battles were all half-screen special effects. It's okay that Infinite Firepower is an entertainment mode, but matchmaking and ranked matches can be frustrating. So this revelation was triggered when the base exploded, and the game was over at that time.
As for how long the testing period for these Terminator effects will last, there is no clue in the code of the test server. These effects are expected to be a selling point at the beginning of the 2025 League of Legends season, which has been advertised as "changing League of Legends forever", and the skin team will definitely find a way to add something new as well. All the details about the League of Legends Terminator are yet to be confirmed and are tentative until Riot Games is officially announced.
It is worth mentioning that Meddler, the head of the League of Legends studio, revealed the next developer report of League of Legends, which will be officially released next week. In this video, they'll reveal some of the new content for the 2025 season, which may also include a preview of the update to Timo ASU, and a preview of the new Silas and Diana skins for version 14.21.