- Players have taken well to the introduction of jungle pets
- Many want Riot to introduce skins for them
- A developer says the team considered this feature before adding the pets to the game
Jungle pets are one of the biggest features that came with League’s Season 13, but I seems skins for them will remain a pipe dream.
Riot Considered Adding Pet Skins
The beginning of League of Legends’ Season 13 brought in a ton of changes to the game, from many champions receiving big nerfs, to the introduction of jungle pets. The latter, in particular, is considered the biggest change by many players. These helpful critters are replacing the usual Jungle items purchased from the shop and turning them into living entities, providing a refreshing experience for jungle mains.
Additionally, these creatures can move independently of the jungler in League of Legends and evolve similarly to a Pokémon. The feature is so similar to what happens in Pokémon games, that many players have started calling junglers the “trainers” of Summoner's Rift.
Recently, League’s devs have revealed more information in a discussion on the League subreddit about why they decided to add jungle pets into the game and what their thought process was. One focal point of the discussion was the inclusion of pet skin into the game, a feature many fans have requested but Riot has not yet implemented.
Will We Ever Have Pet Skins?
Reading the discussion, it becomes clear why the devs decided not to implement skins for jungle pets, because that would mean jungle pets would have to become permanent features of the game. Although the team considered adding the cosmetic feature, Riot was not ready to commit to having jungle pets permanently at the time.
“Releasing skins would mean that the mechanic must stay in the game for the rest of its existence, which isn’t a commitment we want to make,” developer GalaxySmash said. But the idea of jungle pets having skins is just too alluring for many players, so they asked the dev if Riot will ever add such a feature to the game. Unfortunately, GalaxySmash outright denied the possibility of that ever happening. “We will not release skins for the pets. We have come out and said this previously,” they said.
It is strange that Riot refuses to add jungle pet skins to League of Legends, considering the idea is not very far from the Little Legends in Teamfight Tactics. Perhaps sometime we will understand why Riot has made this decision.
