League of Legends: Ahri to get Art and Sustainability Update next year

League of Legends (LoL) developer Riot Games is not done giving Ahri — one of the game's oldest and most iconic champions — a complete makeover, as it's been revealed that she’s due for an Art and Sustainability Update (ASU) next year.

The nine-tailed fox’s kit got reworked last February, giving her a more distinct mage assassin identity, which made her one of the most popular mid lane champions all year, both in solo queue and pro play.

However, Ahri is in dire need of an update on how she looks like in-game, which is where this comes in.

Her ASU next year will focus on improving how she looks rather than the standard gameplay improvements.

The update's focus is long-term viability, which will make it simpler to create new cosmetics without affecting gameplay mechanics in any way, as Riot advances its own technologies.

In a dev post, Layla “yoganinja” Jean, producer and part of the Ahri ASU team, shared that Riot wanted to "make future skin development for these champs more streamlined".

“To do this, we do a number of things, like refactoring how data is set up in the engine, how art is authored across source art packages and using modern tools and tech to upgrade the champion,” she said.

While this may make Ahri's makeover sound less labour-intensive than others, it's crucial to remember that she has 16 skins in addition to her basic model, easily making this one of the most significant aesthetic improvements for a champion.

What Ahri's ASU will include

Ahri’s ASU includes animations, visual effects, audio, and her lore.

Riot said it intended to merge design aspects from her many iterations in both the League cinematics and in-game artwork.

The team is now working to create a style for her that combines elements of the Ahri shown in one of the most popular LoL cinematics, "A New Dawn" trailer, with those seen in the Riot Forge game, Ruined King.

According to the devs, they felt the need to pay homage to her feral appearance in Ruined King as she struggled "to control her power and the desire to sate her baser instincts".

This will be even more apparent when she uses the ability Spirit Rush, with her eyes having a “dangerous glow” with her tails "unfurled in all their glory".

The team also decided to focus on her animation, specifically, her nine tails, which Einar “Riot Beinhar” Langfjord, an animator on the ASU skins team, described as "a lot of work".

One of the highlights from the ASU is with regards to one of Ahri's most iconic abilities, “Charm”, where the tail now forms a heart.

The devs even went as far as making sure this looks great at any angle.

VFX artist Sirahaian also talked about Ahri's visual effects in the dev notes, noting that “Ahri had a lot of weirdness” and that the team “untangled all of the spaghetti” in the back end.

Ahri’s ASU is said to be released in “early 2023”, with devs still refining many things for the nine-tailed fox.

You can take a look at her ASU preview here.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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