Let’s go over one of the temporary game modes in LoL, Dark Star: Singularity, which first occurred from May 4-15, 2017.

Image Credits | Riot Games

Dark Star: Singularity – The hooking dream in LoL

Dark Star: Singularity was a game mode specifically made to celebrate Thresh’s Dark Star skin. This mode is the first game mode not to have a champion select screen before the game. Players would play as Thresh in the Cosmic Ruins map, in a 3v3 match. The goal is to hook and flay enemies into the Dark Star and feed it souls: whoever got to 100 points would win the round. The game mode featured a Bo3 format.

The way to get points was by killing the enemies, which each granted 5 points. The Abyss Scuttler would give a point too.

Read also: What is the Ascension game mode in LoL?

Dark Star Thresh’s special abilities in the game mode

While it may sound a bit boring at first, Dark Star: Singularity gave Thresh special effects to his abilities:

Q – Cosmic Death Sentence

Range massively increased, cooldown reduced and mana cost removed.
Pulls enemies much farther based on their missing health.
If you throw a Death Sentence through the center of the Dark Star, it lights on fire and deals 250 bonus true damage to the target.
While an enemy is bound by your Death Sentence, you are immune to that enemy’s Death Sentence.
You could dash through the Dark Star if you grab someone across the star.

W – Gravitational Dark Passage

Shield was removed, the cooldown increased and the mana cost was removed.
Lantern duration was only 1.5 seconds instead of the usual 4.
An ally in danger will be automatically saved by Dark Passage, without them needing to click on the lantern.

E – Dark Energy Flay

Cooldown reduced and mana cost removed.
The passive bonus magic damage builds up in only 4 seconds after your last basic attack and hits harder.
Throws enemies much farther based on their missing health, cooldown reduced.

R – The Box

The ability was removed.

Other special mechanics

Moreover, there were special mechanics in the game mode as well:

Gold, experience, items, and summoner spells were all disabled.
Everyone started at level 3 and has skill points automatically distributed to their abilities.
Every champion has the same stats
Champions couldn’t be killed by basic attacks or abilities; the only way to kill a champion is by pulling them into the Dark Star, which kills them instantly.
Champions would be displaced further based on their missing health.
Being saved by Dark Passage or hooking a Gravity Anchor would break out of any disable / knockback and render the champion untargetable for the travel duration.
Health Relics will spawn around the map. They could be grabbed to get back to full health.

Overall, it was a special game mode just to showcase the newest skin. It was a nice idea by Riot with the hope of spreading the awareness and potential sales of the skin, and it might be worth bringing back something similar in the near future for other skin lines.

Read more: LoL Skins 2023 – All skins released this year so far