Zed/Trivia

General

 * Zed is the 1st champion whose death animation shows him escaping (via a shadow portal) rather than actually dying. Whether he actually manages to cheat death remains open to debate. Ekko was the 2nd champion to cheat death (via time travel).
 * His Shockblade skin has a different animation. Instead of crawling into a shadow portal, a bolt of lightning strikes him and he disappears.
 * Zed is the 5th champion to utilize energy as a resource.
 * Zed is one of the 11 champions who do not have a single skill that scales off ability power, along with, , , , , , , , , and.
 * Zed switches his running animation into Airplane Arms seen here when moving at a high movement speed (such as using ). This is also done by Lucian.
 * The Airplane Arms animation is also activated when is affected by an ally's Captain-enchanted boots, suggesting that any temporary speed buff will change his running animation.
 * is the third dark-themed Ionian Champion along with and.
 * Zed's abilities have elements that mirror those of the Kinkou's. Zed's Razor Shuriken mirrors Kennen's Thundering Shuriken, his Living Shadow mirrors Shen's Shadow Dash and his Shadow Slash mirrors Akali's Crescent Slash. Zed's ultimate Death Mark also "marks" a target, which deals additional effects upon detonation. This is similar to Shen's Vorpal Blades (before the rework), Kennen's Mark of the Storm and Akali's Mark of the Assassin.
 * Zed's dance is inspired by various martial arts. The animator that formed the idea is a black belt.
 * A little bit before Harrowing 2014 Zed was one of the few champs to have his splash art changed along with the black smoke. This was a teaser for . His champion page on the official League of Legends website still has the edited splash art but the black smoke has since been removed.
 * The other champions to receive the black smoke alongside were, , , , , and.
 * Splash art with no black smoke.
 * Splash art with black smoke.
 * Zed's name might come from the Hebrew word "זֵד", which means Scoundrel, Villain in English.
 * On December 26, 2015 a teaser was released on champion page which consists of a short video (which starts with a gunshot and displays a picture of Zed with what appears to be flowers exploding out of his head) and an updated animated champion icon (a different appearance from his current splash art). The teasers were done for an upcoming champion release the champion now being known as.
 * ,, and all shared a similar type of teaser like the one Zed had. These were all for the reveal of Jhin.
 * Before the 2015 Season hit, Zed used to have the Inverse Ninja Strength passive. "Ninjas are more effective when they work alone. For every Ninja on your team beyond yourself, you lose 1 health". When hovering over the passive it would read "This unit is a flippin' ninja!" it was removed after 2014 for unknown reasons.
 * Before the new HUD came to the live servers in 2015 clicking on one of Zed's Death Mark shadow's would show that it was . Clicking on his shadow's could only be done in a slowed down replay as Zed's ultimate shadow's are just simply too fast to be able to be clicked on in a normal game.
 * Zed appears to be ambidextrous.
 * Zed can theoretically gain infinite amount of AD if he and an enemy Zed alternate killing each other with Death Mark, since the passive will increase his AD if his last victim had more AD his previous kill.

Lore

 * is four years younger than.

Development

 * Zed was designed by Samizul with an assist from RiotZiegler near the end. CertainlyT helped out with some bug fixes and some design pitches for Zed but overall was not responsible for creating him.
 * Zed's ultimate was changed before release to create only one shadow. Forum post by Scarizard, it originally created two shadows and was animated for two on release.

Quotes

 * Zed's joke is a reference to the  franchise.
 * Zed shares a quote with : "Without a sound."
 * Zed has a special taunt when facing Shen "Challenge me Shen....You shall not be an orphan long!".
 * Zed's quote "What I have done... cannot be undone." is a reference to Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth.

Skins

 * Zed bears some resemblance to the from the ' franchise, namely Shredder's later designs where his face cannot be seen and his facemask is a grill-like kenpo.
 * Zed also serves as an antagonistic role to a group of ninjas in his backstory.
 * Zed has similar powers over shadows and looks similar to from the  series.
 * Zed also bears some resemblance to from the  franchise, mainly due to the name and similarities in the mask.
 * Zed also bears some resemblance to from the  franchise, mainly due to the name and similarities in the mask.


 * The skin bears some resemblance to from the  franchise.
 * Back in 2012 before Zed was released to the live servers this skin was originally called "Bladestorm Zed".
 * After being delayed for more than a year, Zed finally received chromas for this skin in patch 6.17. The color's consist of Red, Powder Blue, Gold, Green, Purple, and Pink.
 * The chromas before being delayed originally had different colored eyes, no flames on the legs, had only 3 colors (Red, Purple, and Gold) and the Gold was way more darker than the current one.
 * The chromas before being delayed originally had different colored eyes, no flames on the legs, had only 3 colors (Red, Purple, and Gold) and the Gold was way more darker than the current one.


 * He celebrates SK Telecom T1 winning the Season 3 World Championship.
 * He represents Faker.
 * He shares this theme with, , , , , , , , , and.
 * He shares this theme with, , , , , , , , , and.


 * The theme behind Zed's skin is one of the possible outcomes for Runeterra. In this alternate, apocalyptic future, Zed is part of the PROJECT Initiative, where members are augmented with cybernetics and other futuristic technology. As of now, Zed is the only known "hostile" member, going rogue and fighting against other members of the PROJECT Initiative.
 * On his promo page, he can be seen equipped with several enhancements:
 * Plasma Cut 2250R Dual "Strikers", the weapon is made out of high frequency energy blades and blade casing. Split high frequency blades channeled via operator maximize close-proximity damage. Auxiliary side blades allow for target laceration from multiple angles. Black RR "Solid Smoke" blade casing is forged out of 2250R-100 Aero-Carbon compound, which provides lightweight fitting for H.F.E.B. “Solid smoke” material adaptable to unique molecular states.
 * Black RR "Solid Smoke" Armor, armor working in conjunction with "Solid Smoke" blades, is a projection of the users main hardware and mimics the users moves. It can also be used by the user to travel to a selected location.
 * H.F. Auxiliary Blades, mounted on the users back, the High Frequency Ausilary Blades are used for quick and precise targeting. It also works in conjunction with the "Solid Smoke" Armor.
 * Pulse Rotation Module, located in the users legs, the module is used for quick rotational damage of a target which works in conjunction with the "Solid Smoke" Armor.
 * Unknown, coded as.
 * His description is as followed: "Dark sight, shadows marked, death lives beside. Silencer, he follows. The shadow is within. Blood soaked, he stands. Vanish..."
 * Her fully decrypted description is a voice clip: "The man light will never touch."
 * In his splash art, projectiles can be seen hitting Zed's shadow.
 * As Classic Zed shares similarities with the, the PROJECT:Zed shares similarities with the Cyber Shredder redesign.
 * Summoners who purchased PROJECT: Zed during the first strike were given a vintage border.
 * When PROJECT: Zed was released Zed was given his very own icon in the store for 250 RP.
 * On the 2016 promo page, if you type in "POWER", a quote will pop-up: 14- "A shadow of a man."
 * He shares this theme with, , , , , , , and.
 * He shares this theme with, , , , , , , and.


 * This skin was made in celebration of the 2016 World Championship.
 * He shares this theme with, , , and.
 * He shares this theme with, , , and.

Relations

 * Zed and were taught under the same master, Shen's father Kusho, and were rivals to one another. However, before Zed's fall, Shen respected him as a strong fellow student and was even a bit jealous of him as Kusho was less strict towards him.
 * The pity given by Master Kusho to for his brutal murders only made Zed's resent his master even more.
 * Zed would later murder Master Kusho and establish a new ninja order, the Order of the Shadows.
 * Zed seeks to abolish the old ways of balance and replace them with the forbidden art of the shadow. Any ninja who refuses to learn will be eliminated.
 * According to Runaan, may have some former connection to Zed. What that connection was has yet to be elaborated on, but it has something to do with her title, "the Fist of Shadow", and her passive, "Twin Disciples". In a later post, he mentions that Zed once has a "favourite student" who has since left the Order of Shadows, and that Zed thinks her talents are wasted with the Kinkou Order.
 * Zed sees as a disgrace.  may consider allying with Zed.  recognizes Zed as a dangerous force of chaos that must be stopped. Future interactions between Zed and  have been hinted at.
 * The most common speculation comes from the entire community, saying Zed  is  Nocturne. A full explanation is listed here.
 * wants him dead, thinks there might be another way, and  believes he is not beyond redemption.
 * He is being hunted by.
 * looted the Temple of the Jagged Knife so Zed wants him dead.