Development
- Main article: Udyr (Development)
- Udyr and are voiced by Sean Rohani, whom first voiced him in Legends of Runeterra.[1]
- Udyr and were previously voiced by J.S. Gilbert, whom also voiced , pre-rework and , , and pre-rework .
- Udyr's Japanese voice actor is Tsuguo Mogami
- Udyr was designed by Steven 'Coronach' DeRose.
- Udyr was the first Champion released after the official October 27, 2009 launch of the game.
- Udyr's original champion title was "the Animal Spirit" but with the Freljord patch his champion title was changed to "the Spirit Walker" and changes were also made to his lore.
- Udyr literally translates into 'Beast~Monster' in Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Nynorsk (cognates: Swedish odjur, German Untier, & hypothetical English *undeer),
- However, udyr is mostly used to describe people acting like animals, i.e. instinctively.
- 75% of Udyr's skills are based off the 4 Beasts of the Cardinal Directions, with the exception of the Azure Dragon.
- Udyr has 4 unreleased icons for his basic abilities:
- Udyr was chosen by players to receive a Visual Gameplay Update at the start of Season 2021.
Universe
- Main article: Udyr (Character)
- Udyr's visuals in Legends of Runeterra represents him after returning to the Freljord.[2]
- represents him during his time in Ionia.
- Being a Spirit Walker, Udyr can harness a small portion of power of a dozen Great Spirit animals such as
- and represent the Great Bear and Ram respectively. As such Udyr can harness a small portion of their powers.
- is based off of power and is based off of power.
- Part of his power possibly comes from his diluted vastayan heritage.[3]
, , , , , , , and more.
League of Legends
Gameplay
- Main article: Udyr (League of Legends)
- He is the only character that cannot max out all of his skills, as each of his skills have six levels and the max character level is 18 (18 points for a total of 24 possible ranks).
- However, in the Ultra Rapid Fire (2015) featured mode, there is no limit to a champion's level, so Udyr is able to have 6 levels for his abilities.
- He is one of the few characters without an ultimate along with . Udyr has 4 skills that can be leveled up to the maximum rank of 6.
- Udyr is one of a few champions to have multiple textures in one skin. Udyr however has more different textures in one skin than any other champion, as he has a different one for each of his stances.
- Udyr's dance references the Drunken Master Kung Fu Style.
- A side-by-side comparison can be seen here.
- Udyr is one of two champions that went into the weekly champion rotation on the day of their release. The other one is .
- Udyr was one of the champions chosen for the Ionian pool available during the Ionia vs. Noxus match.
- He was one of the selected champions, and was voted the MVP.
- In the V1.0.0.115 April Fools' Day patch, he was jokingly listed to receive a skin called "Urfdyr", referencing .
Quotes
- Main article: Udyr (League of Legends Audio)
- In the Latin America localization, there are several exclusive phrases that correlate with the Argentinian-born content creator Barbakahn who, surprisingly, looks a lot like the champion when his rework is announced.[4] Among them phrases include:
- ¡Que empiece el Bardo! ('Begin the ruckus!') is a reference that Barbakahn starts a pre-existing teamfight in the game but he is usually far away to begin with.
- ¡Dale, Voli, Dale! ('Come on, , come on!') is a reference to ally Volibear's infamous move (being a ) when he his onslaught towards a minion while being in front a tilted Barbakahn (like ) in the middle of an impending enemy teamfight that ended up losing his fight. This phrase is related to since its rework for Latin America localization.
- ¡Aaahh! ¡Presa fácil! ('Aaahh! Easy prey!') is an old phrase when he succeeds in taking down an enemy. Because he used his previous character Barbarossa, he changed it to Aaahh! Free Kill!.
- ¡Se acabó la mentira! ('The lie is over!') when it succeeds in knocking down the turret, is a reference that always ends up complaining that the turret always takes damage prioritizing him (like any other champion) while there is a wave of minions within the hit zone.
- ▶️ "If PETA asks, this fur is fake." refers to the animal rights group People for Ethical Treatment of Animals and their notorious ways of getting the public to not wear animal fur.
- ▶️ "Inner peace... inner peace... inner peace..." references Kung Fu Panda.
- ▶️ " references the phrase "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." to ashes."
- ▶️ "There are two wolves inside you. Neither are funny." references "Inside you there are two wolves", a meme that originated from an old legend about two conflicting (metaphorical) wolves within a person.
- It also resembles (and likely references) ▶️ "There are no wolves within you."
- ▶️ "Be like water: adaptable and unyielding, passive and powerful." most likely references Bruce Lee.
- ▶️ "Fall, like leaves on the vine." might be a reference to "Leaves From the Vine," sung by Iroh in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Skins
- Main article: Udyr (Collection)
- In his splash art, Udyr is surrounded by four animal totems (a ram, a boar, a bear, and a bird), representing the Freljordian demigods related to his abilities ( , the 8 Iron Boar, the , and , respectively).
-
- The scene depicted has him using .
- This skin shares the Day Job theme with:
- ...and others
- He is a karate instructor wearing a black belt, which denotes high competence in a martial art.
- can be seen in the background of his splash art.
- The dojo in his splash art includes references to the Freljordian demigods tied to Udyr's abilities/stances.
- A ram icon on the wall, referencing .
- A framed picture of a bear, referencing .
- Banners of a boar and a bird hanging from the ceiling, referencing 8 the Iron Boar and , respectively.
-
- A new texture was accidentally pushed to the PBE before his rework was fully revealed two months later, this eventually reached live servers and later fixed.
- A similar error has also happened with and .
- The splash art suggests he is in his .
- A new texture was accidentally pushed to the PBE before his rework was fully revealed two months later, this eventually reached live servers and later fixed.
- This skin shares the Prehistoric Hunters theme with:
- ...and others
-
- This skin references the Four Beasts of Cardinal Directions, like Udyr's , albeit the is antlered, probably paying homage to the Azure Dragon.
- The theme behind this skin was originally conceptualized as one of the possible outcomes for Runeterra. In this future, Udyr reaches inner harmony and conquers his rage during his time with the Ionian monks. He then guards the Hirana Monastery from demons and corrupt monsters that would use the Temple's power for the destruction of Runeterra.
- With the release of the short story A Walk with the Voices, the skin itself was made canon into the Runeterra Prime universe as how Udyr looked like during his time in Ionia and for the short period of time after his return to the Freljord.
- However, the original Spirit Guard comic is not considered part of the main canon.[5]
- With the release of the short story A Walk with the Voices, the skin itself was made canon into the Runeterra Prime universe as how Udyr looked like during his time in Ionia and for the short period of time after his return to the Freljord.
- This skin represents an alternate timeline in which Udyr chose to stay in Ionia and complete his training, rather than return home to the Freljord to protect . With the help of the monks of the Hirana Order, Udyr finds his inner harmony and conquers his rage completely.
- This stands in strong contrast to Udyr's non-ultimate skins, which represent his feral nature and somewhat still-uncontrolled rage.
- After Udyr's Visual Gameplay Update (VGU), this is the only skin that retains his animal spirits, which represent Ionian spirits rather than the Freljordian demigods.
- Prowling Tiger spirit (references old ). replaces the with the
- 8 Iron Boar with the Immovable Turtle spirit (references old ). replaces the
- Mother Bear spirit (references old ). replaces the with the
- Blazing Phoenix spirit (references old ). replaces the with the
- His appearance and clothing style parody Japanese monks' appearance, with comically oversized & incorrectly worn prayer beads, hakama, geta, samurai's kote, & stylized non-Japanese lungi, yet without the kesa robe.
- His outfit bears a striking resemblance to the Sura Master NPC from Ragnarok Online.
- After spending 4 points into an ability, he gains the ultimate form of that ability.
- His Dance, Laugh, and Taunt emotes summon whichever spirit corresponds to his current stance.
- His Joke emote references Marilyn Monroe's iconic white dress scene from the film The Seven Year Itch.
-
- His Level 5 Oni, one of Akuma's alternate forms. Both have bluish glowing skin and aura, a large prayer beads, bear-claw shaped hands, exposed upper bodies and gruffy hairstyle resembling flames. has a similarity to the Street Fighter character
- His old Dance would summon all four spirits in sequence once any given ability reached rank 5.
- His old Joke summoned , which explained where Urf's spirit went after being killed by .
- This skin shares the Definitely Not theme with:
- He is taking a group selfie while striking a pose, but his smartphone can't detect , who got locked out of his own party.
- He was released in celebration of April Fools' Day 2015 along with:
- He switches between a 8 Iron Boar, , and onesie for each ability/stance. ,
- His Usain Bolt's Signature "Lighting Bolt" Celebration Pose. animation is probably a reference to
-
- He switches between a onesie for each stance. , , , and
- This skin shares the Dragon World theme with:
- ...and others
- can be seen in the background of his splash art.
- His stances have draconic features, as they are derived from the powers of dragon spirits.
-
- This was Udyr's first skin to have a new run animation outside of .
- This skin shares the Inkshadow theme with:
- can be seen in the background of his splash art.