‍Mobile Legends has pulled off collaborations before — some good, some forgettable — but the Naruto partnership landing in early 2026 is the kind of crossover that justifies the entire genre of anime collaborations. Naruto's character designs map onto MLBB's hero roster with enough coherence to feel intentional rather than forced, the skins being released are genuinely high quality, and the collaboration is arriving at a moment when the game's meta is being reshaped by Chip, the 124th hero and currently the single most discussed pick in the game. There's a lot to dig into.

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The Naruto Collaboration: Which Skins Are Worth It

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The headline skins from the Naruto collaboration are the Gusion — Minato skin and the Julian — Sai skin, and both earn the attention they're getting.

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The Gusion — Minato pairing is near-perfect in terms of thematic alignment. Gusion is one of MLBB's flashiest, most aggressive assassin heroes — high mobility, explosive burst damage, the kind of hero who kills someone and is three screens away before the kill notification appears. Minato, the Fourth Hokage, is synonymous with teleportation speed and precision strikes. The skin captures Minato's iconic yellow flash aesthetic with visual effects on Gusion's abilities that turn every kill sequence into a genuine spectacle. If you play Gusion at any level, this skin is worth having.

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The Julian — Sai skin leans into Sai's art-based abilities from the anime, with ink motifs applied to Julian's skill visual effects. Julian is a more technically demanding hero than Gusion, and the Sai skin rewards players who've put time into learning Julian's combo flexibility. The visual distinction between ability types is clear enough that it doesn't compromise readability for either player, which is a quality marker that separates well-designed collab skins from ones that look impressive but confuse gameplay.

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Beyond the headline skins, the collaboration includes additional Naruto-themed cosmetics for other heroes and event content built around Naruto's narrative arc. The event missions reward themed items through normal play, with premium skins available in the collaboration's exclusive draw system.

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Chip: The Hero Reshaping the Meta

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Chip is the 124th hero released in Mobile Legends and, right now, the dominant topic in any serious discussion about the game's meta. The hero's kit revolves around global teleportation portals — placing a portal at one location and stepping through it from anywhere on the map — and the implications for macro play are significant enough that the hero has changed how some teams think about rotation timings and map control.

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The reason Chip is so impactful isn't mechanical complexity — the portal mechanic is intuitive. It's the strategic possibilities the mechanic creates. A Chip on your team means your physical position on the map stops being the deterministic constraint it normally is. Your hypercarry can be farming in the bottom lane while Chip holds a portal ready to bring them to the top lane in an instant for an unannounced gank. Your roam can participate in a fight across the map without walking across the map. The tempo manipulation available to a well-played Chip is unlike anything previously in the game.

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At the competitive level, the hero has created genuine debates about counter-strategies. Teams playing against Chip need to account for unpredictable arrival angles, which changes how they engage in teamfights. Rushing into an apparent numbers advantage without clearing for a Chip portal arrival has ended several ranked matches in ways the losing team didn't see coming until it was too late.

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How to Play With Chip on Your Team

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If you're in a lobby with a Chip on your side — whether it's you playing the hero or a teammate — the core principle is communication. Chip's portals are most effective when your team knows they're available and positions to take advantage of them. A hypercarry who doesn't know Chip has a portal ready in the enemy jungle won't walk through it. A support who doesn't communicate their portal placement creates confusion rather than opportunity.

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When playing Chip yourself, the two most impactful habits to develop are portal placement discipline and timing awareness. Portal placement is about reading the map and anticipating where a surprise arrival will be most impactful — typically in a position that creates a fight the enemy team can't easily escape. Timing awareness is about understanding when your teammates are in a position to actually use the portal, which requires watching the minimap and communicating actively.

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Chip functions primarily as a support/roam hero, so the build priorities reflect that: items that improve durability and crowd control amplification are more valuable than damage items. The hero's value is in enabling your damage dealers, not dealing damage directly.

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How to Play Against Chip

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The counter-strategies that have emerged in the weeks since Chip's release cluster around two approaches: vision control and hard engage.

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Vision control — buying and placing wards aggressively to detect portal placements — reduces Chip's surprise factor significantly. If you can see where the portal exit is placed, you can account for it in your positioning. Chip's portals are powerful partly because teams often don't see where they've been placed until someone arrives through one.

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Hard engage teamfight compositions that commit to fighting immediately upon contact, before Chip's team can regroup through a portal, also limit the hero's impact. The portal mechanic is most devastating when fights are extended and indecisive, giving Chip's team time to rotate through portals to rebalance numbers. Teams that force decisive short fights reduce the portal's value.

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High-damage burst assassins who can eliminate Chip quickly in a teamfight also matter — Chip is a support hero and typically fragile, so focusing the Chip player to remove the portal utility early in a fight is a legitimate priority target decision.

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Should You Pull for Naruto Skins? An Honest Assessment

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Collaboration skins in Mobile Legends sit in a specific category: they're more expensive than standard cosmetics, available for a limited window, and represent the game's clearest revenue driver during collaboration periods. The question of whether to spend on them is worth answering honestly rather than just hyping the designs.

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The Gusion — Minato skin is worth it if you play Gusion regularly. The visual transformation is complete — effects, animations, recall, all redesigned around the Minato aesthetic — and this caliber of licensed collaboration skin isn't available again once the event window closes. Players who love both the hero and the source material will find it satisfying.

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The Julian — Sai skin is the better play for players who are actively maining Julian and building toward competitive skill with the hero. Julian's mechanical complexity means the investment in a premium skin makes more sense once you've confirmed you'll be playing the hero seriously. If you're still learning Julian, the skin is a nice addition but not the priority.

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For players who don't actively play either hero but are tempted by the collaboration aesthetics, the calculus is less favorable. MLBB cosmetics are tied to hero performance — a beautiful skin on a hero you don't play is inert. Consider whether the collaboration pull is hero-motivated or purely brand-motivated before spending.

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The Meta Implications Going Forward

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Chip represents a genuine evolution in MLBB's meta rather than just a new hero to learn. The global mobility mechanic will influence hero design going forward and is already prompting discussions about whether counter-mobility items or skills need to be introduced to balance the game.

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For players trying to climb ranked in February 2026, the decision is fairly clear: learn to play with Chip (or as Chip) before the community has fully settled on counter-strategies, or master the counter-strategies now while Chip players are still learning the hero. The mid-point — ignoring Chip and playing unchanged — is the worst option, since the hero is present in enough lobbies at all skill levels to affect your games whether you engage with it or not.

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The Naruto collaboration and the Chip meta landing simultaneously makes this one of the more interesting periods in Mobile Legends' recent history. The game is in strong shape, the meta has a genuine new dynamic to explore, and the collaboration cosmetics are the best the game has featured in recent memory. If you've been on the fence about returning to MLBB or starting fresh, the timing is good.