TL;DR
- Sylas with Chemtech Soul can permanently display Volibear’s spectral form after specific death timing
- Requires stealing Volibear’s ultimate, dying to activate zombie form, then casting ultimate mid-death animation
- Bug creates persistent visual effect without changing actual abilities or gameplay mechanics
- Community discovered interaction highlights ongoing issues with resurrection mechanics in League
- Timing window is extremely narrow, making consistent reproduction challenging for most players

Resurrection mechanics within League of Legends have consistently generated numerous technical issues and unexpected champion interactions throughout the MOBA’s extensive development history. The most recent preseason introduction, Chemtech Drake, represents the newest addition to these problematic abilities that produces clearly unintended visual outcomes. Through this new dragon’s mechanics, Sylas gains the capability to permanently adopt Volibear’s visual appearance when extremely specific conditions align perfectly.
This particular visual glitch demands several precise components and necessitates exact execution timing to successfully trigger. The sequence begins with Sylas possessing the Chemtech Drake Soul buff, which must then steal the ultimate ability from an opposing Volibear. Following this theft, Sylas must experience death to activate the Chemtech Soul resurrection effect, transitioning into the temporary zombie state that rapidly deteriorates. At the critical moment just before succumbing completely to the persistent health drain from the Chemtech Soul, he must activate Volibear’s ultimate ability so his death occurs during the casting animation.
When Sylas appropriates an ultimate ability from another champion and activates it, an ethereal purple representation of that champion materializes around him to better communicate the situation to both teammates and opponents. During Volibear’s ultimate animation sequence, Sylas becomes completely obscured beneath this ghostly imitation, creating the perfect conditions for the visual bug to manifest.
Should Sylas perish while Volibear’s ultimate remains active, it activates the Chemtech Drake visual glitch, causing him to respawn while still displaying the Freljordian storm deity’s appearance. This persistent visual effect doesn’t modify his actual combat capabilities or gameplay functionality, but all players will observe the purple deity-spirit manifestation instead of the standard Demacian revolutionary model.
Content creator Hunefer initially documented this novel interaction, and it rapidly captured the League community’s attention. Chemtech Drake has faced substantial player criticism regarding both its obscuring chemical fog zones and the soul resurrection effect. Technical issues simply contribute to the growing catalog of reasons why certain players remain hesitant about these changes proceeding into 2022, although this particular visual bug primarily stems from Sylas’ inherently complex ability kit rather than fundamental dragon mechanics.
For players seeking to understand similar complex interactions in other games, our Complete Guide provides comprehensive mechanical analysis. The bug’s discovery timeline reveals how community testing often uncovers edge cases that internal quality assurance might miss during standard development cycles.
Action Checklist
- Secure Chemtech Drake Soul for your team through dragon control
- As Sylas, steal Volibear’s ultimate ability using your Hijack (R)
- Initiate combat to reach lethal damage threshold and activate zombie form
- Monitor health drain carefully and cast Volibear ultimate at ~10% remaining health
- Die during the ultimate cast animation to trigger permanent visual transformation
No reproduction without permission:Game Guides Online » This Chemtech Drake bug turns Sylas into Volibear permanently Understanding the Chemtech Drake visual bug that permanently transforms Sylas into Volibear's spectral form
