How to Play Jungle in League of Legends
By Roger on Sep 19th, 2025, 02:36
The lanes might be where the action looks obvious, but the jungle is where games are really won and lost. As a jungler in League of Legends, you don’t satisfy yourself with farming camps only. You create opportunities and decide when fights happen.
Playing jungle starts with clearing fast, but besides that, there is more to making smart calls, reading the map, and turning small openings into game-changing plays. You’re the wild card, the one who can flip a peaceful lane into a snowball with a single gank.
Whether you’re refining your skills as a veteran or just picking up the role, this LoL jungle guide will give you the tools to take control of the jungle, and with it, the game.
Before your first camp spawns or even when you’re in the loading screen, you must understand your role in League of Legends does way more than simple monster slaying; you need to create a game plan before minute one. Your primary duties are threefold:
You decide the pace of the early game. An aggressive, ganking style forces the enemy team onto their back foot, while a power-farming approach builds a ticking time bomb for the mid-game.
Through vision, ganks, and objective control, you shrink the map for your opponents and expand it for your allies. A well-played jungler makes enemy laners feel like there are eyes everywhere.
Your most vital task is to identify your team’s “wincon”, the champion or strategy most likely to carry you to victory, and pour resources into it. Is it your scaling bot lane? Your snowballing mid-laner? Find them, and make their life easy.
The opening moments of a match need to be efficient. A perfect first clear sets you up for success, while a sloppy one can leave you lagging for the next ten minutes.
At 1:30, your first camps appear. A full clear is one standard for many junglers. We’ll cover the situational level 2 gank, early invasion, or trading jungle camps on the opposite sides later. A full clear involves systematically clearing all six of your camps, which typically gets you to level four around the 3:30 mark. This timing is perfect, as it coincides with the spawn of the Scuttle Crabs.
Blue Side Start: Blue Sentinel -> Gromp -> Wolves -> Raptors -> Red Brambleback -> Krugs
Red Side Start: Red Brambleback -> Krugs -> Raptors -> Wolves -> Blue Sentinel -> Gromp
By 2:30, most junglers hit level three. This is your first major decision point. Do you continue your full clear to maximize your own gold and experience, or do you deviate for a gank on an overextended top lane or mid-laner? The right answer changes the match. Reading the lane states while clearing your camps is the first sign of a truly great jungler.
The best junglers play with a sixth sense, appearing just in time to counter jungle or counter gank. This is jungle tracking.
This mental game of chess starts in the loading screen: Which enemy champion is likely to start which buff? A mana-hungry champion like Hecarim will almost always start at the Blue Buff.
The purpose of a gank involves more than simply entering a lane. If there is nothing to gain from this gank, or worse, there is something to lose, you not only waste time but give away your location. Not all ganks need to result in a kill, because burning an enemy’s Flash counts as a win, which allows another gank opportunity in the next few minutes.
How do you pick a gank target? Focus your ganks on lanes where high burst damage and control abilities exist. Make sure to identify your best laner. When you secure an advantage for them, the entire map will experience a chain reaction effect.
Besides aggressive ganking, you can also relieve an ally laner’s pressure with a defensive gank. Is your top lane player zoned out from the enemy’s freezing strategy? By assisting your laner in unfreezing, you can create a reset in lane conditions, which protects them from enemy ganking attempts.
Not all champions approach the jungle the same way. Do you scale well into late-game and benefit more from power farming, or are you a strong early ganker that may fade out as the game goes on? Understanding your champion’s identity is key to playing to their strengths.
| Feature | The Power Farmer (e.g., Karthus, Master Yi) | The Early Aggressor (e.g., Xin Zhao, Jarvan IV) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Goal | Accumulate gold and experience for late-game dominance. | Apply immediate pressure to lanes and snowball leads. |
| Power Spike | Level 6, first or second completed item. | Levels 2-3, Red Buff, early components. |
| Ideal Pathing | Full clears, camp respawn timers. | Buff -> Buff -> Gank, or a three-camp clear into a gank. |
| Gank Style | Opportunistic; ganks when a kill is highly probable. | Proactive; forces plays and looks to burn summoner spells. |
| Team Role | Becomes a primary damage carry in mid to late-game teamfights. | Sets up laners for success and controls early objectives. |
Objective control is how you translate early leads into undeniable advantages.
Dragons (Spawn at 5:00): Each dragon provides a permanent buff to your team. While the first one isn’t always a must-take, stacking them puts a timer on the enemy team. Securing the Dragon Soul is often a game-ending power play.
Rift Herald (Spawns at 8:00): Use “Shelly” to break open a lane or take tower plates. It’s the perfect tool for cracking a stubborn mid lane or accelerating your top laner’s lead.
Baron Nashor (Spawns at 25:00): Time for checkmate. The Hand of Baron buff empowers your minions, making them incredibly difficult to stop. Securing Baron is the most reliable way to close out a game, but a failed attempt can just as easily throw your lead away. Clear all enemy wards before you even think about starting it. As a jungler yourself, dying after 25 minutes means the enemy can take Baron.
While skill can make any champion work, some tools are simply sharper than others. Here are a few top-tier jungle champions who define the current meta:
Unfamiliar with some of the strategies we’ve mentioned? Need clearer instructions? Or feeling stuck on your climb? Sometimes, a little expert guidance is all it takes to break through. Check out our coaching services to learn from the best and reach your desired rank.
