How to win the jungle race as Gragas against Locke · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Gragas's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Locke.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Even Skirmish | Neither side cleanly wins level 1 — a stacked nail string into the blink-through consume deletes half a health bar, but Barrel Roll poke plus passive sustain wins the slow first trade. Trade only from full health; before either of you has a second camp down the first mis-step decides this, not the kits. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Even Skirmish | The blink-auto mark consume chunks hard, but spending E in a duel spends the escape too, and that is worth exactly what you bring: Drunken Rage damage reduction makes your short trades strictly efficient. Contest the second buff when your health bar is the higher one and not before. |
| Level 3 Route | Gragas Favoured | The Body Slam stun engage completes a surprisingly strong early brawl kit. The margin is thin: W's grey-health refund makes his short trades cheaper than they look — full clears cost him real HP, and one slow camp on your side hands the window straight back, so keep the trade short. Fight him at full marks-zero and punish the ten seconds after his blink — E is his only exit. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Gragas Favoured — Take Duels | The 4-5 window is yours if you pick it: he uses 4-5 to bank marks at range, then blinks in the moment the nail count says the kill is there. Track that pattern, arrive one camp early, and take the fight before the follow-up shows. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Even Ult Window | The Purgatory totem turns any low-HP skirmish into a chain of executes and blink resets, and Explosive Cask answers it almost exactly. Decide this one on setup — vision, numbers and cooldowns — not on the ultimate comparison. |
| First Item Spike | Lich Bane / Shadowflame Spike | His Lich Bane spike is real: the blink-consume chunk one-shots chipped squishies. Respect the first-item window, then note his E is still a one-way door — punish every spent blink. Locke's first item makes the mark consume hit for a real chunk, which is when the blink stops being a poke tool. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Gragas Favoured at Full Build | Late-game Locke scales with his seal count, not his items — deny executes and his floor never rises. Focus him when E is down and never let "almost dead" linger inside Purgatory. |
Standard start — his level-1 clear is ranged but mana-hungry and his duel is honest at best; you dictate the early tempo, not him. Locke clears at range with Ritual Nails and banks marks while doing it, so his first scuttle arrives with stacks up.
Ranked by the race windows in Gragas's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Gragas vs Locke report continues with scuttle & dragon rules, invade windows and safety boundaries, the top-side objective fight, macro rotations and the win condition — plus the live enemy-jungle tracker that shows their start, clear and gank timers in game.
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Gragas's race plan controls 4 of the 7 windows — Gragas holds the tempo advantage in this jungle matchup.
Not exactly — Gragas's race plan controls 4 of the 7 windows, so Locke is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Playing the other side? Locke vs Gragas guide →
All Gragas jungle matchups →
More Gragas jungle matchups: vs Kindred · vs Lee Sin · vs Lillia · vs Maokai · vs Master Yi · vs Morgana