How to win the jungle race as Graves against Ekko · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Graves's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Ekko.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Graves Dominant | End of the Line plus knockback autos shred melees holding a buff pit. Timewinder poke chips contests, but the early all-in isn't there yet, and before either of you has a second camp down that is not an answer. Take the level-1 crossing and make Ekko path away from the camps you want. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Graves Dominant | Quickdraw (E) True Grit armor stacking lets you out-trade in tight jungle lanes. There is no version of this Ekko wins right now — Phase Dive hit-and-run trades are decent, and that folds on the second camp. Show on their side of the river and take the second buff and the tempo that comes with it. |
| Level 3 Route | Graves Dominant | Smoke Screen's blind caps a kit that wins almost every close-quarters exchange. Later in the game this bites, because a triggered Parallel Convergence stun into passive burst is his entire kill script. But as the first scuttle timer lands none of it is online, so take the level-3 river fight and tax every camp Ekko concedes. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Graves Favoured — Take Duels | You hold the edge at 4-5, not a blowout. He uses 4-5 to plant Parallel Convergence in a lane bush; the stun is the gank and the clear is filler, so meet them where the camps are, not where their laners are. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Even Ult Window | Neither ultimate cleanly beats the other — Chronobreak undoes your best trade and slams you with the rewind nuke, but Collateral Damage adds a dash-reset execute to your close-range shred. The breakpoint goes to whoever reaches it first with an objective on the map. |
| First Item Spike | Youmuu's / Umbral Glaive Spike | Completing your core lethality component grants a devastating physical damage and armor penetration spike that completely destabilizes their defensive stat builds. Your camp clearing mechanics become completely automated, letting you wipe whole sides in seconds before invading deep into their jungle tracks. Ekko's first item is the point where his dive stops being a trade and becomes a kill, with the rewind as insurance. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Respect Ekko Late — End Early | The full-build comparison goes to Ekko: he dives, deletes and rewinds, so your punish window is only ever after Chronobreak. Play for picks and objectives, and end before the fight has to be fair. |
Start your clear at the Red Buff camp — Quickdraw (E) refreshes its own cooldown and resistance boost on a hit, which keeps your armor/MR up through the first two camps — then continue down toward the scuttle crab. Ekko clears at a fair pace with Timewinder and passive procs, but he takes real damage doing it before level four.
Ranked by the race windows in Graves's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Graves vs Ekko 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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Graves's race plan controls 5 of the 7 windows — Graves holds the tempo advantage in this jungle matchup.
Not exactly — Graves's race plan controls 5 of the 7 windows, so Ekko is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Graves takes Fleet Footwork on the Precision tree with Triumph, Legend: Alacrity and Coup de Grace, and Domination secondary (Sudden Impact and Treasure Hunter) vs Ekko.
Start Mosstomper Seedling + Health Potion and back for Serrated Dirk / Cloak of Agility — keep full-clearing into invades. Build Youmuu's / Umbral Glaive first, then Infinity Edge, with Plated Steelcaps / Berserker's Greaves.
Playing the other side? Ekko vs Graves guide →
All Graves jungle matchups →
More Graves jungle matchups: vs Brand · vs Briar · vs Diana · vs Elise · vs Evelynn · vs Fiddlesticks