Ivern vs Nunu & Willump — Jungle Matchup Guide

How to win the jungle race as Ivern against Nunu & Willump · Updated 2026-07-27

Verdict: A genuine skill matchup — the jungle race swings window to window between Ivern and Nunu & Willump.

The jungle race — who owns each window

StageReadWhy
Level 1 ClearUnique Free ClearMark your camps with Friend of the Forest and collect them on respawn-walk timing — you never fight a monster and never lose health doing it. Your clear is untouchable because it is not really a clear. Path your marks so the second buff pops exactly as a laner can take the gift.
Level 2 SkirmishEven SkirmishNo duel exists here by mutual disinterest, so the contest is pure tempo and vision. Your grove timers beat their clear speed structurally — bank the difference into lane gifts and deep wards. The jungle matchup is a rounding error; the lane gifts are the game.
Level 3 RouteUtility OnlineFull kit makes you the best skirmish-support jungler alive: Q root from fog, E shield-slow on the carry, and brush W for free trades. Your ganks land because the root travels through the lane's own minions. Every 2v2 your laner takes near you is a 2v2 plus a shield and a root.
Levels 4-5 MacroDouble-Jungle TempoLevels 4-5 your groves generate farm while you body-block skirmishes — functionally two junglers of value. Gift buffs to your mid and bot carries on respawn, and shadow Nunu & Willump's gank paths to counter-root their engage. Your tempo is invisible on the scoreboard and decisive on the map.
Level 6 BreakpointDaisy!Daisy! (R) hands your team a frontline that knocks up on her third hit and tanks objective smite fights. Drop her ahead of your carry in skirmishes or as the pit-blocker at Dragon. From here you fight 5.5 versus 5 and the half is made of stone.
First Item SpikeUtility Item SpikeYour first utility items multiply your shields and roots into team-wide stat advantages. Camps remain free, so your gold curve funds vision and gifts without losing item pace. Force nothing; enable everything — Nunu & Willump cannot counter-jungle a grove economy.
2+ Items ScalingPeel MachineLate game you are the reason their assassin retires: E shields, Q roots, and Daisy knock-ups stack into un-diveable carries. Your fights are won in the 0.5 seconds your peel buys repeatedly. The forest wins by making every enemy engage cost double.

First clear & their start

Mark both your buffs and the adjacent small camps, then path toward your first gank angle while the groves cook. Nunu & Willump's start side only matters for where you place the minute-two deep ward — you fear no invade because there is nothing to invade.

Read the rest of this matchup

The full Ivern vs Nunu & Willump 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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Playing the other side? Nunu & Willump vs Ivern guide →
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