How to win the jungle race as Karthus against Locke · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Karthus's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Locke.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Respect Locke | At level 1 this window belongs to Locke: Q nail volleys clear camps at range while banking marks for the first scuttle fight, and a stacked nail string into the blink-through consume deletes half a health bar. Fight him at full marks-zero and punish the ten seconds after his blink — E is his only exit. Skip the level-1 crossing and bank tempo on the opposite side of the map. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Respect Locke | A stacked nail string into the blink-through consume deletes half a health bar — Karthus has no answer to that at level 2. The blink-auto mark consume chunks hard, but spending E in a duel spends the escape too on their half of the map too, so refuse the level-2 skirmish and answer the pressure cross-map. |
| Level 3 Route | Respect Locke | W's grey-health refund makes his short trades cheaper than they look — full clears cost him real HP, and Karthus has no clean answer to it at the opening scuttle — a stacked nail string into the blink-through consume deletes half a health bar. Fight him at full marks-zero and punish the ten seconds after his blink — E is his only exit, and give up the first scuttle rather than the kill. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Even — Farm & Track | Levels 4-5 vs Locke are a tempo war — he wants quiet farm into his 6; tax his camps, keep his marks off you at contests, and bank the gold lead his weak duel hands you. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Requiem Favoured | Requiem cashes your farm lead into cross-map kills — press R on every low gank, while the Purgatory totem turns any low-HP skirmish into a chain of executes and blink resets. You win the breakpoint against Locke, not the whole game — cash it on the first objective after both sides hit six. |
| 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 | Karthus Favoured — Wins Late | Locke falls off relative to you — from two items on you win the raw stat check, even though his execute floor rises with every seal, so any low-health fight inside Purgatory is lost. Drag the game long and force the 1v1s. |
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 Karthus's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Karthus 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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No clear favourite — Karthus holds 3 windows, Locke 3, the rest are even.
Yes — Karthus vs Locke plays as a skill matchup: the jungle race swings window to window, and the better first clear usually sets the tone.
Playing the other side? Locke vs Karthus guide →
All Karthus jungle matchups →
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