How to win the jungle race as Locke against Karthus · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Locke's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Karthus.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Locke Favoured | Q nail volleys clear camps at range while banking marks for the first scuttle fight. Lay Waste melts camps at record pace, so this is an edge and not a blowout — take the level-1 crossing only with the HP and cooldown lead. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Locke Favoured | The blink-auto mark consume chunks hard, but spending E in a duel spends the escape too, but Wall of Pain slows cover their disengage. You still win the straight exchange on the second camp; keep it short, keep it decisive, and keep the scuttle line yours. |
| Level 3 Route | Locke Favoured | W's grey-health refund makes his short trades cheaper than they look — full clears cost him real HP. Karthus can make it awkward — isolated Lay Waste double-damage adds up fast if you stand in his Defile zone — but not as the first scuttle timer lands. Trade, then walk away with the first scuttle and the gank window behind it. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Even — Farm & Track | Levels 4-5 are a farm-and-track window vs Karthus — bank camps, keep river vision, and hold the fight for your level-6 totem instead of coin-flipping. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Respect Karthus's R | Requiem finishes you from anywhere — every low-HP recall is a coin flip now — Locke loses the straight post-6 duel. Base at higher HP thresholds and remember Death Defied still kills over his corpse, and shift your pressure to the side of the map Requiem is not on. |
| First Item Spike | Lich Bane / Shadowflame Spike | Lich Bane turns every blink-consume into a Spellblade chunk and Shadowflame sharpens the low-HP crunch. This is your strongest duel window of the game — cash it on a pick, not a coin-flip. Karthus' first item is where Lay Waste stops chipping and starts taking a third of a health bar per cast. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Danger — Karthus Outscales | Late game you are a cleanup engine, not a frontliner: enter second, blink the marked kill, and chain E resets. Every sealed soul permanently raises the totem floor — your scaling is the seal count. |
Start Red with a leash and Q the camp from max nail range — W’s grey-health refund keeps the clear honest, but full clears cost real HP, so path toward a healthy scuttle, not a fight. Karthus has the fastest clear in the game with Lay Waste and Defile, and he will always be a level ahead if left alone.
Ranked by the race windows in Locke's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Locke vs Karthus 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 — Locke holds 4 windows, Karthus 2, the rest are even.
Yes — Locke vs Karthus 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? Karthus vs Locke guide →
All Locke jungle matchups →
More Locke jungle matchups: vs Ivern · vs Jarvan IV · vs Jax · vs Kayn · vs Kha'Zix · vs Kindred