How to win the jungle race as Locke against Kindred · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Locke's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Kindred.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Respect Kindred | The window at the first buff belongs to Kindred: Wolf's Frenzy plus Q resets let them skirmish from untouchable range. Your own line is real — Q nail volleys clear camps at range while banking marks for the first scuttle fight — but it arrives second here. Commit only with a hard gap-close ready — chasing her through camps is a lost race, then skip the level-1 crossing. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Respect Kindred | At level 2 this window belongs to Kindred: Wolf's Frenzy plus Q resets let them skirmish from untouchable range, and Dance of Arrows kiting means you never actually touch her while she shreds you. Commit only with a hard gap-close ready — chasing her through camps is a lost race. Refuse the level-2 skirmish and bank tempo on the opposite side of the map. |
| Level 3 Route | Respect Kindred | Dance of Arrows kiting means you never actually touch her while she shreds you — Locke has no answer to that at level 3. With three dashes banked they kite backwards and win every disengage fight on their half of the map too, so give up the level-3 river fight and answer the pressure cross-map. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Respect Kindred — Path Opposite | Levels 4-5 still belong to Kindred in a straight fight — farm the opposite side, answer their ganks cross-map, and wait for your spike. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Respect Kindred's R | The six-spike belongs to Kindred, and Locke's does not bridge the gap: Lamb's Respite denies your kill at the last second and flips the reset fight. Hold your finishing damage until the Respite expires, or step outside its circle. Your own ultimate is a tool here, not a trump card — spend it to escape or equalize, not to start fights. |
| First Item Spike | Lich Bane | Lich Bane turns every blink-consume into a Spellblade chunk on top of your Silver Stake missing-health scaling. This is your strongest duel window of the game — cash it on a pick, not a coin-flip. Kindred's first item plus a few stacks is where the ranged trade stops being poke and starts being a duel they win. |
| 2+ Items Scaling | Danger — Kindred 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. Kindred clears fast at range with Dance of Arrows and Wolf's Frenzy, and takes almost no damage doing it.
Ranked by the race windows in Locke's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Locke vs Kindred 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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Kindred pressures 6 of the 7 windows in this race — survive the early game and scale into your windows.
Not exactly — Kindred pressures 6 of the 7 windows, so Locke is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Playing the other side? Kindred vs Locke guide →
All Locke jungle matchups →
More Locke jungle matchups: vs Karthus · vs Kayn · vs Kha'Zix · vs Lee Sin · vs Lillia · vs Maokai