How to win the jungle race as Xin Zhao against Locke · Matchup data reviewed on patch 26.15
Read from Xin Zhao's seat: the race windows this plan plays for against Locke.
| Stage | Read | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Clear | Xin Zhao Dominant | Three Talon Strike's knock-up plus passive healing wins the first buff-pit duel. There is no version of this Locke wins right now — Q nail volleys clear camps at range while banking marks for the first scuttle fight, and that folds at the first buff. Show on their side of the river and take a camp and a chunk of their health bar. |
| Level 2 Skirmish | Xin Zhao Dominant | Wind Becomes Lightning (W) challenge poke starts trades you finish for free. Later in the game this bites, because a stacked nail string into the blink-through consume deletes half a health bar. But with one camp still up on both sides none of it is online, so take the level-2 skirmish and tax every camp Locke concedes. |
| Level 3 Route | Xin Zhao Dominant | The full knock-up combo with W slow is among the top three level-3 duels, while W's grey-health refund makes his short trades cheaper than they look — full clears cost him real HP. Only one of those wins at the opening scuttle, so press it: take the level-3 river fight, then leave with the first scuttle and the gank window behind it. |
| Levels 4-5 Macro | Xin Zhao Dominant — Keep Fighting | Levels 4-5 change nothing: you still win every straight duel vs Locke, and he uses 4-5 to bank marks at range, then blinks in the moment the nail count says the kill is there. Sit in their river, take both scuttles, and tax the camps they concede. |
| Level 6 Breakpoint | Crescent Guard Favoured | Crescent Guard makes the 1v1 literal — outside help is deleted from your duel. The Purgatory totem turns any low-HP skirmish into a chain of executes and blink resets, so the margin is real but narrow: fight when your ultimate is up and Purgatory is the one on cooldown. |
| 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 | Respect Locke Late — End Early | Late-game Locke scales with his seal count, not his items — deny executes and his floor never rises. Focus him when E is down and never let "almost dead" linger inside Purgatory. |
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 Xin Zhao's plans — the jungle race carries no win-rate sample.
The full Xin Zhao 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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Xin Zhao's race plan controls 6 of the 7 windows — Xin Zhao holds the tempo advantage in this jungle matchup.
Not exactly — Xin Zhao's race plan controls 6 of the 7 windows, so Locke is playing catch-up and has to lean on the map.
Playing the other side? Locke vs Xin Zhao guide →
All Xin Zhao jungle matchups →
More Xin Zhao jungle matchups: vs Kindred · vs Lee Sin · vs Lillia · vs Maokai · vs Master Yi · vs Morgana