How to win lane as Poppy against Locke · 50% win rate over 456 Emerald+ games · Updated 2026-07-27
| Stage | Favoured | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Poppy | Level 1 your Q poke and W's dash-denial win the trade — his mobility game is dead on arrival. |
| Level 2 | Poppy | Level 2 your poke and anti-mobility keep the edge yours — he cannot start his pattern without a dash. |
| Level 3 | Poppy | At 3 Hammer Shock plus the E wall-stun beats his trades — one pin and he has lost half a bar. |
| Levels 4-5 | Poppy | Levels 4-5 your chunking and stun setups stay ahead — keep playing near walls. |
| Level 6 | Even / skill | Level 6 evens out — Purgatory gives him a kill turn once your W is baited, so do not waste it. |
| First item | Even / skill | First item is a skill window — you both trade around your Q and W cooldowns, so track them honestly. |
| Two+ items | Poppy | Late your tankiness, W and stun deny his whole reset pattern — he cannot snowball a fight through you. |
You are his counter and the lane knows it: Q chips him, W deletes the dash his whole kit is built around, and any wall he stands near is an E stun waiting to happen. Trade freely through 4-5 and pin him every time he farms close — he simply has no clean answer to your pattern.
The full Poppy vs Locke report continues with the mid-game plan, the late-game and teamfight plan, every power spike to play around, and the win conditions for both sides — plus cooldown tracking and the live enemy-jungle tracker inside the app.
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Playing the other side? Locke vs Poppy guide →
All Poppy top lane matchups →