About me

Hi everyone! I'm a Kayn main from Russia, playing him since 2020. Achieved Diamond 1 - Master in multiple seasons (S12, S13, S14). Play on RU and EUW servers.
Was Top 1 RU Kayn and Top 2 Global Kayn at the end of Season 13 (per League of Graphs).
I'm not yet fluent in English, but I'm learning and trying my best — I hope this guide will be clear and helpful for all of you! :)
I’ll update this guide every patch or two. All changes will be logged in Patch Notes alongside patch review insights.

A Few Words About Kayn

Kayn is a very versatile jungle pick, simply because of his two forms. The only difficulty is knowing when to take a certain build and a certain form.

Special Thanks, Tribute

I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to my dog. It’s thanks to her that I’m finishing this guide, even if later than planned. I wrote it during a time when she was gravely ill and growing old. One day, as I worked on the guide, she came to me (for the last time, as it turned out) to say goodbye.
She’s the reason I chose to complete this guide—even if it never gains popularity in the League community. For me, it will stand as a tribute to her memory. After her passing, I vowed to finish all abandoned projects in her honor, so her life wouldn’t be in vain,
Live and enjoy life while you can, and never let negativity prevail.
Rest in peace, Bonya.

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Smite
		Smite is mandatory on both forms . It's obvious: you're a jungler – you have Smite. Plus, after the 15.09 patch, Smite auto-loads on your champion and you can't remove it anymore.
Flash
		Flash is for extra mobility. You take Flash when you know the enemy will be kiting you, has dashes, tp, or similar tools, and you can't run Ignite. You take Flash on Blue Kayn in 99% of games.
Ignite
		Ignite is a risky/bold summoner spell. You take it on Red Kayn when you can easily catch up to the enemy, and they won’t be able to escape after your Voltaic Cyclosword procs or the Scorchclaw Smite effect. In test builds with Voltaic Cyclosword, Spirit Visage, and Randuin's Omen, Ignite becomes almost mandatory, just like Smite.

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1. Form Acquisition Mechanics

   
   Your form depends on whom you damage:
   • Damage ranged champions → Gain blue orbs.
   • Damage melee champions → Gain red orbs.
   After filling the meter, your form is determined by the TOTAL ORBS COLLECTED:
   • More blue orbs → Blue form.
   • More red orbs → Red form.
     Orb value scales over time: Early-game orbs fill the meter slowly, but near 10 minutes, a single fight can nearly fill it.
     Key Timing: Aim to transform between 6–8 minutes.
   
   

2. [Q] Reaping Slash Animation Cancel

   
   Cancel [Q] Reaping Slash animations using walls. If Q1’s dash collides with terrain, the circular Q2 slash triggers immediately. Use this for faster jungle clears or when enemies are near walls.
   
   

3. Wall Jumps with [Q] Reaping Slash

   
   [Q] Reaping Slash can dash through thin walls. Execute carefully:
   During fights, position extremely close to the wall before dashing. Mispositioning causes collision instead of traversal.
   Image note: Red markers on the attached image indicate reliable wall-hop locations.
   

4. [E] Shadow Step Passive Vision

   
   While casting [E] Shadow Step near terrain, a circular indicator reveals nearby enemies (e.g., in bushes). Use this to scout hidden targets.
   
   

5. [E] Shadow Step Exit Control

   
   As [E] Shadow Step ends, cast [Q] Reaping Slash to dash toward your desired side of the wall before being ejected.
   
   

6. Red Kayn Ultimate Timing

   
   For Red Kayn: Cast [R] Umbral Trespass only when critically low HP to maximize healing.
   
   

7. Blue Kayn Ultimate Advantages

   
   For Blue Kayn [R] Umbral Trespass has increased cast range and extended ejection distance. Use to chase fleeing targets or escape.
   
   

8. Critical Macro Tips:

   • ADC must group post-20 minutes: If they split-push, PING THEM TO JOIN.
   • Be the shot-caller: Ping allies who misposition or ignore objectives. If a split-pushing top/mid would win you fights, PING THEM + CHAT "GROUP".
   • Never flame: Foster positivity. Motivate struggling teammates (e.g., 0/4 players)—"WE SCALE / PLAY FOR TEAMFIGHTS".
   • Mental reset: If tilted, remember: IT'S JUST A GAME. Wins/losses are learning experiences—detach from outcome dependency.

9. Jungle plants:

   • Honeyfruit:
     The first plant described in this section. Probably the most useful one. When broken, it drops 5 fruits on the ground for 30 seconds. Walking over a fruit restores 3.5% of your max health and 14–116 HP (depending on level) and 6% of your max mana, but reduces your movement speed by 35% for 0.25 seconds.
     First spawns between 6:00 and 6:30. Respawn time is between 5.5 and 7 minutes.
     You can use this during duels, before a gank or after a gank. It’s not worth spending time on it if you're going to recall right after anyway. During teamfights, you can pick one up to survive a bit longer. In general, treat it like a little support that heals you :)
     It’s also worth noting how this plant changes after the elemental rift transformation (The elemental rift occurs after either team kills the second dragon on the map):
     
     • Chemtech Dragon:
       Honeyfruit no longer slows and now grants a bonus shield. 8 additional Honeyfruits spawn: On the base rocks, near the Crimson Raptor, near the Greater Murk Wolf, and near the Blue Sentinel.
       
     • Ocean Dragon:
       Honeyfruit spawns 30 seconds after the rift transformation and has a respawn timer of 2 minutes. 4 additional Honeyfruits spawn: Near the Red Brambleback, near mid lane, and by the towers.
       
     
     The default Honeyfruit locations can be seen in this image:
     
     
   • Blast Cone:
     The second most useful plant. It allows you to enter or exit fights or duels.
     The first inner cones spawn between 1:15 and 1:25, and the first outer cones spawn between 9:00 and 9:30.
     Respawn time for inner cones is 5–7 minutes, for outer cones — 5.5–6.5 minutes.
     It’s often used to knock the enemy in the opposite direction from you. You can use [Q] Reaping Slash to dash quickly in the other direction inside the cone. This can be used to avoid being knocked away or to escape from the enemy.
     Elemental Rift changes:
     
     • Chemtech Dragon:
       The blast radius is doubled (previously knocked back 900 units, now 1800).
       
     • Infernal Dragon:
       10 additional blast cones spawn: in front of each base gate, near Gromp, near Greater Murk Wolf, and in the alcoves on the top and bottom lanes.
       
     The default blast cone locations can be seen in this image:
     
     
   • Scryer’s Bloom:
     The last plant, and probably the most controversial. I personally don’t like this plant because, aside from revealing enemies, wards, traps, etc., you also reveal your own position to the enemy.
     First spawns between 3:00 and 3:30, always at the closest spawn point to the side lanes in each quadrant. Respawns 5 to 6.5 minutes later at any of its spawn points, starting from the moment the Scryer's Bloom in that quadrant was destroyed.
     Elemental Rift effects:
     
     • Chemtech Dragon:
       Now reveals wards and reduces their HP to 1. Allies affected by the vision also receive a short movement speed boost.
       14 additional blooms spawn: In front of each base gate, near the inner turrets on both bases on top and bottom lanes, near the Greater Murk Wolf camps, near the Red Brambleback camps, near the tribushes leading to the river on top and bottom lanes.
       
     • Cloud Dragon:
       6 additional blooms spawn: In front of each base gate, near the river tribushes on the top and bottom lanes.
       
     Default Scryer’s Bloom locations can be seen in this image:
     
10. Ganks and Who You Should Gank
    
    First, take a look at your team comp and figure out who’s going to carry — who actually needs to get ahead.
    
    Pay attention to who’s playing the carry role.
    If you’re sure that even with all the lead you give them, they’ll still lose lane or be useless in teamfights because they don’t understand their champion — ask yourself:
    Is it even worth helping them?
    
    Even if you’re confident that this specific teammate needs to be fed — look at the actual situation when you’re about to gank:
    
    • Do you or your laner have any crowd control?
    • Can you actually catch the enemy, or at least force a Flash?
    • Could your gank accidentally make the lane harder for your teammate?
    
    The best gank scenario is when the enemy is overextended and pushing the wave under your ally’s turret.
    In that case, they’ll have a long path back to their safe zone, so in 90% of cases — they’ll die.
    
    It can also be worth ganking when the wave is in the middle of the lane.
    If your ally is hard-pushing, your only real option is to go for a dive.
    
    Only start a dive if:
    • The enemy has no key abilities to dodge yours
    • You have enough burst damage to kill them quickly
    • You’re confident you can survive turret aggro
    
    Kayn is ideal for starting dives because he can use Umbral Trespass to dodge turret damage.
    
    Also — always dive with a big minion wave.
    If there are only 2–3 minions left, let the wave reset instead.
    
    After a successful gank — if the enemy dies and your ally can comfortably stay in lane (without needing to freeze) — you should usually help crash the wave.
    Just push the wave so your minions hit the enemy tower.
    
    DO NOT take the wave if your ally can collect it — for example, if they have Teleport.
    
    
11. Best Stats from Items for Kayn:
    • Red Kayn:
      Let’s start with the best stats for Red Kayn.
      
      Red Kayn benefits from HP, AD, armor, magic resist, armor penetration (including via Black Cleaver), movement speed, and ability haste.
      He can also use some lethality if you’re going for a lethality-style build.
      HP helps Kayn survive longer in fights, improves healing from his passive, and allows him to deal more damage with Last Stand.
      I’d say every Red Kayn build should include at least one HP item.
      AD gives Red Kayn carry potential. More AD means more %HP damage, stronger healing from his passive and ultimate, and overall more threat.
      Armor and MR are needed to make Kayn tankier. Depending on the enemy comp, you might want just armor, just MR, or both.
      My go-to options are usually Randuin's Omen for armor and Spirit Visage for MR and bonus healing.
      Penetration is only needed if the enemy team starts stacking armor. Before that, you don’t really need to worry about it.
      As for lethality, it’s only worth building on Red Kayn in a full lethality build — usually when the enemy team is full of squishies.
      
      
    • Blue Kayn:
      When playing Blue Kayn, the key stats to focus on are: AD, lethality, penetration, ability haste, and movement speed.
      
      AD is important for increasing the damage of your abilities.
      Lethality is valuable against low-armor targets and squishies.
      Penetration is useful in almost every situation, unless the entire enemy team is refusing to build armor and is made up of pure squishies.
      Ability haste is a core stat for Blue Kayn — as an assassin, you want your cooldowns as low as possible, especially your ultimate.
      Movement speed helps with map mobility, skirmishing, and chasing/kiting.
      

12. Improvement Resources

    
    Watch high-elo Kayn OTPs like Karasmai (YouTube/Twitch) for replays and live gameplay analysis.

Here I will attempt to describe all possible jungle start paths.
We can start with 5 different camps. You can perform a full clear (probably the most appealing option last season) or go for a level 3 gank.

Crucially, remember: At the start of the game, you must place your Stealth Ward on the opposite river quadrant from your chosen starting camp. Place this ward at 0:52, during the final second before recall. When recalling, you must purchase the Oracle Lens. It reveals the enemy jungler if they attempt to invade or steal your camps.
Conversely, you can immediately use the Oracle Lens to clear the enemy’s first Stealth Ward (which will likely be placed on your Raptors around 1:15 by their mid laner)
Ultimately, the choice is yours.

Legend for all images:

• Red arrows: Primary jungle path
• Yellow arrows: Possible deviations from the primary path
• Green checkmark: Starting camp
• Purple dot: Optimal ward placement spot ("sweet spot")
• All-in icon: Potential ganks or river fights

The first option is to start the clear with the Raptors. A standard clear for Kayn, allowing you to path towards mid lane and farm the Raptors again.

The second option is to start the clear with the Red Buff, enabling you to gank a lane after the full clear and then recall.

The third option is to start the clear with the Blue Buff, enabling you to gank a lane after the full clear and then recall.

The second and third options are similar and differ only in which lane you intend to gank first. You should gank the lane where you actually have an opportunity. Opponents with escapes will get away quickly if your allies lack crowd control.


The fourth option is the most interesting and aggressive. You need to invade the enemy jungle from their Blue Buff side, if they allow it. You must do this undetected, making this path especially dangerous if you're running Ignite instead of Flash. You perform a full clear of the enemy jungle starting from their Blue Buff and can then look for a level 3 gank. If the enemy jungler sees you on the map, they will likely go to clear your Blue Buff (cross-map clear). Conversely, if you are confident the enemy won't contest your Blue Buff and you remain unseen, proceed to your own Red Buff and then your Blue Buff. This way, you won't help your team with early ganks but will gain a significant lead over the enemy jungler. Keep in mind that the enemy jungler, lacking half their jungle, will likely attempt either ganks or counter-jungling, trying to catch you at low HP. What makes this option interesting is that while you're clearing the Wolves, the enemy jungler might be taking your Blue Buff. If executed correctly, you can take the Wolves, steal their buff, and escape using [E] Shadow Step back into your own jungle.

The fifth and final option is similar to the fourth but requires you to start at the enemy's Raptors camp. Similarly to the fourth option, you steal half of the enemy jungle and can then look for a level 3 gank or proceed to do a full clear. Also, be aware that the enemy might be farming their Red Buff while you are taking their Raptors.

Don't forget about map objectives (Dragon spawns first at 5 minutes, Voidgrubs at 7 minutes). You can prioritize the first Dragon by starting your clear on the Dragon side and then, after your first recall, return to your jungle, hit level 5, and take the Dragon. Remember, if you lack team support, do not run to the Dragon 1v3 or 1v4 against opponents. Stealing is good, but only using [E] Shadow Step. Do not attempt to fight – your sole target is the Dragon.

• Red: Very weak phase
• Yellow: Average phase
• Green: Peak power phase

1. Early Game

   
   Kayn is extremely weak before transforming—any jungler with decent mechanics can 1v1 you. Prioritize skirmishes with numerical advantages (e.g., 2v1, 3v2). Your goal is to secure your form ASAP, as pre-form Kayn lacks a meaningful passive. Once transformed, build a significant level/gold lead over the enemy jungler through successful ganks or winning fights. The ideal early-game outcome: fast form acquisition, an early lead, and at least one winning lane.
   

2. Mid Game

   
   Maximize your power spike here:
   • Without an early lead → Play evenly against the enemy jungler (never underestimate them).
   • With a lead → Invade the enemy jungle for picks to widen your advantage.
     Focus on objectives. Securing Triumphs (e.g., Dragons, Rift Herald) amplifies your team’s strength. Prioritize stacking 4 Dragons for Soul (statistically, teams with Soul win >80% of games).

3. Late Game

   
   Kayn’s power declines as enemies reach full build, putting you on even footing. Your success now hinges entirely on well-executed teamfights. Secure major objectives (Baron, Elder Dragon) and stick with your team.

Here I will document patch-specific notes and changes made to the guide, labeled by patch number or update date.