Hey, I’m Forest, though most people just call me Chriss. I’ve been grinding jungle for a long time now, and Graves has been my go-to champion for most of that journey. No matter how much League changes, I always seem to come back to him. Some seasons he’s broken, other seasons he feels a bit weaker, but for me he’s always been the champ that clicks. His mix of damage, mobility, and durability makes him one of the most satisfying junglers to play once you really learn how to use him.

That’s a big part of why I wanted to write this guide. We’re now in Season 15, and while a lot has changed over the years, Graves is still one of the best carry junglers you can put time into. I don’t want this to just be another “copy-paste” guide that tells you to build the same items every game and follow one set jungle route. I want it to be something useful for different types of players. If you’re brand new to the champ, this will give you a foundation. If you’re already experienced, I’ll give you matchup insights, pathing ideas, and ways to get more value out of your gold and item spikes.

I also plan to keep this guide updated as patches roll out. League doesn’t stay the same for long, and Graves especially tends to rise and fall depending on what items are strong. I’ll be testing builds regularly and adding changes here so this doesn’t become outdated.

The main thing to understand about Graves—and really about jungle in general—is that success comes from macro, not micro. Yes, Graves has his mechanics, combos, and little tricks, but what really separates a good jungler from a great one is decision-making. Where you start, when you invade, when to reset, and when to force plays—these things matter way more than just pressing buttons cleanly. Graves rewards players who plan ahead and punish mistakes, and if you can manage your pathing and tempo well, you’ll almost always feel ahead of the game.

I am not streaming like a lot of League players because I am not playing actively enough, and when I do, I focus on the game too much. But I am active on YouTube, and that’s where you’ll find full-length guides, gameplay breakdowns, and discussions about different builds. I also post on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube Shorts, which is where I share quick tips, highlight clips, and advice that don’t need a long video. If I ever decide to stream, it’ll be directly on YouTube so everything stays in one place.

There is no shortcut in League, especially if you want to become a jungler. Knowledge is everything, and in order to improve, you must watch VODs as well. Playing 20 games a day won't be enough. Watching your own replays or checking out high-elo VODs teaches you why certain choices work better than others. That’s something I’ll also focus on in my content: not just what the right path or play is, but why it’s right. That way you’ll be able to adapt in real games when things don’t go exactly by the book.

So that’s the idea behind this guide. I want it to be practical, up-to-date, and something you can actually use to improve. Whether you’re a new Graves player or you’ve been spamming him for seasons, I hope this helps sharpen your game. Thanks for checking this out, and good luck in the jungle.

Pros

Strong in Solo Queue—Graves’ mobility and damage let him constantly pressure the enemy jungle. If you play aggressively, you can snowball games by invading, dueling, and forcing skirmishes. He’s the type of jungler that can make the other jungler tilt fast.

Fits most team comps—You can draft Graves into a lot of different setups. He only really struggles if the enemy has crazy amounts of range or slows, but even then, Swifties make life a bit easier.

Can solo carry—If you’re good on Graves, you don’t need your team to win fights. His farming speed, tempo control, and dueling power mean you can build your own lead and carry games by yourself.

High skill ceiling—Graves takes time to learn, but once you get used to his autos, spacing, and combos, he feels insanely rewarding. He’s a champ you can keep improving on for seasons.

Flexible playstyle—You can invade early, farm and scale, or even play bruiser-frontline if your team needs it. That adaptability makes him hard to completely shut down.

Fast clears & strong scaling—He clears camps super quickly and stays healthy, so you often hit key item spikes before the enemy jungler. Farm leads are easy to stack up if you’re efficient.

Great duelist—Most junglers don’t want to 1v1 Graves early or mid-game if you’re even or ahead. He’s really scary around scuttle fights and river skirmishes.

Cons

No real CC—He doesn’t bring stuns or knock-ups. Outside of Red Buff slows and your W, you’re not locking anyone down by yourself.

Struggles vs heavy peel—If the enemy comp has multiple ways to peel, Graves has a hard time sticking to targets. The old Serpent’s Fang was decent, but now it’s pretty bad.

Hates long-range comps—Champions with a lot of poke and slows can make you feel useless. Even with Swifties, it can be a pain to play into champs like Ashe, Xerath, or Seraphine.

Blockable autos—Tanks, minions, and even towers can eat your bullets. If you don’t manage spacing well, enemies can use this to outplay you.

Takes time to learn—Graves isn’t a “pick up and carry day one” champ. His playstyle is unique compared to most junglers, and you need practice to get comfortable.

Falls behind hard—If you get invaded early or lose tempo, it’s tough to come back. Graves really needs gold and items to do his job.

Relies on teammates to engage—you can’t start fights alone. If your team has no engage, the enemy can just kite you forever.

New Destiny (Passive:
This is what truly makes Graves unique. His basic attacks don’t pass through enemies — each shot has its own collision and stops at the first unit it hits. Because of this, small or awkward hitboxes can sometimes lead to strange (and funny) interactions

End of the Line (Q):
Graves’ Q has two damage instances and can be accelerated by casting it into terrain, forcing an earlier return. It plays a major role in combos and is generally prioritized right after E.

Smokescreen (W):
Graves throws a smoke canister that creates a cloud, heavily limiting vision inside it. Enemies hit by the initial impact take magic damage and are briefly slowed. While inside the smoke, enemies can only see what’s within the cloud.

Quickdraw(E):
Quickdraw is the most important ability in Graves’ kit, both for damage and survivability. Almost every combo revolves around this spell. During your first jungle clear, you can already abuse Quickdraw to stack True Grit, allowing Graves to reach maximum bonus armor before the first Scuttle fight and maintain it throughout early skirmishes.

When dashing toward enemy champions, Graves also gains two stacks of True Grit, making aggressive plays even safer. Quickdraw’s cooldown is reduced every time Graves hits an opponent.

Due to New Destiny, Graves has limited ammo, which makes correct Quickdraw usage crucial. The ability resets your auto attack and helps reload bullets, but using it at the wrong time can severely hurt your damage. If you dash at the start of a fight, you’ll be forced to reload after only two auto attacks, effectively losing an entire bullet. Since Graves only has two bullets, this can result in up to a 50% DPS loss, which is especially punishing in the early game, where most of your damage comes from auto attacks.

Finally, remember that Quickdraw is not just a DPS tool—it’s also your main repositioning ability. Instead of always dashing straight in or straight out, practice diagonal dashes. This gives you a balance between staying in range to deal damage and not accidentally creating too much space that allows enemies to escape.

Collateral Damage (R):

Collateral Damage is one of Graves’ most versatile tools, doubling as both mobility and finishing power. It shines when enemies barely slip out of your auto-attack or ability range with a few points of health left, allowing you to secure kills from a distance.

At close range, the ultimate becomes a powerful burst option, pairing perfectly with End of the Line and a well-timed auto attack. Against melee champions, it can also act as a temporary escape or spacing tool, giving you an extra dash while Quickdraw is on cooldown.

The knock back from Collateral Damage can even launch Graves over certain walls, making it an underrated escape option when fights turn unfavorable.

The biggest mistake players make with this ability is treating it as an opener. Using Collateral Damage before the enemy is actually killable often backfires, as the knockback creates space and hands your target an easy escape instead of a death.

Hard - W + Flash + AA + Q + E + AA + R + AA
You can combine W and Flash to make it much harder to dodge. AA then Q E together and finish off with AA R AA.
Hard - Q + E + Flash + AA + R
From outside normal range, Q and instantly E F. Execute your target with AA R.
Hard - W + Q + E + R + Flash
To quickly retreat W your target then Q then instantly click away to E. As soon as your E is about to reach its max distance R, then use Flash mid animation.

Normal - W + E + AA + Q + AA + R
When ganking W your target, E towards them then AA and Q during the AA downtime, then AA again and execute with your R.
Normal – W + Q + AA + E + AA + R + AA
Quickly burst enemies leading with W and quickly Q, then AA E AA as quickly as possible followed by R and another AA.
Normal – W + AA + Q + E + AA + AA
Seamlessly slide into your target by using Q E together. W your target and AA then quickly Q and E in the same direction. Finish up with two AA's.

Basic – AA + AA + E + Q + AA
When fighting any opponent AA twice then E towards your target, Q instantly and use your final AA right after.
Basic – W + AA + E + AA + Q + AA
To All In before level 6 W your target, then quickly AA and E to reposition. AA Q and AA again.
Basic – E + Q
To chase.
Basic – AA + E + AA
This is the basic. Standart combo that you will do everytime.

This will be my section to help guide you on what your game plan should look like in general and what the best playstyle is to find the most success with Graves.

Early Game priority:

Farming and ganking when possible. Most people have this misconception that Graves is useless early and he needs several items to scale into the late game. But that is not true, and in fact, starting from level three, especially with red buff, he can make a lot of plays on the map. Of course you will need lane setup, and CC is a must in fights. But you are a bully jungler and a farming jungler at the same time.

Efficient Jungle Pathing:
It's not just a Graves thing, but on any jungler you don't want to do spaghetti pathing like starting at red, going to gromp and blue, and then going back to raptors. Just because you saw a gank opportunity or wasted time forcing plays on the map. Efficiency and camp sequencing > forcing plays on the map. Look to clear one quadrant and path towards the lane with the highest kill potential. If you full clear and can only gank after your first recall, it's totally fine. You are not a ganking jungler, so despite having red and being pretty strong at level 3, that doesn't mean you have to force plays.

Look for Opportunities to Invade:
Graves is a powerful early duelist. Ward the enemy jungle, track their jungler, and punish them if they overextend. Against tank junglers such as Sejuani and Amumu or heavy farmers such as Shyvana and Karthus, you can look to invade and bully them. Tracking farming junglers generally is really easy, as they look to sequence for efficiency.
Be cautious of crowd-control-heavy champions who can counter Graves in 1v1 fights. That being said, usually it's more important to have your E to dodge skillshots, e.g., Amumu's Q, which is now harder since he has two charges, than to have one extra auto attack. But even against ganking junglers, if you see a Lee Sin, for example, having 12 CS and red while you are at the opposite side of the map, look to steal their blue quadrant. Don't just AFK farm your own jungle and pray your laners don't tilt and the enemy jungler doesn't get fed.

Prioritize ganks on lanes with good gank setup. I've said this many times, but I can't say this enough. Focus on lanes where allies have strong CC or the enemy lacks escapes. When ganking with Graves, your focus should be to avoid common jungle routes and avoid vision as much as possible. Most junglers are a threat even if the opponent sees them because they have CC, but you have a mediocre slow, and that's it. Always hug the closest wall to their escape route and E forward only if you have to. That extra dash or bullet can be the difference between a kill and an opponent escaping with 10 HP. This happened to me numerous times. Also hold your W as long as you have to, e.g., they already dashed or flashed instead of using it, and then they dash or flash out of it anyways. You have to play a mind game.

Mid Game (Focus: Objectives and Skirmishes)

If you had a good early game with a few kills and you managed to get items like Youmuu's before the 10-minute mark. Now you are the king of the jungle and can make proactive plays on the map. Bullying laners bullying the enemy jungler. But of course you are not invincible, so play smart.

This isn't Graves-specific, but it's crucial, and I talk about this a lot in my jungle guides. Abuse the hell out of your power spike. Meaning you just bought Youmuu's, and your red quadrant is up. Don't go and AFK farm while no one else has a completed item yet. Go and fight, get an objective, go invade, force a flash, and do something aggressive on the map. The second drake should be up at this point, or it might even be the first drake, so go and get it. Abuse your item and level powerspike things, such as level 6 or level 9 when your Q is maxed out, you have Youmuu's, or you got your Dirk. You are strong at these stages, and you should look to fight instead of wasting it on killing camps. Especially when you have collector as well with a proper full combo and dark harvest you can blow up most squishy champs with one full spell rotation.

In order to take over the map and have control at this point, you should be able to get some lane CC. If your laner died or recalled, you can and should help fix their bad wave states. You can get plates with them or even get a tower if you have nothing else to do. Always look to have one control ward at least for the objectives, such as dragon and rift herald. If you already snowballed and let's say you break the top tower, don't just go back into your own jungle; look to steal enemy jungle camps, look to have vision, and drop deep wards. Of course, only if it's safe and the other laner/jungler isn't rotating to kill you after getting a kill on the side lane. With lead, your priority should be pushing your lead forward, getting towers, getting objectives, and stealing enemy jungle camps.

Graves loves small skirmishes. Use choke points and terrain to maximize Q (End of the Line) damage. Avoid face-checking bushes even if you have a grit stack, but look to fight, especially in the jungle, where you can use terrain to escape if you have to with E and land both parts of your Q. Never dash forward even if you have a lead unless it's a guaranteed kill. People think they are unkillable and then die quickly in like 2 seconds because they wasted their E and got hooked by Nautilus or just got hit by some stupid CC.

Late Game Teamfights:

This heavily depends on the enemy composition and your lead and build as well. If you are going for a glass cannon build, which one-shots enemy priority targets such as AD carries. You can most of the time look to flank and catch a squishy target. This is not Graves-specific, but you should always look to catch people. Especially in the lower ranks, it's really easy to catch the enemy mid laner or ADC who was alone late to an objective or to find someone who is face-checking. So generally look to stick in a bush with a sweeper, make sure you are not warded, and kill that person before the objective.

But sometimes you aren't able to do that, in which case look to focus on the closest target. This is especially true when you are playing a bruiser; you don't have one-shot potential. You look to stay in max autoattack range and kite the enemy front line. If there is a kill on a priority target, which you can kill if you flash on them, still make sure you do it.

At this point you should have 3+ items in most of your games so you are melting towers and objectives. But if you are taking Baron, make sure someone else is taking it to deal the most amount of damage possible. Also don't be scared to turn with Graves if you are being contested on objectives such as dragon. Before an objective fight, you should look to stack your Grit. At this stage, your E cooldown is low, so you can pretty much always start a fight with 3-4 Grit stacks before turning if the drake still has too much HP to finish. If you can finish it just look to finish then turn.

I could give you many more general tips that aren't really Graves-specific, but feel free to ask under my YouTube videos or on my Discord server. If you are interested in jungle coaching, you can also find details about that on my Discord server. This was a long guide, and hopefully you could learn something new. It doesn't matter if you were a veteran Graves player or just starting out on your outlaw journey. Thank you if you read through this, and for any feedback. If anything is missing or needs improvement, just let me know.

In general you are looking to full clear the Graves jungle. Yes, you can level 2 invade some champions, and I will talk about those situations as well down below.

Full Clear: Red - Krugs - Raptors - Wolves - Gromp - Blue
Blue—Gromp—Wolfes—Raptors—Red—Krugs

To maximize efficiency, always take Gromp after Wolves instead of Blue just to have the two camp spawn timers in sync. It's not a big deal if you take blue first, though, so don't stress too much on this. You should decide if you want to put two points on your Q when crossing mid lane. If there is no potential mid-lane gank nor side-lane gank, just finish your full clear. If you want to have the option of being able to gank, just feel free to put a point on your W. You can fully clear before scuttle. Either way, these are small things and not game deciding decisions.


Which of those you chose is dependent on your lanes. You should always path towards your lanes with a gank setup, for example,, champions with great gank setups. Check out my synergy section for Graves. Nautilus is a great example on bot lane. A mage with CC on mid lane and any bruiser who has some sort of CC and can fight like a Renekton top lane. You get the idea. You want to path towards that lane to snowball. You aren't pathing for a lane to help them snowball. You are pathing towards a lane with a good setup to snowball yourself and take over the game. That's just an extra if your laner manages to get a lead too. Especially for the early kills, don't let your laners get it if you can take it. You need the gold more than most champions.

Another full clear version is Raptors - Krugs - Red - Wolves - Gromp - Blue.
This allows you to then gank mid after scuttle, then clear Raptors and Krugs again into a big recall. After recall, you most of the time want to run towards your wolves as the camp should be respawning. For this clear, start with your Q; this will be your invade path as well in case you are looking to steal enemy Gromp and kill the jungler, but worst case, you are able to get their flash and Gromp, which is enough. If you are looking to full clear, then this path is really nice with slow lanes and a bruiser build. I recommend this.

Raptors invade, so you must start Q for faster Raptor clear. Since you clear raptors really fast, you will be able to walk to his camps. You check to see if his blue is up; if it has been taken, you wait until about 2:00 to then go to his group. At around 1:55 you already should be in the bush of their jungle entrance, then hug the wall between you and the Gromp camp and surprise them. They probably used their spell rotation on the camp, so you should be able to get an easy kill. Always ward the bush next to the Grom's wall because that will be their escape route, so you will have vision. You will have Smite up; they should be low HP, and Gromp should be low HP. You will be able to steal gromp and kill them or burn their flash.


Wolfes—Gromp—Blue—E over Wall out of the pit, sit at his red. This is another invade path, but I usually don't recommend it, yet I wanted to mention it since it's an in-depth Graves guide. When to invade at level 2 or at level 3 is based on your matchup and lanes, and sometimes laners look to rotate, especially if you do the level 3 invade. This is why I usually don't do it because the level 2 invade is safer and you can generally get out. You are looking to invade tanks and slow-farming junglers who can't really do much to you early at levels 2-3. Important, and I think it's obvious, but I want to mention it just in case. You only do the red invade if you know for a fact the enemy jungler starts on their blue. Against which junglers to do the level 2 invade? Check out my threat section; I will mention most champions there.

Also you can find a full detailed guide on how to full clear with Gravesdoesn't matter on which side you start with camp specific tips to have the fastest and healthiest clear possible. I made that clear guide in season15 but nothing has changed in terms of clear in s16. Yes camps are spawning sooner but everything else is the same.

If you’re enjoying this guide and want to pick up even more tips on Graves and jungling, make sure to check out my other socials! I post extra content, quick tips, and exclusive insights there that you won’t find anywhere else.

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