Hey guys, this is my guide to the Odyssey special mode.

I just got the highest mission, clearing Onslaught difficulty with only 2 augments. I'm making this guide to share my experience with you.

This guide is a collection of tips & tricks on how to beat it. There are two major challenges on your way to claiming that gem. The first is Kayn's 3rd form. If you haven't seen that monster, you haven't seen anything yet, the absurd power of that guy deserves a place among the hardest video game bosses ever. And even then, Kayn is only your second worst enemy. Your worst enemy...is the matchmaking.

Let's start with tips on every champion even without augment restrictions first, so that even if you're just looking to win a "normal" game, it can help you.

---

---

Jinx is by far the best champion in Onslaught, especially in 2 or 3 augments games. I beat the game on 2 augments with a team of 5 Jinx. She's played purely as a caster around her long range ultimate, which can deal absolutely massive damage over time. She's basically an artillery mage. Do not play DPS Jinx, you can't get close to Kayn to autoattack him in higher difficulties or you'll get oneshot. Jinx sits way back and snipes groups of monsters (or Kayn) with her ulti.

Core augments : Comet and Arsenal.

Additional augments : Plan A

Items : Liandry ASAP for the burn damage. Lethality since comet damage is physical, and it gives you 40% CDR. Magic penetration to amplify liandry damage on Kayn, which is about 30% of your total damage. Kayn has 70 armor (50-ish when shredded by black cleaver), so with 2 lethality items + serrated dirk, he's at 0 armor and you deal true damage to him. You don't need tank items, your abilities are global range so you should always sit back in a safe spot.

---

---

Yasuo has the highest potential damage output in the entire mode, but can be a bit unreliable. He's purely a caster as well, in Onslaught monsters can have up to 1500 (!!) AD, so you'll never win an autoattack battle against them. He relies purely on ulting the largest number of enemies possible, which gives 2 tornadoes per enemy, and then dashing to remaining enemies (or Kayn) for the return tornadoes.

Core augments : Tempest and wandering.

Additional augments : Horizon, Windwalker, Silvered

Items : Crits, and full lethality, again because Kayn has only 70 armor. Phantom Dancer's passive works on Kayn. Blade of the Ruined King is a good idea on paper but in practice it's questionable since your tornadoes only apply on-hit effects to the first target hit, so in the final boss fight they'll probably not apply it on Kayn. Lifesteal is unnecessary since he heals to full after one combo anyways.

---

---

Malphite deals 0 damage, and despite being a "tank", he still gets oneshot by Kayn. The only useful thing he does is give a setup for Yasuo ultimates. When Yasuo ults a huge number of monsters and lands the return tornadoes on Kayn, he can put out massive damage.

Augments : Relentless and Onslaught

WARNING : Malphites you meet in queue are terrible. They'll ult monsters away from your Yasuo's ult cast range or away from your Jinx's comets. You need someone you can trust on that champion, otherwise you're just getting griefed.

---

---

Ziggs is a decent damage dealer, and his healing mines are awesome, but in terms of killing Kayn he's just a weaker version of comet Jinx. He's pretty strong at 5 augments, but his power drops extremely hard at only 2 augments, so never pick him in a 2 augments game. He does have the one perk of being the tankiest champion in the game (yep), because Overkill gives 80% damage reduction which allows you to sit next to Kayn and ult to block whatever he throws at you.

Core augments : Overkill

Additional augments : Hexhealing + whatever you like, there's a lot of good ones. Personally I love the Short Fuse ones (shorter, bounce and distributor).

---

---

I'm sorry for you support lovers out there, but in high difficulty Sona is straight up useless. There's no way she can sit close to her team seeing how many things punish teams that cluster together in the boss fight (everything Kayn does is AOE), and her shields do nothing to prevent teammates getting oneshot by Kayn. Every champion has built-in omnivamp in their passive, so the best way for them to heal more is to deal more damage, not to hug their Sona (which they have no time to do in the first place).

There aren't many viable team comps. IMO those are the two optimal ones.

---

---

All Jinx is the comp I cleared Onslaught 2 augments with. IMO the best.

The first 4 maps it's pretty simple. The entire map should be covered with comets. When you get chased, bait the monsters into your teammates' comets.

When you get to Kayn, here's my tips :

* STAY AWAY FROM KAYN. And by away, I mean literally sit on the opposite side of the map from where he is at all times. This is by far the most important advice. If you're within a screen's width of Kayn, it doesn't matter how good you are at dodging, you will die. I repeat : if Kayn is within a screen's width of you, and you're not making every effort you can to put 2 screens between you and him, you're a horrible feeder who is costing your team the game.

* Snipe Kayn with ultimates when he uses static attacks. There are two of them you should exploit. One when he casts Blade's Reach in a clockwise fashion all around him, and the other is his Ora attack. You know he's using these from afar by 1) listening to what he says and 2) watching the minimap. When he does this, unload your 3 ults on him from long range (you're on the opposite side of the map as I said, remember). The Ora attack is the best for this. Whenever Kayn is using those attacks he should be taking 10+ comets, which will burn him for the full duration. Is he doesn't, your team is doing something wrong.

* Learn to dodge Reaping Slash. In lower difficulties you can just dash away, but 3rd form Kayn can follow you around with up to 10 dashes so your 3 casts will be exhausted. Kayn spends 90% of his time dashing around after you, it's a nightmare, and this is how you will die. The weakness of that skill is that the dash part's hitbox is very narrow. So moving *towards* Kayn is actually a very good move to avoid it. Essentially take the shortest path that gets you out of the slash's circle. The circle's center is at the end of the visual indicator.

* Don't forget about the mobs. You can get overwhelmed by mobs if you focus only Kayn, so look for good comet shots on monsters too once in a while to thin their numbers. When you're in your safe space away from Kayn, clear the monsters around you, don't just walk around.

* Manage your resurrection timers. Only use your resurrection on champions with long respawn timers. No point wasting the cooldown on someone who is coming back in 15 seconds if he's the only one dead.

* The fight is on a timer. If you take too long, Kayn will get a massive speed boost ("Kayn is getting impatient") and be horrible to deal with. So really throw everything you have when he's not moving.

* Did I mention to stay away from Kayn? He only has a single attack that can hurt you if you're far away from him, which is red Kayn's Ora attack. Even blue Kayn's Ora attack has a max range. That's why you pick Jinx in the first place, because her damage is global range.

---

---

The second best comp IMO. I almost beat Onslaught on 2 augments with that, got 3rd form Kayn extremely low but still lost.

Only one Malph. You can't afford several 0 damage champions in a mode that is all about DPS.

This comp is all about teamwork. Not recommended in solo queue. Have the Malph ult a huge number of mobs into Kayn and have all the Yasuos ult on it. Then have the yasuos dash on Kayn for the return tornadoes. You can chunk out a third of his health with a good combo, the damage potential is massive. It's completely dependent on the Malphite's skill though. If you're not sure to have a good Malph in your lineup you'll get nowhere with this.

Even though the mode's gameplay is awesome, the matchmaking is extremely frustrating. All the people queue for completely different missions and nobody can agree on anything. And to clear this mode, you need a team of 5 competent players, you won't get anywhere without that.

My experience with the matchmaking was horrendous. More than half of the people I was matched with were either trolls or had absolutely no idea what they were doing. To be short, the large majority of the teammates you get through the matchmaking are not suited for clearing this mode, period. You can't carry trolls and afk's, it's a very team dependent mode. So you need to handpick good teammates.

If you don't 5-stack with friends, my advice is to manually invite good players you were matched with (use the "recently played" tab in the bottom left) who want to play the same mission as you, and make your own lobby. There's no way around it, you literally need to queue with a 5-stack to clear this. Even as a 4-stack I had trolls and clueless people half of the games, it's really that bad...

I hope you enjoyed reading my guide. I think those tips can cut some of the grind, as they did for me. Even knowing that, it's a tough battle getting that sweet gem. Suggestions and comments are welcome. GLHF!