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One of the most significant aspects of League of Legends is the early game that resides in the lane. Here you’ll battle with your opponent but most notably with the minions. These little creatures are essential to kill to receive gold and buy items. Although this seems like a simple mechanic, there are many methods to use minions to gain a significant advantage.
Learning to manipulate minions will improve your lane control and make you frustrating to play against. In this guide, we’ll dive into everything you need to know about minions and how to use them to your advantage.
What Are Minions?
Minions are the main units sent by the Nexus to destroy the enemy base. They spawn periodically from their Nexus, advancing to their assigned lane and automatically engaging any unit or structure they encounter. They are controlled by AI and only use basic attacks when fighting. There are 4 types of minions in League of Legends:
Melee Minions:
These minions have a short-range and only attack with a sword. They deal less damage than caster minions but have more HP.
Caster Minions:
Ranged minions attack from a distance and deal more damage than melee minions but have less health.
Siege Minions:
Siege minions have ranged auto-attacks; also, they are commonly known as cannon minions. They deal more damage than caster minions and are significantly more tanky than melee minions. However, they don’t spawn every wave and get focused by turrets when they come into range. Also, if a team destroys an inhibitor, a super minion will spawn instead of a siege minion.
Super Minions:
These minions will spawn once an inhibitor has been destroyed and replace the siege minion. Super minions deal more damage with melee attacks than cannon minions and have high defensive stats. Also, if all 3 inhibitors are destroyed 2 super minions will spawn instead of 1.
Minion Wave Composition
Minions begin spawning after 1:05 minutes and continue spawning every 30 seconds until the game ends. On a basic level, a minion wave is composed of 3 melee and caster minions, with specific waves receiving a cannon minion. During the game, the rate of cannon minions spawning changes. Here’s the minion spawning mechanics:
| Pre 20 Minutes | Post 20 Minutes | Post 35 Minutes | Inhibitor Destroyed | |||
| Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 3 | Wave 1 | Wave 2 | Wave 1 | Wave 1 |
| 3 Melee Minions | 3 Melee Minions | 3 Melee Minions | 3 Melee Minions | 3 Melee Minions | 3 Melee Minions | 3 Melee Minions |
| 3 Caster Minions | 3 Caster Minions | 3 Caster Minions | 3 Caster Minions | 3 Caster Minions | 3 Caster Minions | 3 Caster Minions |
| N/A | N/A | 1 Siege Minion | N/A | 1 Siege Minion | 1 Siege Minion | 1 Super Minion |
Baron Buff
Killing Baron Nashor provides numerous bonuses for your team and minions that will help push down towers and other objectives. Once the beast is slain, you’ll receive the “Hand of Baron” buff, which will increase your AD/AP and empower minions. In addition, all nearby minions will gain bonus movement speed equal to 90% of the average speed of closeby teammates with a cap at 500.
Melee Minion
- 50% bonus movement speed when within 800 units of enemy minions or turrets
- 75 bonus attack range
- +30% size
- 15% damage reduction from AOE and damage over time abilities
- 75% damage reduction from enemy minions
- 50-70% damage reduction from champions
Caster Minion:
- 20 bonus AD
- 100 bonus attack range
- 50% faster projectile speed
- 50-70% damage reduction from enemy champions
- 15% damage reduction from AOE and damage over time abilities
Siege Minion:
- 50 bonus AD
- 750 bonus attack range
- 50% reduced attack speed
- 150% bonus damage to structures
- 50% bonus damage to minions and champions
- Attacks splash and deal damage in a 200-unit radius
- +30% size
Super Minion:
- 50% bonus movement speed when within 800 units of enemy minions or turrets
- 25% bonus attack speed
- +15% size
Obtaining the Baron buff can be a deciding factor since it will heavily improve the minion’s durability and damage. However, you need to make sure you and your team take advantage of the buff while it lasts and push down objectives with the overpowered minions.
Also, the empowered cannon minion can sit outside the turret’s range, dealing damage from a safe location. Enemy players will try to kill it before it damages the tower too much, so you’ll need to defend it by engaging the opponent with your abilities.
How To Farm Under Tower
Perhaps the most frustrating thing in Summoner’s Rift is when the enemy pushes the minion wave and makes you farm under the tower. Unfortunately, most players lose farms since they don’t know the general rules.
- Melee Minions: Let the tower take 2 shots at the minion, which will leave it with just enough health to kill it with an auto-attack.
- Caster Minions: Hit the minion with an auto-attack and wait for the tower to take a shot. After the tower hits, the minion will have enough health to die from an auto-attack.
- Siege Minions: Cannon minions can take 7 tower shots and an auto-attack before dying.
Wave Manipulation
Wave manipulation is necessary to learn to climb the ranked ladder in League of Legends because it helps push down towers and deny opponents farms. There are 3 main ways to manipulate minions waves:
- Slow Pushing
- Fast Pushing
- Freezing
Each method has its advantages to controlling the pace of the lane and helping your team gain leads. Wave manipulation is highly situational and requires multiple games under your belt to notice when to shift your lane strategy.
Slow Pushing
To slow push, you’ll need to kill the caster minions first, which will reduce the enemy wave damage significantly. This allows your wave to push slowly and grow in size due to more minions spawning and joining the wave. Eventually, this will create a huge wave that will shove under the enemy tower, allowing you to roam and pressure objectives across the map.
After the large wave is shoved in, your opponent will have to face a difficult decision: stay to farm and watch their team face a numbers disadvantage, or rotate and lose a large amount of farm with experience.
The Benefits To Slow Pushing Are:
- Preparing to make plays across the map. For example, if drake is coming up in 1 minute, start slowly pushing and shove once your team is ready for the objective.
- Creating time to ward deep behind enemy lines. Since your opponent will be under the tower, this will give you time to get a vision in crucial places.
- Slow pushing will buy you time to get back to base and return without losing minions.
- When you want to siege towers or inhibitors, slow pushing can help create a minion wave that will survive a long time, letting you get more hits off.
Fast Pushing
Fast pushing, also known as shoving, is the opposite of a slow push. With this method, you’ll want to kill all the minions quickly, so yours go under the enemy’s tower. This will force the opponent to farm under the tower, which is considerably harder and will most likely end up with them losing gold. Fast pushing is great when you go back to base to reset since the enemy will need to continue farming. Also, the minion waves will bounce back and be in the middle of your lane, giving you multiple options to manipulate the lane.
The Benefits to Fast Pushing Are:
- It gives you the option to roam, base, and ward.
- Your opponent will be forced to farm under the tower, potentially missing the farm.
- It lets you roam to help secure objectives and have a numbers advantage.
- Pushed in minions will damage the turret, making it easier to destroy the tower later on.
Freezing
To freeze the lane, only last hit minions right before they die. Therefore, it’s crucial not to use abilities or auto-attack them mindlessly. What this is going to do is prevent your lane from pushing forward and let the enemy’s wave push further into your territory. Moreover, the enemy minions will kill your wave, preventing the opponent from gaining the gold.
Freezing your lane will force your opponent to over-extend to farm, letting your team roam to get easy kills. Furthermore, they will often come into your range to farm so you can aggressively attack them to lower their health. Freezing can cause a snowball effect where you gain more gold than your opponent, putting them behind while you scale.
The Benefits to Fast Pushing Are:
- If the enemy jungler pressures you, freezing the lane near your tower prevents them from ganking.
- Great at denying gold from enemy players or making them over-extend.
- If you’re ahead, freezing can prevent them from coming near the minions, which would make them lose experience.
- Freezing the wave near your tower when behind lets you farm without the pressure of dying. Also, your jungler will have more opportunities to gank since the opponent will need to come into your territory to farm.
Mid Lane
Mid is the shortest lane in Summoner’s Rift out of the three. Therefore, it takes minions less time to get there, making it difficult to set up an effective freeze. Also, mid-lane champions usually have long-range abilities to break freezes and reset the wave.
The best wave manipulation in the mid-lane is to fast push or slow push. Doing this effectively will provide opportunities to roam and place wards while simultaneously pressuring the enemy mid laner. Moreover, slow pushing and crashing a huge wave into the tower lets you place deep wards, giving your team essential knowledge of the enemy jungler’s path.
Side Lanes
Side lanes are much longer than mid, meaning it takes minion waves longer to get to the lane. This is noticeable at the start of the game since you can visually see how long it takes for the minions to reach lane. Let’s dive into each lane individually:
Bot Lane
It’s much easier to set up a freeze in a bot because the lane is far longer. The best place to freeze is close to your tower since it lets you control the lane and predict the opponent’s position. Also, this places you in a safe location while allowing your jungler to pull off easy ganks.
Moreover, setting up a freeze makes it easier to transition to a slow push and crash a huge wave into the opponent’s tower. On the other hand, you can communicate with your support to go on the offensive while a slow push is initiated, which is devastating to fight against. This is because the accumulated minions will help deal damage to the enemy champion and force them to fight on unfavorable terms.
Top Lane
Top lane features similar strategies to the bot as both are longer than mid lane. However, freezing is more optimal in the top lane because it’s much harder for the opponent to break the freeze without placing themselves in a compromising position. Also, transitioning in a slow push that crashes into the enemy tower sets up dives for the jungler.
Moreover, slow pushing will give you a chance to look for a teleport play bot or help out a dragon. This will make the enemy top laner forced to decide to follow your teleport and miss out on the farm or stay and watch their team be outnumbered.
Jungle Camps
Jungling is the action of killing neutral monsters that are located in between lanes. These are the equivalent of minions but for junglers as they need a source of income. Unlike minions, a monster is the classification of a neutral unit that won’t attack either team. There are several jungle camps that players can kill:
Red Brambleback
The beast is commonly known as “Red Buff” as it gives an ignite-type bonus when attacking minions, monsters, and champions. The Crest of Cinders buff will also provide health regeneration, making it easier to sustain while jungling.
- Respawn Timer : 5 Minutes
- Armor/Magic Resistance: 20
- Health: 1,800 – 3,150
Blue Sentinel
The Blue Sentinel is known as “Blue Buff” because it gives the Crest of Insight bonus when slain. The buff increases mana restoration and cooldown reduction on abilities, which is brilliant for junglers that rely on spellcasting. Slaying the monster is straightforward. You’ll need to kite it and run out of its way to minimize the damage taken.
Moreover, junglers will give their mid laners the 3rd Blue Buff to give them an advantage against the opponent. Having the Blue Buff enables the mid laner to spam abilities, making them a nightmare to deal with.
- Respawn Timer : 5 Minutes
- Armor/Magic Resistance: 20
- Health: 1,800 – 3,150
Rift Scuttler
The Rift Scuttler is the most unique and contested jungle creature in League of Legends because it rides on both sides of the river. It doesn’t fight back and provides 70-126 gold per kill, so both junglers would want to deny the other from getting it. The Rift Scuttler is shielded for 60% of its maximum health and can be destroyed by casting a crowd control spell.
- Respawn Timer : 2 Minutes 30 Seconds
- Armor/Magic Resistance: 20
- Health: 1,000 – 2,066
Gromp
The creature is a giant toad that spawns by jumping on a magic mushroom. Gromp is one of the only creatures that attack from range with magical damage, making it more challenging to kill. Champions with low magic resistance will have trouble dealing with Gromp in the early game. However, saving smite for Gromp will increase your chances of surviving as you’ll heal +10% of your health and deal 450-1,000 true damage.
- Respawn Time: 2 Minutes
- Armor/Magic Resistance: 20
- Health: 1,650 – 2,640
Greater Murk Wolf
This camp features a large wolf with two smaller versions by its side. The wolves have the fastest movement speeds out of all the camps, making them impossible to kite. It’s recommended to kill the smaller wolves first because they have less health and die much faster than the Greater Murk Wolf.
Moreover, this camp is the first to feature small monsters that cannot be smited. Therefore, you can kill the smaller wolves first and smite the greater wolf to finish the camp faster.
- Respawn Timer: 2 Minutes
- Armor/Magic Resistance: 20
- Health: 1,200 – 2,200
Crimson Raptor
This is another camp that contains multiple monsters that contain small and large creatures. The camp will always spawn a Crimson raptor and 5 normal raptors. It’s advised to kill the small raptors first as they have less health and deal more damage combined than the Crimson raptor. AOE spells work best as they can kill multiple raptors at once.
- Respawn Timer: 2 Minutes
- Armor/Magic Resistance: 20
- Health: 800 – 1,760
Ancient Krugs
The Ancient Krugs are rock-like creatures that spawn more Krugs after being killed. The camp features 2 Krugs that splits into a version below it:
- Ancient Kurg splits into 2 Krugs
- Krugs split into 2 small Krugs
- Small Krugs split into 2 mini Krugs
It’s advised to kill the smallest Krug first to minimize the damage you’ll take while clearing the camp. Also, Krugs provide the most experience per gold ratio out of all the camps, so counter jungling this camp is essential to put the enemy behind.
- Respawn Timer: 2 Minutes
- Armor/Magic Resistance: 20
- Health: 1,050 – 1,785
Dragon
The Dragon in League of Legends is an objective both teams can take after 5 minutes into the game. It’s a unique jungle camp because it provides buffs that last until the end of the game. There are multiple types of dragons that provide different buffs:
- Chemtech Drake: Increases damage against enemies with greater health than your champion.
- Hextech Drake: Increases attack speed.
- Cloud Drake: Increase out of combat movement speed.
- Infernal Drake: Increases attack damage and ability power.
- Mountain Drake: Increases armor and magic resistance.
- Ocean Drake: Increases health restoration when out of combat.
- Elder Dragon: Provides an ignite-type effect for 3 minutes. This dragon is only available once either team has obtained the soul after killing 4 Drakes.
Rift Herald
The Rift Herald is a powerful neutral monster located in the same pit as Baron Nashor. It’s a large crab-like creature that provides an Eye of the Herald when slain. This buff spawns the Rift Herald in any lane and charges at a tower dealing massive damage. It’s the perfect buff for pushing or when the enemy has excellent wave clear.
Moreover, it’s recommended to kill the Rift Herald with a teammate because of the empowered eye mechanic. During the fight, the eye will open up on its back that take massive amounts of true damage, making it much faster to kill. Unless your character has dashes or teleports, only a teammate can help attack the eye.
Baron Nashor
Baron Nashor takes the shape and behavior of a river serpent from the Void. It’s the most powerful creature in Summoner’s Rift and requires the full team to slay it. The creature has multiple abilities like spitting acid and knocking up players. Killing Baron Nashor provides the Hand of Baron buff that gives:
- 300 Gold
- Bonus Attack Damage
- Bonus Ability Power
- Empowered Recall
- Buffing Minions
Easiest Champions To Farm With
New players find it difficult to last hit minions as they need to focus on the opponent and potential ganks. However, a few champions can make it easier to last hit minions as their kits are very friendly to new players.
Annie
Annie is one of the oldest champions in League of Legends, and her kit has always stayed viable. The last hitting with Annie is super easy thanks to her Disintegrate ability, which hurls a fireball that deals damage. If the target is killed, the mana is fully refunded, making it easy to farm. Furthermore, she can catch enemies off-guard with her point and click stun.
Lux
Lux is a brilliant mage that can go mid or support due to her stun, shield, AOE spell, and long-range ultimate. Her passive makes it difficult to miss farm because each minion takes increased damage from her auto-attacks after using an ability on a wave. Moreover, she is a great team fighter since her versatile kit can adapt to any situation.
Viktor
Viktor is more difficult to play than Lux and Annie, but he has a more useful kit. He can burst enemy squishes and control the lane with his zoning tools. Also, farming is a breeze, thanks to his laser ability. After augmenting the laser, Viktor can eliminate the caster minions and create a slow push. Afterward, Viktor can build a huge wave that will crash into the tower, letting him roam and take objectives.
Caitlyn
Caitlyn is a fantastic beginner AD carry that can farm from a distance due to her long auto-attack range. Also, Caitlyn has more range than other champions, making it easier for her to poke and deny the farm. Finally, every 6th auto-attack is a guaranteed critical strike, so she can instantly kill minions at 50% health.
Garen
Garen is a super tank that is incredibly difficult to kill when fed. His kit focuses on staying alive with his passive and dealing huge amounts of damage. The champion doesn’t use mana, so players can cast abilities to farm more easily. Also, his ultimate is an executive that does true damage, meaning he can demolish low health targets instantly.
Master Yi
Master Yi is commonly known as a “noob champ” because he has a very low skill cap. A fed Master Yi is near impossible to kill because of the Q ability that makes him untargetable. Master Yi is a great champion to the jungle with because he can self-sustain and deal true damage to every 3rd attack.
Amumu
Amumu is an AP jungler that specializes in crowd control abilities. He can easily clear jungle camps with his AOE spells and sustain with items. His ganks are deadly as he can cast his Q at long-range and deliver an effective stun. Also, the ultimate ability is an AOE stun that is incredible during team fights because it gives your team 2 seconds to deal free damage.
Miss Fortune
Miss Fortune is a simple yet strong ADC champion that can turn a team fight around with her ultimate ability. Her passive ability makes farming much easier as each first hit on a target deals increased AD damage. Moreover, Miss Fortune’s Q ability can bounce off minions and hit champions that believe they’re in a safe location.
League Of Legends Minion Tips And Tricks
Tip 1:
If you’re ahead of the enemy and freezing the lane, you can position yourself in front of the minion wave to deny the enemy experience with gold. The opponent often gets frustrated and attempts to farm, letting you engage them. However, before attacking, make sure to check the map to roughly know where the enemy jungler is to prevent a 1v2 situation.
Tip 2:
If the opponent tries to shove the lane, you can freeze it by tanking the minions and thinning out the wave. Once your minions arrive, the opponent’s wave will lose aggro and let you farm safely near your tower. Also, this will put the enemy in a bad situation since your jungler will have better chances at ganking.
Tip 3:
Players can attempt a level 1 pull, which requires the opponent to take a few seconds to reach the lane. Usually, the pull can be done when the enemy is helping their jungler at the start of the game. The level 1 pull is done by tanking the minions before reaching the lane’s middle, placing the wave slightly further up the lane towards your enemy’s tower. The next few waves will begin pushing towards you, meaning you can set up a freeze and deny the opponent farm.
FAQs
Question: How Do I Break An Enemy Freeze?
Answer: The inability to break a freeze is the main cause of feeding since players get frustrated and put themselves in bad positions to get the farm. Often in a losing matchup, the opponent will set up a freeze to deny you farm and experience, snowballing them ahead. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to break the freeze and reset the wave.
To break the freeze, you’ll need to use your abilities to kill the minions fast and make them crash into the tower. In some cases, you’ll need to sacrifice your ultimate ability to break the freeze, which will pay off in the long run. However, if you’re unsuccessful in breaking the freeze, ping your jungler to help shove the wave since you’ll be in a 2v1 position.
Question: What Are Item Tiers?
Answer: Items enhance a champion’s ability to deal more damage, become tanky, or provide utility. All players will receive 500 gold to spend on starter items to help them through the early game. Usually, starter items will provide increased health, sustain, and damage. Moreover, during the game, players will spend their earned gold on components that will turn into complete items that provide several benefits. Currently, there are 5 item quality tiers:
• Starter: These items are effective at the beginning of the game and do not build into any other items.
• Basic: These items provide a single stat or special effect and build into complete items.
• Epic: These items provide additional stats or special effects.
• Legendary: These items provide the best stats and significant special effects and do not build into higher-tier items.
• Mythic: Similar to Legendary, these items provide brilliant special effects and stats. However, champions can only carry one of these items in their inventory.
Question: What Is The Nexus In League Of Legends?
Answer: The Nexus is the primary objective that has 5,500 health and 20 health regeneration per second. The team that destroys the opposing team’s Nexus wins the match. There are 2 turrets in front of the Nexus that deal the most damage compared to other towers. Moreover, the Nexus can only be attacked once an inhibitor is destroyed
Summary
Understanding the different minions and wave manipulation strategies will help gain advantages during the early game. Minions let you control your opponent’s positioning and place them in unfavorable positions, allowing your jungle gank for easy kills.
Furthermore, make sure to lastly hit the minions to receive the most gold and work towards key items. We’ve covered the essential tips that will make it easier to farm and gain an advantage over your opponent. So what are you waiting for? Startup a game and see for yourself how effective these tactics are!