Guide · Jungle

Nocturne Guide

the Eternal Nightmare

Fighter

Assassin

Tier B Jungle

Nocturne, the Eternal Nightmare, is a fighter and assassin champion of medium difficulty. Across our 653 analysed ranked games, Nocturne is mostly played in the Jungle (100% of its games), with a 49.9% win rate in that role: tier B among Jungle champions (#16 of 48, ranked by win rate). Nocturne's damage is mostly physical (84%): armor is the best defensive answer against this champion. 11% of that damage is true damage and therefore ignores resistances. Win rate stays steady whatever the game length (49.0% to 50.3%): a reliable pick in every phase of the game.

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Average KDA

7.6 / 5.8 / 8.6

ratio 2.8

Damage / min

679

CS / min

6.9

Gold / min

449

Kill participation

51%

Vision / min

0.91

Averages measured over 653 Jungle games played with Nocturne, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Written guide · based on the official ability texts

Nocturne is a jungler whose attack regularly strikes in an area for bonus damage and a heal. Duskbringer leaves a Haunt that gives him speed, damage and pass-through of units, Shroud of Darkness blocks an ability, Unspeakable Horror terrifies and Paranoia reduces enemy vision before a leap.

The trade

Q AA AA

When: An enemy is within range.

Duskbringer damages and leaves a Haunt; your attacks in the Haunt are empowered, Unspeakable Horror deals damage every second and terrifies if the target stays in range.

Protection

W AA AA

When: An enemy casts an important ability.

Shroud of Darkness creates a barrier able to block an enemy ability and doubles the attack speed bonus on a block.

See all 3 Nocturne combos: key order, when to cast them, cooldowns →

Laning phase

Your attacks reduce your passive's cooldown: attack often. Stay in the Haunt to benefit from the speed and damage bonus.

Common mistakes

Using Shroud of Darkness without anticipating the ability to block.
Casting the ultimate with no nearby target.
Leaving the Haunt: you lose your bonus.

Riot's official tips for playing Nocturne

Using Paranoia at a critical moment is well worth it even if you cannot use the dash.
Duskbringer isn't only an offensive ability. It can be used to close distance out of combat or escape from certain death.
Use Shroud of Darkness in tandem with Paranoia's dash. Your opponents may panic and waste a critical disable on your spell shield.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Axiom Arc, Profane Hydra, and Voltaic Cyclosword (99 games, 52.5% win rate).

99 games · 52.5%

Experimental Hexplate

Stridebreaker

69 games · 56.5%

Experimental Hexplate

Death's Dance

Stridebreaker

69 games · 59.4%

Skill order

Max order : Q > E > W49.3% · 75 games

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
Q	●		●		●		●		●
W		●												●	●
E				●				●		●		●	●
R						●					●

The order shows which abilities reach rank 5 first; the grid shows the most-played level-up sequence with that order (measured over 95 games).

Starting items

Scorchclaw Pup

Health Potion48.8% · 41 games

Scorchclaw Pup41.2% · 34 games

First completed items, in order

Experimental Hexplate

Stridebreaker

36 games · 47.2%

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 4006 gold, 69 CS, 3865 XP. At 15 min: 6327 gold, 105 CS, 6550 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Smite49.5% · 648 games

Most-played runes

Conqueror + Domination

50.2% · 297 games

Primary tree · Precision

Triumph100%

Legend: Alacrity99%

Last Stand65%

Secondary tree · Domination

Ultimate Hunter100%

Grisly Mementos69%

Shards

Attack speed100%

Adaptive force100%

Health scaling78%

Hail of Blades + Precision

47.0% · 198 games

Primary tree · Domination

Sudden Impact98%

Grisly Mementos94%

Ultimate Hunter99%

Secondary tree · Precision

Legend: Alacrity98%

Triumph96%

Shards

Attack speed97%

Adaptive force100%

Health scaling96%

Lethal Tempo + Domination

52.0% · 102 games

Primary tree · Precision

Triumph100%

Legend: Alacrity98%

Last Stand69%

Secondary tree · Domination

Ultimate Hunter97%

Grisly Mementos70%

Shards

Attack speed97%

Adaptive force99%

Health scaling80%

For each row, the most picked rune among the games played with this page (share of games in brackets).

Which items to build against the enemy team?

We sort every game by the enemy team's damage. These are Nocturne's completed items and their win rate in each situation; "▲" marks an item that does at least 3 points better than its usual win rate.

Mostly magic-damage enemy team50.0% · 190 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Experimental Hexplate 56.0% ▲

Axiom Arc 48.4%

Stridebreaker 54.2%

Profane Hydra 44.6% ▼

Voltaic Cyclosword 45.5%

Black Cleaver 51.2% ▼

The item that stands out most is Experimental Hexplate: 56.0% win rate, +4 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team47.9% · 165 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Experimental Hexplate 51.0%

Axiom Arc 50.0%

Stridebreaker 50.0% ▼

Profane Hydra 46.4%

Death's Dance 48.6% ▼

Voltaic Cyclosword 40.0% ▼

No item clearly stands out in this situation: the usual build remains the reference.

Balanced enemy team51.0% · 298 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Experimental Hexplate 51.0%

Stridebreaker 57.6%

Axiom Arc 47.7%

Profane Hydra 52.4% ▲

Guardian Angel 65.1% ▲

Voltaic Cyclosword 54.8% ▲

The item that stands out most is Voltaic Cyclosword: 54.8% win rate, +7 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

Who counters Nocturne in the Jungle

Kha'Zix Nocturne: 47.1%17 games

Kha'Zix has the edge in 53% of the 17 Jungle duels against Nocturne. See the Kha'Zix guide.

Lee Sin Nocturne: 60.9%23 games

Lee Sin has the edge in 39% of the 23 Jungle duels against Nocturne. See the Lee Sin guide.

Who Nocturne is strong against

Lee Sin60.9% · 23 games

Kha'Zix47.1% · 17 games

How to play against Nocturne

Stay close to your allies when Paranoia is cast - there is strength in numbers!
Nocturne's Unspeakable Horror is broken with range, so try to save your movement abilities for when he casts it.

Riot's official tips.

Win rates measured over direct same-role duels; only matchups with more than 15 games are listed. See all of Nocturne's matchups.

Nocturne Jungle: what our games say

Laning phase against the Jungle average

Measure	Nocturne	Jungle average	Gap
Gold at 10 min	4006	4023	−18
CS at 10 min	69	69	+0
XP at 10 min	3865	3898	−33
Gold at 15 min	6327	6322	+4
CS at 15 min	105	106	−0
XP at 15 min	6550	6602	−52

Measured over 95 Nocturne games with a timeline; the average covers 69 champions played Jungle in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

short under 25 min49.7 %163 games

medium-length 25 to 35 min50.3 %392 games

long over 35 min49.0 %98 games

Best result: medium-length (25 to 35 min). Only groups of at least 30 games are shown. A gap of several points shows the phase where the champion is the most reliable.

Abilities

PassiveUmbra Blades

Every few seconds, Nocturne's next attack strikes surrounding enemies for bonus physical damage and heals himself.

Nocturne's basic attacks reduce this cooldown.

QDuskbringer

Nocturne throws a shadow blade that deals damage, leaves a Dusk Trail, and causes champions to leave a Dusk Trail. While on the trail, Nocturne can move through units and has increased Move Speed and Attack Damage.

WShroud of Darkness

Nocturne empowers his blades, passively gaining Attack Speed. Activating Shroud of Darkness allows Nocturne to fade into the shadows, creating a magical barrier which blocks a single enemy ability and doubles his passive Attack Speed if successful.

EUnspeakable Horror

Nocturne plants a nightmare into his target's mind, dealing damage each second and applying fear to the target if they do not get out of range by the end of the duration.

RParanoia

Nocturne reduces the sight radius of all enemy champions and removes their ally vision in the process. He can then launch himself at a nearby enemy champion.