Guide · Jungle

Zac Guide

the Secret Weapon

Tank

Fighter

Tier C Jungle

Zac, the Secret Weapon, is a tank and fighter champion that is demanding to master. Across our 407 analysed ranked games, Zac is mostly played in the Jungle (65% of its games), and more rarely in Top (24%) and in Mid (11%), with a 48.3% win rate in that role: tier C among Jungle champions (#42 of 48, ranked by win rate). Zac's damage is mostly magic (87%): magic resistance items are therefore effective against this champion. Win rate varies with game length: 52.9% in medium-length games (25 to 35 min, 157 games) versus 38.2% in short games (under 25 min).

Updated Oct 10 2026 · Patch 26.22

Average KDA

5.1 / 4.8 / 10.6

ratio 3.2

Damage / min

571

CS / min

6.4

Gold / min

417

Kill participation

53%

Vision / min

0.78

Averages measured over 265 Jungle games played with Zac, from our ranked Solo/Duo data collection.

How to play and combo preview

Written guide · based on the official ability texts

Zac is an elastic tank: every ability that hits makes him lose a bit of himself that he absorbs to heal, and on death he splits into 4 blobs that try to recombine. Stretching Strikes grabs and slams two targets, Unstable Matter damages based on max health, Elastic Slingshot launches him, and Let's Bounce! bounces four times while knocking up.

The engage

When: An enemy carry is within range.

Elastic Slingshot launches you forward, Stretching Strikes grabs, Unstable Matter deals damage based on max health, Let's Bounce! knocks up and slows.

The trade

Q AA AA

When: Two enemies are close to each other.

Stretching Strikes grabs an enemy then, if you attack another one, sends the two targets into each other.

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

Laning phase

Pick up your bits to heal. Stretching Strikes grabs an enemy then, if you attack another one, sends the two targets into each other.

Common mistakes

Leaving the bits on the ground: they are your healing.
Forgetting that the second life is available every 5 minutes.
Using Elastic Slingshot with no direction: it is a movement ability.

Riot's official tips for playing Zac

Picking up goo chunks is very important to staying alive.
When Cell Division is ready, try to die in a position that makes it difficult for the enemy team to kill your bloblets.
Charging Elastic Slingshot from the fog of war will give opponents less time to react.

Build, runes and summoner spells

The most-played core build is Spirit Visage, Sunfire Aegis, and Hextech Rocketbelt (50 games, 62.0% win rate).

50 games · 62.0%

Thornmail

33 games · 48.5%

Sunfire Aegis

Thornmail

Hextech Rocketbelt

17 games · 64.7%

Skill order

Max order : E > W > Q47.5% · 40 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 46 games).

Starting items

Scorchclaw Pup38.9% · 18 games

Laning phase (averages)

At 10 min: 3871 gold, 68 CS, 3836 XP. At 15 min: 6037 gold, 101 CS, 6454 XP.

Summoner spells

Flash + Smite48.3% · 261 games

Most-played runes

Conqueror + Inspiration

48.3% · 116 games

Primary tree · Precision

Triumph100%

Legend: Haste100%

Last Stand99%

Secondary tree · Inspiration

Cosmic Insight99%

Magical Footwear96%

Shards

Ability haste99%

Adaptive force97%

Health scaling90%

Aftershock + Precision

46.2% · 93 games

Primary tree · Resolve

Font of Life97%

Conditioning97%

Revitalize96%

Secondary tree · Precision

Triumph99%

Legend: Haste98%

Shards

Ability haste99%

Adaptive force84%

Health scaling82%

Conqueror + Resolve

47.6% · 42 games

Primary tree · Precision

Triumph100%

Legend: Haste98%

Last Stand98%

Secondary tree · Resolve

Revitalize90%

Conditioning90%

Shards

Ability haste95%

Adaptive force76%

Health scaling90%

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 Zac'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 team53.1% · 64 games

At least 50% of their damage is magic

Sunfire Aegis 53.2% ▲

Spirit Visage 64.1% ▲

Hextech Rocketbelt 45.5% ▼

Liandry's Torment 45.5%

Thornmail 70.0%

The item that stands out most is Spirit Visage: 64.1% win rate, +8 points versus its usual win rate.

Mostly physical-damage enemy team43.5% · 85 games

Less than 35% of their damage is magic

Sunfire Aegis 42.2% ▼

Hextech Rocketbelt 50.0%

Spirit Visage 46.0% ▼

Thornmail 44.8% ▼

Randuin's Omen 31.2%

Unending Despair 38.5%

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

Balanced enemy team49.1% · 116 games

Mixed physical and magic damage

Sunfire Aegis 54.2% ▲

Hextech Rocketbelt 52.5%

Spirit Visage 57.4%

Thornmail 58.8% ▲

Randuin's Omen 65.0%

Liandry's Torment 50.0%

The item that stands out most is Sunfire Aegis: 54.2% win rate, +4 points versus its usual win rate.

Counters and matchups

How to play against Zac

Zac heals from the goo that separates from him. You can crush the goo pieces by stepping on them.
Kill all of Zac's bloblets when he splits apart to stop him from reforming.
Silences, stuns, roots and knockups will all interrupt Zac when he is charging Elastic Slingshot.

Riot's official tips.

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

Zac Jungle: what our games say

Laning phase against the Jungle average

Measure	Zac	Jungle average	Gap
Gold at 10 min	3871	4023	−153
CS at 10 min	68	69	−0
XP at 10 min	3836	3898	−62
Gold at 15 min	6037	6322	−285
CS at 15 min	101	106	−4
XP at 15 min	6454	6602	−148

Measured over 46 Zac games with a timeline; the average covers 69 champions played Jungle in our ranked games.

Win rate by game length

short under 25 min38.2 %76 games

medium-length 25 to 35 min52.9 %157 games

long over 35 min50.0 %32 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.

Zac in another role

Role	Games	Win rate	CS/min	Gold/min	Most-built items
Top	98	57.1 %	6.6	396
Mid	44	52.3 %	6.3	379

Roles where we have at least 40 Zac games.

Abilities

PassiveCell Division

Each time Zac hits an enemy with an ability, he sheds a chunk of himself that can be reabsorbed to restore Health. Upon taking fatal damage, Zac splits into 4 bloblets that attempt to recombine. If any bloblets remain, he will revive with an amount of Health depending on the Health of the surviving bloblets. Each bloblet has a percentage of Zac's maximum Health, Armor and Magic Resistance. This ability has a 5 minute cooldown.

QStretching Strikes

Zac stretches an arm, grabbing an enemy. Attacking a different enemy will cause him to throw both targets towards each other.

WUnstable Matter

Zac explodes outward towards nearby enemies, dealing a percentage of their maximum health as magic damage.

EElastic Slingshot

Zac attaches his arms to the ground and stretches back, launching himself forward.

RLet's Bounce!

Zac bounces four times, knocking up enemies hit and slowing them.