Wild Rift Guides
Kayn Jungle Wild Rift Guide
Kayn Wild Rift build guide for both forms: red Kayn (Rhaast), the drain-tank bruiser, and blue Kayn (Shadow Assassin), the lethality assassin. Full item builds, runes, skill order, and counters for Patch 7.2c.
Red Kayn vs Blue Kayn
Kayn transforms into one of two forms once he finishes his Darkin orbs. Red Kayn is the Rhaast form, a drain-tank bruiser that knocks up the cluster and refuses to die. Blue Kayn is the Shadow Assassin form, a lethality assassin that walks through walls and one-shots the backline. Each form runs a completely different build, runes, and game plan, so this Wild Rift guide covers both. Pick blue Kayn against squishy, low-armor teams and red Kayn against tanky, melee-heavy teams.
Blue Kayn: Shadow Assassin Build & Guide
Shadow Assassin (blue) is the lethality version of Kayn. He walks through walls with Shadow Step, jumps onto a backline carry, and kills them before anyone can react. His Reaping Slash dash resets on takedowns, Blade's Reach pokes and slows, and Umbral Trespass hides him inside an enemy before he bursts out for the execute. This is the form to take against squishy, low-armor teams. Farm orbs off ranged champions, transform fast, then spend the rest of the game one-shotting carries from angles nobody warded.
Strengths
- Huge pick potential: he walks through walls, reaches the backline, and kills a carry before they can respond.
- His dash resets on takedowns, so one successful pick often chains straight into the next.
- Umbral Trespass guarantees the execute and a safe way out, which makes his all-in low risk once he commits.
Weaknesses
- Very squishy: one hard crowd control or peel tool catches him out and ends the fight on the spot.
- He has to reach his form, and a starved orb count leaves him weak and useless for a long stretch.
- Tanks and bruisers he cannot one-shot are a problem, and one missed pick can leave him stuck inside their team.
Build Snapshot
Rune Setup
Early Game
Farm orbs off ranged and squishy enemies to reach Shadow Assassin, so path toward the lanes where those carries are. Your clear is average before you transform and your dueling is weak, so avoid risky even fights and hit your form as fast as possible. Use Shadow Step through walls to move around the map and to escape ganks while you are still fragile. Once you transform, look for a pick on an isolated carry first.
Mid Game
Once transformed, your job is getting picks. Flank with Shadow Step from an angle nobody warded, jump onto the priority carry, and let the dash reset carry you into the next target. Roam between lanes hunting isolated squishies, and only join a teamfight once you can reach their backline. Your tempo comes from picks, not objectives, so it is fine to trade some map presence for kills on the players who actually matter.
Late Game
Late game your job is one clean execute. Hide inside a key target with Umbral Trespass before a fight, then burst out onto the carry once the fight starts. Never enter from the front, because you die the moment you are seen. Wait for the enemy to spend their crowd control, then flank and kill the player whose death decides the fight. One clean pick on their carry usually wins it outright.
Teamfights
You are a flanker, not a frontliner. Wait at the edge of the fight, let the enemy spend their lockdown, then Shadow Step onto the backline and execute the carry. Use the dash reset from the kill to look for a second target. Do not waste Umbral Trespass on a tank, and never be the one who starts the fight. A Shadow Assassin who gets caught out is already dead.
Red Kayn: Rhaast Build & Guide
Rhaast (red) turns Kayn into a drain-tank bruiser who is very hard to kill in the middle of a fight. His abilities heal him for part of the damage they deal, Blade's Reach knocks enemies up from long range, and Umbral Trespass becomes a healing execute that brings him back out at full health. Take this form against tanky, melee-heavy teams. The plan is to be the front line that walks into a teamfight, knocks up the cluster, and out-sustains everyone while his percent-health damage grinds down the biggest bodies on the map.
Strengths
- Constant sustain: his abilities heal him through long fights, and his ultimate brings him back out at full health.
- Blade's Reach is a long-range knockup that starts fights and sets up his whole team.
- He is a durable front line that outlasts bruisers and tanks while his percent-health damage shreds them.
Weaknesses
- Anti-heal hurts him badly, and the moment a carry buys it his effective tankiness drops hard.
- Much less burst than the blue form, so he struggles to kill a fed carry quickly and gets kited by mobile teams.
- Like both forms he has to reach his transformation, and a rough early game delays the bruiser spike he relies on.
Build Snapshot
Rune Setup
Early Game
Farm orbs by clearing and skirmishing into melee, bruiser, and tank enemies, since fighting them is what builds your Rhaast form. Path toward those matchups. Your early clear is healthy and steady, and you want long trades at camps and scuttle instead of quick kills, because your sustain wins the extended exchange. Use Shadow Step through walls to gank and to reposition. Once you transform, you become the bruiser who simply does not die in a brawl.
Mid Game
After transforming, you are a frontline brawler. Walk into skirmishes over dragon and rift herald, knock up the cluster with Blade's Reach, and out-sustain everyone while your percent-health damage does its work. Your ultimate is now a healing reset, so dive in, soak the focus, and come back out at full health to keep fighting. Contest every objective, because a drain tank who controls the pit is very hard to remove.
Late Game
Late game you are the front line that wins the long fight. Engage with your knockup, soak the enemy damage while your healing outpaces it, and use Umbral Trespass to reset your health in the middle of the brawl. Check the scoreboard for anti-heal, because once their carry finishes it your sustain stops carrying and you have to fight around their cooldowns instead. At Baron and Elder you are the body that drags the fight out long enough for your team to clean up.
Teamfights
You start the fight and you hold the middle of it. Knock up the enemy cluster with Blade's Reach, dive the priority target, and let your healing keep you alive through the focus. Umbral Trespass is a reset, not just an execute, so use it to survive a commit and come back out fighting. Bring anti-heal of your own against other sustain bruisers, and let your percent-health damage punish tanks who stack health.
Blue Kayn (Shadow Assassin) Counters
Blue Kayn beats squishy, immobile champions who cannot escape a flank through a wall, especially mages and divers who rely on one dodge or one shield. He loses to anti-dive bruisers, peel tanks, and late-game duelists who can lock down or out-scale his fragile body.
- Nunu & Willump: Nunu never lets you stand still long enough to land your burst. His snowball knocks you out of the dive, his slows kite your fragile body, and he peels for the carry you came to kill.
- Master Yi: The matchup flips once Yi has items. Meditate absorbs your burst, Highlander makes him immune to your slows, and late game he simply out-duels you before you can reach his carry.
Champions Blue Kayn (Shadow Assassin) Is Strong Against
Blue Kayn (Shadow Assassin)'s best matchups in Wild Rift. This form holds an edge against these picks, so press the advantage and contest objectives.
- Taliyah: Her worked ground and ult control space, but none of it stops a champion who ignores walls. Once she spends her dash she is a stationary mage inside your kill range.
- Morgana: Only her root really threatens you. The Black Shield just buys her a few seconds, and she is squishy enough to die before Soul Shackles ever has time to tick.
- Diana: Diana needs a clumped fight for her pull, while you hunt spread-out picks. After she spends her shield and pull on the front line, she is just another squishy who dies to a flank she never saw.
Red Kayn (Rhaast) Counters
Red Kayn beats power-farmers, divers, and low-damage tanks because he heals through everything they do in a long brawl. He loses to kiters and anti-dive picks who refuse the extended fight and wear him down from range.
- Taliyah: Taliyah simply kites a slow bruiser. Her worked ground keeps you out of range, her knockback peels you off the moment you close, and her poke chips you down faster than your healing recovers between fights.
- Nidalee: Nidalee never gives you the extended fight your sustain needs. Her spears poke you from far away, her heal undoes your chip damage, and she leaps clean out of range the second you commit.
Champions Red Kayn (Rhaast) Is Strong Against
Red Kayn (Rhaast)'s best matchups in Wild Rift. This form holds an edge against these picks, so press the advantage and contest objectives.
- Shyvana: Shyvana wants the long, even fight your sustain is built to win. She has no crowd control to stop you and no burst to race your healing, so the longer the fight runs the more it favors you.
- Volibear: Volibear loves to dive and brawl, which plays straight into a drain tank. He runs out of sustain before you do, and once his W and shield are spent the long fight is yours.
- Rammus: Rammus is built to punish burst and auto-attackers, and you are neither. Your percent-health damage and omnivamp cut through his armor stacking, and his low damage cannot kill a bruiser who heals off him.