Jinx is one of League of Legends’ most recognizable faces. She’s a part of the group of characters that have transcended the game’s boundaries and have gained mainstream popularity thanks to her striking design, music video appearances, and being one of Arcane’s protagonists.
She’s a hyper-scaling late-game marksman that can warp teamfights around her in the blink of an eye after one successful takedown. If you’re looking for a Jinx gameplay overview, her abilities explained, best builds and runes, or her lore tidbits, here’s the full breakdown of her as a League of Legends champion.
Jinx overview
Jinx is a marksman (AD Carry) built around zone control, objective secures, and snowballing teamfights with her passive resets. Her entire kit is centered around swapping between Pow-Pow, a minigun for sustained DPS, and Fishbones, a rocket launcher that has more range and can deal devastating splash damage to grouped enemies.
After she scores a takedown credit (a kill or an assist on an enemy champion, epic monster, or a structure), she Gets Excited, gaining bonus movement speed and breaking the attack speed cap, becoming one of the deadliest late-game carries on the entire League of Legends roster.
Jinx is a traditional marksman who goes on the Bot lane paired with a support. She’s almost a quintessential representative of the role – she loves to build critical damage items, has no escapes if engaged upon, and deals almost obscene amounts of damage if left to her devices.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Extremely high damage, can carry games on her own. | Highly fragile, susceptible to assassin dives. |
| Very fun gameplay, especially in the games where you get many kills. | Takes a while to truly get going, as she’s heavily item-dependant. |
| Doesn’t have any truly horrible matchups; you can always try to execute your game plan. | Oftentimes, if the support isn’t good enough, the execution of her game plan takes a lot of effort. |
Base stats
| Health | 630 |
| Health regeneration | 3.75 |
| Mana | 260 |
| Mana regeneration | 6.7 |
| Armor | 26 |
| Magic resist | 30 |
| Attack damage | 59 |
| Critical damage | 200% |
| Attack range | 525 |
| Movement speed | 325 |
| Attack speed | 0.625 |
| Attack speed ratio | None |
| Attack windup | 16.875% |
| Bonus attack speed | 0% |
Jinx abilities
Passive: Get Excited!
Jinx’s passive is very simple, yet devastatingly effective, but she only reaps its benefits if she scores a takedown. This is the single biggest reason why Jinx is so feared in the late-game teamfights: when all the characters are at the peak of their powers, Jinx unlocks a whole different power level and just mows down entire teams. Still, proper itemization is the key.
| Icon | Resources & Cooldowns | Effects | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
None | None | Innate: Whenever Jinx scores a takedown against an enemy champion, epic monster, turret, or inhibitor within 3 seconds of damaging them, she gains 175% bonus movement speed decaying over 6 seconds. Additionally, she is allowed to exceed the attack speed cap and gains a stack of Get Excited! for the same duration, stacking up to 5 times. Only takedowns against enemy champions can grant stacks beyond the first. Get Excited!: For each stack, Jinx gains 25% total attack speed, up to a maximum of 125%. |
Q: Switcheroo!
Jinx’s Q is a basic toggle that has her switching between her minigun, Pow-Pow, and rocket launcher, Fishbones. Proper use of this skill is what separates great Jinx players from merely good ones. Spacing with her is an art form, and knowing when to go for each form optimally requires lots of practice and game knowledge.
In lane, Pow-Pow is a more controlled option to last-hit minions and quick, short-range trades. Fishbones is a higher-damage and longer-range option that’s useful for clearing waves with its splash damage or for abusing lower-range marksmen.
Outside of laning, it all depends on your positioning. As a rule of thumb, if you’re close to an isolated enemy, Pow-Pow will deal more damage thanks to its attack speed ramp-up, but for stacked enemies, Fishbones is a better option, especially if you have Runnan’s Hurricane, as its bolts also apply the splash damage and can crit, albeit for lower damage.
| Icon | Resources & Cooldowns | Effects | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
None | Bonus attack speed: 15 / 27.5 / 40 / 52.5 / 65% | Pow-Pow: Basic attacks with Pow-Pow generate a stack of Rev’d up for 2.5 seconds, refreshing on subsequent attacks with Pow-Pow and stacking up to 3 times. Each stack of Rev’d up grants bonus attack speed, with all stacks beyond the first one being 50% effective. Stacks expire one by one when the duration ends. |
 |
Cost: 20 Mana per attack | Bonus range: 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 / 200 | Fishbones: Basic attacks with Fishbones cost mana on-attack to deal 110% AD modified physical damage to the target and nearby enemies. The damage is affected by critical strike modifiers. While Fishbones is equipped, Jinx gains bonus range but loses 10% of her bonus attack speed. |
W: Zap!
Zap! is Jinx’s main poke tool in lane, which can either set up engages by your support, or be used as a follow-up. It deals a decent chunk of damage, especially if you’ve specced into Lethality a bit via Collector or Yomuu’s Ghostblade, but this isn’t really recommended outside of fun ARAM builds. Otherwise, there’s nothing remarkable about this ability.
| Icon | Resources & Cooldowns | Effects | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Сost: 40 / 45 / 50 / 55 / 60 Mana Cooldown: 8 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 Cast time: 0.6 – 0.4 (based on bonus attack speed) |
Physical damage: 10 / 60 / 110 / 160 / 210 (+ 140% AD) Slow: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80% |
Active: Jinx fires a shock blast in the target direction that deals physical damage to the first enemy it hits andreveals and slows them for 2 seconds. |
E: Flame Chompers!
Flame Chompers! is Jinx’s only hard crowd-control ability, and also the only one that deals magic damage. Its specifics in how long it takes to land and arm mean that you can’t really use the trap proactively, as any decent League player will avoid getting caught even when half-asleep. Instead, this is her engage follow-up tool that locks enemies down for an additional 1.5 seconds.
Alternatively, you can use Flame Chompers! as a deterrent: Jinx doesn’t have any escape tool, so by throwing her E out on top of herself before the enemy Hecarim stampedes her can be the difference between survival and a fed enemy Jungler.
| Icon | Resources & Cooldowns | Effects | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Cost: 90 Mana Cooldown: 24 / 20.5 / 17 / 13.5 / 10 |
Magic damage: 90 / 140 / 190 / 240 / 290 (+ 100% AP) | Active: Jinx tosses out 3 Chompers centered at the target location, landing after 0.4 seconds, arming after 0.75 seconds, and exploding after 5 seconds to deal magic damage to nearby enemies. Each Chomper explodes on contact with an enemy champion,knocking them down and rooting them for 1.5 seconds. Enemy champions can be affected by only one Chomper. |
R: Super Mega Death Rocket!
Jinx’s ultimate is possibly her most iconic ability. It’s what it says on the tin: a huge rocket that deals obscene amounts of damage, especially to the low-health enemies, as it has a bonus missing health modifier. The damage is also amplified by the distance traveled, up to a cap. You’ve probably seen montages of Jinx ults exploding enemies across the map. It’s not always easy to land such a shot, but that one time when you do will become unforgettable.
| Icon | Resources & Cooldowns | Effects | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Cost: 100 Mana Cooldown: 85 / 65 / 45 Cast time: 0.6 Range: Global |
Maximum physical damage: 200 / 350 / 500 (+ 120% bonus AD) (+ 25 / 30 / 35% of target’s missing health) Maximum secondary damage: 160 / 280 / 400 (+ 96% bonus AD) (+ 20 / 24 / 28% of target’s missing health) |
Active: Jinx fires a massive rocket in the target direction, briefly granting sight of its surroundings and exploding upon colliding with an enemy champion. The explosion deals physical damage to nearby enemies and grants sight of the area for 2 seconds. Super Mega Death Rocket! deals 10% – 100% (based on distance traveled) damage. This does not affect the bonus damage based on the target’s missing health. Enemies surrounding the primary target take 80% damage. The bonus damage based on the target’s missing health is capped at 1200 against monsters. |
Jinx skill order
Jinx is one of those champions who has a pretty set skill order, which almost never changes. To start, pick one point in Q. The decision on whether to level W or E on level 2 should be made based on the lane state. It will almost always be W, unless your support is an engage monster and you need some additional crowd control to get that kill. Pick whichever ability you didn’t get on level 3.
After this, focus on leveling Q while grabbing points in R on levels 6, 11, and 16. The second ability to max should be W.
There are some fringe ARAM-only full lethality Jinx builds that go for W max instead of Q, but that’s hardly optimal and requires you to actually know Jinx’s proper limits to break them in such a way.
Jinx runes and build
With Runes, Jinx goes for the standard marksman affair in the Precision tree with the Lethal Tempo keystone that synergizes with her kit extremely well, granting her more attack speed.
For the first minor rune, grab Presence of Mind. Jinx’s Fishbones autos use up mana, and her manapool is not the biggest. Sometimes, this is the difference between you getting that second kill after the reset or not.
The second minor rune is a tougher choice. On the one hand, Legend: Alacrity synergizes with her kit well, adding even more attack speed. But at some point, it becomes redundant with diminishing returns unless you get a takedown. So our recommendation is Legend: Bloodline. It gives Jinx some much-needed sustain in lane, granting lifesteal stacks and 85 additional max health.
The third minor rune in the primary tree is Cut Down – it helps bring your opponents to the threshold where you can execute them with your ultimate that much quicker.
For your secondary runes, grab the Inspiration tree. Cash Back is just super useful, granting you 7.5% of the cost of your legendary item purchases back, allowing you to snowball that much faster.
For stat modifiers, pick one Attack Speed, Flex, and flat HP ones.
When it comes to Jinx’s build, she has several good options.
- The Kraken Slayer is a universally good start, although the Yun Tal Wildarrows is a decent alternative as well. Do keep in mind, though, that you won’t spike nearly as hard with it on one item as you would with the Kraken Slayer.
- The Berseker’s Greaves is an almost universal boot item for Jinx, although, as is the case with everything in League, sometimes you need to adapt, like if the enemies have five fed attack damage attackers – you’d go for the Plated Steelcaps in this case.
- The Phantom Dancer is an incredible option for her as the third item, as it gives her plenty of synergistic stats: attack speed, critical chance, and movement speed. Sometimes, it’s a viable option to forgo this in favor of Runaan’s Hurricane if the teamfights have begun early.
- The Infinity Edge as the fourth item is a pretty universal option, as it boosts your crit and damage significantly, bringing you fully online as the game-winning threat.
- For the fifth item, there’s a branching choice: you can add to your lead by getting the Hexoptics C44, which enhances your Fishbones autos and synergizes super well with your Get Excited! passive, giving you 100 more range for its duration.
- You can also get an armor penetration item, which will likely be your go-to item in most games. The choice between Lord Dominic’s Regards and the Mortal Reminder depends entirely on the enemy composition and whether they have lots of healing or not. For the beginners, a good litmus test is just your feeling: if you feel annoyed by how many times the enemy escaped with critical HP because something healed them, get the Mortal Reminder. It’s that easy.
- Alternatively, you can add some survivability to yourself by grabbing the Bloodthirster, which grants you a shield upon overheal. You can round out your build with any of the options you didn’t get previously, or add even more survivability via the Guardian Angel.
Also, don’t forget that now bot lane carries get a dedicated boot slot, allowing them to purchase an additional item.
| Slot | Item |
|---|---|
| First item |
 or 
|
| Boots |  |
| Third item |
 or 
|
| Fourth item |  |
| Fifth item |
 or  or  or 
|
| Sixth item |  |
| Seventh item | Flex spot for any item the game state requires. |
How to play Jinx
As we already mentioned, Jinx is a late-game hyper-carry with a relatively weak early game and little in the way of defending herself. She spikes at three items, and then takes over the game at full build. So your main focus should be on coming online sooner, while not giving over many advantages.
Focus on farming safely, go for shorter trades if your support is an engager or a mage, but just stay passive and capitalize on any mistakes if an enchanter is paired with you. Jinx is good at following up on any engage with her E, so look for opportunities like this when your Jungler ganks your lane. Jinx is very good at farming under her tower, so don’t worry too much if you get pushed in. Giving up priority and early objectives is still a better option than essentially donating needless kills.
During midgame skirmishes, try to stay behind your frontline and don’t overly expose yourself. Focus on hitting what’s in front of you, don’t try to go for their backline if it isn’t safe to do so. Remember: you’re your team’s win condition, and you staying alive is more important than getting a cheeky kill and promptly dying for it.
This is not universal advice, of course, and every game is different. Jinx’s three-item powerspike is decent, so you can try to force some advantageous fights.
In the late game, you’re Thanos. A single misstep by your enemy could lead to you essentially mowing down everyone without much chance of retaliation. Still, remember that positioning is key: Jinx’s passive may be called Get Excited, but getting overly excited can make you run into the enemy headfirst, getting stunned, and blown up. You hit like a truck, but you’re not built like it.
Jinx synergies and counters
Jinx works well with various supports paired with her, but the best are enchanters who can protect her, and engage tanks that can hold the enemy still while she shoots holes through them. Conversely, Jinx struggles when paired with mages. While it sounds good on paper to have two high-damage characters on the same lane, characters like Lux, Brand, Xerath, or Zyra simply don’t provide her with the tools necessary to succeed.
Best supports to pair with Jinx:
- Nami
- Thresh
- Lulu
- Sona
- Morgana
- Braum
- Renata Glasc
- Rell
- Milio
- Soraka
- Tahm Kench
Aside from being weak to engage, Jinx also struggles against the characters that can damage her without any fear of retaliation. That’s why in the metas where mages are popular on bot lane, Jinx is usually nowhere to be seen. Still, it’s not just about the lane: junglers that can easily get on top of her also ruin her day quite substantially.
Best ADCs to counter Jinx:
- Ziggs
- Seraphine
- Smolder
- Kog’Maw
- Ashe
- Varus
Best supports to counter Jinx:
- Seraphine
- Pyke
- Thresh
- Zyra
- Vel’Koz
- Tahm Kench
- Bard
- Brand
- Zilean
Best junglers to counter Jinx:
- Rammus
- Diana
- Nocturne
- Pantheon
- Kha’Zix
- Briar
- Zyra
Jinx lore
Ever since Riot Games released the hit Netflix show Arcane, the approach to lore has changed. The company now consolidates all the lore into one, and the events of Arcane, in this case, supersede everything that happened before.
In Arcane, Jinx and Vi are sisters who lost their parents after what was all but an all-out war between Piltover and Zaun, and were taken in by Vander as his foster children. They grew up in his bar that also served as a gathering place for all kinds of unsavory characters. The sisters learned how tough it is to survive in Zaun very early, so they got good at trickery, stealing, and fighting. The latter, not so much with Jinx, whose name back then was Powder.
After a particular job in Piltover went awry, the sisters inadvertently set in motion a chain of events that would change their lives, along with the lives of countless people in Piltover and Zaun.
According to League of Legends’ consolidated lore, Jinx is a genius inventor who suffers from mental issues due to the events that happened in her childhood. She can’t control her emotions well, and her impulses tend to take over.
Jinx in other media
Being one of League’s most popular characters, Jinx has obviously appeared in other Riot media. Even her initial release was much more hyped than that of any other character in 2013, being revealed in a music video, “Get Jinxed.”
Her biggest role is in the aforementioned Arcane, and she has also appeared as a playable character in 2XKO, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and Teamfight Tactics.
Outside of Riot’s own properties, Jinx has had crossover appearances in PUBG Mobile, Fortnite, Just Dance 2023 Edition, and Among Us.
Jinx skins
Jinx has lots of skins, ranging from cheaper ones all the way to super expensive gacha ones. There are lots of cool themes, so we’ll just list five that we recommend:
Star Guardian Jinx
Firecracker Jinx
PROJECT: Jinx
Zombie Slayer Jinx
Cafe Cuties Jinx
Jinx FAQs
Q: Is Jinx hard to play?
A: Mechanically, she’s straightforward. The difficulty is decision-making, spacing, target selection, and knowing when to swap the minigun and the rocker launcher. Riot labels her difficulty as medium, which is fair.
Q: Is Jinx a late-game champion?
A: Yes. She scales hard with items and gets teamfight-changing value once she can reliably trigger resets with her passive.
Q: Is Jinx good in the meta right now?
A: She’s performing well in the current patch, especially within team compositions tailored to her strengths.
Q: Is Jinx popular in pro play?
A: Jinx is not as big a pro play staple as someone like Ezreal or Aphelios thanks to her nature as a late-game scaling hypercarry, but she has her fair share of proficient players that eagerly default to her in the Fearless Draft.
Q: Is Jinx Vi’s sister?
A: According to Arcane, yes – explicitly.
*Images for ability icons, item icons, and skins via Riot Games.
