Nunu & Willump Jungle Build & Guide — Patch 26.18

Overview

Nunu & Willump is the simplest objective-control jungler in the game: roll a giant snowball into the back line, throw smaller ones to lock the target down, then channel a screen-wide blizzard. The kit has one signature trick — Consume (Q) deals true damage to large monsters, so Nunu smite-steals Drake, Rift Herald, and Baron from outside enemy vision. Every Nunu game is decided on those objective spawns: Drake, Rift Herald and Baron.

The trade-off: Absolute Zero (R) is a 3-second channel, and channels die to one point-and-click stun. If the enemy has even one hard CC saved for your ult, your teamfight damage collapses to W knock-up plus E root. Game plan: clear, hit 6, then translate every objective spawn into a steal or contest.

Recommended Build

Starting items: Mosstomper Seedling (450g) + 1 Health Potion (50g). That is the full 500 gold you start with; the Refillable Potion is a first-back purchase, not a start. Mosstomper Seedling is the durability jungle starter: bonus damage on monsters, and a shield once it is fully grown, out of combat and after each large monster you kill. The Refillable Potion is a healing item that refills for free at base, so once you own it you don't pay gold for chip damage from jungle camps (the neutral monster groups you farm).

Core items (in order):

1. Mosstomper Seedling — pet companion (auto-evolves around minute 3-4 once it has earned enough XP). Fully grown it gives a shield while you are out of combat and again after every large monster you kill. Pick this over the AP/AD pets because Nunu wants to survive long enough to channel R.
2. Liandry's Torment — your first finished item every game. The %max-HP burn stacks with R's channel, melting tanks. Without Liandry's, Absolute Zero does poke damage; with it, the same channel deletes 40% of a tank's HP.
3. Mercury's Treads — default boots. They grant tenacity (a stat that shortens stuns and slows on you), critical for a channel ultimate. Swap to Plated Steelcaps only into 3+ AD threats with no real CC chain.
4. Riftmaker — omnivamp (you heal off all damage you deal) plus a passive that converts damage to true damage after 3 seconds in combat. The 3-second timer matches R's channel length, so Absolute Zero explodes with full true damage online.
5. Rabadon's Deathcap — late-game scaling multiplier. With Liandry's + Riftmaker online, Deathcap pushes the R explosion from "team-shifting" to "unsurvivable for any squishy who did not Flash out".

Situational items:

• Abyssal Mask — when 3+ enemies deal magic damage. It reduces magic resist on enemies near you, so every spell your AP teammates land hits harder. Pair it with your front-line presence: you are always at the center of the fight.
• Sunfire Aegis — vs melee bruiser-heavy teams (Sett, Darius, Olaf). The burn aura ticks on top of your E snowballs and the bonus armor hardens you against frontline focus.
• Zhonya's Hourglass — vs burst comps that focus you during the R channel (Zed, LeBlanc, Syndra). Stasis (a 2.5s window where you cannot be damaged or take actions) buys time for your team to follow up, and stasis does not cancel an R channel that you started a beat earlier.
• Warmog's Armor — vs heavy poke comps (Xerath, Ziggs, Senna). Warmog's passive regenerates a huge chunk of HP out of combat, so the chip damage you take walking up to a fight resets to full before you commit.

Boots: Mercury's Treads is the default — tenacity protects your channel. Plated Steelcaps only into AD-heavy comps with no major CC.

Skill order: Max E first (clear speed and main DPS, locks targets for R), W second (longer-range engage threat), Q last (the heal scales fine without points until 14+). Take a point in R at levels 6, 11, 16.

Runes: Primary Resolve with Aftershock (gives you bonus armor and magic resist for 2.5 seconds the moment you land W knock-up or E root — exactly the window when you channel R), Font of Life (each time you impair an enemy's movement, you and the lowest-health ally nearby heal), Conditioning (extra resists after minute 12), Revitalize (boosts your Q heal and any shield on you). Secondary Sorcery with Transcendence (extra ability haste — a stat that lowers all your spell cooldowns) and Scorch (small magic damage chip on the first basic ability hitting an enemy every 10 seconds, useful for the W poke gank pattern).

Key matchups

• Lee Sin / Elise: Early-game invade junglers. Track them with vision wards (placed items that reveal a small map area for ~90 seconds) on raptors and your red buff (camps in your own jungle). Avoid 1v1 fights pre-3. Do raptors → red → blue → Scuttle (the river crab that grants vision when killed), then play for objectives.
• Master Yi / Karthus: Scaling junglers. Force fights and objectives (Drake, Rift Herald, Baron) before minute 18. Every Drake your team takes via Q steal is one Yi or Karthus doesn't scale into. R is also one of the few things that locks down Yi during Alpha Strike's untargetable window — wait for it, then channel through it.
• Hecarim / Volibear: Engage mirror. Whoever lands the first hard CC wins the fight. Save W for after their initial commit (Hecarim Devastating Charge or Volibear E slow) so your knock-up chains on top of their CC. Aftershock procs on top.
• Maokai / Sejuani: Tank junglers with their own AOE engage. Whoever lands R first wins the fight, but Sejuani Glacial Prison and Maokai R both interrupt your channel from range. Use W to push their tank off your channel position: they cannot interrupt what they cannot reach.
• Kha'Zix / Rengar: Assassins who burst your back line. Body-block for your carries (stand between the assassin and your damage dealer to soak the hits) and channel R on top of your own carry — Absolute Zero deters them from committing into a 4-target AOE.

Power spikes & win conditions

• Level 3: With E, W, and Q all unlocked, your gank threat (a surprise attack on a lane from the jungle) is real. Hold W for 1 second to size it up, release into an immobile lane opponent. The knock-up plus E root chain is usually a kill when the ally in that lane is already ahead.
• Level 6: First Absolute Zero. The biggest spike Nunu has. Find an objective within 30 seconds — Drake or contested Scuttle — and channel R from a fog of war angle. Your team commits when they see the channel start.
• Liandry's Torment completion (~ minute 12-14): Your R goes from poke to real threat. Drake fights with R ticking on a stacked enemy team are unwinnable for them.
• 3-item spike (~ minute 22-26): Liandry's + Riftmaker + Deathcap online. R cooldown is short enough that you can teamfight twice per Baron timer. Force every objective before scaling carries (Vayne, Kassadin, Kayle) take over.

Common mistakes

• Pressing R from the wrong distance. Absolute Zero is centred on Nunu himself. Start the channel 200 units short of the enemy and most of them are standing outside the blast. Walk in with your front line on top of the enemy team, then channel — the channel zones them from approaching you.
• Q-stealing the wrong objective. Consume's true damage is huge on Baron, Drake, and Rift Herald, but it's your only single-target damage tool. Save Q for the steal window (~10% monster HP). Don't burn it on small camps before a Drake spawn.
• Channeling R into known interrupts. If the enemy has a saved Pantheon Q, Nautilus Q hook, or Rell W, do not channel from open ground. Walk into a wall or behind your tank line first — a body block forces them to commit Flash to land the CC.
• Forgetting to size W before engage. Biggest Snowball Ever! starts small. Release it straight away and the knock-up lasts the minimum. Hold 1-2 seconds in fog — the snowball doubles in size and the knock-up jumps from 0.5s to 1.5s.
• Skipping objective trade for a single kill. A 1v1 gank gives 300 gold; a clean Q steal on Drake gives 1000+ gold plus the dragon stack. Objectives over kills, every time.

Advanced tip

Practice the Flash + R combo on a target dummy. Start the R channel from outside enemy vision (behind a wall or in fog), then Flash into the middle of their grouped back line at the 2-second mark. Flash does not interrupt your own channel, so you appear inside their team with a fully-grown blizzard about to explode. The enemy team has 0.5 seconds to react: eat the full AOE, or burn every escape Summoner Spell and Flash on the panic. Either way you win the next fight, because their cooldowns are gone. This is the play that turns Nunu from a champion who throws snowballs across the river into one that decides games at the top of the ladder.