LoL jungle camps are how your jungler banks gold and XP between ganks, and the optimal route is the one that lands you at level 4 with full HP, full mana, and tempo to influence the map before the rest of your team needs help. The standard answer: Red → Krugs → Raptors → Wolves → Blue → Gromp → scuttle, finishing around 3:15-3:30. The actual answer depends on your matchup, your laners’ wave states, and whether the gank is up at level 3 or you’d rather hit level 4 first. Below is the full breakdown: every camp’s gold and XP value, the three jungle routes that win games at different ranks, the scuttle math, and the full-clear vs gank-first decision that decides whether you climb.
The numbers in this post are pulled from the Riot Wiki Jungling entry and cross-checked against U.GG’s jungle tier list for current-meta context. Skip to the route section if you’re here for the actual pathing.
Every jungle camp, by the numbers
The Summoner’s Rift jungle has seven small camps split across two sides, plus the river scuttle, plus the epic monsters (Drake, Herald, Baron) that aren’t strictly “jungle camps” but live in the same space. Each camp is one decision in your route. The values below are the operator band – they drift patch to patch and your champion’s clear speed will change the gold-per-second numbers, but the priority order is stable.
| Camp | Gold (full clear) | XP (level 1) | Respawn | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Brambleback (red buff) | ~95 + buff | ~120 | 5:00 | Slow on-hit for melee; slow for ranged. Always cleared. |
| Blue Sentinel (blue buff) | ~95 + buff | ~120 | 5:00 | Mana regen + CDR. Mandatory for AP junglers, useful for everyone. |
| Gromp | ~85 | ~200 | 2:15 | Highest XP small camp. Damage-spike camp for level 2-3 powerspikes. |
| Wolves | ~75 | ~135 | 2:15 | 3 monsters. Fast clear with any AOE. |
| Raptors | ~80-90 | ~135 | 2:15 | 6 monsters (big + 5 small). Strong AOE-only camp. |
| Krugs | ~135 | ~150 | 2:15 | Biggest small camp. Slow to clear without AOE – skip on power-farm. |
| Scuttle Crab | ~50 | ~165 | 2:30 (first 3:30) | + ward + speed pad. Top vs bottom = priority by next objective. |
Two patterns to internalize. First: Krugs is the highest-gold small camp but the slowest to clear without AOE, so it’s the camp that AOE-heavy junglers (Karthus, Zac, Hecarim) take and single-target junglers (Kha’Zix, Rengar) sometimes skip. Second: Gromp is the highest-XP camp, which makes it the level 3 spike camp – finishing your clear at Gromp puts you closer to level 4 than ending anywhere else.
(The most cited solo-queue argument about jungle camp gold is “I take camps on the way to lane.” The (r/leagueoflegends thread on per-camp XP and gold works through this with actual numbers – taking the side-lane wolves or wolves-Gromp on a recall route is a 75-85 gold pickup that costs almost zero time if the camp is up.) The argument resolves the same way every time: yes, take the camp if it’s on your path. No, don’t go invading the enemy’s camps without prio just because the gold-per-camp number looks good in a table.
The three jungle routes that matter
Your starting buff and your laner matchups dictate the route. Here are the three that solve 90% of the “where do I path?” questions, with the rationale for each.
The standard full clear (red-side start)
Red → Krugs → Raptors → Wolves → Blue → Gromp → scuttle. The default clear for red-side starts. Most junglers finish around 3:15-3:30 with both buffs, level 4, and full Smite + HP. Scuttle at 3:30 puts you in position to gank top or mid right after, with vision from the crab.
Why this order: starting red lets you clear small camps in the right rotation to keep both buffs healthy through the clear. Krugs gives the highest gold pickup early. Wolves and Raptors are fast AOE clears between buffs. Finishing at Gromp (highest XP small camp) lands you on level 4 right as you walk to scuttle.
The blue-side full clear
Blue → Gromp → Wolves → Raptors → Red → Krugs → scuttle. The mirror of the red-side start. Same logic in reverse – finishing at Krugs banks the most gold at the end of the clear, and the route lands you at scuttle ready to influence top or bot lane.
AP junglers (Karthus, Brand, Elise) almost always prefer blue start to keep the mana stable through the early clear. AD junglers can start either side, but starting near your easier lane (the one with kill pressure) is usually the right read.
The power-farm clear
Red → Raptors → Wolves → Blue → Gromp → scuttle. Skips Krugs early. Sacrifices ~135 gold for a faster level 4 – useful for junglers who hit a hard level 4 powerspike (Hecarim, Vi, Volibear) and want to gank before the standard clear would finish. Krugs gets picked up on the second clear cycle once it respawns.
Power-farm wins games when there’s an obvious gank set up at 3:30. Standard clear wins games when there isn’t. Read the wave states pre-game; if every lane is hugging tower, full-clear. If a sidelane has a pushing matchup overextended, power-farm and gank.
The scuttle math: top vs bottom
Two scuttles spawn at 3:30 – one in top river, one in bottom river. Each gives ~50 gold, ~165 XP, a free vision ward, and a speed pad in its river. The crab that matters depends on which objective spawns next.
- Bottom scuttle wins drake setup. Drake spawns at 5:00 and the bottom-river vision/speed pad is the difference between contesting the fight and walking into it blind. If you’re red-side bot or your team has bot prio, bottom scuttle is the priority.
- Top scuttle wins Herald setup. Herald spawns at 14:00 but the top-river control happens early – a top scuttle at 3:30 plus a scuttle re-take at 6:00 means you walk to Herald at 14 with vision already set. Top scuttle also feeds top lane ganks.
- Don’t fight 2v2 for scuttle without help. Two scuttles, two junglers, two crabs – the 1v1 over scuttle is the most common “early death” we see on Iron-Plat orders. If your laner is mid-leashing or top-cooperating, contest; if you’re alone, take the safe one and let the other go.
The objective context for which scuttle to prioritize is exactly the same decision tree as the rest of the macro game – the call you make at 3:30 sets up the call you make at 5:00 and 14:00. Both live in the objective priority decision tree if you want the full mid-game version of this read.
Full-clear vs gank-first: the decision
The question that decides whether you’re a “farm jungler” or “gank jungler” isn’t your champion – it’s what your laners are doing. Here’s the read.
| Situation | Recommendation | Why |
|---|---|---|
| All lanes hugging tower | Full clear | No gank setup; level 4 with buffs > 3:00 gank at level 3 alone. |
| One lane pushed and overextended | Power-farm or level 3 gank | Lane prio = free CS for them; gank converts the overextension to a kill. |
| Multiple lanes losing | Full clear and counter-gank | Don’t reinforce a losing lane; clear and look for jungler picks instead. |
| Enemy jungler invades level 3 | Mirror their path; full clear | Don’t fight a contested camp early – track and punish later. |
| Drake/Herald spawning in 60s | Path toward the river side | Be at the objective when it spawns, not running back from the wrong side. |
Most Iron-to-Plat junglers default to one mode (always full clear, or always gank-first) regardless of what their laners need. The Diamond+ jungler watches the wave states for the first 30 seconds and decides which mode the game wants. If you’re a jungle main and the climb isn’t moving, this is usually the bottleneck – the camps know how to die, the lanes are the variable.
(The cleanest jungle climb we tracked last season went from Gold 2 to Diamond 4 in 7 weeks. The booster only played 3 champions across both styles – Hecarim for power-farm games, Sejuani for gank-first, Diana for matchup flex. The wins came from picking the right mode in champ select, not from playing more games.)
If your laners don’t track your jungle pathing and the climb is stuck behind their decisions, that’s where our team comes in. Our League of Legends rank boost service handles the jungle climb with players who route around lane prio, scuttle priority, and drake setup on every single game. Same account, same MMR profile, top-tier players doing the calls. The other side of the jungle climb – CS/min on camps + lane minions you pass through – lives in the CS per minute benchmarks by rank.
What jungle camp gold actually buys
Worth understanding what the camp gold converts to in actual items, because “85 gold for Gromp” is abstract until you map it onto a build.
- Doran’s Blade = 450g. Roughly 5 camps’ worth of gold. The first item you buy after the starting Long Sword + 3 health pots, depending on champion.
- Vampiric Scepter (lifesteal component) = 900g. Roughly 10 camps. The midgame sustain component for bruiser junglers.
- Mythic / Legendary first item = ~3,200-3,400g. Roughly 35-40 camps + 2-3 kills. The full first-clear at 3:30 banks ~25% of one item.
- Full build = ~14,000g. 6 items. A jungler at 5 cs/min over 30 minutes is sitting around the 4-5 item mark assuming a couple of kills and objective gold.
The implication: jungle camps alone get you maybe 60% of full build by 30 minutes, the rest comes from kills, drakes, plates, and tower gold. A jungler who only farms camps never reaches the late-game power that matters, because camps are the baseline income and the other 40% has to come from fights and objectives. The rank-band CSPM context for what jungle income actually looks like at every rank lives in the the Iron-to-Challenger ladder breakdown.
Frequently asked questions
How much gold does each jungle camp give in LoL?
Approximate values: Red Brambleback and Blue Sentinel ~95 gold each, Gromp ~85, Wolves ~75 total (3 monsters), Raptors ~80-90 total (6 monsters), Krugs ~135 total (biggest small camp), Scuttle Crab ~50 plus a ward and speed pad. Values drift patch to patch – re-verify on the Riot Wiki Jungling entry before relying on the exact numbers in a calculation.
Which jungle camp gives the most gold?
Krugs, at about 135 gold for the full camp. The trade-off is clear speed – Krugs is the slowest small camp to clear without AOE damage, so the gold-per-second number is worse than the gold-per-camp number suggests. Single-target junglers (Kha’Zix, Rengar) often skip Krugs on the first clear; AOE junglers (Karthus, Zac) prioritize it.
What is the fastest jungle clear in LoL?
Red → Krugs → Raptors → Wolves → Blue → Gromp → scuttle for red-side starts; mirror for blue-side. Most junglers finish around 3:15-3:30. AOE junglers like Karthus, Hecarim, and Zac clear noticeably faster than single-target junglers. The clear time decides whether you’re at scuttle on time and whether your level 4 gank is set up before the lanes have started their first back.
When does scuttle crab spawn in LoL?
First scuttle spawns at 3:30. Two crabs spawn simultaneously, one in top river and one in bottom. Killed scuttles respawn 2:30 later. Top scuttle prioritizes Herald setup; bottom scuttle prioritizes drake setup – pick the one that matches the next epic monster your team is contesting.
Is it better to full-clear or gank first?
Full-clear is the default and works in 70% of games. Gank-first wins when a lane is overextended, your champion has a strong level 3 (Lee Sin, Elise, Sejuani), or the enemy jungler is starting on the opposite side. Most low-elo junglers default to one mode regardless of context; the Diamond+ jungler reads wave states in the first 30 seconds of the game and picks the right mode for that lobby.
How much gold per minute should a jungler have in LoL?
Operator band: Iron-Bronze junglers run about 280-340 gold/min, Silver-Gold 340-400, Plat-Emerald 400-460, Diamond+ 460+. The number is camps + kill assists + objective gold combined. Junglers below the band for their rank are usually leaving camps uncleared between ganks; junglers above it usually have a kill participation issue (high farm, low impact). Both are problems for different reasons.
Jungle is the role where individual decisions translate most directly into team outcomes – which makes it the role where the boost market exists in the first place. If you’ve drilled the camps and the routes and the LP still isn’t moving, our team can let our team carry the jungle climb on your schedule. Same account, same MMR profile, top-tier players running the pathing, scuttle prio, and drake setup the way Diamond+ does. For the underlying camp mechanics and respawn timers, the Riot Wiki Jungling entry is the canonical reference.