Counter Guide

How to Beat Nunu & Willump

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 3 Counter Picks

The snowball shows up before Nunu does, and by the time you've seen it you're already in the air.

Playing against Nunu & Willump means playing against a gank you can't see coming. They roll in from off screen, knock you up, and if the fight lasts long enough the blizzard lands on whoever's still inside it. On top of that, a Willump who's anywhere near a dragon can bite it for a huge chunk of true damage. It's a lot to deal with. Their biggest hit is a channel, though, and a channel can be broken. The champions who beat them most often are the jungle's duelists, the ones who can walk into Nunu's camps and win the fight there. For where they sit this patch, see our solo queue tier list.

Matchup Snapshot Nunu & Willump, the Boy and His Yeti

Where You Meet ThemJungle

Damage TypeMagic, true against monsters

Why They Are FrustratingGanks from off screen, then steal your dragon

MobilityThe snowball, and nothing else

Biggest ThreatAbsolute Zero [R]

Hardest CounterBriar

What a Counter Needs

Crowd control that breaks the Absolute Zero [R] channel early
Enough early dueling power to punish them in their own jungle

Patch 26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Nunu & Willump on Patch 26.18

Best Picks Into Nunu & Willump

Briar1,047 games58.0%
Bel'Veth430 games56.5%
Vi803 games54.0%
Viego1,537 games53.9%
Kha'Zix606 games53.8%

Picks Nunu & Willump Beats

Kindred409 games44.5%
Shaco850 games44.9%
Qiyana549 games46.5%
Lee Sin1,595 games47.3%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the jungle against Nunu & Willump. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patch 26.18, Silver and above, 29,146 Nunu & Willump games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Nunu & Willump Overview

Strengths: What Makes Them Dangerous

The snowball grows the longer it rolls. Biggest Snowball Ever! [W] can roll for up to ten seconds, can't be slowed, and hits harder (and stuns longer) the bigger it gets.
Absolute Zero [R] is a teamfight on its own. They channel a blizzard for up to three seconds, shielded the whole time, while it slows everyone inside by up to 95%. At full charge the explosion does 625 to 1275 magic damage before any AP.
Consume [Q] is brutal on monsters. Willump bites them for 400 to 1200 true damage. Contesting a dragon or Baron against that is hard.
Snowball Barrage [E] roots late. Anyone it hit is rooted three seconds after the first cast if they're still near Willump, so walking toward him to fight is often a mistake.

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

The ultimate is a channel. Any crowd control that interrupts it ends Absolute Zero [R] early, and its damage drops with how short the charge was.
They've got one way in. Once the snowball's used, they walk, and it's 14 seconds before the next one (the cooldown doesn't shrink with rank).
The snowball pops on walls and big monsters. It explodes on the first champion, large monster or piece of terrain it touches (minions don't stop it, it rolls straight over them).
Consume [Q] is much weaker on you than on a monster. Against a champion it's magic damage and a smaller heal.

Countering Nunu & Willump

Pick one of these and build around it:

Break the blizzard. A stun, knock-up or silence during the channel cuts Absolute Zero [R] off, and a short charge does a fraction of the damage.
Ward where the snowball comes from. It needs a long run-up to hit hard, and a ward in the river shows you the run-up.
Take the fight to their jungle. Duelists like Briar and Kha'Zix win the fights Nunu wants to avoid, and a Nunu who's losing camps has less time to roam.

Already locked in without a counter? It's still a winnable game.

Playing Into Nunu & Willump Without a Counter

Walk out of the blizzard the moment it starts. The slow gets worse every quarter second, so the first half second is your best chance to leave (650 units is a big circle, and you'll want Flash if you're near the middle).

Keep Smite up near objectives, and don't start a dragon with Nunu missing from the map. Consume [Q] takes a huge bite out of monsters, so racing it for the last hit is a fight you'll often lose.

Don't hide behind your minions. The snowball rolls right over them and hits you anyway.

Best Nunu & Willump Counters

We've picked three that beat them in different ways. Take the one that fits your pool.

Briar Cuts the Blizzard Short

Certain Death [R] kicks a projectile across the map and marks the first champion it hits, and the mark disrupts channels. Land it on a Nunu mid-blizzard and Absolute Zero [R] ends right there, at whatever charge it had. Briar then cleanses her own crowd control, dashes in and fears everyone near her target.

She wins the early fights too. Head Rush [Q] leaps onto a target and stuns it, and Chilling Scream [E] heals her while it charges, and crowd control can't interrupt the charge (she takes 35% less damage during it, too).

Vi Can't Be Knocked Off Course

Cease and Desist [R] locks onto one champion, and nothing can knock Vi aside on the way in. When she arrives, she knocks her target up for 1.3 seconds. On a channeling Nunu, that's the end of the blizzard.

Vault Breaker [Q] knocks champions back as well, and it's up far more often. It's a good way to break the channel when the ult's down.

Kha'Zix Hunts Them Alone

A Nunu rolling toward a gank is usually alone, and Kha'Zix eats isolated targets. Taste Their Fear [Q] does 210% damage to anyone with no ally nearby. Void Assault [R] turns him invisible and his next attack out of stealth slows, so a lone Nunu between camps gets caught before the snowball starts moving.

Itemizing Against Nunu & Willump

Mercury's Treads shorten the stun and the root, and their magic resist takes some of the edge off the blizzard. Kaenic Rookern is built for one big magic hit, since its shield is waiting for you after fifteen quiet seconds. Maw of Malmortius does a similar job for a fighter (it kicks in when a magic hit would drop you under 30%). Serpent's Fang is for the AD champion trying to burst them. Absolute Zero [R] shields them while they channel, and the Fang shrinks that shield.