Counter Guide

How to Beat Rek'Sai

Matchup Guide · Evergreen · 2 Counter Picks

Rek'Sai knows where you're walking before she can see you, and she arrives through a tunnel you didn't know was there.

She's miserable to play against because her ganks come from underground. While she's burrowed she senses anyone moving nearby, her tunnels stay on the map for minutes, and when she pops up she throws everyone around her into the air. Then her ultimate finishes whoever tried to run. It's hard to fight what you can't track. Her soft spots are specific, though. Tremor Sense only picks up enemies who are moving, she can't use a tunnel while she's stunned or silenced, and the knock-up she ganks with is a single, blockable effect. If you're deciding whether to ban her this patch, check our solo queue tier list.

Matchup Snapshot Rek'Sai, the Void Burrower

Where You Meet HerJungle

Damage TypeMostly physical

Why She Is FrustratingGanks from underground

MobilityTunnels all over the map

Biggest ThreatUnburrow [W]

Hardest CounterShyvana

What a Counter Needs

A way to shrug off the knock-up she opens with
Armor or tankiness against a mostly physical kit

Patches 26.17-26.18 Matchup Data

Who Beats Rek'Sai on Patches 26.17-26.18

Best Picks Into Rek'Sai

Shyvana623 games55.7%
Warwick424 games54.5%
Lillia435 games54.0%
Nocturne734 games53.8%
Cho'Gath437 games53.8%

Picks Rek'Sai Beats

Kha'Zix475 games44.8%
Qiyana469 games46.7%
Hecarim470 games47.2%
Talon594 games47.8%

Win rates are for the champion listed, in the jungle against Rek'Sai. They come from Nerfplz's own ranked solo queue games on Patches 26.17-26.18, Silver and above, 21,078 Rek'Sai games in all. Only matchups that show up in at least 1% of those games are listed.

Rek'Sai Overview

Strengths: What Makes Her Dangerous

She hears you coming. Burrow [W] gives her Tremor Sense, which shows her (and her team) any enemy moving nearby, even through fog of war.
Her tunnels last for ages. Tunnel [E] leaves two linked entrances that stay up for up to ten minutes, so she can be across the map in seconds (she can keep eight of them up at once).
Every gank opens with a knock-up. Unburrow [W] throws everyone near her into the air for a full second, and she can trigger it just by attacking you from underground.
Void Rush [R] reaches 1,500 units. Anyone she's damaged in the last five seconds can be finished from well off-screen, for a slice of their maximum health (she's untargetable underground for most of a second before the pounce).

Weaknesses: Where You Get In

Standing still hides you. Tremor Sense only detects enemies who are moving.
Crowd control locks her out of her tunnels. She can't enter one while stunned, rooted, grounded or silenced.
Tunnels are free gold for you. Stand on an entrance for 1.5 seconds and it collapses (with a little gold for you).
The knock-up has a lockout. Once Unburrow [W] has hit you, it can't knock you up again for a bit (so the second time she surfaces, you can walk).

Countering Rek'Sai

Any one of these gets you most of the way:

Block or ignore the first knock-up. Her ganks are built around Unburrow [W], and a spell shield or crowd control immunity turns it into a wasted cooldown.
Stack armor. Her attacks, Furious Bite [E] and Void Rush [R] are physical, and those are most of her damage. Unburrow [W] and Prey Seeker [Q] are magic, and Furious Bite [E] turns into true damage when her Fury bar is full.
Clear her tunnels. Every entrance you collapse is a route she can't gank you from, and it pays you for the trouble.

Stuck in the matchup without a counter pick?

Playing Into Rek'Sai Without a Counter

Stop moving when you think she's near. It sounds backwards, but Tremor Sense can't see a champion standing still, and a burrowed Rek'Sai can't see much of anything else (her sight radius shrinks to 385 units underground).

Break tunnels near your lane whenever the wave lets you. It takes 1.5 seconds per entrance.

Save your stun or silence for when she surfaces. Once she's locked out of her tunnel she has to walk out of the fight like everyone else.

Best Rek'Sai Counters

Two junglers beat her clearly, and they don't do it the same way.

Nocturne Blocks the Knock-up

Shroud of Darkness [W] is a spell shield that lasts a second and a half. Time it for the moment Rek'Sai surfaces and it eats Unburrow [W], which is the effect her whole gank depends on, and the attack speed it gives him doubles for five seconds as a reward. A Rek'Sai who loses that knock-up is a melee champion standing next to someone who wants to duel her.

He's also the one jungler who can out-map her. Paranoia [R] shrinks every enemy's vision for six seconds and lets him dash to any of them from thousands of units away (4,000 at max rank), so the champion who likes to arrive unseen is on the other end of it. Unspeakable Horror [E] fears her if she doesn't break the tether in time, and a feared Rek'Sai isn't casting anything, tunnels included.

Graves Gets Tougher Every Shot

Rek'Sai has to fight Graves up close, and that's where his shotgun hits hardest (every pellet that lands on the same target adds damage). Quickdraw [E] gives him True Grit, bonus armor and magic resist that stacks up to eight times (two stacks per dash when he dashes toward a champion), and every pellet he lands shortens its cooldown. Against a mostly physical jungler that armor goes a long way in a duel.

Smoke Screen [W] nearsights her while she stands in the cloud, and she's already working with a short sight radius underground. If Void Rush [R] catches him low, Collateral Damage [R] throws him 400 units back while it fires.

Itemizing Against Rek'Sai

Plated Steelcaps take 10% off her attacks, and Frozen Heart slows her attack speed by a fifth just by being near her. Thornmail hits back when she attacks you and applies Wounds, which can cut the healing she gets from Fury when she burrows. Sterak's Gage throws up a shield when you drop below 30% health, and that's the moment she's aiming Void Rush [R] at you.