Objectives

The Five Epic Monsters

This game has five epic monsters: the Tyrant and its upgraded form the Shadow Tyrant, the Overlord and its upgraded form the Shadow Overlord, and the Storm Dragon, the ancestor of all monsters that spawns in the super late game.

Many players don't understand when to take them, what buffs they give, or which to prioritize in a given situation. That's usually because people skip over the long descriptions, so let's sort it all out here.

Tyrant and Shadow Tyrant

Tyrant (4 min)：The regular Tyrant and Overlord spawn at 4 minutes. Killing the Tyrant grants the whole team a chain lightning effect that deals magic damage to enemy heroes.

At the first spawn at 4 minutes you're roughly level 8, and at the 8-minute respawn about level 13. If you take it at level 10, the chain lightning is worth about 120 magic damage, which is like handing out a low-tier item (a spark-type dagger) to your entire team for free.

Simply having something the enemy doesn't is value in itself.

Shadow Tyrant (10 min)：It spawns at 10 minutes alongside the Shadow Overlord. Its effect is the same type of chain lightning as the Tyrant's but greatly enhanced: at level 15 the chain lightning deals about 510 magic damage.

On top of that, it grants a movement speed boost of 10% in combat and 15% out of combat. Considering that squishy heroes have about 4,000–6,000 HP, an extra 510 damage every 3 seconds is enormous, and combined with the movement speed it's extremely strong.

Overlord and Shadow Overlord

Overlord (4 min)：Killing it replaces the next two friendly waves in all three lanes with minion dragons. Minion dragons take 50% reduced damage from towers, making them strong at pushing towers.

They also give only about 120–180 gold when killed, less than a regular minion (about 240–250), so they chip away at the enemy's economy. There's no direct team-fight buff; it's an objective for gaining a strategic advantage.

Shadow Overlord (10 min)：Like the Overlord, it replaces waves with minion dragons, and it also grants an active skill to whoever lands the kill. When activated, it summons a massive 15,000 HP dragon in a lane of your choice (if you don't choose, it spawns automatically).

Enemy minions in that lane die instantly, and their gold is distributed evenly to the whole team. On top of that, the dragon and allied heroes in that lane gain 10% damage reduction and deal 10% increased tower damage.

It's extremely strong for sieging, for forcing rotations and movement, and for late-game map pressure.

Storm Dragon (20 min)

The ancestor of all monsters, spawning at 20 minutes in the super late game. It combines the effects of both the Overlord and the Tyrant, made far more powerful.

Killing it replaces waves with Storm Vanguards (mini Storm Dragons), which not only deal damage to towers but disable them for 5 seconds. It also grants the whole team a passive that zaps nearby enemies with lightning; this is true damage that ignores defense (5% of max HP against enemy heroes, 20% against non-heroes).

5% every 30 seconds up to 50%. With true-damage lightning, a huge shield, and tower-disabling vanguards all combined, it's the single most impactful objective in the game.

A team that takes it in the late game almost always wins.

Priority and Tips for Taking Them

Tyrant First by Default：The Tyrant and Overlord spawn at the same time, and normally you can only take one of them. The priority is the Tyrant.

It boosts the whole team's damage and movement speed (rotations and movement) and also helps the economy. That said, the Overlord has its uses too: if you win a team fight after being pushed in and losing a lot of towers, you can immediately take the Overlord and reclaim map control by pushing towers.

The Storm Dragon spawns on its own and gets heavily contested, so if you get the chance, always go for it or try to steal it.

Watch Out for Primal Bond：Taking a monster applies a 90-second debuff called Primal Bond, and if you try to take the other one right after, you take increased damage and deal 50% reduced damage.

That's why it's hard to take both early monsters back to back. If it's safe, split into two groups and take them at the same time so no one carries the debuff and you secure both.

Another trick: leave the second Tyrant at 8 minutes untouched until 9 minutes and then take it; you'll get the debuff, but it disappears the instant the upgraded monsters spawn at 10 minutes.

The refreshed Tyrant buff remains, so you can use that extra damage to quickly kill the Shadow Tyrant at 10 minutes. This is an advanced read, though, so it's for high-rank players.

Buff Monsters Are Real Objectives Too

The red buff (Crimson Golem) and blue buff (Azure Golem) aren't just for farming experience; they're objectives to protect and to steal. The red buff adds a 15% slow (stacking up to 2 times) and true damage to your basic attacks, which helps a jungler with early clears and ganks, and helps a marksman kite and whittle enemies down from the mid game on.

The blue buff gives 20% cooldown reduction and a large amount of mana regen, and it's more important the more a jungler relies on spamming skills to fight, like Luna.

It directly affects clear speed and farm speed. Both last 70 seconds after being killed and respawn at 90 seconds.

If you can track the enemy's respawn timers, you can plan invades and read where the enemy jungler is pathing. If they started from the bottom, they'll finish at the top, and so on, so you can read the flow.

It's also handy to remember that a timer appears on the enemy buff 15 seconds before it respawns.

Early Objectives Before the 4-Minute Mark

The clash lane has a Primal Portal, and the first team to kill the Space Sprite inside opens a teleport portal. It lets you teleport to allies, lanes, or the jungle, and even to minions and towers.

It respawns in 60 seconds, so before 4 minutes there's a fierce fight over this area around the clash lane. The farm lane has a one-time bird, the Firehog; killing it gives you gold plus 100 gold shared with the whole team (once killed, it never spawns again).

The roam and mid should clear their first wave, then rotate to the farm lane and secure it if they can win 3v3 or take an advantage. Alternatively, the roam can start a 2v1 with the marksman from level 1, push the wave quickly, and take the Firehog.

Also, with the recent tower shield mechanic, destroying towers before 4 minutes has become very hard. So the basic way to build an early lead is to secure your own jungle resources while stealing the enemy's jungle monsters.

Be mindful of the triangle areas on the clash side and the farm side; once you finish clearing your own, gank the enemy or steal their camps.

Why the Tyrant Is the Priority at 4 Minutes

As for whether to take the Tyrant or the Overlord at 4 minutes, the answer is that the Tyrant is always the priority if your team can win a 5v5 or take it down fast before the enemy notices.

The reason lies in the difference in their effects. The Tyrant grants a damage buff, greatly increasing your combat power and letting you push waves faster.

The Overlord, on the other hand, is about wave control (the ability to push out side lanes), which you don't really need in the early game. So the Tyrant, which strengthens team fights and lets you push waves faster for rotations and movement, is the priority at 4 minutes.

The exception is when the enemy is stronger in an early team fight. In that case, don't force it; instead, steal the enemy jungle monsters (like buffs) on the opposite side of the map to claw back gold.

For a tank jungler the priority is Tyrant → buff → Overlord. An assassin jungler powers up later, so it's better to take the buff first, then the Tyrant, then the Overlord.

Shadow Tyrant and Shadow Overlord at 10 Minutes

At 10 minutes, the Shadow Tyrant and Shadow Overlord spawn. In high ranks and tournaments, where team fights are the essence of the game, the Shadow Tyrant is preferred.

On top of a powerful damage buff from its lightning strikes, it also grants mobility—movement speed that rises when you enter and leave combat—giving you an edge in contesting buffs and the initiative under towers.

The Shadow Overlord is equally strong, but its role is different: it specializes in map control and siege power. Killing it produces two waves of dragons that push all three lanes; they're strong against minions and take 50% reduced damage from towers.

Furthermore, the one who kills it gains a Shadow Vanguard similar to the Overlord's, which can be summoned to a lane of choice. For example, summoning it to the clash lane wipes the enemy minions in that lane so you can push freely, and it also grants your team 10% damage reduction and 10% bonus damage to dragons, towers, and the crystal.

In short, take the Shadow Tyrant if you can win a 5v5 and want to fight, and the Shadow Overlord if you want map initiative and siege power. When you can't choose, commit to whichever is closer to your team's position and secure at least one of them.

Primal Bond and the Final Objective, the Storm Dragon

The Overlord, Tyrant, Shadow Tyrant, and Shadow Overlord all have a mechanic called Primal Bond: while afflicted, you deal 60% less damage to each of these objectives and take bonus damage in return.

That's why it's a bad idea to immediately go for the next one right after killing one; if you absolutely must chain Shadow Tyrant → Shadow Overlord, do it as a group of five rather than solo.

Doing it solo takes too long, and Primal Bond can get you killed in return. The final objective is the Storm Dragon.

It spawns around 20 minutes (from about 19:30, randomly at the top or bottom—a small icon appears, so watch for it), and around 19:30 the Shadow Tyrant and Shadow Vanguard disappear and the stage is set.

Killing it grants a thick shield that absorbs physical and magic damage and regenerates out of combat, a lightning strike that deals true damage to enemy HP every few seconds (very strong against tanks, minions, and monsters), and dragon waves that spawn in all three lanes to stun towers and the crystal—power that decides matches in the 20–25 minute range.

One caution: the objective can knock you up and deny your smite, which is also an opening for a team trying to steal it. Also keep in mind that being attacked by the Storm Dragon reduces your healing and lifesteal by 50%.

4 Minutes: Tyrant and Overlord

At the 4-minute mark, the Tyrant spawns on the lower side of the river and the Overlord spawns on the upper side. At the same time, the towers' early-game shields and the jungle protection expire, so neutral objectives now hit back harder — but siege minions (catapults) join the waves, making it easier to push towers.

Killing the Tyrant grants every ally's attacks a level-scaling chain of lightning (magic damage), while killing the Overlord replaces the next two minion waves in all three lanes with "Overlord Vanguards" that push towers hard (Vanguards also take 50% reduced damage from towers). The experience and gold from the kill go to the entire team.

Primordial Bond: The Trap of Taking Both

When you take one objective, the other gains the "Primordial Bond," which reduces damage taken by up to 50% for a set duration and makes that objective hit back much harder.

So if you try to take both back-to-back, the second one is extremely tanky, and forcing it often means losing the team fight and giving up your lead. As a rule, choose based on the situation whether to prioritize the Tyrant (a team-wide buff) or the Overlord (pushing towers), and only go for both when you have a big lead and can secure both safely.

10 Minutes: Dark Evolution

At the 10-minute mark, the Tyrant and Overlord evolve into the Dark Tyrant and Dark Overlord, with their chain lightning and Vanguards upgraded and a movement-speed buff added.

In particular, the hero who takes the Dark Overlord gains an active skill that summons a "Shadow Vanguard" to any lane of their choice. It emerges from the crystal (base) and clears minions in a straight line, leaving a path that reduces allies' damage taken and increases damage to structures. The siege minions that join push towers even further, letting you grind down the enemy jungle and squeeze them out — this is a key mid-to-late-game moment.

Taking Both Means Splitting Up = Risk Management

One way to take both at the same time is to split your team into two groups and work on them simultaneously, but spreading out your numbers makes you more vulnerable to being ambushed by an enemy with a numbers advantage. Treat it as a gamble that only works when you have vision on the enemy's positions — in other words, only with good macro.

20 Minutes: Tempest Dragon

At the 20-minute mark, the Dark Tyrant and Dark Overlord disappear, and a Tempest Dragon (Storm Dragon) spawns randomly in one of their pits instead. The entire field turns into a storm, and minions are replaced by Tempest Vanguards that can silence towers (disable their attacks) for 5 seconds.

The team that kills it gains "Storm Awakening," which automatically strikes nearby enemies with lightning (true damage equal to 5% of the enemy's max HP, or 20% against non-heroes) and grants a shield that absorbs 20–50% of max HP. It's the biggest objective of all, capable of completely turning around a late-game team fight in an instant.

Read Vision and Launch Ambushes

When you see the enemy place a ward in a bush or in the river area, you can turn that vision against them. The player who placed the ward gets a false sense of security, thinking "this spot is covered, so I'm safe here," so deliberately taking a wide path around from outside their vision to launch an ambush tends to land well. On the way in, avoid giving off any signs that reveal your position, and only signal your teammates once you've closed in right next to the enemy. Many players won't stop moving even when their teammates warn them, so simply coming in from behind often lets you pick them off one-sidedly.

When You Can't Engage, Don't Force It — Reset Instead

When the minion wave is pushed toward the enemy tower, diving in is difficult, and forcing the play will get you turned on. If the enemy is warning each other about your position, or is properly warded and prepared, it's better to skip the play that time, back to base to complete your items, and wait for the next opening. While nothing is happening, do a full jungle clear to farm back up and prep the neutral objective, so it's not a loss. Making a habit of deciding whether to engage or back off based on "whether the enemy has secured vision" reduces mistakes.

Take Lane Priority Before Objectives

Even when the Tyrant or Overlord has spawned, starting to hit it right away is dangerous. If the enemy laner pushes their wave and then rotates in, or the enemy jungler arrives, you'll get pushed off it. What you should do first is take priority in a nearby lane. If the enemy contests the wave, you can pick them off with a numbers advantage; if they don't contest it, you can push the wave in and pin them to their tower. Only after you've created a state where you win either way should you first put your hands on the objective — that's the safe order.

Think of Objectives as an Excuse to Fight

The real aim of an objective is less the objective itself and more forcing a favorable clash. If you've cleared the enemy's vision, they won't understand the situation and will wander into a bush. Wait for them there, burst their health down instantly, build an advantage, and then start. If your team is lined up to dive in first, you can commit alongside them without holding back; even if the enemy jungler hits back, your team's pressure forces the enemy to retreat, and you can keep chasing their backs to win the skirmish. If the enemy comes to contest, abandon the objective and fight; if they don't, take it quietly. Commit fully to this two-way choice.

Read Every Lane, Not Just Your Own Role

The faster the game develops, the more the jungler is tested on grasping not just their own responsibilities but the situation in every lane. Openings when your teammate is away recalling, states where the enemy has gained an advantage and can roam to other lanes, moments when your teammate is letting an advantage slip — being able to read the movements of other lanes greatly changes the quality of your play. When a teammate breaks down mentally and stops warning those around them, the wound spreads all at once from there. That's exactly why it's important to grasp "how your teammates should move right now" and to communicate it. When you take an advantage, share the next objective to target ahead of time, and prompt teammates to make the call to pull back early from unfavorable fights in spots with nothing to gain.