Why farm matters
Farming is the second economy after lanes. The jungle is full of gold and experience, but it only pays off for the player who farms with intent: stacks camps, keeps a route without idle time, and switches to fights at the right moment. A rich hero with no map pressure is useless, so farm is always subordinate to the team's tempo and the wider goal of climbing MMR.
There are four camp types in the jungle (small, medium, large, ancient). You stack by pulling creeps past the camp boundary by the 53rd second of the minute. Clearing camps drops Madstone for neutral items. The farm metric is GPM and XPM, but the goal is not gold for gold's sake — it is gold for objectives.
Jungle camps
A camp is a spot where neutral creeps appear every minute if no one is nearby. By strength they split into four types:
- Small. The weakest camps: a little gold and experience, but takeable from the first minutes by almost any hero.
- Medium. Noticeably richer than small ones and still safe — a support's bread and butter between waves.
- Large. Tankier and more rewarding, already needing a bit of farm or skill.
- Ancients. The most dangerous jungle creeps; early on only heroes with the right kit or items take them. The gold and experience are the highest, though.
Clearing a jungle camp outright drops Madstone — the resource neutral items are crafted from in-game. It comes from camps, not from lane creeps: an extra trip into the jungle buys you not just gold but an earlier neutral item tier.
Stacking and pulling
A stack is a way to double (and more) the income from one camp. Here is how:
- Arrive early. A few seconds before the minute ends, stand by the camp you want to stack.
- Pull creeps at :53. At around the 53rd second, attack the neutrals and pull them past the camp boundary.
- Clear the radius by :00. If the camp zone is empty at the new minute, the game spawns a fresh set of creeps — on top of the pulled ones.
- Clear the stack on a core. A core sweeps several stacked camps in one trip — a sharp jump in gold and experience.
A sister technique is pulling the lane creeps into the jungle: it clears the lane under your tower and feeds a support's farm. Both stacking and pulling are tied to the minute's timings (see timings).
Efficient farming
Efficient farming is not "standing in the jungle" — it is never losing a second:
- Chain the points. The ideal route is camp, lane wave, camp again, with no empty running.
- Buy farming items. Maelstrom, Battle Fury, Radiance and the like scale jungle and lane clear hugely.
- Watch GPM and XPM. It is feedback: if gold dips, there is idle time you can cut.
- Farm for an objective. Got a power item — convert it into a tower, Roshan or a fight, not into more laps around the jungle.
Common mistakes
Farming mistakes that cost games:
- AFK farming with objectives open. While you carve the jungle, the team loses towers and Roshan without you.
- Not stacking as a support. Extra stacks are free gold and experience for your core, and they pair well with roaming as a support.
- Over-farming. A rich hero who never steps into a fight applies no pressure on the game.
- Ignoring neutral items. Free stats just sit there — and you are weaker than you could be.
