Teemo Guide

Updated for patch 26.22.

Ability numbers checked on patch 26.21 · Strategy reviewed: October 2026

Long story short, teemo is the Swift Scout, a Bandle City yordle who patrols the top lane with mushrooms and a blinding dart. His kit is unlike any other champion in the top lane: ranged auto-attacks, a blind that cancels the enemy’s next basic, poison on every hit, and a map-wide mushroom field that locks the enemy jungler out of two camp paths. One Teemo in top lane turns an entire draft into a vision-dependent slog. The pages below cover his 500-range autos on 26.22, Noxious Trap mushroom placement in this Teemo guide, ranged top-laners that match his kiting range, and skins ranked by Little Devil VFX.

Abilities and role

Long story short, riot classifies Teemo as Marksman/Mage on 500 attack range (ranged on a top-lane champion, which is why he counters most melee tops). His resource is Mana, and his difficulty sits at 6/10. His play rate: 97 % top, 3 % support for engage-ADC drafts. Put simply, the kit is Q blind, W speed, E on-hit poison, R mushrooms.

Guerrilla Warfare (Passive)

Stand still for a few seconds and Teemo turns invisible indefinitely. Inside brush he can move while invisible, and breaking stealth gives him a short attack speed burst. Honestly, this is why his lane trades feel so unfair. Stand in brush, let the enemy walk forward, pop out with the attack speed buff for a free wave trade.

Blinding Dart (Q)

Hit an enemy with a dart for 680 units of range. The target is blinded for 2 seconds, missing every basic attack during the blind. 7-second flat cooldown, 70-90 Mana. The catch is on the blind window: a well-timed Q completely cancels any auto-reliant champion’s next trade attempt. Max this first every game. The lane rotation is auto-stack with E poison, Q when the enemy walks up for a trade, auto for the free damage.

Move Quick (W)

Toggle on for a passive movement speed bonus. If Teemo takes damage from a champion or turret, the passive turns off for 5 seconds. Active cast gives him a burst of extra speed that is not disabled by damage. 14-second cooldown, 40 Mana. Look, this is the kiting tool that lets him stay at 500-unit range through every melee attempt. Max W third for the active duration.

Toxic Shot (E)

Passive, no cooldown, no cost. Every auto-attack applies poison that deals damage over 4 seconds. For what it’s worth, Toxic Shot stacks additively (not multiplicatively) with each auto, so a quick 3-shot stack on an enemy ticks for enormous damage over the next 4 seconds (way more than the on-hit damage alone). Max E second.

Noxious Trap (R)

Throw a mushroom at a target location for 600 to 900 units. The mushroom arms after 1.5 seconds and triggers on any enemy who walks over it, exploding for AoE poison damage and a slow. 0.25-second cooldown between throws, 35-75 Mana per cast. Charges stack up to 3 at a time. Sure, the obvious use is a mushroom in the lane bush before a jungle gank, Clean wins also come from mushroom placements at Baron and Dragon entrances during contest. A mushroom at every pixel brush entrance blocks the enemy jungler from pathing without a sweeper lens.

The mushroom is invisible once armed. Stepping on it is almost always a death sentence for a squishy. His classic late-game pattern is a mushroom field at the Baron and Dragon entrances during contest.

Strengths and weaknesses

Why does Teemo stay in the top five top-lane counter picks every patch? His ranged auto-attack range counters every melee top laner in the game. Nothing matches his vision denial from R. The Q blind cancels the enemy carry’s next trade attempt. His 500-unit auto range keeps him safe from any gap closer under 300 units. Teemo has no soft phase. He dominates lane phase from level 1 against any melee top laner.

The lane breaks down when the top-laner has a gap-closer that eats three mushrooms and still dives him. Thing is, ranged top-laners counter him just as hard. Vayne tumble kites around his Q blind, Quinn vault matches his range plus mobility, Jayce poke out-ranges every attempt he makes to farm. Hard-matchup lanes to pick around in blind pick: Vayne, Quinn, Jayce, Kennen, Yone (gap closers). Teams with heavy wave-clear and 5v5 teamfight composition neutralize his lane-bully window.

How to play by game stage

Early lane, levels 1 through 6: auto-stack E poison on wave 1, Q when the enemy walks up to last-hit for the trade cancel, W toggle for kiting speed. You want to hit level 6 at 7:00 with the enemy top laner on 50% HP, then open the first mushroom field across the lane entrance. Ask the jungler to track. An early mushroom in the river bush at level 6 ends every gank attempt before the enemy jungler reaches the lane.

Mid game, levels 7 through 13: splitpush. Once Teemo has Nashor’s Tooth and boots, split push the side lane and mushroom the jungle entrances. Pressure appears. The mushroom field plus Q blind plus auto-stack combo on an engage attempt turns a 1v2 play into a free kill with the slow stacking. Pair with a scaling jungler who gives him map pressure: Udyr, Shyvana, Hecarim, Nunu. Teemo never front-lines; the 500-range auto and lack of mobility turn any front engage into a free kill.

Late game, levels 14 and up: side-lane. Full combo on a stunned ADC with 3-stack poison is a 6-second damage-over-time melt. Survivability now matters less than damage. A Nashor’s Tooth is almost mandatory on Teemo late game (the attack speed stacks his E poison faster than any other item) because the whole team expects him to splitpush. 1v1 scenarios? Save Q blind for the counter-engage, not the opener.

Mushroom field placement at river bushes substitutes for pink wards past level 11. Can he really mushroom the enemy jungler’s path if he does not know where the sweeper lens is? That is the real question. Place pink wards near pixel brush before every objective.Fog of war on Baron and Dragon entrances buys the entire mushroom-field setup.

Who counters Teemo

Funny enough, His worst matchups in solo queue fall into three archetypes, each closing a different gap in the Teemo 500-range kiting line. Ranged top laners like Vayne, Quinn and Jayce match his range and strip the Q blind trade pattern, while gap-close bruisers like Yone, Camille and Jarvan close distance before W speed boost kicks in. Point-and-click counters short-circuit his mushroom field: Rammus thornmail reflect, Yorick ghoul priority, Hecarim ult charge. All three ruin him. A deeper read on 500-range autos, mushroom placement and the Teemo lane plan sits in our Teemo counters page.

ARAM notes

On the Howling Abyss, he runs a Nashor’s Tooth start into Shadowflame, with Rylai’s Crystal Scepter for the slow-chain before the first fight ends. On Howling Abyss he gets a +5% damage, +5% damage taken tag that keeps Toxic Shot threatening. Teemo carries the Howling Abyss lane on mushroom chokes at both exits; a wall-engage team eats 3 stacks per rotation. Build order and mushroom-placement notes sit on our Teemo ARAM build page.

Teemo skins

There are 15 Teemo skins Three of 15 Teemo skins reworked the mushroom and recall animations. Little Devil Teemo is the legendary with reworked animations, a devilish music tie-in and a horn-tipped dart. Omega Squad Teemo is the gritty military alternative with a smoke-shroud recall. Cottontail Teemo is the Easter alternative with a bunny-themed VFX pack. Astronaut Teemo stays a classic favorite. Beemo keeps a quieter alternative built around a bee theme. All 15 Teemo splash arts, RP prices and release years live on our All Teemo skins and prices page. Little Devil is the loud pick; Omega Squad is the quiet pick.

FAQ

Is Teemo easy to learn?

Riot pegs Teemo at 6/10 difficulty; mushroom-field placement and 500-range autos define the ceiling. His cap sits in Q blind timing and mushroom placement for teamfights, and those take dozens of games to master.