Another game, another 5.8 CS per minute on the post-game screen. You stayed in lane, you hit your minions, and the enemy laner still left the laning phase an item up.
That gap usually comes from a handful of small leaks. The usual answer to "how do I improve my CS?" is "hit 10 CS per minute," which is a high-elo number, not a starting point. Here's a realistic creep score target, how to find your leaks, and the fix for each.
What Is a Good CS per Minute? Benchmarks by Role
Solo queue benchmarks by role:
- Solo laners: 7-8 CS per minute is healthy, 9+ is strong. Top laners usually run slightly lower, thanks to brutal matchups and teleports off the wave.
- ADC: Slightly above solo laners. An ad carry's kit is built for last-hitting, and nobody else should touch those minions.
- Jungle: 5.5-7, counting camps.
- Support: Excluded by design.
At 10 minutes, 70-80 CS is average, 80+ is strong and 100 CS is excellent. 10 CS per minute is a pro and high elo mark, not the baseline.
Published charts disagree for a reason. LeagueMath's patch 5.5 dataset had Challenger ADCs averaging 6.49 CS per minute in 2015, while modern rank charts put Master+ well above that. Some tables count only the lane phase, others the whole game, and some blend pro play with solo queue. Treat any chart as a ballpark.
How Much CS Is on the Map: The 90 Seconds Math
Per the League of Legends wiki, the first wave spawns at 0:30 and minion waves spawn every 30 seconds, each with 3 melee and 3 caster minions. Before 14:00, every third wave adds a cannon minion, so a cannon minion wave arrives every 90 seconds.
That's 12 lane minions a minute plus two cannons every three minutes, or roughly 12.7 minions per lane per minute.
So your target is really a capture rate. 8 CS per minute takes about 63% of one lane's farm. 10 CS per minute takes about 80%. Nobody gets 100%, because minions die while you trade, recall and walk back to lane. The question is where your gap comes from.
Want to CS Better? Find Where You Lose CS First
Missing CS comes from three leaks, and each needs a different fix.
1. Execution. You're in lane and still miss CS. Test it with a 1v0 Practice Tool run to 10:00. Under about 90 CS means mechanics are your leak.
2. Time away from the wave. Deaths, badly timed recalls, roams off unpushed waves. Check your real CS at 10 minutes against the capture-rate math above. Hit 95 alone but 62 in ranked? Those 33 minions mostly died while you were elsewhere.
3. Midgame neglect. In the post-game timeline, compare CS at 10 with CS at 20. The second ten minutes should add at least as much as the first, since none of it is spent waiting for minions to arrive. If it adds less, farm got left on the map.
In game, check CS against enemy CS on Tab every few minutes.
Learn How to CS: Last-Hitting Fundamentals
If the 1v0 test exposed you, start here. Good last hitting comes from knowing your champion's auto wind-up and projectile speed, not from staring at health bars, so the attack starts before the minion looks killable. Also turn Auto Attack off in your settings: idle autos push waves and steal last-hits you were timing.
A 10-Minute Practice Tool Drill
One 10-minute Practice Tool session before you queue. Work through the phases over days, not in one sitting.
- Autos only. Farm the first 10 minutes on your main champ with basic attacks and nothing else. Target: 80 CS.
- Add abilities, sparingly. Use your abilities only for last-hits you'd otherwise miss, like two casters dropping low at once. Save the mana you'd need for trades. Target: 90.
- Add pressure. Last-hit while moving and dodging, or bring a friend into a custom game to harass you. Target: 100 CS at 10.
Move up a phase once you hit the target twice in a row.
How to Farm Under Tower
Losing lane is where CS usually collapses, because every wave dies at your turret. The standard rhythm:
- Melee minions: two turret shots, then one auto.
- Caster minions: one auto, a turret shot, then the last-hit.
- Cannon minion: let the turret soften it, then finish it at low HP.
The rhythm shifts as your AD grows, so recheck it in the Practice Tool after your first item. And when the enemy laner is winning, concede the trade and farm under tower safely. Dying for one minion costs you a wave.
Wave Management and Recall Timing That Protect Your Farm
Every wave state decides whether minions die to you or without you.
Shove the wave before you leave. Before you recall or roam, push the wave into the enemy tower, ideally the cannon wave. The next waves then meet mid-lane instead of crashing into your turret while you shop.
Freeze to deny. Hold the wave just outside your own turret by only last-hitting. The enemy laner has to walk up to farm, into your jungler's reach, while you stay far from enemy jungler ganks.
Slow push before an objective. Kill the enemy casters first and only last-hit the rest, so your wave stacks over two or three waves. Crash it before dragon and join the fight with nothing dying at your tower.
Now price your mistakes in waves. A laning-phase death, counting the death timer and the walk back to lane, costs a wave or more. A recall that lets the cannon wave crash into your tower throws away all seven minions. Hence the rule: roam only from a pushed wave, never from a frozen one.
Keep CSing After the Laning Phase
Towers fall, five players group mid with nothing to do, and side waves die to turrets. That's the midgame leak.
The fix is boring. Collect side waves on the way to objectives: if dragon spawns in a minute, walk through the bot lane wave to get there. Catch waves before they crash into your turret, because turrets don't share gold. In downtime, clear your jungle camps (ping your jungler first, since junglers remember who stole their camps) and take enemy jungle camps when your team has vision and the enemy jungler shows elsewhere.
Solo lanes and ADCs should own the top lane and bot lane side waves, since that's where midgame gold per minute comes from.
Role Adjustments: Top, Mid, ADC and Jungle
Top laners: Against a lane bully, freeze near your tower so they have to overextend to touch you. When the enemy recalls, shove your wave into their tower so they lose CS on the way back.
Mid laners: You roam the most, so shove before every roam. A roam off an unpushed wave costs about a wave, so an empty roam is a straight loss.
ADC: Agree with your support on when to shove and when to freeze instead of guessing. After lane swaps, take a side lane.
Jungle: Camps count toward your CS, so a skipped camp is your missed last-hit. A full clear sets your tempo for the first gank, and you take a lane wave only when the laner is gone. Our jungle pathing guide covers planning clears around that.
Track Your CS per Minute and Get a Second Opinion
Forget the universal number. Your real benchmark is your own median CS per minute over the last 10-20 games, and your target is that median plus 0.5. Log your CS at 10 every game.
Once a week, review one VOD looking only for CS leaks. Pause at 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes, check CS against your enemy laner on Tab, and count minions that died without you. It's a coach's audit you can run yourself, and the cheapest way to get better at League.
If you can't tell which leak costs you the most, get your VODs reviewed by a high-elo coach on LoL Coaching. One reviewed game usually points straight at it.
FAQ
How much CS should I have at 20 minutes?
160 CS at 20 minutes is 8 CS per minute, a solid solo queue mark. 180-200 is strong. 200 CS or more means farming at about 10 per minute, which usually takes jungle camps on top of lane farm. Dignitas cites 220 for ADCs who take camps while their support freezes the lane.
Do more minions spawn later in the game?
Yes. The League wiki says minion waves spawn every 25 seconds from 14:00 and every 20 seconds from 30:00, with a cannon minion every second wave from 14:00 and every wave from 25:00. Per-lane supply climbs from about 12.7 minions per minute to roughly 14-15. So a CS per minute that falls after lane is a leak, not a shortage.
Is CS more important than KDA?
For steady gold, usually yes. A kill pays 300 gold before bounties early on (up to 420 at level 18). Minions pay 20 for a melee and 14 for a caster plus 50 and up for a cannon, roughly 19 gold each early on, so about 16 last-hits equal a kill. An extra 1 CS per minute over a 30-minute game is close to 600 gold: roughly one and a half to two kills, zero risk of dying. Kills still matter for tempo and denying the enemy team, but creep score is the gold you control.
