Perfect Recall Timing in League of Legends (2025 Guide)
September 2, 2025
This guide was created by STATUP.GG, an AI-powered voice coach designed to help you play smarter and more confidently.
Recall is often seen as an extension of lane management. Good lane management creates three main benefits: recall advantage, trading advantage, and vision control. Among these, recall timing is a crucial strategic factor that can prevent your opponent from snowballing or further amplify your own lead.
So what makes a recall truly optimal? In this post, we will explain the core principles of recall timing in League of Legends, focusing on how to minimize wave loss while maximizing your ability to snowball the game.
A good recall in League of Legends does not necessarily mean keeping every last CS. Instead, it means recalling while still securing as much minion experience as possible. To make this work, you need to push the enemy minion wave before it crashes into your tower, and the key to this strategy is using the cannon wave.
The standard recall timing is simple: clear the entire wave right before the cannon wave, then recall.
By doing this, you lose fewer minions since cannon minions tank for a long time in the early game when wave clear is still slow. Once you return to lane, you can pick up experience and gold with almost no loss.
If you are ahead in lane, you can also pressure your opponent’s health to force an early recall. By recalling on this timing yourself, you not only avoid losing gold and experience but also gain both advantages uncontested.
Every minion wave spawns every 30 seconds. As of 2025, the first cannon wave no longer arrives at 2:05 but instead at 2:35. This adjustment has a major impact on the early laning phase, making it essential to understand the timing in order to minimize both experience and gold loss.
By the time the 2:35 cannon wave reaches lane, most mid laners will have just hit level 3. This also lines up with the 3:30 mark, when the jungler typically goes for the first Scuttle Crab. For champions who are weak in lane or disadvantaged in early skirmishes, recalling around this cannon wave after spending roughly 400 gold is a common and effective strategy.
Another ideal recall window comes with the second cannon wave, which spawns at 4:05. If you can shove the lane quickly before this timing and recall, you return to lane having spent your gold efficiently with little to no experience loss. This creates the smoothest possible lane progression.
This second cannon wave also overlaps with the jungler’s second raptor camp clear, especially if they opened with a raptor start. That makes it a perfect opportunity to sync with your jungler for vision control or proactive plays, turning recall into a key moment of lane-jungle coordination.
Since minion waves spawn every 30 seconds, their passage past your second tower also follows a fixed schedule.
If you have the ability (through levels or items) to quickly clear the cannon wave, you can use these timings to push the lane, recall, or even set up additional actions like roaming.
The key questions to ask are:
Both of these decisions are calculated based on minion arrival times.
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