CS and gold per minute in LoL: what good farming is worth
Kills grab attention, but most of your gold comes from minions. Going from 6 to 10 CS per minute gives you a whole item lead without fighting once. Here you watch that gap grow minute by minute.
CS is guaranteed gold
Each CS (a minion you last-hit) gives you gold: a melee minion gives around 21, a caster 14 and a siege minion quite a bit more, so as a reference each CS is worth about 20 gold. It doesn’t seem like much for one, but it adds up nonstop and risk-free.
The chart shows it: at 6, 8 and 10 CS per minute, the gold lines fan out on their own over time. By minute 20, farming at 10 per minute puts you about 1600 gold ahead of farming at 6 — a full item of difference, without killing anyone or risking a fight.
That’s why CS is the foundation of an advantage: it’s gold that doesn’t depend on the enemy misplaying. Raising your CS per minute is often the most cost-effective improvement you can make. Where each coin comes from is in where gold comes from, and how to turn that gold into power is in gold efficiency and how to build.
Gold accumulated from minions only (≈20 gold per CS as reference), at 6, 8 and 10 CS per minute. The lines fan out on their own: by minute 20, 10 CS/min is ~1600 gold ahead of 6 CS/min —a whole item— without killing anyone. Farming is guaranteed gold.
Benchmarks and why missing CS for fights is costly
As a reference: 6 CS per minute is weak, 8 is fine, and 10 or more is high level. A full wave is 6 minions every ~30 seconds, so “not missing waves” already puts you near the good benchmarks. The key isn’t farming fast, it’s not missing last hits and not losing whole waves.
Here’s the costly mistake: running off to a shaky fight across the map and letting a wave die on your tower costs you ~120 gold each time. Do the math over several waves and you’ll see that many “for nothing” fights give up more gold than any kill would grant. Farming is deferred damage.
This doesn’t mean never fight: it means fight when it’s worth it and go back to the wave when it isn’t. Knowing when to push, collect or rotate is covered in map control and waves; plan your moves on the interactive map.
FAQ
How much gold does a CS give in LoL?
It depends on the minion: melee gives around 21, caster 14 and siege quite a bit more, so as a reference each CS is worth about 20 gold. A full wave (6 minions) is around 105–120 gold.
How many CS per minute is good?
6 per minute is weak, 8 is fine and 10 or more is high level. By minute 20, the gap between 6 and 10 CS per minute is about 1600 gold: a full item, earned just by farming.