How to counter Hayabusa in Mobile Legends; Best Items and Hero Picks

Hayabusa is an assassin-class hero in Mobile Legends, and probably one of the most popular charaxcters in the game.

Not only is Hayabusa a very fun character to play in the game, he is also very annoying when played well.

Since he was introduced in Mobile Legends several years back, Hayabusa’s character has gone through several rounds of revamps.

In this guide, we will be covering different ways on how players can counter Hayabusa’s presence in the game.

About Hayabusa and his abilities

Hayabusa is a ninja-like assassin-class hero with plenty of “hit-and-run” abilities.

Not only does Hayabusa have many abilities that allow him to deal high amounts of damage, he is also able to escape from combat very easily — making him a challenging opponent to play against.

In most games, Hayabusa’s role is to scout around, constantly disrupt enemy attacks (poking them and running away), and to pick off lone/weaker heroes (especially those attempting to escape).

While Hayabusa is a fairly easy hero to play, he is hard to master — it takes a lot of practice to become an effective Hayabusa player.

Hayabusa’s abilities in their simplest form are as follows:

• Skill 1 (Ninjutsu: Phantom Shuriken): Hayabusa shoots a wave of shurikens in a cone-like fashion in front of him, dealing AOE damage and adding a ‘shadow strike’ on the enemy. Each stack of ‘shadow strike’ deals an additional 5% of damage.
• Skill 2 (Ninjutsu: Quad Shadow): Hayabusa is able to blink forward, and 4 shadows appear around him (front, back, and each side). If a shadow hits an enemy, it will deal damage to them and add 1 stack of ‘shadow strike’. Hayabusa can blink to any shadow at whim during the cooldown of the spell, and if he blinks to a shadow that has hit an enemy, he will blink directly behind the enemy + dealing damage. This spell is very powerful and not only allows Hayabusa to close the distance with enemies, it also allows him to escape very quickly.
• Ultimate: Hayabusa turns into a shadow and launches multiple attacks on enemies around him. The higher the skill level, the higher the number of attacks Hayabusa will deal to the enemies around him. The skill will also deal additional attacks to opponents that have a ‘shadow strike’ stack on them. This spell is extremely powerful when used, as it can take enemies very quickly if they are the only opponent next to Hayabusa.
• Passive: Hayabusa’s spells deal 1 ‘shadow strike’ stack on enemies. Every additional stack increases Hayabusa’s damage by 5% to the opponent.

How Hayabusa is Played

Hayabusa is annoying — and what makes him very fearsome is that he almost never attacks enemies head on.

This is mainly due to his play style and the fact that he is fairly weak HP-wise.

In fact, if Hayabusa is caught off-guard, he could be taken down very quickly.

Similar to many other assassin heroes like Natalia, Karina, and Fanny, Hayabusa will focus on targeting enemies that are weaker to physical damage such as marksmen, mages, and other assassins.

It is usually very difficult to anticipate when Hayabusa will show up, as he is usually lurking around the jungle and river.

Here is how Hayabusa is typically played:

1. Almost all the time, Hayabusa players start off their attack by blinking in with skill 2 (Quad Shadow).
2. Upon blinking in, a shadow (usually the one in front) will hit the enemy, allowing Hayabusa to blink directly behind them to attack. Once this happens, Hayabusa players usually use skill 1 (Shuriken) to deal additional damage + ‘shadow strike’ stacks once he appears behind the enemy.
3. If the enemy is too strong, Hayabusa players will blink to another shadow to escape. This process is repeated several times, poking enemy heroes until they have been weakened.
4. Once an enemy hero is weak enough, Hayabusa players will attempt to go in for the kill — by blinking in and then turning on their ultimate spell. Often times, the enemy hero will be taken down.

Most Hayabusa players generally roam around the map looking to pick off weak heroes and appear right after team fights to pick off last-standing enemies.

The rest of his time will be spent farming and rotating between jungle creeps.

Most players also typically go for retribution (jungling) as their battle spell, giving Hayabusa a level (and financial) advantage during the early game (he will most likely be level 4 when everyone else is still level 2/3).

Hayabusa players rely heavily on their ultimate spell, and will attempt to roam around the map after they hit level 4.

How to Counter Hayabusa

The key to countering Hayabusa is to reduce the amount of damage he is able to deal to you.

This can generally be done in 4 ways:

• Having a level advantage over him (he should either be same or lower level than you). These can be done by disrupting his jungling activity early in the game, or to try and out-farm him (usually harder at higher levels).
• Having more defensive gear.
• Always sticking together in a team (so Hayabusa’s ultimate won’t deal as much damage).
• Hunting + killing him early in the game (usually fairly hard, but Hayabusa players can easily be taken down if they engage poorly in team fights).

Hayabusa also has many weaknesses:

• He has low HP, making him very easy to take down. Some heroes can probably 2-shot-kill him.
• A bulk of his damage comes from his ultimate spell and ‘shadow strike’ stacks. Avoid taking the full damage output from his ultimate — hang around creeps and other team members.
• Hayabusa uses up a phantom shadow when he blinks to it, and once he runs out of phantom shadows, he has to escape by foot — making it very easy to hunt him down.

So the key to countering Hayabusa is simple:

• Disable him quickly with stuns.
• Stay close to team members or creeps (so his ultimate is nullified).
• If you’re a weaker hero (assassin, mage, marksman), ensure that your health is not too low (preferably above 70%) while in the battlefield.
• When running from Hayabusa, escape as far as you can and do not hang around the tower — Hayabusa players tend to tower-dive + ultimate, sticking close to towers does not help most of the time.

Hero Picks to Counter Hayabusa

Similar to other assassin heroes, Hayabusa is a melee combat hero — requiring him to get close to an opponent in order to effectively cast his skills.

So the key to countering Hayabusa is to stun / kill him the moment he gets close, and to ensure you have sufficient HP / defensive items while going into the battlefield.

Hayabusa players can also be easily taken down when they are on the run (escaping after combat) — coming from the opposite direction will usually leave Hayabusa players with very few escape alternatives.

Here are a list of heroes that can easily take down Hayabusa:

• Using fighter heroes with more HP (Jawhead, Sun, Kaja, Pacquito, etc.)
• Using burst damage magic heroes with stuns/disabling skills (Eudora, Cyclops, Aurora, etc.)
• Using fewer marksman heroes.

Hayabusa Item Counters

Considering Hayabusa deals only physical damage, items to counter him would generally be anything that could:

• Items that reduce physical damage (increase armor).
• Increase HP significantly.
• High damage or items to take him down before he takes you down.
• Prevent him from dealing any damage to you (Winter Truncheon’s active spell).

In Conclusion

Hayabusa is a hero that is played in a ‘cowardly’ fashion, and typically engages in battles he knows he can win.

The key is to be patient, stay safe, and stick together as a team.

In time, over-eager Hayabusa players will try to ambush the team, and that is your chance to take him down.