Quick answer (23 October 2026, Patch 2.2.16a, Season 42 "Starward Decade"): The community template for Sun right now is Rapid Boots, Corrosion Scythe, Windtalker, Demon Hunter Sword, Great Dragon Spear and Sea Halberd, built from the items that show up most across 41 player-submitted builds. Malefic Roar is the swap into tanky teams. Run the Assassin emblem and take Petrify, the most-used battle spell in those builds. If you jungle, take Retribution instead. If you want the "tank Sun" that players are arguing about this week, swap the damage for Thunder Belt, Brute Force Breastplate, Oracle and Chastise Pauldron and keep Corrosion Scythe. Players in this week's debate mostly say it's annoying to fight but loses hard to lifesteal.
Sun, the "Monkey King", sits at a 52.62% ranked win rate (A-tier) on mlbbhub for Patch 2.2.16a, with a 1.62% pick rate and a 21.51% ban rate. He gets banned in about one draft in five, which is a lot for a hero this rarely picked. A r/MobileLegendsGame thread this week went further, arguing tank Sun is "more bannable than Lukas, Aulus, Hirara, Marcel and Rafaela combined". The replies mostly disagreed, and that disagreement is the useful part of this guide.
What changed for Sun in Season 42?
Moonton reworked how Sun's clones work in Patch 2.2.16, the Season 42 patch that went live on 16 September 2026. The target was roaming Sun. Here's the designers' note, quoted from the in-game patch text mirrored on Liquipedia:
"We've noticed that roaming Sun takes too many resources away from his teammates, negatively affecting their experience. We've therefore made targeted adjustments to rein in his roaming build while minimizing the impact on his performance in other lanes."
The concrete changes, from the same patch note:
| Change | Before 2.2.16 | After 2.2.16 |
|---|---|---|
| Skill 1 "Endless Variety" cooldown | 10–8s | 6.5–5s |
| Skill 1 base damage | 200–400 | 280–480 |
| Gold the enemy gets for killing a Doppelganger | 26 (+1.5 per game minute) | 10 (+1.0 per game minute) |
| Passive HP regen from Doppelganger hits | 25% of the Doppelganger's Physical Attack | 15% (the in-game text now reads "75 plus 15%") |
| Skill 3 "Instantaneous Move" slow | 20% | 25% |
| Skill 3 cooldown | 6s | 5s |
| Skill 3 base damage | 270–320 | 270–300 |
| Ultimate "Clone Techniques" cooldown | 36–28s | 32–22s |
The patch also standardised every clone. Skill 1 and Skill 2 clones deal 60% damage and take 150% damage. Ultimate clones deal 80–100% damage and take 120%. None of these skills goes on cooldown while its Doppelganger is still alive.
Put together: your clones are cheaper for the enemy to kill but come back faster, and the cooldown only starts once a clone dies, so a clone the enemy ignores keeps your next cast waiting. Sun now gives away very little gold when the enemy clears his clones, which matters most in a side lane where they kill a lot of them. Patch 2.2.16a (14 October 2026) didn't change Sun. It only touched Aulus, Hirara, Eudora, Rafaela and Kalea (full list in our MLBB patch notes).
Is Sun good in Season 42?
Yes, in low and mid ranks. Higher up he's more of a draft pick than a safe one. Here is his rank split on mlbbhub (refreshed 22 October 2026):
| Rank bracket | Win rate | Pick rate | Ban rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Epic | 56.07% | 1.73% | 26.32% |
| Legend | 54.71% | 1.89% | 28.68% |
| Mythic | 52.86% | 1.80% | 26.37% |
| Mythical Honor | 51.08% | 1.58% | 19.04% |
| Mythical Glory+ | 49.73% | 1.30% | 10.48% |
| All ranks | 52.62% | 1.62% | 21.51% |
The trend is clear: his win rate drops by more than 6 points from Epic to Mythical Glory+, and his ban rate falls from about 26–29% to 10.48%. Our read is that lower-rank players struggle to handle three bodies at once, while higher-rank players clear clones faster and save crowd control for the real Sun. The stats show the drop. They don't prove the reason.
mlbb.io, with data updated 23 October, agrees with the overall read. It has Sun at 53.1% win rate, 1.7% pick and 22.8% ban, and calls him "one of the most-picked Junglers in Mythical Honor right now". He's an EXP laner who now gets played in the jungle a lot. If you're choosing a pick for either role, compare him against our best EXP lane heroes and best jungle heroes lists.
How does Sun's kit work?
Everything Sun does comes back to Doppelgangers, clones that copy his stats. Skill descriptions below are the current in-game text (mirrored on mlbbhub) at level 1:
| Skill | What it does | Key numbers |
|---|---|---|
| Simian God (passive) | Hits from Sun or his clones cut the target's Physical Defense. Sun heals each time a clone deals damage, and basic attacks deal extra damage to creeps. | −5% Physical Defense per hit, stacks up to 6 times (30%). Heal: 75 + 15% of the clone's Physical Attack. +65 damage to creeps |
| Endless Variety (Skill 1) | Throws the Golden Staff. It damages everything in its path, then turns into a clone that chases enemies. | 280 (+40% Total Physical Attack). CD 6.5s, 70 mana. Clone lasts 5s. Shares its level and cooldown with Swift Exchange |
| Swift Exchange (Skill 2) | Throws the staff and leaves a clone where you stood. Sun turns into the staff, goes concealed and reappears at max range. | Same damage and clone stats as Skill 1 |
| Instantaneous Move (Skill 3) | All clones and Sun strike one target. It counts as a basic attack, so it triggers attack effects, but it can't crit. | 270 (+40% Total PA), 25% slow (stacks) for 1.5s. CD 5s, 40 mana |
| Clone Techniques (Ultimate) | Summons a long-lasting clone | Clone deals 80% damage, takes 120%, lasts 8s. CD 32s |
Two things matter more than any number in that table.
Skill 3 counts as a basic attack. That's why Sun builds like a marksman. Each attack effect you buy (Corrosion Scythe's slow, Demon Hunter Sword's current-HP damage, Thunder Belt's proc) gets a chance to fire on that collapse.
Swift Exchange is usually your dodge, not your opener. It leaves a clone behind and hides the real Sun. mlbbhub's guide calls opening every fight with Skill 2 one of the most common Sun mistakes, because it wastes the one tool that makes enemies aim their crowd control at the wrong body. Using it to close the gap is fine once the enemy has already spent a key crowd-control skill.
Skill 1 and Skill 2 share one cooldown, and it doesn't start while that clone is alive. You get one Skill 1 or Skill 2 clone at a time, not one of each.
What is the best Sun build in Season 42?
There's no single best build. There are three real paths, and the right one depends on your lane and the enemy draft.
1. Community damage build (jungle or EXP)
This is the template mlbb.io assembled from 41 community builds submitted between 26 July and 20 October 2026. It isn't one build that 41 players run. It's the most common item for each slot, and the count on the right is how many of the 41 builds include that item at all. Submissions carry no match results, so this shows what players build, not what wins.
| Slot | Item | Cost | What it does for Sun | Community builds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rapid Boots | 750 | +55 Movement Speed, 35% slow reduction | 22 of 41 |
| 2 | Corrosion Scythe (power spike) | 2,050 | +30 PA, +30% Attack Speed. Basic attacks deal 80 extra damage and stack a slow | 30 of 41 |
| 3 | Windtalker | 1,880 | +35% Attack Speed, 20% crit. A periodic basic attack hits up to 3 units for magic damage | 26 of 41 |
| 4 | Demon Hunter Sword | 2,180 | Basic attacks deal 8% of the target's current HP and heal you | 17 of 41 |
| 5 | Great Dragon Spear | 2,140 | +70 PA, 20% crit, 10% CDR, 30% Movement Speed after you cast your ultimate | 18 of 41 |
| 6 | Sea Halberd | 2,050 | Lifebane: cuts the target's shields and HP regen to 60% for 3s | 19 of 41 |
Total: 11,050 gold. Corrosion Scythe is the item almost everyone agrees on (30 of 41). For jungle Sun, enchant your boots with Retribution as usual. The two swaps mlbb.io flags are Malefic Roar (37% of builds, for stacked armor) and Thunder Belt (17%, against magic damage).
2. Attack-effect EXP lane build
This is mlbbhub's curated EXP lane setup. Note that it's tagged to an older patch (2.1.67), so treat it as a template rather than a current consensus.
Swift Boots, Corrosion Scythe, Demon Hunter Sword, Golden Staff, Sea Halberd, Windtalker: 10,870 gold.
The idea is that Golden Staff's Endless Strike makes the attack after every two non-crit basic attacks trigger attack effects two extra times. Stack it on top of Corrosion Scythe and Demon Hunter Sword and each of those swings applies their effects three times. Golden Staff also converts each 1% of crit chance you gain into 1% attack speed, and Endless Strike only counts non-critical hits, so it's built for an attack-speed path, not a crit one. That's why the community template above leans on Great Dragon Spear's crit and mostly skips Golden Staff. Pick one path or the other. Don't half-build both.
3. Tank Sun
The top-voted Sun build on mlbb.io right now isn't a damage build at all:
Rapid Boots, Thunder Belt, Brute Force Breastplate, Corrosion Scythe, Oracle, Chastise Pauldron: 10,450 gold, played with the Revitalize battle spell.
It works because Sun's clones copy his stats. A tanky Sun makes tanky clones, and Oracle increases the shields and HP regen effects he receives by 25%. Thunder Belt's passive makes your next basic attack every 4 seconds deal 50 (+100% of your total Physical and Magic Defense) as true damage around the target, and it briefly slows them by 99%. Each proc that hits an enemy hero also permanently adds 1 Hybrid Defense.
One Reddit player asked whether that true-damage proc multiplies across every clone. A reply in the thread said no: "it's 1 basic attack every 4 seconds, it would have been broken". We couldn't confirm how clones interact with it on the current patch, so buy Thunder Belt for the durability and the slow. Don't buy it counting on your clones to multiply the damage.
Is tank Sun actually strong? The replies in that thread mostly said no. Commenters called it "annoying at best but not hard to deal with", and said a damage Sun that takes towers is the scarier version. Their main point was that tank Sun is "heavily countered by lifesteal heroes", because every extra body is something for them to heal off. Even a player in the thread who said they had 1,640 Sun games buys Thunder Belt first, because otherwise Alucard deletes them. Our read, based on that debate and not on tank-specific data (the trackers don't split Sun's stats by build): tank Sun is a niche solo-queue pick for teams without lifesteal or sustain. Switch to build 1 the moment you see Alucard, Ruby or a Demon Hunter Sword carry.
What emblem and battle spell should Sun use?
Emblem: Assassin is the most common choice, in 16 of the 41 mlbb.io community builds. The most-used talents are Agility (14 builds), Wilderness Blessing (13, the jungle talent) and Quantum Charge (14). For EXP lane, mlbbhub's curated page runs Assassin with Rupture, Master Assassin and Killing Spree. Its frontline variant switches to Fighter with Firmness, Festival of Blood and Brave Smite. Our MLBB emblem guide breaks down what each talent does.
Battle spell:
- Petrify is the community favourite, in 46% of the 41 builds. It's an extra lockdown on top of Skill 3's slow.
- Retribution if you jungle. mlbbhub pairs it with Bloody Retribution for sustain.
- Vengeance on the frontline build, for when you have to take the first hit.
- Flicker for EXP lane players who want one guaranteed dodge or finishing dash.
- Revitalize only on tank Sun.
The full trade-offs are in our battle spells guide.
How do you play Sun? Combo, lane and teamfights
The combo: Ultimate → Skill 1 or Skill 2 → basic attacks → Skill 3 to collapse. Drop the long-lasting ultimate clone first. Then throw Endless Variety at the target, or use Swift Exchange to close in while concealed. You only get one of the two, because they share a cooldown that doesn't start until that clone is gone. Basic-attack while the clones attach, then press Instantaneous Move once every body can reach the same target.
Skill order: Endless Variety first. It shares its level with Swift Exchange, so leveling it upgrades both. Put points into the ultimate at every unlock.
Laning (first 6 minutes):
- Throw Skill 1 through the wave, not past it, so the clone spawns somewhere useful. If the enemy kills your first clone instantly, this isn't a lane for even trades.
- Before level 4 you're one body short and lose straight fights to strong early EXP laners. Last-hit, keep the wave near your tower and wait.
- Throw Skill 1 into the side bush before you walk up to a risky wave. The clone scouts the bush for free.
Your power spike is Corrosion Scythe plus Demon Hunter Sword, which mlbbhub puts at around minute 7 to 10 if your lane went evenly. Before that, Skill 3 is a gap-closer. After it, Skill 3 slows a target that's already losing armor and HP to several bodies at once.
Teamfights: Wait for the enemy's first crowd-control skill before you commit. Send your first clone in from the side, not straight at the carry, so the enemy has to pick which body to answer. And don't group for every fight. Sun is drafted to pull defenders to a side lane. If your side wave is about to need two defenders, stay on it and let your team take something on the other side of the map.
Who counters Sun, and who does he beat?
Both trackers agree on the top three:
| Counters Sun | mlbbhub (2.2.16a) | mlbb.io (23 Oct) |
|---|---|---|
| Natan | +5.2 | +4.9 |
| Joy | +4.7 | +3.4 |
| Ruby | +3.8 | +3.0 |
| Alucard | +2.6 | +2.6 |
| Marcel | +3.7 | +1.7 |
| Karina | +2.9 | +1.3 |
| Faramis | +3.8 | not listed |
Numbers are the win-rate edge (percentage points) the counter has against Sun in ranked matchups.
The pattern is lifesteal or sustain, plus wide-area damage. Ruby and Alucard heal off every clone they hit. mlbbhub's own counter note for Ruby says lifesteal fighters "can steal a lot of HP by hitting Sun and his Dopplegangers". Area damage clears all the bodies at once, so Sun's numbers advantage disappears. mlbbhub also flags X.Borg, Paquito and Phoveus as bad signs in draft: if the enemy already has two of them, don't lock Sun. If you're drafting into Sun, pick a lifesteal fighter for the EXP lane and a mage or marksman whose damage hits everything in an area.
Sun beats (mlbbhub, win-rate edge): Jawhead +4.1, Saber +3.3, Harley +3.1, Layla +3.0, Diggie +2.9, Popol and Kupa +2.9, Franco +2.7. Low-damage tanks like Franco can't keep up with his armor shred, and squishy marksmen with no escape get run down by three bodies. For the heroes that get banned even more than Sun, see our Season 42 ban list. The Season 42 tier list shows where he sits among the other EXP laners.
Want Sun on a ranked-ready account, or an EXP lane climb handled for you? timesaver.gg covers both, and the builds above work the same either way.
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FAQ
Is Sun still good in MLBB Season 42? Yes. He's A-tier on Patch 2.2.16a with a 52.62% ranked win rate and a 21.51% ban rate on mlbbhub. He's strongest in Epic (56.07%) and Legend (54.71%) and drops to 49.73% in Mythical Glory+, where players clear clones well.
What is the best build for Sun in Mobile Legends? The community template (the most common item per slot across 41 submitted builds on mlbb.io) is Rapid Boots, Corrosion Scythe, Windtalker, Demon Hunter Sword, Great Dragon Spear and Sea Halberd (11,050 gold). Corrosion Scythe is the closest thing to a must-buy, in 30 of the 41 builds. Swap Malefic Roar in against teams stacking Physical Defense.
Is tank Sun good? It can work against teams with no lifesteal, because his clones copy his defense. Lifesteal heroes like Alucard and Ruby heal off every clone, though, and most players in this week's Reddit debate argued damage Sun is the stronger version. Build it as a situational pick, not your default.
Did Moonton nerf Sun in Season 42? Patch 2.2.16 adjusted him. It didn't flatly nerf him. Moonton targeted roaming Sun: clones give the enemy much less gold when killed, and passive healing from clones went down. To compensate, Skill 1 and the ultimate got shorter cooldowns, and Skill 3 got a stronger slow and a 5s cooldown. Patch 2.2.16a didn't change him.
Does Thunder Belt proc on Sun's clones? It isn't settled. The item text says it fires on your next basic attack every 4 seconds, and a reply on r/MobileLegendsGame this week said it doesn't multiply across clones, but we couldn't confirm the current interaction. Buy it for durability and the slow, not expecting your clones to multiply it.
Who is the best counter to Sun? Natan, Joy and Ruby have the biggest edge against him on both mlbbhub and mlbb.io for the current patch, with Natan on top (+5.2 on mlbbhub). Lifesteal or sustain fighters and area-damage heroes are the general answer, because they punish the clones as well as the real Sun.
