Step 1: Your first goal is to hit level 2 as quickly as possible. Your unburrow has very little use without your q to follow up, and it's hard to trade against certain matchups with only q. In the event of matchups that you can't just walk up and auto them to death, you're going to want to take control of the wave by immediately pushing it quickly with q, or by sitting back with w and denying any level 1 engages with the knockup. Once you hit level 2, you can start trading against weaker enemies with unburrow -> aa -> 3 q empowered autos, or you can farm with burrowed q until you hit level 3.

step 2: Once you hit level 3, you have the safety of your tunnels to resort to, if you have the push. Look to set them up ahead of time as pictured in the above section. Against melees, look to initiate trades with knockup and follow up with an aa -> 2 qs -> e -> last q (optional), as 4 hits fully charge your fury for e. Against ranged champions, you can trade by either spacing them and baiting them into w range or gapclosing first with a tunnel, ideally a pre-existing one so you have one to disengage with, and trading normally.

step 3: Once you have wave control, try to zone the enemy laner off cs and last hits by threatening a knockup trade whenever a minion they want to kill is low. After enough trades, you can look to dive, especially after 6, by using a tunnel to escape after a knockup -> combo or by dodging a turret shot with r to reset turret damage/prevent stacking and escaping turret range with a tunnel.

If you're able to properly crash the wave, look to let it push back without letting it grow too big. Once it's pushed to your side of the lane, you can look to freeze and assume complete control over the lane until you get to the point where you think you can dive on repeat, in which case you can look to trade aggressively before crashing waves to set up dives. If you actually get enough of a lead, you can look to zone enemies off their turret between tier 1 and 2 starting from level 6, if you're sure their jungler will not be coming by.

Every now and then, and when you start learning the pick, you might find yourself falling behind due to ganks or misplays. You might also just be in a terrible matchup. Don't worry, as these situations are almost always easy to get out of. It feels terrible, but there are some key things you need to remember.

First, you must not die simply for a little bit of cs. You are able to farm relatively safely using your knockup tools and your burrowed q. Focus on staying within XP range and keeping the wave from slow pushing, as this will let the enemy laner freeze the wave on you. In the event of an enemy freeze, you're going to need to have your jungler break that freeze. Look for roams when the enemy laner recalls at a convenient time, or look to outplay dives.

Rek'Sai has a good time under turret due to her on-demand cc and her evasive ult, allowing you to outplay dives. You're usually just looking to catch as much cs as possible and trade as close to your turret as possible so that you're less reliant on your tunnel to trade, as in bad matchups your most common trade patterns are usually just unburrow -> 1 q -> back off + tunnel if needed. When trading with this short pattern, your tunnel won't be immediately available due to the burrow cooldown.