Teamfight Tactics is an auto-battler, which essentially means that you do not control the characters in the game, but simply choose the ones you want to put into play (making up your “army”) and then let them battle. Think of it like a game of chess or, more accurately, the Harry Potter version of chess where the pieces fight each other.
The game takes place in various stages and rounds (typically seven rounds of battle per stage). TFT players will typically talk about points in the game like 2-4, indicating they are in the second stage and fourth round.
Before each round of play, you will select various pieces called “champions” that are your chess pieces. Once the round starts, the champions that you put onto the board will attack the enemy army, either another player’s army or PC units, depending on which round of the game it is.
If your army defeats the enemy army by killing all of their units, you win the round. If your army dies, your avatar will take damage to their life bar.
Every player starts the game with 100 health in their life bar. If your life bar reaches 0, you are out of the game. The winner of a game of Teamfight Tactics is the last player standing after all others have had their life bars depleted.
So, in a nutshell, TFT is a game where your goal is to assemble the best army possible to put on the board and win enough games to knock out all of your opponents. Each game will have seven other players, all with the same goal, so you’ll have to use your wits and get some good luck in order to beat them!
Are There Any Different Modes in TFT?
Yes, there are:
- Normal game – You can play this mode when you want to try some new strategies or synergies or just can’t be bothered to overthink and lose your LP.
- Ranked – On this mode, you apply the knowledge you learned on normal games, and you are in the mood to kick some ass.
- Double-Up – This is the mode you play with your buddy, if you have one, unlike me *cries*. In this mode, you play as a team, so four groups consisting of two players, but each has his own army.
- Hyperroll – This is the mode where you don’t have to overthink your money and leveling strategies because all players receive the same amount of gold and everyone has the same level. So you can reroll your shop and level up your champions!
What Are Champions?
To build a strong army, you need those pieces/champions we talked about (they can also be called “units”) and there are three ways to get them. The most common way that you will get units in the shop, which is the box at the bottom of your screen. The shop will display five champions at the start of each round, which you can buy using gold that you have accumulated.
The second way to get a new unit is in the Carousel round, which takes place at the very start of the game and in the middle of each stage beginning in Stage 2. In this round, you don’t spend any gold, you just get to run out to the middle of the Carousel and grab whatever champion is still available. (https://www.hitc.com/)
The final way you can acquire a champion is to get lucky and have one drop during the player versus environment (“PVE”) rounds. We’ll discuss those later on, but basically, at the end of every stage, you will fight computer-controlled units, which will drop various goodies if you defeat them and this includes a random champion!
Each champion will have their own stats, giving them defined strengths and weaknesses. Some will be beefy tanks that don’t do a lot of damage, while others will be high-damage units that can die easily.
Each champion unit has at least one Origin and one Class, meaning that they will be able to synergize with certain other champions to get a benefit if you put multiples of the same class on the board at the same time. In addition, the champions will also have one ability or “ultimate” that they will cast if their mana bar gets full (it’s the blue bar over their head, above the red health bar).
Which units belong to which Origins, Classes, and have certain ultimates is a lengthy discussion for its own article, but all you need to know is that you’ll want to buy certain champions because of these three factors.
Also read: How Much LP Is Needed To Rank Up in Teamfight Tactics?
Augments
Augments in Teamfight Tactics are permanent bonuses that are added to the player’s hexcore.
Throughout the game, the player is offered three choices of augments. During each choice the player must select one out of three augments. Each augment has a rarity (silver, gold, or prismatic).
Over 140 possible TFT Set 6.5 Hextech Augments can show up in an Armory, with over 80 more getting added in Set 6.5 Neon Nights. Each player receives options that are equal in power and come from the same tier but are different from each other. A total of three tiers of Hextech Augments exist in Set 6.5: Silver, Gold, and Prismatic.
Some options have multiple versions across tiers, while others are unique. Hextech Augments mean to shift the focus off of TFT items, opening the door for flexible gameplay while also possibly doubling down on early-game decisions.
Options are offered to players a total of three times throughout a game via a Hextech Augment Armory. These Armories will appear at Stages 1-3, 3-5, and 5-1. Hyper Roll Hextech Augments will appear at Stages 3-1, 5-2, and 7-2. The total chance of a Prismatic game in TFT Set 6.5 was increased from 31 to 33 percent.
How Do I Build An Army?
You’ll use all these champions to form a strong composition (aka a “comp”). Comps are typically formed by combining units of the same Class or Origin since their synergy gives those units a bonus attribute. For instance, if you have two of the same type of unit, they’ll get a bonus amount of armour, reducing the damage they take from the enemy’s attacks.
Your goal should be to have one “major” synergy in your comp that boosts up the strength of your strongest units. You should also have a mix of other “minor” supportive synergies that can help the rest of your team in other ways.
A good comp should have at least one, and ideally several, of these kinds of synergies to make your units stronger. Ideally, you’d like a mix of offensive and defensive units with synergies to help as many units as possible. But having good synergy within your comp isn’t all that makes it strong.
First, you can level up your champions if you get multiple copies of the same champion. You see, there are multiple copies of each champion available in the shop to buy, so if you miss on one champion you might be able to get it later. If you get three copies of one champion it “levels up” and becomes a 2-star champion. Get three copies of the 2-star champions, and it levels up again to 3-stars.
The second way you can improve your champions is to equip them with items. We already touched on them briefly, but you get items in one of two ways: on the Carousel and when they drop during the PVE rounds.
Another way to make your army stronger is to make it bigger. You can only have a certain number of units on the board at any given time, equal to your player’s level.
If you spend some of that gold on levelling up rather than on champions, you can get to a higher level quicker and get more units onto your board to create a composition. Don’t worry, you don’t have to spend gold to level up. You will naturally gain experience to level up throughout the game, but spending gold can make the process go faster.
So to recap, you build a strong army by having one major synergy that helps the unit (or units) that your comp relies on. These “carry” units are the ones that you get to the highest level and put the most items on. But you also want to make sure that you’re building complementary minor synergies to help round out your comp and level up enough so you can get those necessary units out onto the board.
Also read: How Much Data Does Teamfight Tactics Consume?
Can I play TFT Without Playing League?
You absolutely can play TFT without having ever played a game of League of Legends. Yes, the characters and their abilities are lifted from League of Legends, but these are two different types of games. In League of Legends, you continuously control one character, while in TFT you just put out the right combination of characters and let them battle.
Knowing what the abilities in TFT do in League of Legends can be helpful to know how it will generally work. However, most of the champions’ abilities only work similarly to how they do in League, not the same. These are two different games of two different genres, being good at one does not make you good at the other.
How To Know Which Units And Comps Are The Right Ones To Build?
Generally, there is no purely right comp to build in a game. There are comps that are better or worse than others in most situations (which we at Blog of Legends break down every patch), but if you follow the above guidelines you can at least form a coherent comp that should work. Also, feel free to try out several different comps to see if there’s one that works for you more often!
How Do I Play The Mobile Version?
TFT Mobile is available for download from the Apple App Store and the Google Play store for free! All you’ll need to do is download the app, log into your existing Riot Games account or create one if you don’t have one (you just need a valid e-mail) and you’re good to go! If you’re worried about specs, though, here are the minimum requirements for a phone to run TFT:
- For iOS – iPhone 6S or above
- For Android
- OS 7 or higher
- Minimum 1.5G RAM
- 64-bit hardware/chipset
- Phone ABI of either arm64-v8a or x86_64 variety
- Phone OpenGL ES version 3.0 or higher
Do I Have To Pay To Play TFT?
Nope. Just like League of Legends TFT is completely free to download and play. You do have the option to spend your money on cosmetics like Little Legends (the cute critter that represents you in the game), arenas (the game board you play on), and Booms! (the damage particles that hit your Little Legend) but that all has no effect on the gameplay.
You can acquire some of these cosmetics for free by unlocking them with the Battle Pass, which is sort of like a Season Pass from other games where you earn experience to unlock rewards just by playing. However, there is also a Battle Pass+ that unlocks even more content as you play, and you can buy some cosmetics ala carte!
I Only Have The Mobile Version And My Friend Only Has The PC Version. Can We Play Together?
Also read: How To Unlock Arenas in Teamfight Tactics?
Yes! In addition, all progress you make towards unlocking cosmetics in your Battle Pass will transfer between both versions on the same account, so you can unlock cool stuff to use on your phone and PC!
How Does Ranked Work In TFT?
The ranked ladder of TFT (as opposed to the normal queue) is a competitive environment where you will be matched against players of similar skill to yourself. By winning or placing at the top of the leaderboard, you’ll gain League Points “LP” that will raise your rank compared to other players. Obviously, losing will make you lose LP and have your rank drop, so make sure you’re ready to play when you queue up in ranked!
5 REASONS WHY TFT IS A GREAT GAME
1. It’s free!
You like free things right? Well TFT is completely free to download and play!
While there are add-on cosmetics that you can spend real money on, these have absolutely zero impact on how you play the game. You can also unlock a lot of these cosmetics simply by playing the game, via the Battle Pass! Of course, if you want to spend money and get the Galaxies Pass+, you can and you’ll unlock even more prizes, but, again, those don’t impact the actual gameplay. No pay-to-win here!
2. You can play on your phone!
You all have phones right? You can play TFT from anywhere you have your mobile device and an internet connection!
The best part is that it is cross-platform, meaning you can play on the same account on both your PC and phone and use all your unlocks on both! You can also play with friends regardless of if they are playing on their phones and you’re on PC or vice versa.
3. This is the perfect time to start!
On 16th of February The Neon Nights came out!This means that even experienced TFT players are having to re-learn the game because a whole bunch of new mechanics, champions, classes, and gameplay changes have hit the game.
That makes this the perfect time to pick up TFT because even though you’re learning the game from the ground up (and check out our guides if you want some help to level up your gameplay) everyone else is still learning the game too!
4. The games are quick and don’t require a ton of focus!
TFT is, by its nature, a very casual game since you are not controlling any of the units you put into play during the actual “action” portion. Instead, most of your job is selecting the correct champions, equipping them with the right items, and positioning them on your board. The games are also very short, usually lasting no more than 20 minutes.
These two factors make TFT the ideal game for taking a quick break during your work from home routine, or to play while you’re mindlessly marathoning a show on Netflix. It’s much more like Candy Crush than League of Legends, but I think it’s much more worth your time to invest in than Candy Crush because…
5. It’s easy to learn, but hard to master!
To me, the mark of a great game is one that has a low barrier to entry but a high level of skill expression. TFT has that in spades.
Understanding the basics of how to play TFT is not all that hard, you just pick pieces put them on the board, and watch them fight. However, you’ll have to invest a lot of time in the game if you want to get really good at it.
Being good at TFT means understanding how to build a comp, which comps are the strongest in the meta, and which champions within comps benefit from which items. It means understanding the positioning of your units, saving versus spending gold, when to level and when not to.
Also read: The Best Snipers Comp & Strategies in TFT
Final Thoughts
This was a basic beginner’s guide for TFT. In my opinion, it is enough to help you get through the first couple of games without being a total dummy and getting destroyed by some more experienced players. After a game or two, you will get it and you won’t be needing any help at all, and you will destroy your foes with your dominant strategy!
What are you still waiting for? Go and win that sweet LP!
