How to Play Teamfight Tactics: An Introduction to  TFT

16 Sep 19

Guides

honeydip

How to Play Teamfight Tactics: An Introduction to TFT

TFT is a round-based strategy game. Your goal: Build the strongest team and be the last person standing.

League of Legends' new game mode Teamfight Tactics (TFT) is blowing up. This guide will help you get a jumpstart and get ahead of the curve.


How to Play

Teamfight Tactics is Riot Games’ take on Auto Chess. In a game of you and seven other players, each player has their own play space. Where they can place their own units and build an army, to take on other opponents. At the start of each game, each player controls their character, or “Little Legend,” around a carousel of champions you can pick from. All eight players including yourself will choose a starting champion from the carousel. Once you are back onto your chessboard, you will see two creeps. You can now click and drag the new minion you selected onto to board to fight the creeps. After each round you receive gold. Gold is used to buy new champions to build your team. You can see your available champions to purchase on the bottom of your screen. Any champions purchased will automatically go to your bench on the bottom of the screen. To play your newly purchased champion simply click and drag it onto the play space.

Items

The first three rounds will always be creep rounds to gain EXP and items. Items can be given to your champions to make them stronger. You can combine two separate items to craft one item. You simply click and drag the items together to combine them onto any champion you wish. There is a total of 64 different combinations of items you can craft. This item build list shows the required basic items you need to combine to create more powerful items for your champions.


Image courtesy of Inven

Champions

You can purchase multiple of the same champion for your team. Buying three of the same champion will combine them into one stronger version of the same champion. To create a silver two-star champion, you’ll need three one-star champions. To create a gold three-star champion, you’ll need three two-star champions. Gold three-star champions are the highest level, as well as the strongest. Each champion has a unique class and origin they belong to. Having multiple champions with the same class or origin may give you benefits.

For example, having a Gangplank, Miss Fortune, and Graves, three champions from the Pirate class, will allow you to earn up to four extra gold at the end of each PvP round. Each class and origin have their own perks. Building a strong fun team that fits your playstyle is very important. The level of your personal character determines how many champions you can have on the playing area at once. You can spend extra gold on EXP to level up quicker and get more champions on your board.

Classes

Assassins jump to the backline of the enemy team and deal additional critical strike damage.

  • 3: 75% crit damage & 10% crit chance
  • 6: 150% crit damage & 25% crit chance
  • 9: 225% crit damage & 40% crit chance

Assassin Champions

  • Akali
  • Evelynn
  • Katarina
  • Kha'Zix
  • Pyke
  • Rengar
  • Zed

Blademasters have a 35% chance to strike additional times each attack.

  • 3: 35% chance to strike 1 additional attack
  • 6: 35% chance to strike 2 additional attacks
  • 9: 35% chance to strike 4 additional attacks

Blademaster Champions

  • Aatrox
  • Camille
  • Draven
  • Fiora
  • Gangplank
  • Shen
  • Yasuo

Brawlers receive bonus max health.

  • 2: +250 Bonus Health
  • 4: +500 Bonus Health
  • 6: +900 Bonus Health

Brawler Champions

  • Blitzcrank
  • Cho'Gath
  • Rek'Sai
  • Vi
  • Volibear
  • Warwick

Guardians give adjacent allies additional Armor

  • 2: All Guardians and adjacent allies receive +35 Armor

Guardian Champions

  • Braum
  • Leona
  • Pantheon

After attacking, Gunslingers have a 50% chance to fire additional attacks

  • 2: 50% chance to fire 1 additional attack at a random enemy
  • 4: 50% chance to fire 2 additional attacks at a random enemy
  • 6: 50% chance to fire 3 additional attacks at a random enemy

Gunslinger Champions

  • Gangplank
  • Graves
  • Jinx
  • Lucian
  • Miss Fortune
  • Tristana

Elementalists gain double mana from attacks.

  • 3: At the start of combat, summon an Elemental.

Elementalist Champions

  • Anivia
  • Brand
  • Kennen
  • Lissandra

Knights make your team block damage from basic attacks.

  • 2: Ignore 15 damage
  • 3: Ignore 35 damage
  • 6: Ignore 65 damage

Knight Champions

  • Darius
  • Garen
  • Kayle
  • Mordekaiser
  • Poppy
  • Sejuani

Rangers have a chance to double their attack speed for the next 3 seconds

  • 2: 30% Chance
  • 4: 70% Chance

Ranger Champions

  • Ashe
  • Kindred
  • Varus
  • Vayne

Shapeshifters gain bonus maximum Health when they transform.

  • 3: +60% bonus max health
  • 6: +120% bonus max health

Shapeshifter Champions

  • Elise
  • Gnar
  • Jayce
  • Nidalee
  • Shyvana
  • Swain

Sorcerers gain double mana from attacking and allies have increased spell damage.

  • 3: +40% Spell damage
  • 6: +100% Spell damage
  • 9: +175% Spell damage

Sorcerer Champions

  • Ahri
  • Aurelion Sol
  • Karthus
  • Kassadin
  • Lulu
  • Morgana
  • Twisted Fate
  • Veigar

Origins

Attacks from Demons have a chance to burn an enemy's mana and restore their own.

  • 2: 40% chance to burn 20 mana and restore 15 mana
  • 4: 40% chance to burn 20 mana and restore 30 mana
  • 6: 40% chance to burn 20 mana and restore 45 mana

Demon Champions

  • Aatrox
  • Brand
  • Elise
  • Evelynn
  • Morgana
  • Swain
  • Varus

Dragons gain resistance to magic damage, equivalent to what a Dragon's Claw would give.

  • 2: Dragons are immune to 83% Magic damage

Dragon Champions

  • Aurelion Sol
  • Shyvana
  • Pantheon

Throw a bomb at an enemy unit with an item, and disables all items in a hex radius for 8 seconds.

  • 2: 1 hex radius
  • 4: 2 hex radius

Hextech Champions

  • Camille
  • Jayce
  • Vi
  • Jinx

Exiles gain a large shield to start combat if they're isolated from the rest of your team.

  • 1: If an Exile has no adjacent allies at the start of combat, they gain a shield equal to a 100% max health.

Exile Champions

  • Yasuo

On hit, Glacials have a chance to stun for 2s.

  • 2: 20% chance
  • 4: 30% chance
  • 6: 45% chance

Glacial Champions

  • Anivia
  • Ashe
  • Braum
  • Lissandra
  • Sejuani
  • Volibear

Phantoms will make it easier to eliminate one enemy unit.

  • 2: Curse a random enemy at the start of combat, setting their HP to 100.

Phantom Champions

  • Karthus
  • Kindred
  • Mordekaiser

Ninjas gain a percentage of Attack Damage and Ability Damage

  • 1: 1 Ninja only: Ninja gains +50% AP/AD
  • 4: 4 Ninjas: All Ninjas gain +70% AP/AD

Ninja Champions

  • Akali
  • Kennen
  • Shen
  • Zed

Nobles grant +50 armor +50 magic resist, and 25 health per hit

  • 3: 1 random ally +50 armor, +50 magic resist, 25 health per hit
  • 6: All allies +50 armor, +50 magic resist, 25 health per hit

Noble Champions

  • Fiora
  • Garen
  • Kayle
  • Leona
  • Lucian
  • Vayne

Imperials deal Double Damage.

  • 2: 1 random Imperial
  • 4: All Imperials

Imperial Champions

  • Darius
  • Draven
  • Katarina
  • Swain

As previously mentioned, Pirates give you additional gold after PvP rounds.

  • 3: Earn up to 4 additional gold after combat against another player.

Pirate Champions

  • Gangplank
  • Graves
  • Miss Fortune
  • Pyke
  • Twisted Fate

 Robots start combat at full mana

Robot Champions

  • Blitzcrank

 All basic attacks deal true damage

  • 3: All units deal true damage

Void Champions

  • Cho'gath
  • Kassadin
  • Kha'Zix
  • Rek'Sai

Attacks generate stacks of Fury (up to 5). Each stack of Fury grants 7% Attack Speed.

  • 2: Wild allies gain 10% attack speed
  • 4: All allies gain 10% attack speed

Wild Champions

  • Ahri
  • Gnar
  • Nidalee
  • Rengar
  • Warwick

Attacks against ally Yordles have a chance to miss.

  • 3: 35% chance to miss.
  • 6: 60% chance to miss.

Yordle Champions

  • Gnar
  • Kennen
  • Lulu
  • Poppy
  • Tristana
  • Veigar

Gold

At the end of each round, you’ll gain EXP and gold depending on the results. If you lose the round you drop-down points on your health bar. All eight players start at 100 health. When you drop down to zero you are out of the game. The last player standing is the winner.

Gold is very important in TFT. Some of the many actions include

  • Buying EXP
  • Buying Champions
  • Refresh the champion shop
  • Sell benched champions for gold
  • Bonus gold for win/loss streaks
  • Earn gold after each round
  • Pick up gold dropped in PvE rounds

Extra Tips and Tricks

- On the bottom of the screen, there is a map will all other seven players on it. You can click on your opponents and check in on their builds and team comps. This is very important because being able to counter another player is a huge factor in winning.

- If you keep losing rounds swap the roster. Don’t keep playing round after round to lose. Sometimes one new champion can turn things around.

- Don’t spend all of your money. Nothing is worse than having a champion pop up on the store that you really need, and you don’t have enough money to buy it.

- Don’t only go for strong champions on the carousel. If you are the last pick and you do not get the champion you wanted, don’t stress. Sometimes going for a champion with an item you need is a better strategy.

Come watch Dignitas live on Caffeine.tv!

Related articles