What is this guide about?
One strategy that is popular among a lot of players is to sell your units in the early PVE Stages to reach the 10 gold threshold. The intend is to kickstart your economy with the bonus gold that you receive from interest. This allows you to reach the next threshold faster, creating a snowball effect.
You also benefit more from Augments like "AFK" and "BRB" since you won't be able to sell your units after taking either of these Augments.
This guide will cover which units can be used to defeat both Stage 1-3 and Stage 1-4.
Gold Interest
Before we get into the units, I do want to quickly explain how gold interest works in TFT. A lot of players don't believe that gold interest works before Stage 2. Receiving gold interest in PVE Stages is intentend and was tested extensively.
| Stage | Passive Income |
|---|---|
| Stage 1-3 | 2 Gold |
| Stage 1-4 | 2 Gold |
| Stage 2-1 | 3 Gold |
| Stage 2-2 | 4 Gold |
| Stage 2-3 | 5 Gold |
In the first two rounds you will only gain 2 gold, which then gets increased each round and caps out at 5 gold once you hit Stage 2-3. This means if you have 10 gold in Stage 1-3, you end up with 14 gold in Stage 1-4, since you received 3 Passive Gold and 1 Gold from Interest.
Stage 1-3 - SAFE CHOICES
In Stage 1-3 you mainly want to avoid any squishy Backliners. Outside of Mundo every Melee looks to be consistent at beating Stage 1-3 by themselves. You can position them on the right side to make the left Drone walk one hex before shooting.
Stage 1-4 - SAFE CHOICES
Both Nidalee and Alistar can easily defeat Stage 1-4 without any items. Nidalee has a self heal and AoE damage, while Alistar will take close to no damage because of his passive damage reduction.
Stage 1-4 - WITH GIANT'S BELT OR CHAIN VEST
Sylas is able to defeat Stage 1-4 by himself, but needs further testing to cover worst case scenarios. For now give him a component to be on the safe side. Vi appears to be safe as long as she has a defensive component.
Shaco can beat Stage 1-4 with either Chain Vest, Giant's Belt or B.F. Sword. There are some rare cases if he doesn't crit enough that cause him to waste his Ability into a low HP minion. As the fights are rather close, be careful with using Shaco and prioritize the other options.