(ENG) Complete TFT Guide for Beginners - Intermediates

TFT is a strategy game that involves acquiring units (champions), which you place on your board to start building a team that will automatically fight against opponents' teams.

There are units of different costs, which theoretically get better as their price increases. The costs of the units are as follows:

• Cost 1
• Cost 2
• Cost 3
• Cost 4
• Cost 5

These units will appear more frequently as the game progresses and as your level increases.

Board

You'll have your board consisting of hexagons, 4 horizontal rows, and 7 vertical columns. You might hear people in videos refer to the tiles the same way as they do on a chessboard (A1, D4, C7, etc.).

Shop Located at the bottom, you can see your shop where you can buy champions and see the value of each one. You'll also have your bench, where champions that you haven't placed in combat will simply wait to be used or sold. Selling champions will return the gold you spent on a copy of them.

Upgrading a champion's star level: A single copy of a champion is by default 1-star. 3 copies of the same champion will upgrade it to 2-stars. 9 copies of the same champion will upgrade it to the maximum of 3-stars (9 copies is equivalent to having 3 copies of a 2-star champion).

All of these champions come from a shared pool among all players, so it's important to click on your opponents to see what they are playing.

Imagine a 5-card poker game, where a standard deck of 52 cards is divided into 4 suits, each with 13 cards. Now, if player (1) has the following hand: (A, A, A, 10, 4), while opponent (2) has: (A, 5, J, 9, 2). If player (2) plans to keep the A, hoping to maybe get a pair or even four Aces, it's logical that they will NEVER get another Ace since there are only four in the entire deck.

The same concept applies to TFT, except here you can see who and how many champions have been taken from the shared pool, where the following champions exist:

30 copies of cost 1 units, 25 copies of cost 2 units, 18 copies of cost 3 units, 10 copies of cost 4 units, 9 copies of cost 5 units.

As a beginner, it's not necessary to remember or understand this, but soon you'll be using this knowledge.

Gold and Economy An important aspect of the game is the economy (gold). With it, you'll be able to buy champions, experience (which you also gain passively each round), and charms. There's a reward system that helps generate more gold, known as interest, where every ten gold gives a 10% interest. In simple terms, 10 gold = +1 gold, 20 = +2, 30 = +3, ..., 50 = +5. The maximum interest you can get is 50 gold (except for certain augments). So, the more money you have, the easier it is to make more money. This reward system also includes streaks, both winning and losing, which will generate extra gold as they get longer, up to 6 consecutive wins/losses.

In summary: Manage your gold wisely.

Carousel

The carousel is exactly that, a carousel. Here you'll find champions holding items/spatulas. Players will take turns, starting with those in 7th and 8th place, and continuing until the 2nd and 1st players. Depending on your priority in the carousel, you can pick the item and/or champion you need most at that moment.

Champions and Synergies You'll need to buy your champions to continue fighting against others. It's important to recognize the role of the champions at your disposal: Tanks, Casters, Carries, and Brawlers.

Tanks: These champions have a lot of health with physical or magical damage abilities, not much damage, and sometimes utility. Their main goal is to buy time so your damage dealers have more time to scale and deal damage. For this reason, they go in the front row on the board.

Casters: Casters, whether physical or magical, depend on their abilities to deal damage. Most of their abilities are very strong but require a bit more time to charge their mana bar and use them. As damage dealers, they should be placed at the back of the board, protected by your tanks.

Carries: Often these are physical damage characters. The term 'carries' doesn't necessarily mean they have a weapon, but it's a classification for those characters who need attack speed to scale their damage. They should be placed at the back of the board to stay alive as long as possible.

Brawlers: These champions, whether magical or physical damage, have more health than regular units and deal significant damage. A key aspect of this type of champion is that they fight in melee, meaning they should be placed in the front rows of your board. These champions benefit from items that provide health, lifesteal, and attack/magic damage. Place them in the front rows of the board.

Note: These names/types of champions aren't official, but it's the easiest way to recognize them. When you click on a champion, it will specify their class, where they should be positioned, and their synergies.

Synergies: Synergies are the traits that champions have, which when activated on the board (by adding units with the same synergy) give bonuses like more power, more health, more mana, or in some cases, even summoning a unit that scales as you add more champions with the same synergy. This depends on the set available on the servers at that time.

Items: Items are divided first as components. Components can be obtained in neutral rounds or carousels. When you place items on your champion, they gain the stats that item provides. For example, a component can give:

• Health,
• Armor,
• Magic resistance,
• Mana,
• Attack damage, and
• Magic damage.

Components can be upgraded to full items by combining two components, providing much more stats than the previously mentioned ones, where each class of champion benefits to a greater or lesser degree. Like giving health to a tank 👍🏼 or giving a physical damage item to a mage (magic damage) 👎🏼.

There are also Emblems that are divided into two groups: 1- Craftable: These emblems, when you obtain a spatula, either from the carousel, neutral rounds, or portal region, can be combined with a component to create an emblem of a synergy that interests you at that moment, giving you a +1 for that synergy. The fact that some synergies require 2 or more emblems to reach their maximum level doesn't mean they're bad; most traits have 5-cost champions to reach that 'Threshold,' so you can activate the penultimate step of your synergy without needing a high level to get the missing unit. 2- Non-craftable: As the name suggests, these can only be obtained through a trait tome (which can be obtained with luck in neutral rounds), advanced carousel rounds, or simply an augment.

Augments: Augments are options offered in rounds 2-1, 3-2, and 4-2. These can vary from team-wide bonuses, emblems, gold, items, etc. You’ll be given 3 augment options, each with the possibility to reroll once if they don't serve you or you don't like the ones offered. You'll also find 3 types of augments:

• Silver: These generally offer money, stats, or items but at a lower level. For example, a small amount of gold, low stats, or a single item with some trick, like losing 50 health and receiving items, staying a full stage with one bench slot, etc.
• Gold: The most common, offering better options in stats, champions, items, or gold. In this category, you might find hero augments, giving a particular champion some special ability.
• Prismatic: Rare to see, with improved rewards like better items, high amounts of gold, emblems + champion + item. This doesn’t necessarily mean they're better than the previous ones, as depending on the set, they can be completely bad and useless. It’s a bit illogical since you'd think they should be better if they’re prismatic... (Riot fix this plz).

Here I’ll talk about what to do and how to play in different stages of the game.

- Early: At the start of the game, you'll go through 3 neutral rounds where you’ll receive items, champions, and/or gold. Ideally, during this stage, you should collect pairs of units to upgrade them to 2-stars. It’s also important to see which components the monsters gave you, as these can indicate what type of damage you might play, AD (physical damage), AP (magic damage), though it’s possible they only give you a lot of gold at the start or generic tank items, allowing greater flexibility when deciding what to play that game. Depending on this, you can decide if you want to go for a losing streak to have carousel priority to pick a component or champion you need. Alternatively, you could go for a win streak, which requires having 2-star units plus components

that match the damage you’ll play. Also, during this stage, you should reach level 4 in round 2-1 and level 5 in round 2-5. (Not all the time tho). Some like to push to level 5 in round 2-3, and 6 in 2-5 but this is only necessary if you have strong units or if your comp needs specific units to keep winning.

- Mid-game: Rounds 3-2, 3-5, and 4-1 are what I consider the mid-game. By this point, you should have a clearer idea of what you'll play based on the champions you've found so far and what synergies you want to aim for. At this point, it’s important to have a healthy economy, where you can decide if you want to push levels to find higher-cost units, or roll at your current level to 2-star the 3-cost units. The former is the most common, where you push to level 6 in round 3-2 and level 7 in 4-1.

- Late game: After round 4-1, you should have a solid idea of what you'll play, as this is when you'll be on the hunt for 4-cost units and maybe a 5-cost unit that fits your team. In round 5-1, you should be level 8, which is when you should start rolling to complete your final team. In round 5-5 or 6-1, you can go to level 9, which is usually for when you have a lot of life or very few health points, but also a healthy economy (50+). This is when you can look for legendary units that fit your team to maximize its power.

Stages: The TFT stages are divided as follows:

Stage 1: Here you’ll have 3 rounds of neutral monsters to get items, champions, and/or gold.

Stage 2: This is when the game starts. At this stage, you should reach level 5. Rounds 2-4 is where you all go to the carousell and 2-7 is neutral.

Stage 3: This is when the game starts to get serious. By this stage, you should already have a good amount of 2-star units and a healthy economy to level up and maybe a win streak. The first three rounds are PVP, then the carousell and the last two are PVP. Then you'll fight the infamous wolves (neutral round). This stage is usually where you should reach level 6.

Stage 4: PVP rounds this stage are crucial since in most games you'll know if you either go top 4 or bot 5, your team should already be well-defined. This is when you should reach level 7 at (4-1) and in most cases level 8 at (4-2), but can also wait to 4-5 in case you economy was really bad for whatever reason.

Stage 5: In round 5-1 you MUST be level 8. If not, you'll push to level 8 and roll down to complete your final team, to then fight the Dragon who’ll give you one completed item, gold and some champions. This is when you should start finishing your team if it is not completed already.

Stage 6: By this point, you should have your 4-cost units at 2-stars and start looking for 5-cost units. And in most cases the last PvE round

Stage 7+: At this stage, you should have your final team and start 3-starring 4-cost units that are not being used by other players. Since the player damage at this point is pretty much lethal.

Strategy and Endgame As mentioned, you should now be focused on completing your team, whether it's by 3-starring your main units or adding 5-cost units that fit perfectly into your team. In this stage, it’s also important to keep an eye on your opponents, as you should be scouting to see who you might face, where they’re positioning, and what items they have on their units. This will help you position your team better and make decisions on which units or items to prioritize. By the endgame, it’s all about execution and adapting to your opponents to secure the win.

Advanced Strategies

Managing your economy: Is it more important to make 10 gold? Should I buy these champions? The correct answer will depend on both your game plan and the current state of your board, as well as experience. It's advisable to reach your first 10 gold as quickly as possible to start earning interest that will help you accumulate more gold. That said, we also need to consider our streak, whether it’s a win streak (if you have a strong board and items that make you significantly stronger than your opponents) or a loss streak (if you haven’t secured good items or two-star champions and need very specific items for your composition, which sometimes might be the case if your direction is clear early in the game).

Positioning: Although it might not seem like it, this aspect is important as it can be the difference between finishing 5th or 4th. Ideally, you’ll check the boards of potential opponents to identify where their main damage units, main tank, and weaker tank are located. There are countless ways to position your champions effectively, with the most common being to place your main damage dealer on the same side as your opponent’s weaker tank. At the same time, you’ll want to protect your main damage dealer by positioning your strongest tank on their side of the board, keeping them safer while they eliminate weaker tanks. Then, you can focus your damage on the opponent’s main tank to eliminate it quickly and reach their main damage dealer with as many of your units intact as possible to win the round and maintain your health.

Similarly, if you have a weak board, it’s ideal to place your main damage dealers next to each other, focusing all damage on one opponent's unit to lose much less health compared to not eliminating any opposing units and receiving the increased damage from the player, which would cause you to lose more health and be eliminated faster in some cases.

Rolling: To roll more effectively, you should consider your current board and the number of pairs you have to upgrade to two stars. In these cases, it’s worth rolling a few times to get your upgrades without dropping to 0 gold. There should be a limit; if after rolling a few times you don’t get any upgrades, it’s best to stop and maintain your economy to keep rolling later. For 1-cost reroll compositions, you’ll accumulate as much gold as possible in the first stage and do a deep roll on round 3-1, where you’ll still be at level 4 and have the highest chance of getting your 1-cost units to 3 stars.

Why roll at this time? In the early stages of the game, getting a 1-cost unit to 3 stars will give you a significant power spike, allowing you to win the entire stage 3 of the game and recover the gold invested in your board thanks to a win streak. It’s important not to drop to 0 gold at this stage because it will be harder to recover gold and level up, which is why it’s advisable not to do so. Instead, you can keep rolling at level 5 with over 50 gold to finish upgrading your units to 3 stars once you have enough copies (around 6 to 8 copies of your main champions) you could go all in to finish your 3-stars.

The only exception to this rule is if all your units are just one copy away from being upgraded to 3 stars. In this case, it’s worth spending all your gold at 2-1. This is VERY situational and isn’t correct in most cases. It’s much better to roll down to 30-20 gold to get as many copies of your champions as possible and calmly finish your composition at level 5.

For 2-cost and 3-cost reroll compositions: You’ll level up to 6 on round 3-2 and roll for your main carries until you get them to 2 stars. This will stabilize your board a bit, and you can quickly recover your economy. It’s important not to overspend on upgrades. Once you’ve recovered your economy, you’ll roll with over 50 gold for your 3-star units. If you haven’t gotten ANY, you’ll do a deep roll on round 4-1 to finish upgrading your units to 3 stars, as by this point, you’ll be facing very strong boards that can cause you to lose a lot of health. If you have 7 or 8 copies of your champion and are losing too much health, it’s better to level up to 7 so you don’t fall behind and keep rolling at this level since, eventually, your units will appear. For 3-cost units, you’ll accumulate as much economy as possible while maintaining a strong board because it takes longer to reach level 7, and your board will start to decline rapidly in stage 4, so you need to have saved as much health as possible to roll for your units with enough time before being eliminated.

You’ll level up to 7 at 3-5 if you have a lot of gold and can level up while keeping around 30-40 gold. If you have too much gold, roll for your 3-cost units at 3-5 to upgrade them to 2 stars. Otherwise, wait until the next stage to keep rolling with over 50 gold for your units.

Otherwise, you’ll level up to 7 on round 4-1, where you’ll roll for your 3-cost units to 2 stars. Recover your economy, and as mentioned earlier, roll with over 50 gold. It’s also important to note that if you have a significant number of copies, you might consider leveling up to 8 to not fall behind in the lobby and finish your rolling for the 3-star units there.

Common Mistakes

Early Itemization (Slams): This term refers to making complete items in the early rounds of the game, which will help you either with a win streak or to preserve your health. The most common mistake is giving items that only benefit one champion, such as Infinity Edge, Deathblade, Giant Slayer. Instead, give tank items to your 2-star tank and/or resistance reduction items to your carries, like Ionic Spark, Warmogs, Last Whisper, or Statikk Shiv. In the early game, ABSOLUTELY NO ONE has complete items or enough damage to finish a round without eliminating at least one opposing unit. For this reason, fights are mostly about basic attacks, so reductions, Armor, Health, and/or Grievous Wounds have much more value at this point in the game.

Rolling: A common mistake is that when a player is rolling for their desired board, they start buying the units they need and itemizing them as soon as they get them. This is a mistake because you should first obtain all or most of the units for the composition you want to play. Rolling and itemizing simultaneously will waste the seconds you should be rolling.

Haven’t you ever found the unit you were looking for during the fight against the opponent? You probably rolled inefficiently and slowly.

Personally, I recommend using keyboard shortcuts to roll. This way, you can keep your cursor on the shop while rolling with the keyboard and buy the units you find that are of the same cost as the one you’re looking for. This will help remove those champions from the common pool we share with other players, increasing your chances of seeing the units you need, though not by a huge margin, but it helps.

Transitions: Along with the rolling mistake comes the issue of having a 2-star upgraded unit, then finding the unit you were looking for and immediately selling the upgraded unit and transferring the items to your carry or tank. You would prioritize a 1 or 2-cost unit at 2 stars over a 3 or 4-cost unit at 1 star in most cases. Although the unit might be the right one for your strategy, it’s still better to keep an upgraded unit than one that isn’t upgraded.

Forcing Compositions: Let’s say you really want to play a composition centered around a physical attacker, but all the items you’ve gotten are for magic damage. If this is the case, you’ll have several components on your bench and won’t preserve any health at all. Even if you have carousel priority, what will you do with ONLY ONE component of the composition you want to force if you’ll likely end up keeping it on the bench?

Forcing contested compositions: Many times, you’ll find that you have the ideal items for a reroll composition. For 1-cost and 2-cost compositions, you can try it since there are enough copies for two people to have the same unit at 3 stars, though with decreasing chances of finding them since they are being pulled from the same champion pool that all players share. It’s difficult, but not impossible.

HOWEVER, for 3-cost units, there are only 18 copies of the same unit, meaning that only two people could have that unit at 3 stars. What happens with 3-cost units is that often other players want them too, even if not at 3 stars, but they want them to add a synergy to their composition, and it’s unlikely they’ll use them at 1 star since it’s also not ideal to keep your whole board at 1 star. Considering this, you need 9 units to get a 3-cost unit to 3 stars. If another player has 3 copies, another player has 3 and wants to take it to 3 stars, so they’ll keep buying the units, another player has 3 copies, and you have 3 copies. This leaves a total of 3 units. At some point, it’s likely that both you and your opponent will have 6 copies each, leaving a total of 0 units. So... congratulations, you and your opponent are going 8th an 7th. But if you have a decent ammount of health, and yout opponent doesn't, then you can wait for them to slowly bleed out and getting those units back to the shared champion pool.

Tips:

• Scout -Itemize
• Save your gold
• Preserve your life
• Be flexible
• Never reach 0 gold
• Play around what the game offers you
• Practice by playing games
• Record and analyze them to see what you did right/wrong
• Watch high elo streamers' games
• DON'T FOLLOW INTERNET COMPOSITIONS 100%, remember to be flexible
• Finally, try to have fun and enjoy yourself instead of getting mad over a top 8 finish. It happens to all of us; you weren't, aren't, and won't be the first person to experience it.

Completely written by me, based on my experiences and knowledge. If there’s any point where I missed something or you need more details on what’s written, please leave me a comment, and I’ll add whatever is necessary. I plan to make this guide viable for any TFT set, which is why I avoided naming specific champions and traits from the current set.

Thank you very much, and good luck in your games.

• Heinz