TFT Set 13: How to Play Ambusher

In Teamfight Tactics (TFT) Set 13, the Ambusher trait is designed to amplify the critical strike potential of your champions, making them formidable damage dealers. Ambushers' abilities can critically strike, which significantly boosts their damage output. On top of this, the trait provides scaling bonuses to Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage, allowing Ambushers to hit even harder as you unlock more trait tiers. Whether you're building around a few high-damage Ambushers or committing fully to the trait, their ability to deal devastating critical hits can help you dominate the battlefield.

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The Ambusher trait is pretty straight forward, granting Crit stats to themselves when the bonus is active. The trait also allows their ability to Crit, which will be a big part of scaling their damage. While you won’t need to build items like Infinity Edge/Jeweled Gauntlet for the Ability Crit, you will still want lots of Sparring Gloves items.

These items when combined have inherent Crit Chance stats that will help get your Ambushers to 100% Crit while also granting other strong bonuses. For example, Hand of Justice will provide extra damage/omnivamp, Guardbreaker will help deal more damage against shields, Last Whisper will Sunder Armor, etc.

1. Ambusher Trait Bonus

Champions: Powder 1g / Camille 2g / Smeech 3g / Ekko 4g / Jinx 5g

Damage from Ambushers’ Abilities can critically strike. They also gain bonus Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage.

• (2) 20% Crit, 10% CritMult
• (3) 30% Crit, 20% CritMult
• (4) 40% Crit, 30% CritMult
• (5) 55% Crit, 35% CritMult; also gain 15% Durability

2. Ambusher Synergy

Here’s a rundown of the other traits you can branch into from the Ambusher units.

• Powder – Family / Scrap
• Camille – Enforcer
• Smeech – Chem-Baron
• Ekko – Scrap
• Jinx – Rebel

As you can see, there is only one overlap in Origin traits, that being Scrap on both Powder and Ekko. We may see final boards run Ambusher 3/4/5 while running Powder + Ekko + another carry or two.

Or it could also be the case that Powder and Ekko are all that is needed, and you can focus on a Scrap based team comp instead. Lastly, if you decide to play around with Smeech or Jinx as your main carry, you can forgo this synergy and instead just run Ekko or Jinx with Smeech to save board space for other units.

1. Powder Family Scrap Ambusher 1g

Powder has a fairly simple ability, sending a monkey bomb toward a group of enemies, dealing AP damage. However, she also Wounds/Burns enemies that are hit. Wound is a great utility to have in the late game, so having this on a 1-cost unit with multiple traits is very appealing.

She may also be quite the contested unit as her Family trait incentivizes playing a reroll style comp. If reroll Family is a meta team comp, finding Powder in the early game can prove to be more difficult than expected.

2. Camille Enforcer Ambusher 2g

Camille has a very interesting ability, dealing either AD or AP damage depending on her target, prioritizing the better damage type. On one hand, she can make use of both AD or AP items. On the other hand, you might spread yourself too thin if you don’t build around the correct damage type for a fight.

Even still, there are plenty of damage items that are good for both AD and AP, such as Hand of Justice, Guardbreaker, etc.

As a frontline/midline unit, you likely won’t be building pure damage, and her ability will be more of a nice bonus rather than a build around. But, Camille does have potential to be a reroll carry, so we can’t count that out just yet.

3. Smeech Chem-Baron Ambusher 3g

Smeech is the most “Assassin” like unit of the Ambushers, as he has a leap in his kit. If his ability kills an enemy, he will leap to another target and recast his leap. His leap will also target enemies with the least amount of items, so you are more likely to execute enemies with his ability.

These Assassin like abilities are always balanced finely. You want him to be strong enough to carry, but not too strong that he invalidates enemy team comps. The Chem-Baron trait also incentivizes lose streaking for powerful items, so that could be the part of the puzzle that’s needed for Smeech to carry a fight.

4. Ekko Firelight Scrap Ambusher 4g

Ekko is a fairly straight-forward frontline/midline AP damage dealer. He reduces his target’s MR with his ability, which will stack with other things such as Shred. His ability also targets multiple enemies, making him a solid build around carry in the late game.

Since he is melee, you will want some form of sustain such as Hextech Gunblade to keep him alive. As he fights and takes damage, he will generate mana quickly, letting him cast again, and hopefully heal back up to a safe amount.

5. Jinx Rebel Ambusher 5g

Lastly, we have Jinx. Her ability cycles between three different effects. Zap will damage and stun enemies in a line, Flame Chompers will deal damage in an AoE, and Death Rocket will fire a rocket that hits the entire board. Her damage is mostly AD, but her Death Rocket will scale off both AD and AP, so bonus stats are always welcome.

All things considered, Jinx is a traditional backline carry with a strong ability, so giving her Ability Crit with the Ambusher trait will be a big buff to her damage.

In general, Augments like Crest and Crown will always be good, but there are definitely more notable ones to explore and discover. As we make our way to the PBE, we’ll be sure to test a variety of combinations and update this article with what we find.

The set has yet to even come out on PBE yet, and unfortunately, our team was unable to playtest the Set this time around. While we can’t recommend team comps at the moment, we’ll be sure to come back and update this article once we have a good feel for things.

The Ambusher trait in TFT Set 13 offers a powerful offensive toolkit that rewards players who want to maximize critical strike damage. With increasing Crit Chance and Crit Multiplier as the trait levels up, Ambushers become even more lethal as the game progresses. At the highest tier, Ambushers gain 15% Durability, making them not only damage dealers but also more resilient. This makes Ambusher an excellent choice for players aiming to create a high-damage, high-risk team composition that can potentially outlast and overwhelm opponents with a flurry of critical hits. Mastering Ambusher could provide the necessary burst to secure victories in TFT Set 13.

Thanks for Reading! If you want to gain more in-depth knowledge about TFT, check out many helpful articles here!

Good luck to you! – Cheng