What is Teamfight Tactics? A Guide for New Players

What’s what in the League of Legends spin-off

Introduction

So, what is Teamfight Tactics, or TFT as most players call it nowadays? TFT is an auto-battle, auto-chess online, PvP kind of game where you have a board, items and champions that come from League of Legends universe. In TFT, unlike LOL you do not control each champion, its movement or attack abilities. Your only job is to position your champion as best as you can and create the perfect synergy with your champions, items and positioning on the map. The game takes place in various stages and rounds (typically seven rounds of battle per stage). 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.

Your army must defeat the enemy army and kill all their units to win the round. Your avatar will suffer damage to their lives if your army is defeated.

History

The game was released as a League of Legends game mode for Microsoft Windows and macOS in June 2019 and as a standalone game for Android and iOS in March 2020, featuring cross-platform play between them. The game is a spin-off of League of Legends and is based on Dota Auto Chess.

What’s The Point?

What’s the point of TFT? One may ask. It’s to win of course! You are up against seven other players in the battlefield, and you start a game with 100 or 20 hp, depending on the game mode you are playing. It is up to you to utilize your champions, their traits, origins and classes, along with items and the newly added augments to make a perfect synergy for your team and become the last man standing.

Starting a New Match

You start your game from the League of Legends client, or via the mobile app. Once you are in the game you will notice that you control a little creature called the ‘’Little Legend’’ which represents your in-game avatar and it is controlled by the right click of your mouse.

The ‘’Little Legends’’ have a variety of purposes and the most important one is that you pick your champions with them in the Carousel and pick up items that you collect during the game. Apart from that, they are simply a gimmick that is fun to play and to look at. They mock your opponents when you win a fight, get sad when you lose one. They can laugh, dance and express emotions with the emote feature in the game itself. You can obtain them through ‘’Little Legend Eggs’’ and chose among the variety of them until you find the one that you connect the most with.

Apart from that, you have your own arenas, that you can win by completing the challenges that game has for TFT and choosing your favourite arena to be your home ground. Everything else you control with your mouse and the ‘’Little Legends’’ and the arenas themselves do not have a great impact on the game itself.

How Do I Play Team Fight Tactics?

You start your game on the Carousel along with seven other players. There you can choose your starting champion, which later in the game you can sell. Each champion will have its 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 ultimate.

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. 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

Your goal is to make a perfect combination of Origins and Class and to have a perfect harmony among your champions and you should 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.

What Items Can I Use?

Items can be equipped to champions to increase their stats and grant additional effects.

Champions obtained from the carousel will start with an item, and additional items can be obtained as drops from PvE rounds. Items are stored on the bench until equipped to a champion, and selling a champion will move all items they’re holding to the bench.

Champions can only hold a maximum of 3 items. Basic items will automatically combine to form Advanced items.

What Are Team Fight Tactics Augments?

Augments in Teamfight Tactics are defined as permanent bonuses that are added onto the player’s Hexcore.

The player has three options for augments throughout the game. Each choice allows the player to choose one of three augments. Each augment is unique in that it has a rarity (silver or gold), and a prismatic.

What Is Gold Used For In Team Fight Tactics

Gold in Teamfight Tactics is the accrued income over the game that a player can spend on experience, champions and re-rolling a player’s champion pool. Choosing when to spend gold is one of the pillars of mastery for Teamfight Tactics.

What Game Modes Does Team Fight Tactics Have?

Different Modes in TFT Explained

Normal game

This mode can be used if you are looking for new strategies, synergies, or if you just don’t want to think too much and risk losing your LP. It takes approximately 40 minutes.

Ranked

This mode allows you to apply the knowledge gained on regular games and is a great way to get in some serious kicks. It takes approximately 40 minutes.

Double-Up

This mode is where you play with your friend, or if in solo queue, you are paired up with another single queue player. This mode allows you to play in a group of four players. Each player has his army. It takes around 40 minutes.

Hyperroll

This mode is where you don’t need to think too hard about your leveling and money because everyone gets the same amount and the same level. You can also reroll your shop to level up your champions. This one takes about 25 minutes and is shorter.

Final Thoughts

So, we have learned ‘’What is Teamfight Tactics’’. It is a great game that has brought so many new players into the world of League of Legends. It has a unique new design and brand new gameplay that has nothing to do with the original League of Legends game apart from being in the same universe and using its champions and items.

The game is constantly evolving and it is changing a little bit every week with a brand new patch. Each couple of months Riot Games scrap everything and bring out completely new champions with new traits, origins and classes to the game. Only the base mechanics stay the same but the game itself feels like a brand new game. This is a great opportunity for new players since they are basically starting from the beginning, as the veterans of the game. This is a great thing since the League of Legends itself has this problem that new players have a hard time adjusting to the game and are getting crushed by the veterans who have been playing it for a while.

Don’t hesitate and give it a try! It’s so fun!