Discover the hidden systems, interactions, and optimizations in Teamfight Tactics that the game just doesn’t tell you about. These small edges can snowball into huge advantages, helping you take over games, win lobbies, and climb the TFT ranked ladder.
If you’ve played more than five games of Teamfight Tactics, then you already know that getting a consistent top four placement is easier said than done. TFT is about more than just chasing traits, playing strong units, and knowing which augments are OP and which ones are unclickable. That stuff can get you far, but, as you climb higher and higher, your play needs to become closer and closer to optimal if you want to break through the barriers keeping you from a higher rank.
The brains of TFT challengers and pros are hard drives filled with terabytes of information about hidden systems, interactions, and optimizations that the game just doesn’t tell you about. Through countless hours of playing and watching TFT, they are able to combine many small edges into powerful snowballs, allowing them to take over lobbies and climb the ladder, set over set over set.
Thankfully, however, we can bypass some of that time and struggle by learning from the trial and error of other TFT grinders, saving us some LP and helping us gain more in the process. Now, if only there was a place where we could gather this knowledge into some sort of fun and easy to read list of helpful tips and tricks... Oh yeah, that’s this!
Managing your economy is one of the fundamental pillars of TFT, and good economy management starts with mastering compounding interest. If you got a D in math like I did, just remember that making 10 gold ASAP is important to keeping your gold generation on pace with the lobby, allowing you to hit important econ breakpoints --at 20, 30, 40, and finally 50 gold when interest caps out-- around the same time as everyone else.
The game is designed to where, most often, hitting 10 gold before Stage 2 isn’t feasible. In some circumstances, you could sell your whole board on Stage 1-4 to make 10, but you’d be missing out on additional rewards from killing the last round of minions, putting you far behind the rest of the lobby. Not Worth.
However, nearly every set there has been a way to let you break this rule, allowing one champ to solo the entire last round of minions, netting you 10 gold at 1-4 and safely cheating you a little extra econ compared to the rest of the lobby.
Luckily, Set 9.5 is no exception. All you need is the Big Brown Croc himself, Renekton. Place him alone (no item needed) in the top left hex and he'll spin to win, killing every minion, every time.
Right here should do nicely.
Now, there’s times when you won’t want to do this. If selling your board would mean getting rid of strong unit pairs that could help you streak Stage 2, it might not be worth it to optimize your econ in this way. Like with anything in TFT, the decisions you make should be on a case-by-case basis.
Are you addicted to rolling? You’re not alone. There’s something supremely satisfying about pressing that D key over and over and seeing shiny upgrades sparkling back at you. D is for Dopamine, after all.
All that extra rolling, though, isn’t healthy for your econ, and you should try to curb the habit. Your LP will thank you.
So, if and when you need to roll down to hit your upgrades and make your board stronger, a good rule of thumb is to keep your gold at 20 or above. You may think that there’s not much difference between rolling to 20 and rolling to zero. But, as mentioned before, the power of compounding interest will help you get your gold back to 50 significantly faster if you start rebuilding at 20. Over the course of the game, this can add up, and you’d be surprised how much econ you’re missing out on by rolling too much or too often.
There are some spots where rolling to 10 or below makes sense, however. If you deem that your HP is critically low and losing the next fight will mean your death, then a roll to zero might be the difference between a guaranteed bot four and squeaking out a 4th place.
If you’re a fan of Ionian champs and their lore, then you know a thing or two about "balance in all things.” And, well, the same idea applies to your army in TFT: you should generally never try to over index in one thing.
Take the Challenger trait for example. If you’re going vertical Challengers, then you don’t need augments like Pumping Up or items like Guinsoo's Rageblade. Why? It’s just attack speed on top of attack speed. Don’t get me wrong, attack speed is a good stat, but you’re already getting it from the trait. Your team’s many attacks need to be balanced with a good amount of damage to back them up - it’s the difference between being smacked 10 times with a pool noodle versus five times with a shovel.
For this same reason, Sorcerers (who already get a lot of base AP) want Jeweled Lotus and not Social Distancing, and Vanquishers (who already get spell crit and extra crit damage) want Social Distancing and not Jeweled Lotus. Both augments are “good” in the right situation, but your rationale for picking them has to be to fill a hole in your comp, rather than to stack a stat you already have.
It often doesn’t make sense to double up on items that have the same effect, such as Sunfire Cape and Morellonomicon, Evenshroud and Last Whisper, or Statikk Shiv and Ionic Spark. If you have one, you don’t need the other.
Now, do some team comps sometimes disrupt this delicate balance and win by investing an overwhelming amount into one stat? Yes. Is it disgustingly broken to take all three Social Distancing augments in one game? You bet. But the former usually gets the B patch treatment, and the latter happens in, like, 0.001% of games. So, as a general rule, stick with balancing your team as best you can.
Resistance reduction is one of the most powerful utility effects in the game, letting your carries melt otherwise imposing tanks and generally amplifying your team’s damage. But in order for shred (magic resist reduction) or sunder (armor reduction) to be useful, your carries have to actually… hit… the targets… that are affected by the debuff.
It sounds simple, but in the heat of battle, it can be hard to remain conscious of this fact. Remember that items like Ionic Spark and Evenshroud only have a two hex radius, and Last Whisper only affects the targets that the holder is damaging.
For instance, your instinct to protect your Sorcerer carries could have you always putting them in the bottom left hex, while your Swain with Ionic Spark stays in the middle-right of the board, away from their targets.
Your Spark is out in no man’s land.
Worse yet is when you slap that Spark on a weak unit that you’re not investing into, they die immediately, and you miss out on Spark value for the entire fight.
Another situation where this comes up is playing six Challengers with Fiora and Kai’Sa. You may assume Samira is just a trait bot and forget about her in the back line, but Samira, crucially, also has armor reduction on her spell. This means you’ll get more value by placing her on the same side as Fiora and Naafiri, who both deal attack damage and can take advantage of the enemy’s lowered armor.
Aside from just synergizing your own units, you also have to pay attention to your opponents’ positioning. Scouting can help you line up your units with shred/sunder against other players’ major tank threats, which could be the difference between a win and a loss.
This is probably one of the most basic and universally applicable tips out there, but you’d be surprised how many players lose sight of this tried-and-true axiom of TFT: fully itemize your main tank and carry before anything else.
It makes sense how things could end up this way - maybe you’re trying to follow a guide to the letter and build only the items it calls for (generally a bad idea). Or you’re tempted when a neutral round gifts you a best-in-slot Blue Buff for your Silco 1, nevermind the fact that you have a fully itemized Vel’Koz 2 and no tank items built. Who cares! It’s GIGA BIS!
In reality, you should think of items in TFT as multipliers that unlock higher and higher tiers of a champion’s potential. If you spread your items too thin, BIS as they may be, you’ll also be spreading your team’s power thin - either your frontliner with two items will die before your carries can do their damage, or your backliner with two items won’t be able to kill the enemy, no matter how much time your frontline buys you.
The same can be said for rushing for three items on your backliners before you get any for your frontline. You’ll bleed out infinite amounts of HP before you get to a point where you can itemize your tank line and finally stabilize like you were supposed to, though it may be too late by then.
Think you’re gonna have time to stack that Archangel’s? Think again.
Keeping to this rule may result in you building some suboptimal items to “get rid” of “bad” components. And yes, this does hurt you physically, as well as emotionally. But praying to be bailed out by the carousel or drops in future rounds is just being greedy - especially past stage 4, the last stage for augments and component drops.
This is far from a comprehensive list of all of the strategies and optimizations that exist in TFT - it’s a complex game! But I hope by reading this you’ve gained some valuable insight to take with you into your next ranked climb and end up gaining an LP or two you otherwise wouldn’t have. TFT is constantly evolving, and new tech is always being discovered, so your best bet is to keep seeking out community resources like these to stay informed and competitive.
Anyways, that’s enough yappin’ from me. Stay tuned for the next TFT guide from DIG, and I’ll see you on the ladder.
