TFT: Beginner Guide

So, you've heard of this game TFT and apparently, it's pretty popular. But you have never played an auto-battler before and you want to get good as fast as possible? Look no further, we have the absolut full beginner guide for Set 10 for you!

TFT is part of the League of Legends client, which means you've likely seen the game before,  but maybe haven't clicked on it, because you are stuck on the League of Legends grind train. Well, if you do want to try it and have no clue where to start, then we've got your back. 

We're going to give you a quick and easy rundown of what TFT is and everything else a beginner will need to know. But enough talking, time to jump into the information! 

TFT Beginner Guide: The Basics

What Is An Auto Battler?

An auto battler is a genre of strategy game where players set up and manage a team of characters to fight against other players' teams automatically. The focus is on strategy and planning, as the battles themselves are played out without direct input from the player once they begin. In TFT, this involves selecting and arranging champions on a game board.

What Is Interesting About TFT?

TFT stands out for its deep strategy elements, diverse champion combinations, and dynamic gameplay. It requires players to think critically about team compositions, item allocations, and positioning. The game is constantly updated with new champions, traits, and items, making each match a unique experience. TFT also offers a high degree of replayability due to its random elements and the necessity of adapting strategies based on available resources and opponents' actions.

How To Queue Up?

To start playing TFT, you'll queue up in the game client. This can be done by selecting the TFT game mode and choosing either a ranked or normal match. Once selected, the game will automatically match you with other players of similar skill level.

TFT For Beginners: The Mechanics Explained

Moving

You move with your Mouse. Moving is only important for picking up items which you will get from Carousel or from PvE rounds. More on that later.

Health

You have 100 health at the beginning of the game. Losing battles will cost you some of this health. If you drop to 0, you are eliminated. 

Economy

Economy can be used for buying champions, leveling up and re-rolling your shop. You will start at 0, but get 2, 3, and 4 gold in rounds 1-2, 1-3, and 1-4, respectively. Starting from round 2-1, you will earn a consistent 5 gold after every round for the remainder of the game, neutral rounds included.

Interest

You earn 1 extra gold for every 10 gold saved, capping at 50 gold for a maximum bonus of 5 gold per round.

Streaking

The gold reward for consecutively winning or losing multiple rounds is identical and structured as follows:

• For a streak of 2-3 rounds: 1 gold
• For a streak of 4 rounds: 2 gold
• For a streak of 5 or more rounds: 3 gold

If you win a player battle, you will also get one gold. Players who have a win-streak of over 4, will have a flame around their icon on the right side. 

Ideally, you always want to keep a streak. Just make sure to not lose-streak to extremely low health. You don't need 70 gold when you're eliminated. 

Champions

Champions are the characters you use to fight in TFT. Each has unique abilities and stats. You acquire champions from your shop by clicking them.

Each champion has 2-3 traits or origins, which will empower them or their team. 

In TFT, you can move your champions around on a hexagonal board before each round starts. Positioning is key to success, as it determines how your champions engage with the enemy team.

Traits

Traits are special attributes or classifications that champions have. When you have multiple champions with the same trait on your board, they provide unique bonuses, like increased damage or special abilities.

Origins

Origins are similar to traits, but they usually represent the background or faction of a champion. Aligning multiple champions of the same origin can unlock powerful synergies.

Buying

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You can buy champions from a random selection that refreshes each round. This costs in-game gold, which you earn during the game.

Each champ has its own cost, which is between 1 and 5. In TFT Set 10, there is also a special headliner mechanic.

Selling

Selling champions allows you to regain some of the gold spent on them. This is useful for adjusting your team composition or gathering gold for other purposes. 

Starring Up

Each champ will get bought at star level 1. As soon as you buy three of the same champ, it will star up to level 2, giving it better stats and making its ability stronger.

As soon as you have three level 2 champs, they will combine to a level 3 champ. This is the strongest a champion can get and you won't be able to find any more of the same champion in this game of TFT.

Two star units are bigger, while three star units shine golden.

Headliner

Headliners are a special mechanic of Set 10. You can only have one Headliner. If you don't already have one, a new Headliner will appear in the far right slot of your shop. In case you already have one, this will happen every fourth round. 

Headliners will always already be at a 2-star level and will give +1 extra to their trait or origin. Also, they have extra stats or effects on their ability. 

Your Headliner is a key piece to your comp and is most of the times your main carry or main tank.

Shop Reroll

After each round, the shop will automatically reroll for free. You can spend gold to reroll the selection of champions available in your shop in this exact round. This is key for finding specific champions to upgrade them or complete trait/origin synergies. Each reroll costs 2 gold normally. 

Shop Lock

If you have a unit in shop which you want, but don't have enough money for it, you can lock your shop by pressing the lock symbol. This won't refresh your shop on next round start.

Level-Up

Leveling up increases the size of your team, allowing you to place more champions on the board. Higher levels also increase the chances of encountering higher cost champions in the shop, which are stronger than the cheap ones.

You can buy 4 XP for 4 gold.

Items

Items are power-ups that can be equipped to champions to enhance their abilities or stats. They are obtained from monsters in PvE rounds or through the carousel.

Augments

Augments are obtained in Stage 2-1, 3-2 and 4-2. You have to choose between a selection of three augments, which can be each rerolled once. Those rerolls don't cost gold. Augments are similar to traits and origins, as they empower your team or give you other advantages. 

Stages & Rounds

A game of TFT is divided into rounds, each consisting of either player vs. player battles or fights against NPC enemies. Players lose health based on how many enemy champions are left standing if they lose a round.

Game Start

At the start of the game, you have to chose between three different portals, which have their own unique affects on the game. 

PVE

After you completed the game start, you will fight against monsters for three rounds. These will drop orbs, which contain Champions, Gold or Items. You can collect them by walking into them. 

You want to make sure, that your team is strong enough to beat the PVE rounds, as you will have a significant disadvantage if you can't obtain all the gold and item drops. Those monsters aren't too strong though.

PVP

In these rounds, you will play against one random player and their team. You can't influence this fight as soon as it broke out, so be sure to prepare well for it.

Carousel

The carousel always happens in the middle of a stage. Here, the players select one of 9 champs rotating in the carousel, who also hold an item component or a full item in the later stages. The bottom two players are the first ones to choose, then the next two low health players and so on. 

Game End

The game ends when only one player remains with health points, making them the winner. Players are ranked based on the order in which they are eliminated. If you got to the Top 4, you will gain LP, if not, you will lose LP. The first place will get more LP then the second place and so on. 

How To Play The Game Right / The Art Of Actually Winning

Positioning

Positioning is a huge part of this game. What this means, is that you can place your champions on your board. Different champions need different placement. A squishy damage dealer shouldn't be standing in the front line and your full tank shouldn't stand in the backline. Champions will always attack the target closest to them until it is down or any special effects like Edge of Night came into play. 

So you want to learn about the champions and where to position them correctly. 

Comps

"Comps" is the overarching term for a specific composition of champions. Before you go into a game of TFT, you should prepare 2-3 comps to play within the game. Especially in the beginning, when you may not yet have a good understanding of what fits well together, it's advisable to look at a tier list online, like our Riftfeed list.

Based on the units and items the game provides, you then decide on one of your pre-selected compositions.

Compositions also vary in difficulty level in terms of acquiring them. Some comps are extremely dependent on specific items or key champions, while others include very expensive units that can't be obtained in the early stages of the game. And then there are comps, which you can basically force every game. 

TFT Set 10 is sadly a lot more rewarding for experienced players, as the headliner make forcing compositions a lot harder. 

BiS-Items

BiS stands for Best in Slot. These are basically the "perfect" items for a unit. Each unit has their own combination of three BiS items. I'd recommend looking them up online. 

A lot of times, you won't get the best items for a unit and it's better to just slam non-perfect items which still work on the unit, rather than not using your items all game long. Obviously you shouldn't slam an Infinity Edge onto a Mage, but it's ok to go for a Rabadons if you instead wanted an Archangel Staff.

How To Have Good Economy

Ideally, you never want to get below 30 gold throughout the game. The only exception is, when you are close to dying. If you drop low on gold in the later stages of the game, you won't be able to recover from that in most of the cases. 

Always look at your bench and think about which units you don't need and if you can reach the next-highest interest point. Your comp needs Neeko at Level 6, but you are Level 4 with 37 gold? Sell Neeko for more income. It will come back. 

Playstyles & When To Level

There are basically three different play styles. I can't explain every detail here, as it is too complex and game-dependent, but if you have these three in mind, you'll be good. As already mentioned, you should have your comps prepared. If it's a comp with many three stars, your play style will be slow rolling. In case it's a comp with only one higher cost three star or even no three stars at all, only the loss-streaking and win-streaking explanation will be relevant for you. 

• Slowroll
  • You don't want to level up at all in the early stages. Your goal is to get as much economy as possible and always roll down until you are at 50 gold, ensuring your maximum interest. Also this helps you to stay at level 5, which is ideal for slow rolling for 1-costs. If you already can roll at Level 4, go for it. This strategy aims to three star 1-costs. A popular example for this is Punk Reroll or Annie Reroll. Those will carry your mid game and will ensure a Top4 most of the times, if you can find your units in time. In case you have already found 6 or more of your carry, you can roll down at level 4 after the Krugs PVE round until you three star your carry. 
  • There are also rolling comps for 2-cost and 3-cost units. For those, you can level up early. More on that in the next play styles. For 2-cost units, you want to slowroll at level 6, for 3-costs you can slow roll at level 6 or at level 7. Level 8 is also possible, but delays your three-starring. 
  • After you hit your key three-star units, you should slow level, which means buying XP until you reach 50 gold. If you're low on health (depends on the game state and how much you are winning / losing), you should go below 50 gold to level. Always try to stay above 30 gold if possible though. 

• Loss-Streaking
  • If your early board isn't strong (no 2-stars / no synergies / no early strong units), you should stay at level 3. This will most likely ensure a loss streak and in general more interest, as you didn't spend your gold on units. Your first level up is either in the Krug PVE round, as those are the hardest, or if your team is strong enough, after Krugs. Ideally, you have a real good economy, so you should Level up to Level 6 at 3-2. After that, you should hit Level 7 at 4-2 and Level 8 at 5-1. Your lose streak needs to end at 4-1, otherwise you will be too low and most likely eliminated soon. 
  • Loss streaks are good for acquiring your BiS-Items as soon as possible, as you can pick early in the carousel. If you have an extremely item dependent carry and don't have a strong early game board, loss-streaking is a no-brainer. 

• Win-Streaking
  • If you hit some two-starred units early and you have some decent synergies in your traits or origins, you can aim for a win streak. This is the most rewarding strategy most of the times, as you get 1 gold per PVP win and you won't lose health, while other players health is declining. 
  • For win-streaking, you should level at 2-1 to level 4 and add a unit which fits your team well or is in general strong in the early game. After the first carousel, you want to level to level 5 and put in a unit which has good synergy with your team. There are some cases, where it makes sense to level to 5 even before the carousel. This is the exception though and depends too much on the game state to explain. 
  • The advantage of win streaking is, that you can level faster and though will have better chances for good champions earlier. This can snowball your lead out of control if done properly. 
  • If you kept your win streak and another person is win-streaking as well after the Krug PVP round, you could level to 6. Otherwise, you will just hope to be stronger than your next opponent and level at 3-2. 
  • Win-streaking is all about knowing how strong your next potential opponents are. If there are people, who could potentially beat you, maybe think about leveling or rolling if you have pairs, to two-star important units. Just make sure, to not drop below 30 gold if possible. You never want to drop below 20 gold ever at this stage. 
  • Even if your win-streak ended, that's ok. You will be in a good position, as your team should still be one of the strongest in the game at that stage and also you are at a good state of health. Make sure to not level or roll below 50 gold after your win streak ended, as you still want the maximum interest and prepare yourself for the later stages of the game. 

When To Roll

• Ending Your Losestreak / Stabilizing Your Board
  • In case your board is too weak and you are still losing, you should aim to stabilize your board by slow rolling to 50 gold. If you don't hit good units and your board is really weak, you should roll down to 30 gold. In case you're dropping way too low on health (around 25-30), you should roll down completely, if it can ensure a higher place for you. Otherwise, leveling could help. Sometimes, you just don't get lucky in the game and have to minimize your LP losses or maybe you can even still try to go for a Top4.
• Keeping Your Winstreak
  • Here, you want to roll above 30 or 50 gold, depending on your general strength and amount of pairs. Sometimes there is also just a certain key unit which you have to hit, in which case it can sometimes also be ok to roll down further. This is the exception though. If you don't have important units to roll for, you should level. 

Scouting

Scouting is an extremely important part of the game, as it allows you to check for the approximated strength of the enemy boards, as well as where their carries are positioned. Position your units accordingly. This just comes with experience, so make sure to keep learning what works and what doesn't. Or just look up a guide on the internet. 

You will see who you might be playing next by the little mark below their name. 

In case you're win-streaking, this is especially important, as you want the perfect positioning of your team to keep the win streak. If you think a potential enemy of yours has a stronger board than you, you maybe need to level up or roll for your key units. 

This should sum everything up, which you need to play TFT correctly. With this knowledge, you should be able to climb to Gold or Platinum Elo easily. 

More on TFT:

• TFT Patch 13.24 PBE Changes: All Buffs & Nerfs
• Best TFT Meta Comps For Patch 13.23