Riot Games’ TeamFight Tactics (TFT) based on the League of Legends franchise champions is a wildly popular mobile and PC game. With its recent esports event, the TFT Macao Open, recently wrapping up, it’s a good time to discuss beginner strategy for anyone who is looking to try the game for the first time or interested in getting a bit better. This post will cover the basic mechanics of TFT.

TFT is currently in its 13th set called “Into the Arcane,” which is heavily based on season two of Riot Games and Netflix’s “Arcane” series. Most of the champions that players can field are either featured in the series or are in some way related to the setting of Arcane. However, no matter the set, TFT is at its core a modern take on real time strategy game, meaning players are pitted against each other while creating the best teams possible in a time-limited setting. A total of eight players are in the any given game and each has 100 health. Players are eliminated from the game by losing all of that health.

There are a handful of basic TFT mechanics players need to know to start playing the game effectively. Players buy and sell units from the shop in the bottom center of the game screen using gold, which is earned in a variety of ways but more on that later. These units turn into playable units that can be fielded on the game board that will be pitted against other players’ fields. These units range from 1 to 6 gold a piece and generally, the more expensive they are, the better but also rarer. These units each have stats, traits, and unique abilities that go with their units. Buying three of the same unit upgrades the unit to a two-star and/or nine of the same unit upgrades the it to a three-star, which makes the unit multiple times stronger than their one-star form.

Stats and traits on these units determine how strong they will be and what effects will be present on a player’s board. Stats can be enhanced using items, which are periodically gained throughout the game, and augments, which players get a total of three of each game and generally determine how the player should play the game. Traits attached to each unit are effectively synergies between different units. Fielding multiple units with matching traits gives those units or the entire board boosted stats, special effects, or both. The more matching traits a player has on their board, the stronger their board will be when fighting other players.

To be able to get stronger units or field more units, players must either level up their board and/or reroll their shop to try to hit better units. Leveling up a board requires experience. Two experience is gained after each round but four gold can also be exchanged for 4 experience. Each level additional level makes it so one more unit can be played on the board, up to level 10. Rerolling the shop is another important mechanic for two and three-starring units. Rerolling costs 2 gold and gives players five new units to choose from. Depending on what level a player rerolls on, the odds of getting higher cost cards increases.

As mentioned above, TFT is played in rounds and stages, each round is a player combat, carousel, or PVE combat. Stages consist of all three of these things – player combats happening five times per stage, and carousel and PVE combat once each per stage. Player combats are where boards are pitted against each other and carousel and PVE combats are the ways players can get items, free units, and additional gold. As the rounds and stages continue further into the game, the units and items become increasingly better.

Finally, all the mechanics mentioned above depend on gold, which makes gold the most important mechanic to understand. Gold can be earned in variety of ways – from augments, items, traits, after each round, PVE combats, and selling units. However, how much gold is earned depends on how the player chooses to play the game. The main way to make gold is by managing gold correctly. After each round finishes, players gain a baseline of two gold, but players can earn one gold of interest for every 10 gold (up to five additional gold per round) they have in their bank at the end of any given round. On top of that up to three additional gold per round can be earned from win or lose streaking in player combat. Selling units, like the free units from the carousel round, gives gold equal to the cost of the unit. Gold from augments and items gets into intermediate mechanics and does not happen every game, so it will not be discussed here. Deciding when and how to spend this gold at any point in the game is very important to the player’s success in the game. That is all of the basic mechanics players need to know to just get into the game. The next post about TFT will likely be about beginner and intermediate strategy, which will cover item usage, team compositions, unit positioning, and more.