Now that set 13 of Teamfight Tactics (TFT) “Into the Arcane” is at its halfway point, this is a good time to explain the main intermediate strategies of the game. These strategies are used at the highest levels of play and help players rank up efficiently as long as they truly understand these strategies. However, these strategies are ineffective for players that do not fully understand the basics of TFT, so take a look at The Game of Nerds’ Basic Mechanics guide of TFT for a refresher.
Before getting into the two main strategies that TFT follow in all of their games no matter the set and meta, it is important to note that these strategies will not be mentioning set and meta specifics. Specific units and comps are only good depending on the patch’s meta and the current set, therefore any units or comps mentioned in this post are only current examples – they will not be good or even exist a few months from the publishing of this post. To keep up with what units and comps are meta, it means playing TFT somewhat frequently and/or keeping up with Riot Games’ patch notes.
With that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get into the Intermediate strategy. There are two main strategies in TFT, 1) Reroll and 2) Fast Eight. All players use one of these two strategies in 100% of their Normal or Ranked TFT games, but players who have the best understanding of what strategy to use when, why they are using, and how to best utilize it will be more successful.
Reroll
The reroll strategy is one where a player spends most of their gold on rerolling for and upgrading low-cost units instead of leveling up to try and get higher cost units. Reroll is generally used when a player’s first or second augment affects a specific unit, known as a Hero Augment, or a specific Trait, known as a Comp Augment. There are other use cases for the reroll strategy, but those types of augments are the most common reason. It’s good to note that the Reroll strategy is one that does require a good amount of luck. If a player hits the unit upgrades in 20 rerolls, much more gold is saved than if they hit it after 50 rerolls.
Reroll is only utilized when rolling for three-star up grades of one, two, or three cost units. Depending on what units a player is going for, players start their rerolls at level five and up to level seven if they are going for three-cost three-stars. To optimally play this strategy players want to reach 50 gold and only reroll with any gold above 50 gold they have. The only times to go below 50 gold is when a player is one- or two-unit purchases away from hitting their desired three-star units, if player health is getting to low, and/or after they have hit their three-star units and need to level up to start trying to get the next units they need in their comp.
Things to keep in mind when playing the reroll strategy, most players try to get two different units of the same cost to three-star at the same time, so they have a better chance to at least hit one. If another player is rerolling for the same unit, this is grounds to swap off rerolling and switch to the fast eight strategy that uses higher cost units that have the same traits.
Fast Eight
The Fast Eight strategy revolves around spending gold on leveling up instead of rerolling unit the player hits level eight. This strategy is generally used when player’s augments that help them earn gold, Econ Augments, or non-optimal augments that can be used to win rounds early. While this strategy requires less luck than rerolling, it requires more skill around using gold and knowing when to level, as well as what comps to play while going fast eight.
Once players get to level eight, they will generally start rerolling down to zero for a few rounds so they can try and hit the two-star four-cost units they need, and even one-star five-costs. However, hitting these four-cost and five-cost units is where luck starts to come in. If these units are not hit within the first few rounds of getting to level eight, it becomes much tougher to win because the other players in the lobby will have caught up by then. Once these units are hit though, the player should start saving gold again to reach level nine, where they will then start rerolling again to hit two-star five-cost units.
Some other things to note with the fast eight strategy, most players try to hit level high by stage 4, round 1, which is right before players get their third and final augment. This allows them to solidify their comp before their final augment which could buff their comp’s ability to win. If another player is going a similar comp, it is easier to pivot to something else because there is no commitment with no three-start units. In fact, pivoting to a new comp based on five-cost units a player rolls into is a somewhat common thing to do since five-cost units are generally the strongest in the game, even at one-star.
Knowing and understanding how to best utilize the two strategies above is a great way to climb in ranked gameplay or get top four in games in general. Of course, there is more knowledge that is needed, like what items to build when, how to decide what augments to choose, forcing win/lose streak, and more. However, that will all come in the part two of this strategy guide.
