Here are fundamentals that carry over set to set that you need to know. Once learned, these ideas involving gold, leveling, and items will tremendously improve your skill as a Teamfight Tactics player.
Here are some Teamfight Tactics tips to help you improve your gameplay.
TFT tip #1: leveling intervals
Follow these leveling intervals and you will start to see a positive impact in your games. Pro players have optimized level timings and set a standard tempo at the highest levels of gameplay.
Unless you are playing a 1-cost or 2-cost reroll composition, always look to level at these timings. An exception to this is for leveling to 5. If you want to get a lose streak in all of Stage 2, you can forgo leveling to 5 at 2-5. Alternatively, you can push a win streak by leveling to 5 as early as 2-2.
Otherwise, the standard is as follows:
- Level 5: 2-5
- Level 6: 3-2
- Level 7: 4-1
- Level 8: 4-2, 4-5, or 5-1 (depends on money and tempo)
When deciding how early you would like to go to level 8, consider a few things:
- How much gold you'll have at level 8
- How much of your level 8 board you already have
- How early other people in the lobby are going to level 8
- How much stronger you can get by going 8 to punish the lobby
- How contested your composition is (to roll for units ahead of others)
TFT tip #2: item slamming
The concept of "best in slot" is a bit of a trap to many players. Best in slot is the idea of the three best items on any single unit. However, saving your items to chase the best possible combinations will leave you weaker than ideal for the majority of a game. Instead, look to make the best items that you have available in every situation in order to save HP and deal damage to other players. This is known as "item slamming."
The game starts from Stage 2 when you begin facing your opponents. The game ends when everyone else or you get knocked out. It does not start in Stage 4 or 5 when you make all the "best in slot" items!
Examples of item slamming
- Chain, Chain, Glove -> Can slam Bramble Vest even though Sunfire is a very strong item
- Glove, Glove, Cloak -> Slam Thief's Gloves even though Glove makes strong offensive items
- Sword, Sword, Bow -> With AD carries/direction, slam Deathblade as Giant Slayer has no early-game value
TFT tip #3: item economy
The main idea of item slamming is to make items that are the strongest for your current board and will remain relevant in the late game. In order to effectively slam items, you need to understand item economy. Depending on the composition you are playing, some items will be more flexible than others.
Additionally, when you take an item off of the carousel, you still have a good chance of receiving that component again off of a minion round. However, if you receive an item off of a minion round, there is a lowered chance of receiving that component again from another minion round. Playing around the idea of lowered chances will help you plan out your items more effectively.
What strong item economy looks like
Strong item economy means slamming items in a manner where leftover item components have good options for future items. It also means understanding what items are strong for your composition and balancing frontline and backline items. Lastly, it means continuously evaluating the position you're in to know what composition or damage type (Attack Damage/Ability Power) you must lean into.
Always prioritize a full three-item carry over splitting items between carries.
Examples
- Bow Start, Tear, and Rod Dropped
- Slam Shiv
- Play Around Rod for AP Damage Items
- Another Bow Likely to be Dropped -> GS, Rageblade, Titan's, Zz'Rot
- Chain Start, Chain, and Belt Dropped
- Slam Sunfire
- Play Around Chain
- Another Chain/Belt Unlikely to be Dropped -> Titan's, Shroud, Gargoyle Stoneplate
- Glove Start -> Jeweled Gauntlet, Extra Glove Dropped, Belt, Tear
- Usually Slam Guardbreaker
- Play around Tear for a full item AP-carry -> Shojin, Blue Buff, Shiv
Other details
- Start = Taken off Stage 1 carousel
- Dropped = Received from Stage 1 minions
TFT tip #4: gold economy
In TFT, for each 10 gold you have, you will gain an extra gold at the end of the round. This is capped at saving 50 gold, in which you will make 5 gold of interest per turn. Below is the amount of gold you will generally want to have saved throughout certain points in the game. Sometimes you will be richer, sometimes you will be poorer, but this is a general guideline to follow.
Ideal gold breakpoints
- Level 5, 2-5: 10 gold
- Level 6, 3-2: 20 to 30 gold
- Level 7, 4-1: 10 gold minimum after rolling, 30 to 50 gold if there is no reason to roll
- Reach Level 8 with 30 gold to roll with if possible
Have at least 10 gold by the end of 2-5 at the latest in order to start accruing interest. This will jumpstart your economy, giving you the best chance at having sufficient gold for strong mid-game and late-game boards.
Unless you need to keep important pairs of units, always look to make the next interval whenever possible. On 3-2 after leveling to 6, a minimum of 20 gold is ideal. This will usually mean you can level to 7 and 8 later on in the game with ample gold.
If you apply these tips to your games, you will become a more formidable foe against your opponents in the Teamfight Tactics battlefield!
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