Interview: The story behind TFT Set 15’s Power Ups, scrapped Doom Sayer mechanic, and more!

The release date of Teamfight Tactics (TFT) Set 15, also known as K.O. Coliseum, draws near! This means players will soon get to build their anime dream team and test out a lot of new traits. Players will also get to strategize with the Power Ups set mechanic and collect new cosmetics. Ahead of the TFT Set 15 release date, art manager Isaac Wood and set designer Milo Rue shared some exclusive details with esports.gg. They went into the Star Guardian transformations, Power Ups, a scrapped mechanic called "Doom Sayer," and more.

In the interview with esports.gg, Wood said that K.O. Coliseum is full of beloved anime tropes and Easter eggs. The Star Guardians, for example, have unique transformations similar that are reminiscent of the magical girl genre. A lot of the 3-star, 5-cost units include references as well.

"Lulu had so much love put into her summons that it’s way up on my list," Wood said. "Also, having all of the Star Guardians get their own unique transformation really shows off the set’s Easter eggs. Now, I’d suggest keeping a keen eye on the carousel and our 3-starred 5-cost champions and Prismatic origins!"

In TFT Set 15, the Star Guardians enhance other Star Guardians through the power of friendship. This means each champion gets a teamwork bonus while in the presence of others like it. Additionally, as the 5-cost leader of the Star Guardians, Seraphine even has the Ultimate Friendship Bomb spell to attack evildoers.

Meanwhile, Rue shared that designing TFT Set 15's Power Ups mechanic reminded him of Headliners in Remix Rumble and The Anomaly Into the Arcane. Early ideas included unique items and health triggers, however, didn't quite fit in with the whole powering up fantasy in anime.

"Early in development, we knew we wanted the mechanic for this set to be some sort of “powering up,” “exceeding your limits,” or “going even further beyond” moments that we see in so many anime," Rue told esports.gg. "We tried a bunch of different approaches to achieve this fantasy from unique items, low player health triggers, empowering champions in your shop, and a bunch of other ideas that just didn’t quite hit the sweet spot of design that makes TFT mechanics shine."

Riot Games then settled on a flexible system where players can add or remove Power Ups and use champion-specific pools of them. A notable scrapped idea was Doom Sayer, where tanks stored damage to unleash it later. This sometimes wiped out entire boards.

"Once we tried a more modular and flexible approach of allowing players to add and remove Power Ups more freely and implemented champion-specific Power Up pools and some learnings from team-up augments' trait-like appearance from Into The Arcane, we were really able to nail what Power Ups’ final form looked like," Rue said.

He continued, "From there, we experimented with a bunch of different content designs for Power Ups, with some of them being amazing and some of them more frustrating. One of the funniest ones that we didn’t end up shipping was Doom Sayer, which had tanks storing up damage they took to release it back on the enemy team after a set amount of time if they could stay alive. I distinctly remember a Rammus with this Power Up deleting my entire board in a playtest on multiple occasions because I just couldn’t take down the spiky armordillo."

In terms of how the final version of how the Power Ups mechanic works, a player can access them through a champion's armory. The armory is opened through Power Snax. If the player happens to get bored of their choice, then they can simply pop off the Power Up and give it to another champion.

TFT Set 15 launches on July 30 for everyone. In addition to all the new traits, Easter eggs, and Power Ups mechanic, this update promises some role revamps, cosmetics such as High Noon Thresh Unbound, Prestige Chibi Spirit Blossom Ahri, and Chibi Spirit Blossom Lillia. There are also new portal skins to add to one's collection.

That's all for now. You can learn more about K.O. Coliseum in another one of our TFT interviews as well. Stick around on esports.gg for more TFT news and updates!