In January 2021, LoL Auto Chess Teamfight Tactics receives a major mid-season update. This is the perfect time to jump back in or make a push in the rankings, believes MeinMMO editor Alexander Leitsch. Therefore, he shares tips to help you become more successful.
What are these tips? TFT is not a complicated game by itself, but mastering it requires some knowledge and understanding of the game. Already at launch, we put together 6 general beginner tips.
Now these tips are to be expanded and deepened. It involves general topics like managing gold and leveling up, as well as tips on positioning and effective combos.
Who is speaking here? In January 2019, I experienced the Auto Chess hype already with the Dota 2 mod. Later, I switched to Dota Underlords and TFT. But TFT became my passion.
Since season 1, I have regularly played ranked matches. In the current set 4, I reached Diamond for the first time in the rankings. According to LoLChess, I am currently among the top 1.6% of over 1.2 million accounts in Europe that have played at least 10 ranked matches this season.
While I used to be in the Gold or Platinum range, this time I successfully made the jump to Diamond. What I changed and learned, I want to share with you.
1. The wrong handling of gold
Of course, you already know that you get interest on every 10 gold, that this brings a maximum of up to 5 additional gold, and that you can have win and loss streaks. But exactly the latter, you do not force enough, even though it is important for your income.
If you don’t find 2-star champions, a chosen one, and a good starting combo like Cultists at the start, you will likely lose the first rounds. And that is good for you.
Through a loss streak, you can quickly accumulate gold. This gold, in turn, can be used to come back stronger from your deficit and win in the end.
However, if you get a good start, you should try to maintain the winning streak.
- Use your gold to buy better units and/or level up faster to have more units in play.
- You may also lose interest as long as your winning streak continues.
- However, you should not roll for new characters.
The worst thing that can happen to you is that you alternate between winning and losing. This way, you will end up losing the most gold.
How should my gold be distributed for interest? My approximate guidelines for a match are:
- Phase 2-5 – 10 gold with a winning streak or 20 gold with a losing streak
- Phase 3-2 – 30 gold with a winning streak or 40 gold with a losing streak
There is no exception to this. Even with reroll comps like Moonlight, you should first reach 50 gold before rolling for new champions.
2. You are leveling up incorrectly
New levels play an important role in TFT because they allow you to get more units on the board and find rarer champions. But many level too quickly or too slowly.
Those who level too slowly may lose too many health points and miss out on stronger units. Those who level too quickly lose interest and thus gold.
My current experiences with leveling are as follows:
- Level 4 at phase 2-1 if you want to win, or automatically at 2-3.
- Level 5 at phase 2-5 if you want to win, 2-6 if you accidentally won during your losing streak at 2-5, or at the end of phase 2 to kill neutral creatures.
- Level 6 at phase 3-2 (even if you fall back to just over 30 gold there) or at 3-3 if you want to wait for 50 gold and have a losing streak.
- Level 7 normally at 4-1, in rare cases at 3-5 if you really had a sustained streak.
- Level 8 usually at 5-1.
- Level 9 as it fits, usually at 6-3 or even later.
Exceptions apply to the reroll comps. They obviously seek the right champions first and then level up.
A video that helped me get started comes from Challenger player k3soju, who has well explained leveling and gold management:
3. You commit to a combo too early
A mistake I always made before was committing to one or two combos that I absolutely wanted to play. But to reach Diamond, I had to become more flexible. Recently, I played:
- Chosen Aphelios
- 9 Cultists
- 6 Sharpshooters
- 9 Ancestral Wood + Mages
- 9 Cultists
- 6 Mages
- 9 Ancestral Wood + Brawlers
- Chosen Zed
- Adepts + Legendaries
Zed and the Cultists are not necessarily considered S-tier combos, but both helped me achieve a first place. And that was because I was flexible, reacted to chosen ones, and managed my win/loss streaks correctly.
While it is important to know where you ultimately want to go with your combo, you must not forget the early and mid-game. Otherwise, you might end up with too few or even no health points in the endgame.
Therefore, you should know not only the endgame combos but also how to best play the time in between.
For me, this developed by watching more and more tournaments and pros. This taught me what the units can do, how they interact with each other, and which combos can be used as a bridge.
Many use Chosen ones for the early game but do not build their endgame combo around them. Instead, they later sell them to buy a stronger chosen one from the higher gold categories.
It is also important that your items match the chosen one and the combo respectively. This is often underestimated.
Where can I find the strongest combos? We at MeinMMO regularly share articles about the currently strongest combos. However, for a full insight into the meta, especially check the subreddit CompetitiveTFT for various tables and discussions.
I also recommend watching Challenger players on Twitch or YouTube and learning from them. This has helped me a lot, especially in terms of flexibility.
4. You are using your items incorrectly
Those who read guides on endgame combos are often introduced to pre-made item builds and try to emulate them. But that can be deadly. If you don’t assemble items in the early and mid-game because you are waiting for the right items, you lose health points too quickly and get knocked out.
Therefore, it may be necessary to build items that fit your playstyle but are not the perfect items:
- Chosen Aphelios plays best with Mercury, Guinsoo’s Rageblade, and Hand of Justice
- However, if you do not get a Tear, you can also build Bloodthirster as a substitute for Hand of Justice; if you do not get Guinsoo’s Rageblade, Runaan’s Hurricane works too
Additionally, it is important to know which items are generally good and have their validity in almost every combo. These include Guardian Angel, Solari’s Amulet, or Sunfire Cape. These can lead you to winning streaks in the early game and do much more for your team than the perfect item in the endgame that you never reached.
What else must be known about items?
- The first 4 carousel rounds provide you with individual items. Here you have, to some extent, control over which those are.
- By defeating neutral creatures, you will get at least 8 additional items by the end of phase 4. This means you can craft at least 6 complete items.
- It happens rarely that you get the same item for neutral creatures more than 2 times
For this reason, you should avoid getting the chain vest, giant’s belt, or negatron cloak in the first carousel round if possible. Usually, you only need 1-3 of these items, but depending on the combo, you may need more than 3 of the others.
A safe choice is always the combat glove. It is usually needed at least twice by each combo and can, if found frequently, be transformed into a thief’s glove.
A good overview of the currently strongest items can be found at the YouTuber Bunnymuffins. He also has the website bunnymuffins.lol, where you can also find tier lists for the items.
5. You are not scouting enough
Now that we have clarified how important leveling, gold, and the right items are, you need to determine which combo you want to play. And it is important to look at what the other players are using.
I myself experienced that I wanted to play Moonlight Aphelios with a Chosen Diana. However, two other players already had Chosen Aphelios. I realized this too late and never got Aphelios to 3-star. This inevitably led to defeat.
Besides the fact that you can adjust your combo if too many people are playing the same variant, it is also good to see how you can counter your opponents. If all players in a round are already committed to their combos and have little room for legendaries, then it may be worth quickly leveling to 9 and building a combo just for that. While this is expensive, it can be extremely strong in the endgame.
6. You are positioning your champions incorrectly and not flexibly enough
Scouting also includes positioning your champions. Especially when the first players have been knocked out, you can adjust your positions to counter your opponents strategically.
It is important not to engage the same player twice within a phase unless there are too few other players. After you have fought all enemies once, you will (randomly) meet them again.
With this knowledge, you can adjust your positions to build your win streak. Especially in late game 1v1, you can effectively counter enemies to achieve first place.
General tips are:
- Place a ranged carry like Aphelios, Ashe, or Jhin at the edge. There, opponents can only attack from one side, which can be blocked by your other champions.
- Tanks should be at the front. However, if you’re only against enemies with assassins, you should place them at the back. It can also be wise to put tanks in the second or third row so that opponents have to run first.
- Certain champions like Pyke or Jarvan IV attack enemies that are the farthest away in between. You can take advantage of that by building your main team close to them while placing a tank far away.
- Aatrox, on the other hand, pulls two enemies that are the furthest away towards him. Therefore, Mercury is also very important on Aphelios or Ashe.
- Some enemies rely heavily on AoE, for example 6 Mages with Ahri. Here, it can be wise to spread your characters far apart.
Helpful is the guide video from ProGuides TFT:
7. Greed is feed
It often happens that you hope until the end for the perfect item, the 3-star champion, the one legendary unit, or the level up in the next round. You want to achieve the first place and play your desired combo.
But often this leads to suddenly finishing in 5th or 6th place. Similar to LoL, it is true: greed is feed.
If you see a player still has 100 health points in stage 4, then you are not playing for first place but rather 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. After all, you want to come out of the match with more points than you went in.
My recommendation is therefore sometimes to roll earlier, build an imperfect item, and achieve a positive placement rather than pray and then be disappointed. In general, 3-star champions are overrated, especially if they are not your carries and do not carry 3 items.
For those who enjoy TFT and strategy games, here are some alternatives: The 12 best strategy games for PC with multiplayer
