How to Play TFT: A Complete Beginner's Guide
Teamfight Tactics is a strategy game for eight players. You build a team of champions, put them on a board, and they fight other players' teams by themselves. Last one standing wins. Below is a whole game explained from the first round, plus a simple plan for your first matches.
The goal
Everyone starts with the same health. Every time your team loses a fight to another player, you lose some; hit zero and you're out. Players drop out one by one, and where you finish, from 1st to 8th, is your result. In ranked, a top-four finish counts as a good game.
You never control your champions during a fight. Every decision happens between fights: who to buy, where to put them, which items to build, and how to spend your gold.
What happens in a round
A game is split into stages, and each stage into rounds. Every round has two parts:
- Planning: a short timer where you buy champions, arrange your board and build items.
- Combat: your board fights on its own. Usually it's against another player's board; some rounds are against neutral monsters that drop gold and items.
The first stage is short and only against monsters, so you can pick up your first champions and items safely. From stage 2 on, most rounds are against players. At regular points there's also a shared draft, where everyone walks into a rotating ring of champions holding items and grabs one; the players with the least health pick first.
Your shop, bench and board
Every round your shop shows five random champions. Each one costs as much gold as its cost. You can refresh the shop for a bit of gold to see five new ones, which is called rolling or rerolling.
Champions you buy go to your bench, the row under the board where they wait. Drag them onto the board to make them fight. You can only field as many champions as your level, so levelling up is how your team gets bigger. You can sell a champion any time to get gold back.
Tip Early on, just put out the strongest champions you have. Your team will change a dozen times anyway; winning the first rounds keeps your health high and pays streak gold.
Champions and star levels
Champions cost 1 to 5 gold. Cheap ones are common and weaker; expensive ones are rare and a lot stronger. Your level decides how often each cost shows up in your shop: at low levels it's mostly 1- and 2-costs, and 4- and 5-costs only show up often at high levels.
Three copies of the same champion combine into a 2-star, and three 2-stars into a 3-star. Every star level makes the champion much stronger, which is why buying duplicates is how you improve a board. Holding a pair (two copies) on your bench is how you get ready for the third.
Traits
Every champion has two or three traits. Field enough different champions with the same trait and a bonus switches on, and it gets bigger at higher numbers. Good boards are built around one or two traits at a high level, plus the champions that fit best around them. Every trait and its champions are in our Set 18 traits guide.
Items and augments
Items start out as components, dropped by monsters and picked up in shared drafts. Two components on the same champion combine into a finished item, and each champion can hold three. Put your best items on whoever deals most of your damage, and defensive ones on whoever stands in front. The item guide lists every recipe.
Augments are big upgrades you pick three times a game, each time from three options. They can give gold, make a trait stronger, or change how your team fights. The augment guide explains how to choose.
Health and placements
When you lose a fight, the damage you take grows with the stage and with how many enemy champions are still standing. So late losses hurt a lot more than early ones, and a board that's weak late can lose a ton of health very fast. Managing health is a balancing act: spend gold to stay strong, but not so much that you can't afford the champions you need later. The economy guide goes into it.
A plan for your first games
- Pick one comp before the game from the comp tier list, ideally an S or A comp marked Easy; the beginner comps guide lists them. Open its guide and note its main traits, its carry and the carry's items.
- Play strong champions early, whatever they are. Buy pairs of your chosen comp's champions when you see them.
- Save up towards 50 gold in stages 2 and 3 when your board is doing fine, and spend when you're losing health fast. The levelling guide covers when to level.
- Build items for your carry as soon as you know who it is, plus a defensive item for your front line.
- Look at other boards between rounds. If several players are on your comp, pick another one; the scouting tutorial shows what to check, and the pivot guide how to switch.
Don't worry about losing your first games. Everyone does. Every game teaches you the champions, the traits and the timings a bit better.