That's it, Riot is also in the fashion of Auto Chess-like. Teamfight Tactics is the same as Dota Underlords if you have already had the opportunity to test, but with some interesting specifics. For new players who have never tried such a game, we will try to describe the general gameplay and provide some tips to take the game in hand in the early days.
The goal of the game? Be the last to stand on the eight players who are present in the game.
How to do so? Recruit the best champions or activate the best synergies to get the most out of your roster.
Useful Guides
User Interface
The interface is relatively clear and habits will come soon enough. The battlefield has 21 hexagonal squares (3 rows of 7) and the bench holds 9 champions. You can have a maximum of 10 active champions on the battlefield (1 per level of experience of your Little Legend).
Overview
Champions
- A synergy, whether of class or origin, is active if and only if you have DIFFERENT champions of that same class or origin (2 Braum on the battlefield will not give Guardian synergy for example).
- When you buy 1 champion in the shop, he is at the "1 star" level. When you have gathered 3 copies of this same champion, they will evolve in 1 copy of this same champion, but in "2 stars" version. Same operation to pass in level "3 stars".
- When a champion evolves, his basic characteristics increase (HP, damage, etc ...).
- Each champion can carry up to 3 items (improved or not).
Items
You can obtain items :
- During PvE clashes,
- During the carousel phase (on a champion)
- By selling a champion equipped with an object.
Each of your champions can equip up to 3 at the most. Many objects exist, and their combinations are all the more numerous. It will be necessary to control them to know which champion must equip which object and which objects to combine in priority.
These are stored at the bottom left of the battlefield near the bench (see below). It's your Little Legend that has to pick them up when they fall to the ground as treasure. You then have to drag and drop until the desired champion. Be careful, the only way to remove him will be to sell ... Plan well your shot.
The "carousel" phase
If you have already tested Dota Auto Chess, you will be clearly surprised by this brand new phase. In Teamfight Tactics, you do not actually have a "win / lose" system to optimize your golds (and therefore your buying power). On the other hand, if you are late on the other players, then you will have the right to choose your champion first. A few explanations:
- When starting the game and before the first PvE event, a carousel phase will be started. You will then choose your base champion. At this moment of the game, no first or last choice, everyone is housed in the same sign (see below).
- You will find a carousel phase every 3rd round of each Stage. All players are then teleported to the center of the map and everyone is surrounded by a circle that prevents them from moving. This circle disappears in the reverse order of the remaining VP's to your Little Legend. Specifically, if you still have 50 HP, you will be released before all opponents who have 51 HP or more. So it is sometimes relevant to "lose" a round (and therefore HP) before a carousel phase to be able to choose your champion before the others.
- Champions who turn in the middle and on which you must pass to acquire them are not targetable. You will need to know the skins of the champions you need, just like the items that are attached to them. This will clearly be a challenge for the players who don't know League of Legends.
- Last but not least, this phase can also be a way to thwart your opponents' plans if you have observed what synergies they are looking for. If you do not have a champion who draws you especially, take one that would be wanted by your opponents (or at least who wears an object that could be desired).
The planning phase
Before any fight, it is advisable to prepare his troops. You will then have a few tens of seconds to perform your leadership actions:
- Purchase of champions in the shop
- Sale of champions in the shop (you get the item he was carrying when selling)
- Evolution of champions
- Positioning champions on the battlefield (tanks in front and casters behind, most of the time)
- Champion management on the bench
Positioning is excessively important in LoL: Teamfight Tactics because the battlefield is very small, and the synergies may have some range (in relation to the enemies but also to the allies). Yasuo, for instance, must be placed far from everyone else to get his early combat bonus. Also, the Guardian-type champions must be close to allies to give armor. Of course, it's useless to say that all your champions are resurrected and return to 100% HP in each phase of preparation, even those who fell in the fight in the previous round.
Is everybody ready? Ok, let's go fighting!
The combat phase
Combat phases against creeps will alternate with combat phases against other players in the game. When launching a game, you will have 3 rounds of PvE combat before meeting your first PvP opponent.
- A phase lasts 40 seconds but rarely lasts as long (at least on current alpha/beta versions).
- A Stage is composed of 6 phases of combat (PvE and PvP included)
During the fight itself, you will not have too much control over what happens, because almost everything will have been done during the preparation phase. Special abilities automatically launch at 100% mana, champions move quite intelligently. The RNG will also come to point the tip of its nose since you will meet then champions who will have different objects (and potentially more powerful) of yours, but also champions who may have evolved before yours because the shop has been a big help. Finally, the percentages of chances to generate critical hits are also a lot of the fate of each fight in their hands.
Once the fight is over, whether facing the AI or facing a player, the losing player will suffer a number of points of damage defined by the number of remaining opposing champions (or units if it was a PvE round ). This is the moment to know if you want to be released before the others for the carousel ... The HP of your Little Legend punctured, we move on to more pleasant things: the collection of gold!
One of the main resources: the golds
As always, money is the nerve of war. Here, we will not derogate from the rule and the players who manage their money best will often be victorious. There are three ways to win golds:
- Finish a round: you then win a number of golds, based on the power of enemies.
- Sell a champion: at any time, you can drag and drop a champion in the shop to sell at his base price.
- Reach interest: At the end of a round, you earn 1 gold bonus per 10 golds you have in reserve, with a maximum of 5 bonuses (if you have 18 golds at the end of a round, you hit 1 gold bonus, if you have 62 golds, you only hit 5).
The Pirates synergy is a last, slightly more random way to win golds, as they sometimes get a treasure at the end of a round. This one brings you some bonus coins.
Once you have your golds, what can you do with them?
- Buy champions in the shop: you can do this during the preparation phase, but also during the combat phase.
- If you do not like the content of the shop, you can change it by paying 2 golds (feasible once per phase).
- Buy experience to advance your Little Legend in level, and thus be able to control more champions.
The mechanics of interest per 10 golds is interesting because it can force some players to adopt a more conservative strategy. These will accumulate gold but will have less powerful champions for a while. Once a certain level is exceeded, the difference between a player who always spends everything and one who keeps almost everything will be huge, and it will fight to return to the game, and buy the best champions and have the chance to be able to evolve.
Various tips
- Once you have mastered the usual phases, start to focus on what your opponents are doing. You have plenty of time to browse the minimap (bottom right of the screen) to see what is happening in others. You can anticipate the synergies that they seek to put in place, or the objects they will need, for example.
- Watch out for the positioning of your champions on the battlefield. It will be of paramount importance according to the active synergies.
- The HP of your Little Legend is a resource almost as much as your golds. If you are 40 years of life but you can choose each time THE best champion carousel, and have the best synergies of the game, you will end up back in the game or even exceed the opponents. The secret is to find the right balance between all these parameters.
- At equal champion level, synergies will almost always be better than an item on champions without synergy, except if it is really THE best of the game. Some synergies are better in certain situations and you have to know how to adapt to your opponents in specific situations.
If you want to see some gameplay, do not hesitate to watch this video of Amaz.
Teamfight Tactics is the upcoming League of Legends game mode. Today, Riot offers the very first visuals with icons, pets and the map.
Written by Jérémie "Djey" Mathis. Translated from French by Millenium.us.org
