Teamfight Tactics, brought to you by the people at Riot Games, is an auto chess game that gained popularity on release and has fluctuated quite a bit since. Riot is of course known for its hit game, League of Legends, a MOBA game that attracts huge numbers in the esports scene. The lore surrounding the characters (or champions, as we call them) of LoL is massive and has enabled them to make a lot more content based on that world.
Riot has capitalized on letting their fanbase play different styles of games with the same champions they are familiar with. Each season, called a set, of Teamfight Tactics has a selection of champions with assigned attributes. This week, on March 18th, the newest set releases with the theme of Galaxies.
WTF is Auto Chess?
Auto chess, or auto battlers, are games where you choose units, place them, and they automatically fight against another team on a set board. You are one of 8 players, fighting each other in a mini-tournament style, losing points each time you lose a match until a winner emerges. To win against the other teams you’ll need to not only build a solid team but also keep an eye on what everyone else is building plus learn to use your money wisely.
So if you like strategy and can think quickly, you might enjoy playing any of the auto chess games. And if you like League of Legends you’ll enjoy Teamfight Tactics in particular.
How to Play Teamfight Tactics
This week marks the arrival of the next set (or season) of Teamfight Tactics. Each season has brought a new dynamic, changing out what champions are available and what type of items and skills they possess. Every champion has an Origin, a Class, and can carry 3 items or buffs. A champion costs 1 to 7 gold to buy. And each champion can be combined to make a higher tier version – 3 to make a tier 2 champion and 3 tier 2 champions to make a tier 3 (that’s 9 tier 1’s to make a tier 3). Higher tier champions have higher stats and do more damage.
If you put together champions with the same origin or class, you get extra buffs. Things like increased armor, chance to do more damage, or maybe get mana or spell power. In addition to combining traits, you’ll get items in carousels and PvE rounds that you combine to give your champions extra fighting power.
What’s Special About Set 3?
Each new set brings new origin set, changes out what champions are present, and even what skins those champions wear to fit their origin/class combo. On top of the usual changes, Set 3 brings some new mechanics to the game. Set 2 introduced “Elements” to the game where each match was either wind (dodge), water (mana), fire (attack speed), or earth (health) and each gave a different buff for champions placed in spaces that contained that element.
Set 3 introduces a new mechanic where each match will take you to a different Galaxy, with its own set of rules. Some of these are Neekoverse: where everyone starts with two Neeko’s help (an item that clones any champion). Another other is Lilac Nebula: where every champion in the first carousel of the game will have a value of four gold. (Side note: this mechanic will release with patch 10.7 to give players the chance to adjust to the new champion sets first.)
This new set also introduces a battle pass system that will allow players to earn cosmetics for our characters, called Little Legends. Needless to say, as someone who has a history of buying all the skins, I’m super hyped about this addition.
Should You Try TFT?
I’m a huge fan of the universe Riot’s created. I’ve played League of Legends since beta and up until a few years ago, I was one of those people who picked up and learned every new champ that came along (I fell off the bandwagon when I had my first kid). TFT had a lot of hype when it came out and then kinda died off, so I didn’t end up picking it up until Set 2 released. I climbed my way from Iron 1 to Platinum 3 and have definitely fallen in love with it.
If you like strategy games and are willing to put in the time to learn the mechanics of the game then I definitely think you should give it a go! Prepare yourself for Set 3 with the 10.6 patch notes and make use of great guides found on Mobalytics and LoLchess!
As a final side note: I’m really excited to see Riot finally branch out, first with Teamfight Tactics and now with Legends of Runeterra – their card game, as well as their upcoming forays into FPS and an animated series. Maybe we’ll even get a Runeterra movie some time, like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy have produced.
