TFT Patch 10.6: Welcome the Guardians of the Galaxies

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League of Legends. Photo Courtesy of Riot Games. /

TFT Set 3 drops in Patch 10.6 and we give our opinion on all the changes.

Wave goodbye to the Rise of the Elements! I hope you got all your climbing done for Set 2 because TFT Set 3 will be live tomorrow with the new Galaxies theme! Patch 10.6 introduces not just a new set of units but also new rule-sets and overall changes to the TFT meta game.

We’ll spend most of the time here talking about those system changes in Patch 10.6 while giving a brief look at the different units, Origins, and Classes. For a more in-depth look and my analysis feel free to click here for a deeper dive into the champions and here for the Origins and Classes.

System Changes – Carousel

"The first carousel is now all 1-cost champs instead of 2-cost champs."

This is a bad change, in my opinion, since it shrinks income at the earlier stage of the game when you desperately want to buy as many champions and pairs/threes as you can. Ultimately, this will likely make the early game a bit more strategic than “buy all the units you can.”

"Spatula can now appear on the Carousel again, but much less often than before."

Obviously, I’m super excited for this change, as I was one of the people advocating to bring back Spatula to the Carousel round. This opens up the game to a lot more creative combinations and combinations than were available at the end of Set 2.

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"Full items can show up earlier than the fifth Carousel."

I’m hesitantly optimistic about this change because it could provide a too-big power boost for players who are falling behind. However, those items are also random so it probably won’t take someone from eighth to first unless the stars align (pun intended).

"Components can show up in the sixth Carousel and beyond."

This is actually a fantastic change because there is no worse feeling than having that one lingering component that you can’t do anything with in the late game.

"Many new carousel arrangements have been added."

I’m assuming this has to do with the new Galaxies rule sets (e.g. there will be one round where the first Carousel has only 4-cost units).

System Changes – Income

"Passive Income (by stage): 1-2-5-4-5-5… >>> 0-2-2-3-4-5-5…"

This is going to be felt by a lot of veteran TFT players, because it not only means that you likely won’t be able to buy out the shop in Round 1-2, it also means you might not be able to buy more than one or two units in that round if you don’t get gold or a unit drop in 1-1. So, you could theoretically have three copies of the same unit in the shop and NOT be able to buy all of them without selling your Carousel item (remember, the Carousel units are now all 1-cost instead of 2-cost). This makes an interesting potential choice: take the 2-star unit and nothing or multiple 1-star units?

"Gold & Champions Medium boxes can’t drop in the first two PVE rounds. Champions are now more likely than just pure gold from all the levels of bonus boxes."

So, basically, your only hope to get more champions in the first two rounds is to get the small boxes (1 and 2-cost units). This starves out income and makes it basically impossible to buy out your shop early.

"Level 3 Champion drop buckets (by Tier): (70/25/5/0/0%) >>> (70/30/0/0/0%) Level 5 Champion drop buckets (by Tier): (35/35/25/5/0%) >>> (35/40/20/5/0%) Level 6 Champion drop buckets (by Tier): (25/35/30/10/0%) >>> (20/35/35/10/0%) Level 7 Champion drop buckets (by Tier): (20/30/33/15/2%) >>> (14/30/40/15/1%) Level 8 Champion drop buckets (by Tier): (15/20/35/24/6%) >>> (10/25/35/25/5%)"

No more random people getting a 3-cost unit at Level 3 should even the playing field, but beyond that Riot is essentially scaling up the number of 2-cost units at Level 5, 3-cost at Levels 6 and 7, and 4-cost units at Level 8. This should, theoretically, give players a good chance to get those 2 and 3-star higher-cost units in the mid game and somewhat offset the removal of more Neekos Helps.

"Streak Breakpoints: 2-3(1g), 4-6(2g), 7+(3g) >>> 2-3(1g), 4-5(2g), 6+(3g) Streak gold is now paid during PVE rounds."

These are two MASSIVE changes in Patch 10.6 because it lowers the 2g and 3g streak bonuses by one game AND it allows you to get paid for those streaks during PVE rounds. It’s still unlikely that you will be able to count PVE rounds towards your streak, but this is still a massive change that will affect how players play, especially in the early game.

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