TFT: Teamfight Tactics Guide for Beginners Part 2, Gameplay

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League of Legends. Photo Courtesy of Riot Games. /

For brand new players to TFT, we are here to walk you through your first game!

Hello there aspiring Tacticians! Yesterday, I walked you through the very basics of what Teamfight Tactics (aka “TFT”) is as a game. But, as most of you astutely realized, I never actually taught you how you play. Today, we remedy that situation.

I will be walking you through each piece of the TFT gameplay, step-by-step, so you know what to do when you load into a game. These will include handy screenshots from a game of Teamfight Tactics, so you know what you are looking at in-game.

In-game screenshot by Josh Tyler. League of Legends/Riot Games /

Step 1: The Carousel

The Carousel round is the first thing that you will see when you finish loading into a game of TFT. It is a group of 10 champions in a circle, rotating clockwise, with your Little Legend sitting on the outside.

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Once the countdown timer on the right-side of the top bar hits zero, you will be able to enter that circle to grab one champion off of the Carousel. You do this by right-clicking to move your Little Legend over the desired champion, but be careful! If you touch any of the champions while walking towards the one you want you will claim that champion instead!

You’ll also notice that each champion on the Carousel has an item hovering over its head. When you claim the champion, you’ll also get that item, but it’s important to note that the item is not permanently tied to that champion. Whenever you sell a champion in TFT, the items they are holding fall off onto your bench allowing you to re-attach them to any of your other champions.

You should try to grab the champion who has an item that you think you will need in the game. Which items are the strongest can vary from one patch to another but, as a general rule, it’s better to grab an offensive item (like a sword or a bow) than a defensive one (like the chainmail).

One final point to note is that, after the first Carousel round at the very beginning of the game, there will be Carousel rounds during each subsequent stage after the first three rounds of play. However, during these Carousels, it’s not the same free-for-all that it was at the beginning. In these Carousel rounds players are released, two at a time, to grab their desired champion, with the players that have the lowest life point getting to go first.

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