Teamfight Tactics is an autobattler that Riot Games built on the world of League of Legends. You play with characters you know from Summoner’s Rift, but instead of clicking and aiming skillshots, you put together a lineup and play strategy. If you play classic LoL and want to know how to get into TFT, how it differs from Summoner’s Rift and whether it’s even worth trying, this article explains it.
What Teamfight Tactics is
Teamfight Tactics (TFT for short, sometimes also searched for as “LoL TFT” or “TFT LoL”) is an autobattler, a genre where you build a lineup of units, send them against an opponent and don’t control them directly from then on. The fight plays out automatically based on the stats, abilities and synergies you’ve assembled on your board. Your job is in the preparation phase: what to buy, who to place next to whom, when to upgrade a unit to a higher star level, when to save gold and when to spend it.
Riot released TFT in June 2019 as a mode right inside the League of Legends client, so you launch it from the same app you know from Summoner’s Rift. It uses the same characters (Ahri, Jinx, Garen, Leona and hundreds of others), but TFT only borrows their looks and names; the mechanics are completely different. It’s not a light version of LoL but a standalone game with its own ranked mode, its own economy and its own rules.
How TFT is played
Each game has 8 players. You play for yourself, not in a team: every round your board faces the board of one of the other seven opponents, and the system draws opponents from across the whole lobby until only one player is left standing.
A match consists of several types of rounds:
- Carousel: at the start of the game and then regularly between rounds, you run around the arena and pick a unit or item from what’s available. Whoever is faster gets a better pick.
- PvE rounds: at the start of the match you fight neutral monsters that drop gold and items when defeated.
- PvP rounds: your board fights automatically against the board of the opponent the system assigns to you.
The economy is key. Every round you get base gold plus interest on how much gold you have saved (paid in steps of five, up to a cap) and a bonus for a win or loss streak. You spend gold in two directions: buying units from the shop, or buying experience to raise your board level and get more unit slots. Finding the balance between “level up” and “buy units” is the core decision in every match.
Units have traits (origins and classes) that activate bonus effects when you field several characters sharing the same trait (for example more damage, more defense, extra mana). Building your board around two or three strong traits that fit together is the basic strategy of every round. Besides traits, augments play a big role: at the start and during the match you pick one of three upgrade packages, which then shape the direction your lineup develops in for the rest of the match.
TFT also has its own ranked ladder with tiers from Iron to Challenger, just like Summoner’s Rift. For a complete overview of which characters are in the game and where they come from, see the article all LoL champions: overview and how to choose. TFT draws from this roster just like classic LoL does.
How TFT differs from classic LoL
On Summoner’s Rift you control one champion in real time: you aim abilities, dodge, farm your way forward and communicate with a team of four other people. In TFT the units fight on their own, and you make your decisions before the fight starts. So mechanical skill in the form of aiming and fast reactions drops out and is replaced by economic and strategic decision-making: what to buy, what to get rid of, when to take a risk.
The second major difference is who you play with. LoL is a 5v5 team game where your result also depends on your teammates. TFT is one against seven: you win or lose on your own, and nobody can carry you or throw your game. Match length is also quite different. A regular game on Summoner’s Rift lasts around 25 to 40 minutes, while a TFT match is usually shorter and, above all, more predictable in length, because it doesn’t depend on how fast one team snowballs.
Finally, there’s the question of what you actually learn in TFT. While in LoL your skill grows mainly mechanically (last hitting, kiting, ability timing), in TFT what grows is mainly your ability to read your position: when you’re strong, when you’re weak, and when it makes sense to switch to a different lineup because the original one isn’t available.
How the seasonal set system works
TFT isn’t built on one unchanging set of characters and mechanics like Summoner’s Rift. Instead, it runs in cycles called sets. Each set reshuffles which champions are in the game, what traits they have, how the augment mechanics work and what the arena around the board looks like. When a set ends, the whole meta resets and you start practically from scratch with a different set of rules.
This cycle is the reason TFT is worth coming back to even after a break: it’s not about learning the “best build” once and for all, because it stops working after a few months. Historically, sets have rotated roughly every three to five months. Currently (as of the date at the end of the article) the game is on Set 18, subtitled Enchanted Wilds, a forest theme with the Wisps mechanic and traits around Riftbeasts and Elderwood.
That’s exactly why this article doesn’t cover specific lineups or tier lists for the current set: they go out of date with the next balance patch. What stays valid long term is the principle: look at which traits the set offers, try several directions, and don’t count on a lineup that worked last set working in the next one too.
What you can play TFT on
TFT runs on PC as part of the League of Legends client: if you have LoL installed, TFT is available to you for free with no extra download. A guide to getting the client is in the article how to download and install League of Legends.
Besides PC, TFT also has a standalone mobile app for Android and iOS, which Riot released less than a year after the PC version. Mobile and PC players also meet in the same lobbies: TFT has full cross-play between platforms, so you play against each other regardless of whether your opponent is sitting at a computer or playing on a phone on the tram. The game is free-to-play on both platforms, and you only pay for cosmetics: board skins, emotes and Little Legends, the avatars that represent you on the board.
How to get started if you’re coming from classic LoL
The fastest way in is to play a few normal (unranked) games before you head into ranked. TFT has its own tutorial right in the client that walks you through the basic mechanics of buying, leveling and the carousel. Knowing the champions from LoL helps you find your way around the characters faster, but skill only carries over partially: learn to read traits and the economy, not just character names.
A good start is to watch what the game offers you in the shop and build your lineup around what you get, instead of trying to force one specific combination from the first minute. Players who stick to a fixed plan regardless of what they actually get usually lose to players who can improvise. During your first games, also remember to watch your opponents’ boards: what works for them often hints at what’s strong in the current set.
FAQ
No. TFT is a standalone game, and you can learn the rules without ever playing a single game on Summoner’s Rift. Knowing the champions helps you get familiar with the characters’ looks and names faster, but you have to learn the autobattler mechanics separately.
Yes, on both PC and mobile. You only pay for cosmetics: skins, emotes and Little Legends. Game content and ranked are available to all players for free.
Yes, TFT has full cross-play. Mobile and PC players meet in the same lobbies and play against each other without restrictions.
Smaller balance patches come out fairly regularly throughout the whole set. The major change arrives with a new set, which completely reshuffles the available characters, traits and mechanics. Historically, sets have rotated roughly every three to five months.
On PC, yes: TFT runs as part of the LoL client. On mobile, no: you download the standalone Teamfight Tactics app regardless of whether you even have LoL installed on PC.
Eight. You play for yourself against the other seven, and the system pairs you with different opponents from the lobby round by round until only one player is left standing.
Information verified as of 22 August 2026. TFT is a live game with regular balance patches and seasonal set rotations, so we deliberately leave specific lineups and traits out of this article: that’s what specialized tools and the current patch notes are for. If you’re interested in the mobile spin-off of League of Legends with classic 5v5 gameplay, take a look at Wild Rift: League of Legends on mobile. If you’d rather have physical cards from the same universe, you’ll find them in the article Riftbound: what it is and how to play. All League of Legends articles are in the League of Legends hub.