Video Game / Teamfight Tactics

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Teamfight Tactics is a free-to-play spinoff of (the also free-to-play) League of Legends, taking League's assets to create a multiplayer auto battler. TFT debuted on Jun 25th, 2019 as a playable mode in the League of Legends client.

Inspired by the popular Autochess mod to Dota 2, TFT is an 8-player free-for-all, where players collect and upgrade teams of champions, which then automatically fight against both computer-controlled opponents and other players' teams on a hex-based map. Each champion possesses certain traits in this mode describing their origin or fighting style, and collecting several champions with the same trait drastically improves them or their entire team.

Tropes

• Anti-Debuff: Quicksilver Sash. Olaf became immune to CC after using his ultimate in Sets 2 and 4.5. In Set 5, the Caustic Quicksilver item grants permanent debuff immunity at the cost of maximum health.
• Anti-Magic: Each set has at least one mechanic in this vein.
  • All items built from Negatron Cloak technically fit this (with some having magic resistance in their identities more than others, but the Dragon's Claw item gives a massive magic damage reduction boost on top of the baseline magic resistance it provides. Ionic Spark, as the magic resistance/ability power hybrid item, plays with this: it punishes nearby enemies by zapping nearby enemies when they cast a spell, but also reduces their magic resistance.
  • Set 1 had the Dragon origin bonus, which granted full immunity to magic damage before being nerfed to 83%.
  • Sets 2 and onward have the Mystic trait, which instead grants team wide magic resistance depending on how many you have.
  • Downplayed by Set 5’s Refracted Dragon’s Claw, which gives much less magic damage reduction than Dragon’s Claw but also negates bonus damage from critical strikes.
• Anti-Regeneration: The Wound status reduces all instances of healing applied to the subject. It's usually applied alongside Burn, a Damage Over Time effect; sources include the items Sunfire Cape, Red Buff, and Morellonomicon, plus a few specific champion spells. Some form of antiheal is all but mandatory in late-game teams to counteract the healing potential of a fully-stacked tank.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: True damage ignores enemy resistances, and some traits can grant either that or reduce enemy resistances.
  • The Void set bonus from Set 1 and Set 3 causes all Void champions to do True damage.
  • In set 2, the Desert class reduces enemy team armor by 40 or 100%.
  • The Last Whisper item reduces the target's defense by 75% if hit by a critical hit for 3 seconds, while Ionic Spark reduces the magic resistance of nearby enemies by 40%. The burn items (Red Buff/Sunfire Cape and Morellonomicon) apply true damage over time as a burn.
  • Urgot in Set 3.5 deals repeated true damage when he manages to reel enemies into his belly, until they die.
  • Divine in Set 4 grants bonus true damage on top of the user’s normal damage upon either falling to less than half health or making 6 attacks. Sett’s unique trait in Set 4 is The Boss: after falling to 40% or less health, he leaves combat to do sit-ups, healing up. If he manages to reach full health again, all his attacks become true damage.
• Ascended Meme: “no scout no pivot” was a meme whereby players would announce in chat what team comp they were committing to (the archetypal example being Mechs in Set 3) in an attempt to warn opponents not to pursue the same comp themselves - “no scout” meaning they wouldn't check what opponents were building, and “no pivot” they wouldn't change course mid-game. This later gave its name to the No Scout No Pivot augment, which gives your units permanent stat buffs after each fight but prevents you from selling them once they've fought once.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Prismatic traits. A few origin traits each set have an extremely powerful maximum level which amounts to an instant win if you can assemble it. However, there aren't enough units with that trait to reach said max level, so it takes multiple trait-boosting Emblem items to get there, and Emblems are rare enough that most games will never see a prismatic trait activated. As of Set 15, prismatic traits instead require you to hit the trait's maximum "normal" level and then complete a quest; these quests are difficult, though, and the game will often end before you finish them if you don't hit Emblems to start the quest early, so they still qualify for this trope.
  • Many sets have a “cashout” trait that lets the player build up resources and then trade them in for rewards, such as Fortune in Sets 4 and 11, Chem-Baron in Set 13, and Cypher in Set 14. The rewards for building a very large resource stockpile are usually huge and enticing, from max-rank 5-cost units to multiple radiant items, but reaching that threshold is difficult. You need to hit a high trait level very early, which is largely luck-based, and many of these traits build up resources by losing fights, so you have to be able to pull off narrow losses consistently to build your stockpile without taking too much player damage.
  • 3-star 5-cost units also qualify. 5-cost units only appear consistently in the shop at the highest player levels, and there are only nine copies of each one in the pool each game, shared across the entire lobby - and it takes all nine copies to make the 3-star. If you get there, though, the scaling on their abilities is amplified to a comical degree and you're almost certainly going to win.
• The Berserker: The Berserker class in Set 2. Berserkers start each round by leaping at the closest enemy (as opposed to Assassins, who leap to the back of the enemy team) and have a chance of each of their attack splashing to hit enemies behind their target in a manner similar to Titanic Hydra.
• Black-and-White Morality: The theme of Set 5 is “the battle between good and evil." Traits are a mix of “good” traits and “bad” ones, with the former being represented by bright-looking traits and the latter represented by dark-looking traits.
• Blade Spam: The Set 1-3 Blademaster synergy grants all their attacks a chance to strike up to four additional times.
• Cast from Hit Points: An occasional mechanic mostly found on high-cost units - Set 5 Teemo costs player health to buy instead of gold, and Set 12 Briar can be fed with player health to permanently increase her health.
• Character Class System: Sort of. Since the role rework in Set 15, a unit's role both defines how it's supposed to perform in battle and dictates the way it generates mana; some also have extra effects. Champions are also designated as Attack (most offensive scaling is from Attack Damage), Magic (scaling from Ability Power), or occasionally Hybrid (a mix of both); for example, a unit could be described as an Attack Tank or a Hybrid Marksman. These roles tend to dictate which items work well on which champions.
  • Tanks are melee champions specialised in soaking up damage, with high health and defences. They don't gain much mana from attacks, but can uniquely earn it based on damage taken, and they are always targeted before non-tanks if the choice would otherwise be random.
  • Fighters are harder-hitting melee champions who can still take a few hits, albeit not as many as tanks. They build mana only by attacking, and have an innate Life Drain effect to help keep them alive.
  • Assassins (formerly Reapers) are melee Glass Cannons, with high damage output but low survivability. They build mana only by attacking, and are always targeted after non-assassins, effectively a reverse of the Tank ability.
  • Casters are ranged champions who get most of their value from their spells. They get a decent amount of mana per attack but also have some innate mana regeneration, on top of whatever they gain from items and traits.
  • Marksmen (formerly Carries) are ranged champions who get most of their value from attacks, or have spells that want them to attack as much as possible. They build mana only by attacking.
  • Specialists either generate mana in unique ways, cast their spells with a resource other than mana, or don't cast spells at all.
• Charged Attack: Unlike in main game, mana meter in TFT is more of a Charge Meter that fills whenever unit deals or takes damage. Their ability fires instantly when the meter is filled, and mana items allow them to start with their meters partially filled.
• Comeback Mechanic:
  • During carousel rounds, players with lowest health get to pick their champions first, giving them a chance to pick units or items they need before anyone else can steal them.
  • Losing enough fights in a row will provide the same gold bonus you'd get from a win streak.
  • The healing power of the Spirit Link augment is based on how much health the player is missing.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Zig-zagged - The Ninjas synergy of Sets 1 and 4 requires to use either only one Ninja, or all four of them; however, the 4-Ninja version grants significantly stronger buffs. This "one or four" pattern would be repeated for Set 8's Aces, Set 13's Emissaries, and Set 15's Mentors.
• Critical Hit Class: Collecting enough Assassins greatly increases the damage they deal with critical hits, as well as their chance to do such. In Set 4 and onward, all of them gain the innate ability to critically strike with their spells.
  • Valkyries in Set 3 (and Executioner units in Set 4) had the ability to get guaranteed critical strikes against enemies below a certain health threshold.
• Critical Status Buff: Several items (Bloodthirster, Sterak's Gage, Edge of Night) and traits have an effect that activates on champions reaching a certain health threshold, usually granting them a shield, extra health, or otherwise protecting them from harm.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Most champions have a few different item sets that can work well on them, but some need a single specific item to be viable. Carries that rely on their auto-attacks are a notable example, as they struggle to get going without Guinsoo's Rageblade.
• Cursed with Awesome: Set 5’s Shadow Items have this theme, offering interesting tradeoffs for very powerful effects.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Set 14's Black Market augments, a special subset of prismatic augments that only occasionally appears as an augment hack. The Black Market pool consists of augments that have been removed from the regular game for being too powerful or too swingy, and includes some extreme risk-reward options like Cursed Crown (gain two extra team slots, but take double player damage when you lose a fight) and Anger Issues (all your completed items, now and for the rest of the game, become souped-up Guinsoo's Rageblades).
• Discard and Draw:
  • Reforgers are uncommon consumables that unequip and reroll a targeted champion's held items, turning them into random other items of the same general class.
  • There are a few augments that essentially let you take a mulligan, clearing your board and restarting your team from scratch. Dummify and Golemify merge your units into a training dummy or golem that doesn't take up a team slot, while Restart Mission just sells your board and replaces it with a few random 2-star champions, guaranteeing you a decent (if unsynergistic) early board.
• Equippable Ally: Yuumi was in Set 1, but not as a champion - she was an item made by combining a Spatula with a Needlessly Large Rod that makes the champion that equips her count as a Sorcerer (though she ended up making a proper debut in Set 4). The consumable "Neeko's Help" item is implied to work by having Neeko shapeshift into an extra copy of one of your allies (though Neeko herself also appears in Set 2 and Set 3), but it's since been renamed to the more generic "Champion Duplicator".
• Gathering Steam: A trait of some characters, items, and traits.
  • Units with Guinsoo's Rageblade, the Set 1 Wild synergy buff, or the Set 4 Duelist synergy buff gain extra attack speed with every attack. Wild and Duelist grant more speed per attack, but it's capped to a set number of attacks, while Rageblade starts slower but can scale until the battle ends. Set 3's Chrono bonus granted attack speed over the course of the fight—initially as big “jolts” of attack speed every 4 seconds, before being reworked to grant a small amount of attack speed every X seconds (with X decreasing as you get more Chrono units.)
  • Some units have some innate in-fight scaling, whether finite or infinite.
  • Sets 3 and 4 play with this trope a bit more. grants all your allies a bigger jolt of bonus attack speed every 4 seconds, making your entire team behave this way. Several champions also behave this way on an individual level—Shyvana in Set 1 gained attack damage and attack range after using her ultimate to transform into a dragon, Jinx in Sets 1 and 3 needs to get two takedowns to reach her full power each fight, Olaf from Set 2 gained attack speed, lifesteal on basic attacks, and immunity to crowd control upon using his ultimate, Syndra and Aurelion Sol from Set 3 gain increasing damage instances with each time they cast their ultimate each fight, and Kayle from Set 3 gains damaging waves of fire on her basic attacks for the rest of the fight after using her ultimate. Somewhat uniquely, Zed from Set 2 had the potential to form armies of copies of himself (since his clones could also make additional clones through their own ultimates), provided he and his clones weren't focused down before that could happen. Set 3.5 Urgot took a different track: his ability WILL kill its target, and reduces its mana cost each time he does so.
  • In Set 5: Kayle takes this up to eleven, requiring 20 seconds to reach full steam at 1*. The Skirmisher synergy grants a small amount of additional attack damage each second, with Jax also getting stacking attack speed. Archangel’s Staff increases your ability power whenever the equipped unit casts an ability. Played with by the Set 5 Guinsoo’s Sacrificial Rageblade, which gathers steam much faster than Guinsoo’s proper...at the cost of hurting yourself each autoattack, meaning that without a source of healing the character gathering steam will burn themself out. The Draconic trait does this on a meta level—the trait lets you slowly gain additional copies of Draconic units over time, letting them get to 3* on their own if you leave the trait running long enough.
• I Work Alone: Set 1 and 4 Yasuo's unique "Exile" trait triggers only if he's not adjacent to any ally when battle starts, giving him a shield that essentially doubles his health. Set 4 zigzags this by adding a trait bonus for having 2 Exiles—if you control both Yasuo and his brother Yone, both of them gain bonus lifesteal from the Exile effect as well.
• Jack of All Trades: Some teams will take a “wide” or “horizontal” approach to traits, having lots of active traits at low levels instead of pursuing one trait to a high level. Augments like Bronze for Life and Trait Tracker, the Jazz trait from Set 10, and Tahm Kench's Arcana bonus from Set 12, specifically reward this type of build.
• Mana Burn:
  • Set 1 Kassadin's passive skill drains some mana from enemy champion every time he attacks, and turns it into shield for himself. Averted for Set 3 Kassadin, who instead Disarms enemies with a pulse of energy.
  • Set 1 Demon synergy grants all Demon attacks a chance to drain opponent's mana pool for themselves.
  • Sets 2 and onward averted this for their spell-countering mechanics, instead preferring to stop mana from gaining entirely (Set 2 Hush and Soraka ultimate) or increase the targets' mana costs (Set 2 Poison, Set 3 Mana-Reaver and Shroud of Stillness, Set 4 Sylas, Kayn, and Shroud of Stillness, Set 5 Shroud of Stillness, Soraka, and Dark Shroud of Stillness).
• Mechanically Unusual Class
  • Champions with the Specialist role generate mana in nonstandard ways or don't use mana - their spells trigger after a fixed number of attacks, use a different resource, or are purely passive effects.
  • A few augments encourage you to build your team in unusual ways, contrary to normal TFT strategy. Bronze for Life grants a scaling buff to all units based on the number of traits you have active at their lowest possible level, while Built Different improves the stats of units whose traits aren't active. Two Much Value, Trifecta, and Pair of Fours reward you for having a certain number of units of a particular cost tier.
• Money Multiplier: Set 1's Pirate synergy is the only one that doesn't provide in-battle boost; instead, it spawns a treasure chest with some extra gold after every fight with other player. Space Pirates in Set 3 instead grant a 50% chance for Space Pirates to grant 1 gold from champions they kill, with the 4-piece bonus letting them occasionally loot item components instead. Set 4 Fortune grants bonus orbs at the end of a victorious combat, akin to the ones you receive from PvE mobs—the longer you went without a payoff while having the trait, the stronger the orbs you finally get on a victory become. Set 5’s Draconic trait gives Draconic units and gold from eggs that hatch after a delay.
• More Dakka: Set 1 Gunslinger synergy gives their attacks a chance to strike multiple targets at the same time. Set 3 Blaster synergy instead causes every fourth attack to fire multiple bonus targets at once. Set 4 Sharpshooter plays similarly, but is themed differently aside from Jinx.
• Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Each new season of the game massively overhauls the roster and mechanics of the game—the core mechanics remain the same, but the rest is subject to change.
  • Season 2 of Teamfight Tactics, Rise of the Elements, completely overhauled almost the entire game. All of the origins were replaced with new elemental-themed ones, most of the classes (except Assassin, Blademaster and Ranger) were replaced as well, almost the entire champion lineup was replaced, several of the handful of champions who weren't replaced (such as Rek'Sai, Yasuo, or Volibear) were totally redesigned, and the items were shaken up considerably. Additionally, an extra row was added to the map to make it larger overall, and a new mechanic was added where certain squares on the map would manifest an elemental fountain which could be used to buff any champion placed on them at the start of a round.
  • Season 3, Galaxies (starting in March 2020), did the same, completely upsetting the champion lineup to a new set themed around the sci-fi Alternate Universe skin lines (Odyssey, Star Guardian, Dark Star etc). It also replaced the elemental hexes with variant modes called Galaxies that appear in some games.
  • Season 4, Fates (starting in September 2020), replaced the sci-fi look with a spiritual one inspired by Eastern mythology, with the Chosen mechanic (2* champions in the shop that have bonus stats and one double trait bonus) replacing Galaxies.
  • Set 5, Reckoning, was themed after the battle between good and evil. It replaced the Chosen mechanic with a "shadow items" mechanic, offering power at a price.
    • After the poor reception of shadow items, Set 5.5, Dawn of Heroes, replaced them with radiant items, which were simply stronger versions of normal items with no drawbacks attached, as well as the usual champion and trait refresh. Radiant items were much more successful than their shadow counterparts, and would go on to become a permanent game element, though they no longer appear every game.
  • Set 6, Gizmos and Gadgets, was themed around Piltover and Zaun as a loose tie-in with the first season of Arcane. It introduced augments, passive buffs granted a few times per game that could influence or dramatically shake up strategy and team composition. Augments were hugely successful and would become a permanent feature of future sets.
  • Set 7, Dragonlands, had a general fantasy theme with a particular focus on its centrepiece Dragon units. Dragons were unusually powerful and counted as three pieces towards a certain trait, but cost twice as much as a normal unit of their cost tier, occupied two team slots, and only functioned if exactly one was fielded.
    • Set 7.5, Uncharted Realms, added several new Dragons and gave them a Set Bonus like any other trait, making multi-Dragon teams possible.
  • Set 8, Monsters Attack!, put a new twist on augments, introducing hero augments which granted a permanent, unique buff to a specific champion. (Hero augments are now a recurring element across all sets, though they're mixed in with the general augment pool instead of having a dedicated slot.) It also included Threats, powerful "splash" units which had high stats and strong abilities, but no traits.
    • Set 8.5, Glitched Out!, added special "glitched" carousel rounds on which champions could come with extra items or be replaced with item anvils.
  • Set 9, Runeterra Reforged, was a thematic reprise of the first two sets, introducing two new mechanics. Region Portals let players vote on a special mutator at the start of the game (similar to Set 3's Galaxies), and would become a permanent game element. Legends were optional "classes" chosen before a game which guaranteed access to a certain category of augment, such as Aurelion Sol improving XP gain, Urf granting emblems, and Lee Sin granting free rerolls.
    • Set 9.5, the final mid-set, didn't add any new mechanics, but it did permanently replace several standard items with new ones, moving the replaced items to the support item pool.
  • Set 10, Remix Rumble, was themed around League of Legends' various virtual bands and other musical themes, and reprised Set 4's Chosen mechanic, renaming Chosen to Headliners and giving each one a unique upgrade.
  • Set 11, Inkborn Fables, was another set inspired by Eastern mythology, and featured Encounters, random twists which would appear throughout the game with temporary or lasting effects.
  • Set 12, Magic N' Mayhem, was themed around, well, magic and mayhem, with lots of bright, colorful champions. The set's mechanic was Charms, one-shot spells appearing in the shop with a variety of effects.
  • Set 13, Into the Arcane, was another Arcane tie-in, this time for the show's second season. It featured the Anomaly, a unique, rerollable upgrade that could be added to any champion once per game, and rare but extremely powerful 6-cost units with game-defining effects.
  • Set 14, Cyber City, was a cyberpunk-themed set, and added Hacks, randomised "corruptions" of various game elements.
  • Set 15. K.O. Coliseum, was themed around an anime "tournament arc", with traits based on archetypal anime themes like mecha, magical girls, and battle schools. The set's unique mechanic was Power-Ups, supernatural fruits that grant unique special abilities.
• One-Hit Kill
  • Set 1 and 2 Veigar's Primordial Burst instantly kills its target if they're at lower star level than Veigar, unless they're protected by Kayle's Divine Judgement or Kindred's Lamb's Respite.
  • In season 2, if you could get a copy of Lux to 3 stars, her Final Spark would do 99999 damage to all enemies hit, which is a guaranteed kill (and Kayle was removed, while Kindred uses a different ability for their spell this time around). Fortunately, this is really just in the game for laughs/bragging rights as it's (almost) completely impossible to get a 3-star version of Lux, who is Tier SEVEN
  • Many Set 3 4-cost and 5-cost champions approach this when three-starred—every fourth basic attack from a 3 star Jhin deals 4444% damage every fourth basic attack he makes, Cho'gath can deal 2000*AP magic damage that can become true damage with a set bonus, a 3 star Miss Fortune deals 999% max HP as magic damage over its duration, a 3 star Ekko deals 2000*AP magic damage to ALL enemies during his timestop, and Gangplank's ultimate deals 9001 damage in a very wide area he can make bigger with certain shop upgrades. (Other 4-costs and 5-costs tend to lean more towards much higher sustained damage or absurd utility effects.)
  • Set 3.5 Urgot’s spell did this innately (once the ability is cast, the unit dies unless Urgot is killed by another unit first), albeit over a few seconds.
  • Set 4 Lee Sin did this in a somewhat unique way: if he hits a unit at the edge of the board with his spell, he kicked them off the map entirely.
  • Set 5 Teemo will do this if only he and one enemy are left standing at the end of a fight.
• Percent Damage Attack:
  • Sets 1 and 2 Vayne's Silver Bolts work just like in the main game, dealing true damage based on her target's max health on every third attack.
  • Red Buff, Morellonomicon (and in Set 5, Mor-Evil-lonomicon), and Sunfire Cape (and in Set 5, Eclipse Cape) all apply "burn" status on opponents hit basic attacks, hit with spells, or simply being near the champion, respectively, causing them to take percent-based damage over time and reducing their healing. Set 1 Pantheon's Grand Starfall behaved similarly, dealing percent max HP magic damage and applying a healing-reducing percent-based burn. Set 3 Miss Fortune deals (rather high) AoEpercent magic damage with her ultimate, while Set 3.5 Viktor deals percent magic damage on the first hit of his ultimate. Set 4 Kalista and Sett also have percent magic damage on their ultimates.
  • The Giant Slayer item caused your basic attacks to deal an extra 12% of the target's remaining health on hit. It formerly dealt 5% max HP true damage on hit. At present it averts the trope, though it still fills a similar role as an anti-HP item.
  • A number of Set 5 Shadow Items instead invert this, inflicting this on the user as a cost—e.g. Eclipse Cape burns the user for 4% max HP each second as well as other targets, Sacrifical Gauntlet deals 15% max HP damage to the user each time they cast their ability, etc.
• Power at a Price: The theme of most of Set 5’s Shadow Items, “evil” doppelgängers of regular items. Some offer power at a cost relative to the original item’s stats and abilities, while others inflict a max health debuff or cause you to bleed health over time. A few avert this, offering a different but related type of power than the original item did (e.g. Archdemon’s Staff of Immortality offers health/healing each cast instead of AP)
  • Set 5 Teemo must be bought with Little Legend health.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: Champions that appear in multiple sets are not guaranteed to have the same abilities between them, meaning some can become higher tier and some can become lower tier.
  • A couple of champions who made the transition from Set 1 to Set 2 were remade to be more powerful than before-Kha'Zix was promoted from Tier 1 to Tier 4 and Zed was promoted from Tier 2 to Tier 5. Possibly subverted with Ashe who, despite being promoted from Tier 3 to Tier 4, was made arguably weaker by her origin changing from the overpowered Glacial to the initially underpowered Crystal and her ability changed from her ultimate, Enchanted Crystal Arrow, to her basic steroid, Ranger's Focus. Some champions saw this inverted—Yasuo went from Tier 5 to Tier 2, for example.
  • Some champions from Sets 1 and 2 saw similar changes in Set 3 incarnations, whether playing it straight or inverting it. Malphite went from a 4-cost using his ultimate to a 1-cost that gets his passive, while Kassadin went from a 1-cost unit to a 3-cost one. Thresh went from a 2-cost unit that granted an AoE shield to a 5-cost that can pull allies 'from your bench', while Lux went from being a 7-cost god capable of giving incredible damage and synergy bonuses to a 3-cost regular Sorcerer with an AoE, damaging stun ability. Miss Fortune is a unique case—while she remains a 5-cost in Set 3, she deals %max HP magic damage instead of flat damage this time, and has much more synergistic set bonuses than her Pirate synergy in set one.
  • Set 4 sees even more—Yasuo becomes a 1-cost unit, Aatrox and Ahri are promoted to 4-cost, Azir is promoted to 5-cost, Vi is demoted to 2-cost...
  • Ditto Set 5. Yasuo becomes a 3-cost unit, Garen rises all the way to a 5-cost unit, Sett is demoted to 2-cost, Kindred return with their Set 1 design as a 5-cost...
• Power Equals Rarity: Higher-tier champions only start appearing in mid-to-late game and almost always have higher stats than their low-tier counterparts, but they're also much harder to upgrade.
  • Chosen in Set 4 and Headliners in Set 10 are rare, snap picks that you can obtain that come as two stars, get bonus stats, and have one of their trait bonuses count double.
• Purposefully Overpowered: In Season 3, tier 5 units have their abilities spike to impossible levels of power if you can get them to 3 stars, such as Xerath's Abyssal Bombardment going from a duration of 8 seconds and a damage of 440 to a duration of 45 seconds (longer than an entire round) and a damage of 2500 (before AP scaling), or Thresh pulling your entire bench onto the battlefield to join your forces. This is because getting a tier 5 unit to 3 stars is basically completely impossible.
• Rare Random Drop: The Spatula is an item that has a small chance of dropping during PvE rounds and sometimes on special carousels. On its own, it does nothing, but it can be combined with another item to create unique equipments that grant additional traits to champions wielding them, mirror their attacks against another target, or allow them to bypass the unit limit.
• Ring Out: Set 4 Lee Sin’s ability kicks enemies across the map. If they’re at the map’s edge, he instead kicks them off the map outright.
• Set Bonus: One of the core concepts of this mode. Each champion possesses two or three traits, describing their race or origin (Demon, Noble, Yordle, etc) and their gameplay role (Assassin, Guardian, Sorcerer etc). Deploying several champions sharing a trait grants a unique bonus that can apply to either one of them, all of them, or the entire team (even champions without said trait).
  • There are two Set 1 origins that each only appear on a single unit and are therefore effectively extra passive abilities for them: Robot (Blitzcrank, gives him full mana at the start of the battle to let him open up by using Rocket Grab) and Exile (Yasuo, which gives him a shield equal to his HP if he starts the battle not adjacent to any ally).
  • In Set 2 there is one single-unit class^note Lux's Avatar class is also unique to her, but rather than giving her an extra ability it instead causes her to count as 2 units towards her elemental origin, which is randomly selected from the elemental origins that other players haven't bought yet when you roll her in the shop and kept as her current element if you've already bought a copy of her- Alchemist, which appears only on Singed and causes him to play like he does on Summoner's Rift, running around blindly spreading poison gas over everyone instead of attacking.
  • Set 3 Starship works like Singed's passive, but with a different AI (and mana gained over time that Aurelion Sol uses to launch a fleet of warships in a manner vaguely resembling a Protoss Carrier.) Additionally, Gangplank and Miss Fortune had the unique Mercenary class (which allows you to spend 8 gold to upgrade their abilities, similar to how you can spend Gangplank’s Silver Serpents on Summoner's Rift), while Janna has the unique Paragon class, which does nothing for her directly, but instead enhances her entire team to cause Star Guardians to deal true damage with their basic attacks and all other allies to deal magic damage instead.
  • Set 4 has a number of unique traits at Tier 5–Sett’s The Boss, Azir’s Emperor, and Kayn’s Tormented, with Yone having a pseudo-unique he shares only with his low-cost brother Yasuo. It also features the Chosen mechanic, which allows Lux-style super versions of a trait by letting you occasionally find stronger versions of a champion with a double trait.
  • Set 5 continues the trend, with Teemo’s Cruel, Heimerdinger’s Caretaker, Darius and Garen’s God-King (which works only if you have one of the two and works differently for each), and Kindred’s Eternal.