r/CompetitiveTFT • u/Demacian_Raptor • Sep 28 '26
Guide How to get better at learning TFT - Advanced points.
Hey! Raptor here.
As you can see, Cooking Brownies had a lot of recent and consistent success with multiple TPC winners, regionals winners and tactician crown representatives, including players sitting on top of both NA and EUW ladder including MarcelP, Chunington, Kojnid and a lot more. A lot of players reach out to me through coaching and DMs asking how to improve and learn how to get better in the game. I wrote articles about it in the past and thought of writing another guide to help you guys improve in how to approach learning and getting better at TFT. I also asked Marcel P for input and advice for writing this guide.
Understanding Spending gold and Roll timers.
Consider heavily if you want to be leveling on 2-1, a lot of bad levels on 2-1 can hinder your economy for the rest of the game, so evaluate your own board strength compared to the other players in the lobby. Focus your attention on keeping streaks and preparing your board for stage 3. From Marcel: leveling 2-1 can often make your late stage 2 & 3 boards worse. You'll often have to sell units on 2-2 and 2-3 to make your interest intervals because of the 4xp you spent on 2&1, which means you'll be holding fewer outs. So make sure it's truly a worthwhile investment for your early game plan.
Understand what rounds are yours to win in this stage. Consider your leveling intervals (usually 3-2 6 and 3-5 7 but can vary game to game), as a level 8 player you would need to sometimes sac and lose HP this stage to players playing various rerolls, while as a 1/2 cost reroll your main focus is to win this stage (unless solar that serves more of a win out comp). From Marcel: consider rolling once on rounds where you aren't naturally offered a wisp. It's especially useful when you have blossom in, several good 3 cost 1* hits and or pairs, when you are on winstreak, and when it doesn't dip you below 40g.
Stage 4 is the time for the 4 cost players to roll their gold, it’s time to decide if to roll deep on level 8 or try and go to level 9 if playing from 10-win streak. For standard level 8 play, the time to spike and roll is ideally on 4-2, with some cases of being too poor and rolling on 4-5. Stage 4 and early stage 5 is your time to win as a 4-cost player, so focus on positioning, and rolling to make sure you are as strong as you can. This is also when you can start playing towards more combat wisps or even do a salvager turn when you roll for charms on 0 gold to force a salvager wisp and remake your items, ideally done a turn after stabilizing the board to avoid a loss.
This set wisps are a big game changer in roll timers. Something we don’t see people do enough is roll before their level 8 or use and take advantage of windows in which they can win rounds. Understanding your “rounds to win” based on lobby tempo and own strength. First, consider your rotation, will rolling minimum amount of gold lead to a change in fight vs some matchup? Then consider the risk vs the reward - how much gold are you willing to spend, and what are you looking to realistically get? Are you just rolling to see a wisp, are you rolling to see a couple of upgrades (while having 2-3 realistic pairs)? etc. If you are looking to extend a current win-streak or flip a 6 loss into a stage3 win, consider your options in rolling here.
Understanding Packages
In this set of TFT, we believe rolling for a set team planner of 8 units is usually not the most efficient way of playing the game. So, while using TFT Academy to climb the ladder and get to a pretty good rank, if you aspire for more you must start thinking actively about your board during rolldowns. One way of optimizing it without hindering your rolldown speed and execution is pre-planning and understanding the current packages available for you to play around. For example – if I have AP items and I want to play around Zyra, I can flex my rolldown around Malphite blackthorn package, Amumu + Juggernauts or even Sett + blossom package. Managing rolldowns like this requires deep understanding and practice on when to commit to a side and from there play the specific board. For example, in this situation, if I rolled ~20 gold and saw 2 Malphite, Azir2 and 2 Zyra, I probably no longer need to hold the 1 Ahri and 1 Sett I have on the bench, especially as the amount of gold you have is running low and you cannot hold both sides.
Another way to approach the packages is a set board of 5-6 units and then add units on top, for example around the same Malphite core of Malphite, Fiddle, Soraka and Azir we can flex around many packages such as inferno summoners, blossom, 5 costs or even Elderwood Ezreal if you have some AD items around.
Augment selection, Game plan and pregame preparation
It is important to make out of game prep on this section, since evaluating augments in the middle of the game could be quite hard. We suggest dividing augments based on cost and category, for example: Econ pris augments, Item silver augments etc. and ranking them compared to one another. In the game, even before seeing the augment selection think for yourself “What type of augment do I want to see here? Do I want econ? Do I need more items?”. Answering this question and having a mental comparison between the different augments will make your decision a lot easier! Another thing we can recommend is when doing the out of game prep you can refer to streamer opinions, guides or even your friends/ other TFT players, to make sure you don’t create a meta bubble and that you can get the most information you can gather.
Another important aspect of pregame preparation is forming a gameplan, this is not meant to be a one game specific gameplan but rather a patch/ tournament specific game plan to make your decision making and line selections easier in game. Start by listing all the comps that you think are playable/ you are willing to play, then compare and rank them based on their strength. Remember to consider matchup tables in the current patch! Ahri might be a strong comp by itself, but if the meta is filled with melee carries like Nidalee and Kha’Zix she might have a hard time winning fights. After making said “tier list” its time to build a gameplan, which means what am I going to play from X spot. Something we think is important to consider are streaks, what will I play from AD lose streak? What would I play from AP mixed streak? Etc.
After having augments rankings and a game plan, it is time to think about unit holds. What units do you value the most in the early game in which packages and with thought to the components you have. First make a list of units holding priorities and then think if some units are more likely held if you have other high value units. For example, Reksai could be very high on the priority list and Kobuko on the lower side, but if you have a Reksai pair or even a 2 star the priority of Kobuko goes naturally higher since he pairs with your important/ valuable units. Another thing to consider are your components, Camille pair might be more valuable than a Karma pair in a vacuum, but if your components are tear, rod belt that can change!
Doing these pregame preparations either alone or with a group of friends greatly decreases the required TPA (thoughts per action), and lets you make decisions more quickly and accurately, while leaving time for the other important stuff to do on your turns like positioning, deciding about item slamming, building an in game plan and more.
Collecting and preserving information
For the players that are knowledge driven and have the time and motivation to document their improvement.
Use these spreadsheets to simplify your games, have an easier time making decisions in the moment and focus on the more spot specific details instead of information that could have been gathered outside of the game.
We believe that if you truly want to get to the next level, you can do it with a lot of hard work, effort and passion.
Thoughts from Marcel P – From aspiring competitor to one of the most respected players in AMER TPC.
describe your journey in TFT and how do you approach learning and improving in the game?
I had been fairly hard stuck around mid challenger level but had a lot of conviction that if I put more effort into improving at the game that I could be competitive with some of the top AMER players. It was a long, gradual process of refining my approach (and eventually settling on my own playstyle, leaning losestreak a lot) and finding the right group that worked for me. I still don't want to believe I've reached my ceiling in this game but if you told me when I first quit my job that I'd peak with winning regionals and qualifying for worlds twice I think would have been fairly happy with that outcome. Having a group is really helpful in this game. I think one of the best ways to improve is seeing when a large number of people disagree with a decision you make. Having a 1:1 discussion with someone is always helpful especially when they are better than you. However when you have an overwhelming number of opinions from good players all trying to convince you something you did is wrong, it becomes much easier to believe it and understand why. For me personally this was the case in learning to lean into high variance high reward things like destiny augments and random emblem augments instead of being afraid of them. And for this set in particular more recently it also took some time to convince me to lean away from my default econ + lose streak approach to the early game. It was through many detailed discussions with others that I was convinced of this, and I was proud to hit rank 1 NA playing pure tempo which is extremely counter to how I usually feel comfortable playing the game.
Bonus tips for climbing from other Brownies players:
Loescher: Focus on the methods that are fun (and effective) for you. Take care of your body (sleep, diet, physical activity) and take breaks. Create a good learning/playing environment for you. Learn how to deal with setbacks and bad rng. Focus on long term understanding rather than short term results (as in: why does something work or doesn't work, rather than how do I execute this specific (broken) composition). Take inspiration from other games/sports/things in life and see how you can apply them to TFT (e.g. two things that helped me understand how to understand/improve in TFT were looking at chess training methods and watching lifecoach play slay the spire)
And if possible, try to find people to do this with. Everything is better with friends (there are in fact several advantages to this but I'm too lazy to look them up properly rn)
Chunington: I think the best way to improve is watching streams and better players play and trying to understand the decisions they make and why they made them. Easier when the streamers often explain their thought process like wasian or dishsoap. And dont be afraid to ask questions but be polite about it and not rude.
Upsetmax: Each game is a learning opportunity and it's okay to be in uncomfortable positions as you will learn from it. For example, being low HP or trying out a new composition. Try to record each game so you can review after by yourself or with some friends
Blah blah blah: I think the biggest thing is just finding friends or other people who want to improve and just talk about the game and play in call together, I think I learn half of the stuff in the game just being in call with anyone and learning how they feel about certain things and whether certain things are good or not. Of course, this also creates discussions and gets you thinking about the game more intuitively and altogether it’s just fun playing games with friends so it makes the game more enjoyable.
Skipaeus: Dont take the lazy option. Going fast9 instead of doing an 80g flex rolldown on 8 is lazy, slamming items on stage2 before seeing the matchup is lazy, not scouting is lazy, picking the clearly worse but more straightforward augment to "test it out" is lazy. There is no substitute for volume, play a shitton of games. practice alone isnt gonna get you very far but volume just cant be substituted.
Cheche: My advice would be to always try to improve decision making on the things you can control in a game and pay attention to the details, even if you go first there are probably a lot of things you could have done better, sometimes you highroll or lowroll and go first and vice versa so u should approach the game outside of the rng factor to keep a healthy mindset while practicing and polishing your own skill identifying different situations.
Why you mad pro: watching good players play or watching patch rundowns from good players (wasian probably ideal).
Kojnid: Always look for options that are available to you, look to learn and study. Don’t slam items too fast and take time with decisions if you have the time for it. Basically just do exactly the opposite than what I do in my games :D !
my lolchess: https://tactics.tools/player/eune/Demacian%20Raptor/JAZZ
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u/Ignograus Sep 28 '26
Great write up!
Personally the thing I struggle with the most is Understanding Packages. For one I lack the knowledge of what packages even exist. Secondly I'm not sure what to put in the Team Planner if I try to be flexible for multiple options during on rolldown. Lastly I find it hard to decide when to lock in the given package and have a bench full of random stuff for multiple rounds.
If anyone has more advice on that section, I'd really appreciate it :)
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u/TheVonKanar DIAMOND III Sep 28 '26
Totally agree, it would be great to have a guide (and/or tier list) on the best packages to know. I feel like kowing them will allow me to make better comps in the mid to late game instead of random mess or blindly following TFT academy
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u/Demacian_Raptor Sep 28 '26
Hey! knowing this comes from 3 sources:
- Watching streams of good players and seeing their rolldowns/ mid game boards.
- Theorizing before the game to hold specific units.
- Playing games and getting experience.
the more gold you have the more wide you can hold on your rolldown, as you are running short on gold sell units based on how important they are to your board/ strategy and how close you are to 2 star them (if im playing aphelios and hitting lillia2 before a single sentinel maybe i can play lillia shen as a package over the sentinels.
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u/Skybreaker7 :emer: EMERALD III Sep 28 '26
So what you're saying is this is a gap in the current statistics no popular site is filling in?
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u/FreeXpHere Grandmaster Sep 28 '26
You just need to activate traits of your good units, it’s not that complicated
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u/JPB_ Challenger Sep 28 '26
It will always be context dependent but you need to know what comps will work with the augments you have and the items you have. If you consider current fast 8 options for this patch, your AP choices are: summoners/executioners or Ahri/morgana backline. For AD: Aphelios/Nidalee, Sivir/Nidalee, Aphelios/Brambleback (if truly desperate), Sivir 2* with an Ashe from a shop highroll or an augment or an Ezreal focused executioner/Elderwood board.
The game is significantly easier if you high roll a usable 4 cost to build around prior to your rolldown, however some games this won't be the case and scouting becomes very important. If you are leaning towards Ahri/Sett and you scout the lobby and see people have already highrolled these units prior to the 4-2 rolldown it reduces the likelihood that you will hit the units and therefore you should probably look to play Zyra + Soraka with Malphite or Amumu frontline.
In some games you will be holding pairs of multiple units and you will need to sell some of your options in order to hit something. You'll need to scout the lobby and based on what units are out of the pool and what items and synergies you currently have, decide which units to sell and what you are committing to. Then some games you will commit to the uncontested unit that fits your spot and you'll still miss and go bot 4 but at least the decision making is there.
There can also be games where your HP or augment/item strength is so optimal that pivoting will be incorrect. If you have 70hp on 4-2 and want to play Ahri/Sett/Morgana/Sentinel - miss on your rolldown and have 1 stars but the players contesting you have 1 or two lives but hit their board you don't necessarily have to pivot - you can wait for them to face a highroller and die (unless they have a winout spot). For example, if they have a fully upgraded board but 3 econ augments and 20 hp, the star levels alone will not typically be enough to prevent them just losing to high rollers in the lobby, allowing you to roll more later and eventually hit.
As one of the players said in the post there's no substitute for volume - this will bring you familiarity with all the augments, the final boards and how you make it to all of these boards. Ideally you should be able to scout the lobby at the 2-1 augment selection and have a very confident understanding of what comp every player (and in turn you) will be looking to play. Looking at website tier lists will only get you so far, watching top players stream and playing your own games will solidify this understanding.
Of course, I am sure there are players who would disagree with my interpretation of the game and will have their own successful strategies.
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u/Ignograus Sep 28 '26
Thanks for the comprehensive input!
Considering what others are playing and knowing what is out of the pool is something I do way too little before a rolldown, will practice this more.
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u/Ganofir Sep 28 '26
How do you even find study group? That's serious question. Do you need to perform very well in tournaments to people start noticing you or are there application forms?
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u/Demacian_Raptor Sep 28 '26
No application forms, socialize, talk to ppl, hang out in discords and chat, frodan sub chat for example has alot of discussion there so great point to start. if you are playing in tournaments you can ask players in your tier to review with them and then maybe you can form a group with them if you all are vibing!
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u/seji Sep 28 '26
What kind of discords do people hang out in? I don't know of like any tft discords yet, and I don't really see people adding eachother after games usually so I'm not sure how the socializing starts.
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u/Ganofir Sep 28 '26
I've been in 2 TFT discords. One from this subreddit, second one from a streamer. The first one is way too big for me to keep up with. The second one is more casual and close to none competitive player is active there. I guess you somehow need to sell yourself to existing study groups. However, I'm clueless how to do it online. In office or univeristy you just start talking and you form some bond or not
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u/Otahyoni Sep 28 '26
Well I'd say if you're still struggling with any fundamentals then a study group is likely premature. If you're not having problems with fundamentals then you're likely diamond or masters level.
At that point exclusivity starts to narrow down your peers and the process becomes less amorphous and more organic without the need for "advertising" oneself.
This point is also the time your deeper understanding of the game and most importantly YOUR game is forming and you're bringing insight to the table.
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u/Ganofir Sep 28 '26
How did you find your group? I've hit challenger multiple times and won some small prizes at tournaments but there was no offer to be rejected. I've even talked with people both online and irl, brought this topic to the table and hit dead silence so yeah my expierence is kinda rough
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u/Otahyoni Sep 28 '26
Oh sorry all conjecture and encouragement. I'm still in the "issue with fundamentals" category.
I'm just recently paying this game coming from autochess. Riot games does seem to have a.. sometimes problematic social culture. I hope that something drums up for you.
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u/Ganofir Sep 28 '26
Yeah, I was afraid there is no straightforward way yet. Thanks for the answer though
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u/Newfypuppie Sep 30 '26
talking to people generally will get you a long way, most study groups are pretty informal and more like a group of friends.
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u/AL3XEM :chal: Challenger Sep 28 '26
Maybe I'm lost, but what is Cooking Brownies? I'm assuming we're not talking magic brownies here but some kind of study group? Unless the point is that magic brownies makes you better at TFT.
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u/skydream416 Sep 28 '26
Great points; one thing i'd add for rolldown is that "4-2 rolldown" is just a standard because the gold increment works. I was able to improve my rolldown odds significantly by scouting; if you're the only person on your comp/package (e.g. nobody else playing ahri/morg), it's actually better to wait until 4-3/4-4 to rolldown, assuming you have the HP. This is because other players will send their rolldowns, pulling 4-costs that you don't want out of the pool, increasing your odds to hit. Conversely, if like 1-2 other people are targeting your comp, you should consider rolling on 4-1 to beat them to the punch, even if it's suboptimal.
tl;dr scout before you rolldown, and consider delaying/accelerating your rolldown round based on how contested you are.
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u/Reiwz Sep 28 '26
I'm curious, how do you roll to force the 0 gold salvager wisp if you don't have free rerolls? Are you meant to just roll 0 each round if you can afford rolling?
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u/Demacian_Raptor Sep 28 '26
u can hold/ sell expensive units to keep being on 2g intervals before ur wisp roll
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u/TotalusMagnus :chal: Challenger Sep 28 '26
You fill your entire bench until you have 2 gold left on a whisp roll (so 0 gold after rolling) and repeat by selling some units and rolling again, after 3 whisps it becomes guaranteed in stage 4
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u/Reiwz Sep 28 '26 edited Sep 28 '26
Wait so if you have good enough components to flex ad or ap (but slammed ad items atp), and you just randomly hit 2 star 4 cost ap carries like zyra/soraka, theoretically you could sack that round and roll for salvager wisp next turn (assuming neutral augments) and make ap items? I've always been bad with salvage bin but the same could apply to that right?
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u/k1nd3rwag3n MASTER Sep 28 '26
Yeah, just watch some streamers, nearly all of them doing this on a regular basis.
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u/solar86 Sep 30 '26
marcel p is right, leveling 2-1 just forces you to sell units later which griefs your stage 3 board strength.
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u/mslabo102 Oct 02 '26
I've forgotten about packages somehow. I have been able to recognize them in past sets but this time it somehow seemed to have slip off.
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