Teamfight Tactics Galaxies item cheat sheet: Use these 2 strategies to win

Teamfight Tactics Set 3 hits live servers for Windows and MacOS on Wednesday, plus the League of Legends auto battler will also become available on mobile platforms for the first time on Thursday. Veteran players will have a host of new unit combinations and items to build into ultra-powerful teams with this huge shake-up for the game's meta, but TFT’s third major update will also offer the perfect chance for newcomers to begin playing the widely popular League of Legends spinoff.

How do you get started?

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Succeeding at TFT is a balance of carefully managing your economy. You gain a certain amount of gold at the end of each round, which accrues interest the more gold you hoard, but you also get a bonus for win/loss streaks. Knowing when to spend your gold to acquire crucial pieces is everything, and it'll also depend on the luck of the draw, literally. At its core, the game is all about collecting a lot of the same types of pieces that power themselves up to buff your whole team.

Check out Inverse’s guide to some of the most powerful Set 3 comps you can try and build once the update is released, but as a general rule, you can mix and match units of different Origins and Classes to create a custom team that no one has thought of yet.

Here’s an item cheat sheet so you know what trinkets to build depending on the team you’re trying to build and two strategies to get you started.

TFT Set 3 item cheat sheet

Items are really important if you want to get the most out of your team; Stacking the right combination on a crucial unit could make or break an entire game.

Lesser items are obtained randomly as a game progresses by defeating neutral minions, and two lesser items can be built into more powerful items by equipping them to a unit. But be cautious, once an item is given to a unit, you can’t get it back unless you sell it.

Here’s a full item cheat sheet from Pro Games Guides, which breaks down how each TFT item is built and all of their effects and bonuses:

Keep this handy every time you play so you know what you can build into, and soon enough you’ll be able to think of hero and item combinations off the top of your head.

TFT Economy Basics

To effectively earn the gold you’ll need to level up and buy the units to build your team in TFT, you’ll need to accrue interest.

At the end of every round, depending on how much gold you have saved, you’ll earn a certain amount of interest. Every 10 gold you have will earn you 1 gold of interest per round, and this mechanic is capped at 5 gold if you have 50 gold total.

You can also acquire more gold by going on winning or losing streaks, but interest is the most reliable way to pad your TFT wallet.

Typically, it's wise to be conservative with your gold early on to save up for the mid- and late-game. However, there are some strategies that do call for riskier players early on depending on the build you’re going for.

Strategy 1: Conservative Economy

This strategy is all about getting to 50 gold as fast as possible to optimize how much gold you get every round. That means not spending on re-rolls early on and relying on your first roll every round to net you a decent team that won’t get you whooped in the early-game.

As you accrue more money, you’re going to want to keep an eye out for the units that are core to the build you’re going for and try to pick them up without re-rolling too much. Keep in mind, that the higher level you are, the higher odds you have of rolling high-cost units and lower odds of rolling low-cost units. Secure the cheaper units you need for your build early on and then push levels to begin playing powerful pieces.

This strategy is particularly good at building powerful late-game comps, like the 6 Sorcerer, 3 Star Guardians, 1 Starship, and 1 Mercenary team we broke down in our comps guide.

Strategy 2: Aggressive Economy

This is the polar opposite strategy of the previous conservative economy, and it requires players to re-roll early on to acquire key units in order to secure a win streak. This is a viable plan if you want to build a team made up of many cheap units, like a Chrono build.

That Origin has four units that cost less than 3 gold each, which means you’ll have a higher chance of rolling them early in the game. Aggressive strategies like this can allow you to make one of them 3-Star (collecting 9 of the same unit) rather quickly, which requires a lot of luck but can be very powerful.

This is a high-risk, high-reward strategy that requires you start a win streak ASAP to make up for the gold you spend and the lack of interest accrual. If you don’t get the rolls you need early on, then you’ll be going into the mid-game with no economy and a half-baked team.

Go for this strategy situationally, so if you’re able to 2-Star a Blitzcrank early on, it might be worth trying to roll many more Chrono units to make the most out of your luck. It is typically safer, however, to stay around the 30 gold mark to ensure you have some bonus interest gold to work with if things go south.

Teamfight Tactics Set 3 is available now on live servers.