New Year, new comps!
It’s our first patch of TFT: Monsters Attack! and we’re adjusting Augment distribution, Champions, Hero Augments, Items, and more! But in addition to all the buffs, nerfs and swapperoos, we’ve got our Lunar Gala Event coming out just a day after this patch goes live! The event will bring new cosmetic content and our first temporary game mode, Fortune's Favor, where you can seek wealth (and unreasonably strong comps) beyond your wildest dreams!
New Year, new comps!
It’s our first patch of TFT: Monsters Attack! and we’re adjusting Augment distribution, Champions, Hero Augments, Items, and more! But in addition to all the buffs, nerfs and swapperoos, we’ve got our Lunar Gala Event coming out just a day after this patch goes live! The event will bring new cosmetic content and our first temporary game mode, Fortune's Favor, where you can seek wealth (and unreasonably strong comps) beyond your wildest dreams!
Our release capabilities have been affected by an ongoing issue that has prevented us from releasing patch 13.2 in it’s entirety. With 13.2 out of the questions the team has pivoted to releasing an update for 13.1 that includes the bulk of our balance related changes intended for 13.2.
Any changes that we wanted to ship with 13.2, but are not able to at this time, will come in 13.3 or be added in additional hotfixes as our capabilities are restored. As for here, there's still a lot to get into, so let’s do just that.
Right now, Aegis is mostly used because the trait carries strong end game units (Leona and Ekko namely). We’re strengthening later tiers of Aegis so running potentially weaker units (Vi) can still be the correct (or more correct) call in all magic damage lobbies.
Don’t expect our Brawler 8 changes to resuscitate the Brawler vertical comp.
We’re happy to be able to get our Sureshot nerf into your hands as we’ve seen 2 Sureshot provide too much value in endgame boards that are able to stall with powerful frontlines that capitalize on the ramping damage of the trait.
As a reminder, Ashe’s Ranger’s Focus scaled with her Attack Damage to give her more Attack Damage, so giving her #5AD here is really giving her 7 AD when casting her ability.
With Supers in check, we’re able to give some power back to Gangplank’s base spell.
Lulu’s getting less glitter and more lance.
We attempted to ship this Ezreal buff in 13.1, but he must have blinked away at the last second. But this time we’re buffing him with targeted abilities.
They say cats have nine lives, but our Yuumi nerfs in patch 13.1 may have taken all nine. We’re giving Yuumi back some damage, but if you’re feline fear after 12.23 Yuumi, know that her old damage at 3-stars was 600, had even more range, and was greatly enhanced by a since-nerfed Supers. All I’m saying is, this is not a resurrection.
Bel’Veth slaps now come with significantly more squeals of delight. Context only applies to players fielding Bel’Veth.
We went back and forth on whether Miss Fortune cast her ability too often, or whether her ability did too much damage. Ultimately, we decided it did too much damage, damage that is made more consistent with her upgraded targeting in patch 13.1.
Despite our 13.1 changes meant to encourage Aphelios’s itemization and use of Infernum (Blue) and Severum (Red) guns, his Gravitum (Purple) gun is still the default choice due to its utility. We’re doubling down on the identity of his guns, and reducing the damage and scaling of Gravitum even more while increasing the scaling of his Infernum gun and the base damage of both Infernum and Severum. It’s time to make the sad boy less sad, and give him a sword (or three) while giving Infernum (Blue) or Severum (Red) a whirl.
Galio’s Justice Punch has been one of our worst-performing Augments. By reducing the Mana of his spell even more, Galio should feel even more tanky. If this doesn’t work, we may have to look at a rework for our favorite chicken slinger.
Cruel Pact is a tough Augment to balance, so when it’s over performing—which it is—we have to take care in nerfing it. The Augment’s creator, the great Kent Wu, recommended we nerf Cruel Pact by offering it to multiple players whenever it is offered to one—we aren’t that cruel though, so instead we’re slowing down the Tactician healing that comes with it, making early power leveling riskier, for longer.
Tightening up the balance around a few of our Radiant and Portable Forge items, including adding Mana and Critical Strike Chance to Infinity Force which previously did not have those stats.
With this mid-patch update we’re focusing on course correction for the changes that went too far in 13.1.
We’re reverting part of our Sett buffs shipped earlier this patch as the Boss’s Haymaker has become quite The Show Stopper. Since Sett is equipped almost exclusively with defensive items, much of his offensive power is tied to the bonus stats from Mecha Prime, which we reverted in full. He’s still going to be stronger than 12.23 Sett as we’re retaining the Health and channel time buff from below (see Large Changes), but his power ceiling will be a whole lot lower.
Special thanks to the FR player, Magarky, for identifying and reporting an impactful and potentially exploitable Urgot bug via direct messages. But even with Urgot’s bugfix, our adorable crab is shelling out a tad too much damage for someone who also runs a successful side hustle pinching out more than just pennies.
A new game mode, event, and cosmetics all become available on January 13th at 3AM GMT+8 just a day after this patch goes live to welcome in the new year, Lunar Gala style. You’ll have until February 9th, the start of patch 13.3, to help Chibi Panda Annie launch her Lunar Gala, build the most overpowered team comp ever in Fortune’s Favor, and claim (or gift) our event-exclusive Tacticians and Arena. For all the details you can check out this overview.
With the Lunar Gala Event comes TFT’s first temporary game mode. Fortune’s Favor is like playing TFT, except every board is a YouTube clickbait comp—you’ll never believe the power of the boards you can create until you actually create them. And here’s how you’ll create them.
New year, new game mode, new cosmetics, and a new interactive HUB driven event, the Lunar Gala! As a reminder, you can check out all the cosmetic content coming with the Lunar Gala in this overview. Let’s hop to it!
The Lunar Gala is an interactive hub where you’ll help Chibi Panda Annie prepare for a party at the House of the Golden Rabbit—but the notorious party-pooper, Aurelion Sol, won’t make it easy for you. Win Aurelion Sol over through the power of friendship, or give him the cold shoulder in hopes that he rage quits the party by completing 15 missions that’ll reward you with a grand total of 1 Emote, 1600 Pass XP, 100 Star Shards, and 1 Egg that contains any of our Lunar Revel themed Little Legends.
In Spatulopolis, you can’t call your digs an urban penthouse suite unless it boasts tranquil ponds, two lounges, and a battle arena at the center. The House of the Golden Rabbit is available in Penthouse Party Boxes via bundles or individually for 390 RP. The exclusive arena has a drop rate of 2% with a guarantee of opening it at the 61st box. Boxes without the House of the Golden Rabbit Arena have a chance at another Mythic Little Legend, Lion Dancer Poggles (5% drop rate), or Bun Bun variants, Lunar Gala variants of Bun Bun, Melisma, or Gloop, or previously released Lunar Revel Little Legends.
Available as a rare (2%) drop from the Riches of the Rabbit, Chibi Panda Annie has victory (and the entirety of Spatulopolis) in sight from the the top of her penthouse suite. All Riches of the Rabbit without Chibi Panda Annie will contain Bun Bun variants, Lunar Gala variants of Bun Bun, Melisma, and Gloop, or previously released Lunar Revel Little Legends.
Alongside her best stuffed friend, Panda Choncc, Chibi Panda Annie delivers an unforgettable present to her foe upon elimination.
If dropping Panda Choncc on your foe's face is just too much to handle, you can throw Tibbers instead with Chibi Annie’s custom boom, Summon Tibbers! Chibi Annie is available for direct purchase for 1900 RP.
We also have a new Mythic Little Legend, who is both a star in the Lunar Gala Event and in our hearts. You can give Lion Dancer Poggles a home in your heart and your arena by purchasing Penthouse Party Boxes (390 RP) with a 5% drop rate.
New year, new Little Legend species! Enter Bun Bun, not the fastest in the warren, but definitely the (self-proclaimed) cutest. You can pick up any of their variants for 925 RP (Epics) or 750 RP (Rare). Check out the variants below: Bun Bun, Chubby Choco Bun Bun, Bunana Bun Bun, Battle Bunny Bun Bun (Epic), Space Groove Bun Bun (Epic), Red Riding Bun Bun (Legendary).
You can also join Bun Bun at the Lunar Gala for 925 RP. Check out their Epic rarity Lunar Gala variants below: Lunar Revel Bun Bun, Porcelain Bun Bun, Red Hare Bun Bun, Lotus Bun Bun, Delicious Bun Bun.
Bun Bun’s not the only Little Legend at Annie’s penthouse party! You can pick up any of Melisma’s Lunar Gala variants for 925 RP. Check out the variants below: Lotus Dancer Melisma, Porcelain Melisma, Festive Fire Melisma, Heavenly Jade Melisma, Lucky Rabbit Melisma.
New Gloop variants have also made it to the party. You can serve your foes defeat and your board something to eat with the following 925 RP Lunar Gala variants below: Peachy Gloop, Shrimpy Gloop, Hearty Soup Gloop, Porcelain Gloop, Golden Custard Gloop.
As a reminder, Gloop is not food. Also as a reminder, all the Lunar Gala Little Legends (Bun Bun, Gloop, and Melisma) have a chance at being unlocked in both the Penthouse Party Boxes (390 RP) and the Riches of the Rabbit (390 RP).
After our long patch, we’ve learned a lot about what Augment distributions are more preferable, so we’re making adjustments based on community feedback, while also ensuring enough variety to keep each game feeling different.
Granite, sandstone, Krugs, bouldering, Malphite, trad climbing—Rocks rock, but they rock less when they don’t drop item components.
Random carousel items often made cases of 5 or 6 tears/gloves. We’ve seen that when everyone gets the same starting item, it can set them down the same path—a path of mutually assured bottom fours. Making sure we have 3 of each means more paths and comps are likely to be explored.
We’re reducing the spell scaling for every 3-star two and three cost unit, as they are overperforming across the board relative to how difficult they are to get.
With increased player damage, we are seeing a faster meta that’s more reliant on starring up lower cost units. Nerfing this win condition means taking the risk of rolling down later will be a more consistent payoff, as players who spiked with their 3-star two/three cost will be a bit weaker.
Below we have our power framework adjustments followed by a full list of champion changes for champions not adjusted elsewhere in the patch.
Large, like the Penthouse Party Annie is throwing at the House of the Golden Rabbit!
Many of the A.D.M.I.N. effects that exclusively affect A.D.M.I.N. champions have been underperforming, while a few teamwide cause and effects have found much success, especially when combined with other traits that can compound their effects (e.g. Brawler and permanent max Health). We’re going through and leveling the variability in A.D.M.I.N. power, but expect most of these changes to result in a measurable buff for the trait.
A.D.M.I.N. units are also getting more bloodthirsty this patch as the kill switch (or in their case, the “on kill” switch) makes its debut to Live servers.
Brawler strong. Brawler less strong now, especially Brawler 8. Me sad.
With the strongest LaserCorps units being put in line with Mordekaiser’s our mid-week update in 12.23, we’re able to put some of their power back into the trait, especially at that hard to reach LaserCorps 9 breakpoint.
Mascot has been the harder to perceive backbone of successful reroll comps due to its strong percent max Health scaling that becomes incredibly potent when running comps with giant Health pools—giant Health pools that starred up Supers have in abundance.
While Jax has proven to be one of the victors of patch 12.23, it was not with the help of the Mecha Prime trait. We’ll be nerfing Jax heavily later on, but we’re empowering Mecha Prime here to encourage further exploration of the infamous no-pivot trait.
Instead of renaming Supers to Super-Dupers we decided to give them the nerf they needed. Hopefully the nerf isn’t too hard, otherwise we’ll have to name them something else that rhymes with Super-Duper… It’s pooper, the joke is Super-pooper.
Units no longer launch meteors as their first attack in combat
Galio sits at the top of the pecking order both in food poultry distribution and early game frontline.
Chibi Annie may be all the rage, but Annie’s endless shielding is not.
Despite being in love with himself, Draven lacks the carry potential to truly love. Let’s see if this change alongside the Mecha Prime buff is enough to put Draven back in the spotlight and win back Rayditz’s affection.
Jinx is a tricky champion to play. We want to ensure that she is a viable item holder both for AD and AP items, so we’re buffing her on both fronts. These buffs will also allow her to better utilize both of her Hero Augments which provide Attack Speed that magnifies that base AD buff below.
By nerfing Yuumi’s range we not only force higher risk positioning, but we also limit her potential to snipe backliners since her spell targets the furthest enemy in her attack range. While this may be a slight overnerf we are playing it safe as Yuumi will still be able to provide teamwide utility with her triple threat traits.
We are lowering Jax’s Attack Damage to keep his power in his spell (counterable by Magic Resist), while greatly reducing both the base and the stacking damage of his Adaptive Strikes. While this may not look like a ton given how powerful Jax has been in 12.23, it’s important to remember that his success was dependent on vertical Brawler comps (also nerfed) to buy him the time to ramp with his ability and items like Rageblade.
Vayne’s carry potential has been tied to the success of Duelist comps (nerfed earlier). We are increasing her Attack Damage scaling to allow her to find more success in Anima Squad comps that provide those raw stats as well as Recon comps, where critical strikes amplify the AD items that you will now want to build on her.
If not for the cat Vel’Koz would be the most divisive champion of the new set. With these nerfs Vel’Koz should negate your carry slightly less often, and with significantly less pain, but remember, only YOU can truly prevent rampant Vel’Koz stacking via a Negatron Cloak and a Sparring Glove.
Bel’Veth has been underperforming throughout the entire set, but much of that has been due to a major bug that prevented her from scaling with AD items properly. In fixing that bug, we are preemptively nerfing her to prevent our favorite void mommy from being unavoidable.
Ready, Sett, Mecha Prime! We’re serving Sett up with a significant buff that will make him more reliably cast his spell, and allow it to hit a whole lot harder. Definitely give him a try as our Mecha Prime, especially now that the trait has also been buffed.
3-star Zed has been lacking the heat he should be packing—so in addition to amping up the base damage of his Kill Mode, we’re also limiting the time he spends in it. While that may read as a nerf, this change allows him to drop aggro more consistently as he recasts Kill Mode—which is important as you never want the 3-star 4 cost carry that you’ve poured most of your resources into to get deleted after their first cast.
In an aggressive meta, saving econ to level and hit Legendary units can cost too much Tactician Health to be worth. We’re buffing the bulk of our 5-costs to make sure the risk of fast 8 strategies is worth the reward of access to powerful units.
Aphelios has found the bulk of his success using just one weapon in his arsenal, Binding Eclipse (purple). We’re bringing the damage of his stun-gun down so it can remain a viable choice when your comp lacks crowd control, but is no longer the go to for every situation. To further incentivize his gun maestro clout, we’re improving the AD scaling on both his Duskwave (blue) and Onslaught (red) guns, so when you are able to itemize Aphelios with lots of Swords you should opt for the higher damage weapons in his arsenal.
Urgot has been one of the best itemless one-unit-fits-all-comps champions. We’re buffing his scaling to encourage itemizing our favorite crab fanboy, while adjusting the active component of his Undertow spell to stun for a shorter duration, wash up less item components, and dredge more gold from the depths of the board at a higher consistency.
Giant Slayer is both the most built and widely considered the best item of the game. We’re shaving off the bonus damage it grants against giants but are confident it will still have its place in slaying them.
The general trend for Hero Augment balancing is raising the power floor of our weakest Augments while lowering the power ceiling of our strongest ones, but in addition to the normal balancing of these Augments, we have a rework for Lee Sin’s carry Augment, Flurry , which was neither very strong, nor sensible when itemizing Lee Sin.
Yuumi’s carry Augment, Predatory PrecisionFlurry, has proven to be one of the strongest Augments in the game. We’re cutting the Ability Power it offers substantially (83% less AP) but retaining the critical strike component.
Blue Battery has been disabled as it unlocked too high of a power ceiling when paired with items like Blue Buff and other sources of Mana generation (Star Guardian, Civilian, etc). It will likely not make a return for the duration of the set.
Built Different I and Double Trouble I have also been disabled, but for the opposite reason as Blue Buff. The power they provided as Silver Augments did not warrant the adjustments in team building that they required. IT’s a TrAp! Meanwhile, the stronger Gold and Prismatic versions of these Augments have been too worthwhile in adjusting your team building to benefit from the stats they offer.
Additionally, Pandora’s Items continues to be disabled as we work on fixing a bug with the Augment. We plan on re-enabling Pandora’ Items next patch.
Small, like the invite list for Annie’s exclusive party…sorry Mayor Pengu, you just weren’t important enough to make the list.
Between all the individual champion buffs, and a small trait buff here, do not sleep on Anima Squad—they aren’t beds lol.
After her nerfs in our 12.23 mid-patch update, Ashe has struggled to earn her rank in the LaserCorps. We’re helping her out with a Mana buff that’ll allow her to be a better item holder and maybe even a better reroll carry.
While Lux’s Hero Augments were performing up to par, her damage without them was transparent at best. We’re adding a bit more glow to her throw, so she can shine on her own. In doing so, we nerfed her Hero Augments in the earlier section to keep her bright light from becoming blinding.
This small LeBlanc buff will keep her from shooting LeBlanks.
Nilah’s flat heal is especially powerful early due to its flat Health nature. We’re reducing its power here while also giving me more time to practice spelling Apotheosis.
Just because he snuck into the set, doesn’t mean Rammus can dodge Mort’s nerf hammer.
Our nerf to Soraka is specifically aimed at her success in Bruiser comps, where her ability to keep topped off AND have a bunch of beefcakes in front of her did not allow for much counterplay.
When buffing a unit like Viego, we have to be very light. That’s not because the guy already has like 1900 abs, but instead because of the nature of his spell’s resets: once buffed, the continued resets give Viego insane amounts of damage.
They may be the only ones in this section, but at least they have each other.
“A certain red hatted plumber wishes he had TFT’s coin vacuum.” — Kent Wu, 2023
In case you missed it earlier, here are the details of our first temporary game mode. You can read more about it in the event overview article.