How to Climb to Silver
Teamfight Tactics is a great strategy game that rewards player knowledge a lot. But if you’re just starting out, it can be daunting to learn everything.
There are tons of skills you can iterate on, like positioning, economy, itemization, scouting, transitioning, and the list goes on.
If you find yourself in Iron or Bronze and want some simple tips to climb to Silver, this guide is just for you.
Focus on One Thing
First of all, this guide is going to assume that you know the basics of the game. This includes things like how to upgrade units, how to make items, etc.
If you need to familiarize yourself with how to play the game, you can check out our Beginner Guide.
With that out of the way, a common tip for a lot of players starting out is to simply play one comp over and over.
While TFT is a game that rewards playing flexibly, you can still find a lot of success trying to force the same comp. As you do this, you will familiarize yourself with that comp, and become more comfortable with the game over time.
Expand your Repertoire
If you play the same comp for 5-10 games or so and feel like you have a good grasp on it, you can move onto a new comp.
Rinse and repeat, and eventually, you will have a solid grasp on all of the units in the set. You can even then start to decide which comp best suits the start you have. If you have lots of Tears and Rods, you can lean toward an AP comp. Conversely, if you start with Bows and Swords, you can go for an AD comp.
How to Learn One Comp
Now it’s easy for me to say, “just play one comp,” but how do you actually go about learning that one comp?
Well luckily, we have a complete tier list and comp guides that you can use to learn just about any comp that you want to.
This covers all of the basics such as a team positioning template, what items to build, when to level up, and more.
As you read more of this guide, you will find out more of how to successfully play a comp in TFT. Try to apply these to your game to learn comps faster.
Basic Positioning
For most of the guides on TFT, it will tell you what your final 8 unit team comp should look like. But that’s only one small part of the game.
For levels 3-7 you should still look to use a simple template to follow.
Frontline units like Defenders, Brawlers, Aegis, or Mascots should be placed on the front row.
Backline units like Recon, Sureshot, Spellslingers, and more should be placed in the back row.
The core idea is to protect your carry as best as possible.
At every point in the game, you should look to maximize this effect. There are some exceptions, of course, but for the basics, following the same core idea should be your priority.
Basic Economy
If you haven’t yet read up on leveling strategies, you can find our Basic Leveling Strategy guide that goes over the fundamentals of economy.
For a basic summary, most comps (that use a 4-cost carry) will look something like this:
- Level up to 4 at 2-1 if you find some upgraded units and want to win streak.
- Level up to 5 at 2-5 to continue this trend.
- Conversely, if you want to lose streak or don’t find upgrades, wait until Krugs (2-7) to level up to 5.
- Level up to 6 at 3-2.
- Level up to 7 at 4-1.
- Level up to 8 at 5-1.
This is the core fundamental leveling template of TFT. This allows you time to build up gold throughout the early game, and still be able to level up at important stages of the game.
For a more in-depth look on leveling guides for slow roll comps, check out the Leveling Guide above.
When to Roll
Even though you may have an idea of when to level up, you may not be sure when is the best time to use your gold.
Simply put, rolling your gold AFTER leveling will always be most beneficial. Furthemore, if you can afford it, rolling less is always ideal until the late game (level 8 or 9 at stage 5 and 6).
You should always look to spend your gold after leveling up as this gives you higher chances of hitting stronger units.
Furthermore, most occasions when you level happen after or shortly after a neutral creep round. This neutral creep round (like Krugs and Wolves) are crucial to building up more gold as they provide interest after the round. They also give you streak gold as well.
Stage 2
For the most part, NEVER roll at Stage 2 (levels 4 and 5). Once again, there may be exceptions to this rule, but for a basic guide, you should simply never roll this early in the game. Doing so will make it very difficult to have enough gold for the latter levels.
Stage 3
During Stage 3, your prime opportunity to roll for upgrades is at 3-2, after hitting level 6. Once again, this is ideal because you have higher chances to hit 3 cost units and a small chance to hit 4-cost units. If you find yourself near the bottom of the lobby, it can be ok to roll a bit here to look for some upgrades.
Note: At this Stage, do NOT roll to 0. It’s still early enough in the game that you can recover. You should only look to roll here if you are very weak and need some upgrades. As long as you have upgraded units, even if they don’t mesh super well, you can make it through Stage 3.
Stage 4
Level 7 is another important breakpoint as this gives you a much better chance of hitting 4-cost units than at level 6.
Once again, if you are weak, you should look to roll at 4-1 after hitting level 7. Once again, the less you need to roll, the better. Some games, you may be high HP and not need to roll at 7 at all. If you find at least one copy of your main carry and can put items on them, you might be strong enough to last through Stage 4.
Conversely, if you are super weak and low HP, you may find yourself rolling all the way down to 0 to upgrade your board. At level 7, it’s ok as you still have a decent shot of finding what you need. You just won’t have as much gold as players who can afford to wait until level 8.
Stage 5
5-1 is your opportunity to go all in. This is when most players in the lobby will spend all of their gold to be as strong as possible.
It’s equally important to be fast at this moment. If you go into 5-1 and aren’t able to spend your gold, you will risk losing too much HP that you didn’t need to.
This is why playing one comp or familiarizing yourself with one comp is important. Being able to make fast decisions and roll down at this stage is important.
Economy Summary
That just about covers the basics of leveling and spending gold. If you follow the basic rules, you should find yourself in a comfortable position throughout the game. There will be some games where you just have terrible luck, but that’s ok.
Try to learn what went wrong in some games and what went right in others. If you find yourself at level 8 with 0 gold, think about what decisions you made that put you in that spot. Maybe you needed to roll earlier to save HP. Sometimes, that’s all you can do. Or maybe you spent too much gold at one point that you didn’t need to.
These reflections will help you understand economy at a much higher level.
Basic Itemization
Next up on the fundamentals, we have itemization. Items are a simpler thing to learn, but there is also a lot of depth to it as well.
For the most part, following a team comp guide and building the items you see on that guide is a good enough start.
Prioritize building the items on your main carry and main tank. Balancing these two will give you good success in most games.
Item Holders
Another important thing to learn is what champions to use to hold items for your main carry. For the most part, you can just slap it on an upgraded unit that won’t be in your final comp. This is because you will need to sell them to transfer the items over.
Our team comp guides will also walk you through good units to use in the early and mid game to hold items for your final comp.
Transitioning
For this guide, I won’t cover too much about pivoting and transitioning. This is a more intermediate concept, and for climbing to Silver, you can focus on the other fundamentals more.
For a simple tip, try to spend your time learning 1 AP comp and 1 AD comp. This way, depending on what items you secure in the early game, you can choose between which of the two comps to play.
As you play more and more, you will learn what items are good on what champions, and what comps to play from there.
Conclusion
This wraps up my guide on how to climb to Silver in TFT. Most of these tips are just about the fundamentals of TFT. As you learn these things, you will find yourself making faster decisions, and getting better at the game.
The more you play and learn, the better you will become. It’s really as simple as that. Preparation and learning can only get you so far. Playing the game over and over will also go a long way in improving your game.
That’s all from me! Hopefully you found this guide useful, and it helps you on your climb.
To learn about the latest new TFT Set, head to our all-in-one Teamfight Tactics Set 8 reveal page that covers all champions, synergies, and more!
