TFT High Stakes Augments Guide: Trait Tracker
With Set 12 has come the introduction of High Stakes Augments rather than high stakes traits. All 4 augments are fun to play and allow for a different feel to the game. However, they play much differently than a regular game of TFT which can make them hard to master especially when you play it for the first time.
However, there are several tips that can make your high stakes augment game smoother as well as giving you a much higher chance of winning out with the augment. This article will help you avoid common mistakes and know what to do when you are lucky enough to get one of these augments offered to you!
If you want to check my other guides on the High Stakes Augments, you can use these links to see them:
- How to Win with A Golden Quest!
- How to Win with Fortune Favors the Bold!
- How to Win with An Upgraded Adventure!
Trait Tracker
The first time you end player combat with 7 different traits, gain 5 random emblems.
Trait Tracker is a new high stakes gold tier augment that rewards the player with 5 random emblems after a player plays 7 unique traits in a combat.
This augment has two tough parts to it. The first one is activating the 7 traits (solutions), and the second one is playing around the random emblems (final board).
First, let’s go over the best way to activate the 7 traits. Assuming you don’t have another emblem, the earliest you can activate 7 traits is level 7 with 7 units.
The core units are low cost 3 trait units including Bard, Galio, Rumble, and Zoe. Bard and Rumble being main pieces of most 7 trait solutions. The other thing to keep in mind is that activating traits which only need 2 units to activate them will also often be part of solutions such as Faerie, Vanguard, Sugarcraft, and Witchcraft.
Three Trait Units
Tip: Be sure to put the 3 trait units in your planner and be on the lookout for them. At minimum make sure that you don’t miss Bard or Rumble as they are part of nearly every early and mid game solution!
Next, you will want to keep a lookout for different solutions. There are a lot of different ones, so I have compiled a couple examples to give you an idea what possible solutions look like.
How to Activate 7 Traits
These are a couple solutions of many available, but the important takeaway is to pick up units with 3 traits, especially Bard and Rumble. Also try to complete the 7 traits with 7 units or less so you can reach it late Stage 3/early Stage 4.
Low Cost Solution
[Link to Team Builder]
- Units: Bard, Rumble, Tristana, Blitzcrank, Poppy, Zoe, Lillia
- Traits: Bastion, Blaster, Faerie, Scholar, Sugarcraft, Vanguard, Witchcraft
Keep in mind that units that don’t have two active traits such as Blitzcrank here can be substituted with other units with Vanguard such as Galio or Warwick. The solutions are very flexible and don’t need to be rigid.
Frost Solution (No Bard)
[Link to Team Builder]
- Units: Hwei, Jinx, Swain, Rumble, Shyvana, Warwick, Nomsy
- Traits: Dragon, Frost, Blaster, Hunter, Shapeshifter, Sugarcraft, Vanguard
Mid Game Solution (No Rumble)
[Link to Team Builder]
- Units: Bard, Neeko, Jinx, Zilean, Shyvana, Zoe, Nomsy
- Traits: Dragon, Preserver, Hunter, Scholar, Shapeshifter, Sugarcraft, Witchcraft
Portal Solution with Ezreal/Vex
[Link to Team Builder]
- Units: Bard, Ezreal, Vex, Galio, Rumble, Zilean, Zoe
- Traits: Portal, Preserver, Blaster, Chrono, Scholar, Sugarcraft, Vanguard
Trait Tracker Final Team Comps
Now that you have an idea of what solutions look like, here comes the hard part: Playing around 5 unique emblems. A big mistake players make is thinking they have to activate every single trait of the emblems, but the reality is you are more likely to activate 3 or maybe 4.
Keep in mind, this is a gold augment. You are getting plenty of value out of 3 or 4 activated emblems. It’s okay if one of the emblems just ends up being some extra health on a unit.
Now, what comps should you play with these emblems? Obviously, this can vary greatly depending on the emblems. However, I think I found a bit of a cheat code. Playing traits with large verticals gives a lot of space to fit additional traits. I think that Portal being the largest vertical trait with the least amount of overlap will do the job the best in a lot of cases.
8 Portal Team Comp
[Link to Team Builder]
Here you can see all 8 of the Portal units. With all 8 Portal units, only two traits are activated (Portal and Scholar). However, Portal has many traits you can activate with one Emblem:
- Mage
- Bastion
- Blaster
- Shapeshifter
- Vanguard
- Witchcraft
- Portal (10)
Depending on what Emblems you get, you can activate many additional traits. If you get 2 Portal Emblems, you can even hit the 10 Portal high roll team comp.
Another option can also be other vertically inclined traits such as Frost will also have opportunities to also fit in emblems.
7 Frost Team Comp
[Link to Team Builder]
The Frost team comp leaves openings for:
- Bastion
- Blaster
- Chrono
- Preserver
- Shapeshifter
- Vanguard
- Frost (9)
On top of this, the board is only 7 units so there can be another unit added to work with random emblems from the Trait Tracker cash out. Just like Portal, hitting 2 Frost Emblems from your cash out can let you complete the final Frost 9 team comp.
I think that taking advantage of vertical traits is the simplest way to fit in the random 5 emblems, but it certainly isn’t the only way.
However, it is much harder and even a challenge for top players to figure out the puzzle of fitting in the emblems along with their items, and using them with the strongest units and synergies. This takes a lot deeper knowledge of the game and the meta to figure out.
In Conclusion
Now you should be ready to win whenever you see the TFT High Stakes Augment, Trait Tracker, available to you! It may seem intimidating, but these High Stakes Augments are a lot of fun and now you are more prepared to play them next time you see them!
Thanks for Reading! Once again, be sure to check out my guides on the other high stakes augments:
- How to Win with A Golden Quest!
- How to Win with Fortune Favors the Bold!
- How to Win with An Upgraded Adventure!
