How to Play 8-Bit
Welcome to another in the series of our How to Play TFT trait guides.
8-Bit is a new trait coming to Set 10, and it has an interesting ramping effect. Unlike most other traits that provide flat bonuses, 8-Bit is incentivized to be played early and throughout the game to make the most out of the trait.
Let’s get right into the guide.
If you’re new to Set 10 and want to check out all the information, check out out Set 10 Reveal Page!
How 8-Bit Works
8-Bit is a trait that will get stronger and stronger the longer you have the trait. As you go through fights, your damage will be tracked to see if you reach a new high score. Every time you do so, the bonus damage from 8-Bit will increase.
These “high scores” are predetermined, and as you reach a higher damage count, the bonus will ramp up. There are a total of 20 high scores to achieve, with the final score granting bonus loot if you can reach it along with 8-Bit (6).
This means that the earlier you can get the trait active, the sooner you are able to ramp up.
8-Bit Trait Bonus
Gain 5% Attack Damage and begin keeping score. When your team deals damage, your score goes up. For every high score you’ve beaten, 8-bit champions gain more Attack Damage.
- (2) 5% per high score.
- (4) 9% per high score.
- (6) 14% per high score and unlock a grand prize upon reaching the top high score.
8-Bit Synergy
Here’s a rundown of the traits you can find within the 8-Bit units.
- Big Shot
- Sentinel
- Edgelord
- Rapidfire
Since the trait only has four units, there isn’t likely to be any trait overlap from the units. We have two backline units in Corki and Caitlyn, a dedicated tank with Garen, and a melee carry with Riven.
8-Bit Champions
Let’s briefly go over each Champion in the 8-Bit trait and what you can do with them.
Corki – 8-Bit + Big Shot
[Link to Champion Page]
Corki is the only 1-cost unit for the 8-Bit trait, and he has a simple AoE damage ability. His ability also Wounds which be quite impactful late game to provide anti heal.
In 8-Bit comps, I would expect Corki to either be the reroll carry, or simply used as an item holder for Caitlyn later on. Since he’s a 1-cost unit, you likely will want to replace him later with stronger units unless he’s your reroll carry.
Garen – 8-Bit + Sentinel
[Link to Champion Page]
Garen is the 2-cost unit of the trait, and finding him early will be important to start racking up high scores. He’s a simple frontline unit with a single target damage ability. Paring him with other Sentinels early will be easy to do and build a frontline.
The backline in the early game will likely consist of Corki along with another Big Shot unit to fill out traits.
Riven – 8-Bit + Edgelord
[Link to Champion Page]
Riven is the 3-cost unit for the trait and she’s a mix of damage and frontline. There may be potential with a Riven reroll comp, as her ability provides survivability, and her Edgelord trait provides omnivamp. This means you can focus on building more damage, or you can still build carry tank items like Sterak’s Gage.
If you plan to build your comp around Caitlyn, it’s likely that you won’t look to play too much around Riven unless you want the 8-Bit (4) trait.
Conversely, if you play around Riven as your carry, you can simply have Garen for 8-Bit (2), or have Caitlyn and Corki for 8-Bit (4). Things will also change depending if you have an Emblem or an 8-Bit Headliner.
Caitlyn – 8-Bit + Rapidfire
[Link to Champion Page]
Caitlyn is the last 8-Bit unit and is clearly a backline AD carry. Her ability will target multiple enemies, but they still will collide with the first unit the projectile hits.
Once you find Caitlyn, you can look to play around her + Garen and fill out the rest of your team comp with traits such as Sentinel and Rapidfire.
Since Caitlyn will gain a lot of bonus AD from the 8-Bit trait, you will want to scale this damage through other things such as Crit, Attack Speed, Bonus Damage, Armor Shred, etc.
8-Bit Best Augments
For this section, I’ll be covering some Augments that particularly synergize with the trait. Lots of Augments are universal, like economy based Augments or item Augments, but I’ll try to cover particular synergies to look out for.
I won’t be able to cover every single Augment, just some notable ones. You can check out the full list of Augments here.
8-Bit Augment – Insert Coin
This effect is similar to other Augments like “A Cut Above.” The possible Gold on execution can be very good if you get the Augment early.
If you pick up this Augment late game, you only really care about the 10% execution, which can be a decent combat stat. However, there are other combat Augments that can do more.
This Augment is at it’s best if you can get it early, making use of all of the aspects well.
Pumping Up
Your units gain 8% Attack Speed. Each round, increase this by 1%.
Since the 8-Bit trait provides a large AD bonus, you want to scale that damage with other things, like Attack Speed, Bonus Damage, Crit, etc.
Pumping Up can be a good option to build up both both AD and AS over the course of the game. However, Pumping Up is usually better with multiple carries on your team comp, so keep that in mind too.
8-Bit Team Comps
Team comps are very fickle, but we’ll try to keep this section updated with the best team comps you can play around.
If you want an updated look at team comps, be sure to check out our Tier List.
8-Bit Riven Team Comp
[Link to Team Comp Guide]
This first comp is an 8-Bit comp focusing on Riven as the main carry. The comp looks to activate 8-Bit as early as possible, likely with Corki and Garen or an early Riven.
At level 7, you can then look to reroll for 3-costs such as Riven and Yone. The comp then completes at level 8 with the addition of Kayn. Before then, you can activate Edgelord 5 without Kayn by adding in Yasuo as a trait unit.
8-Bit Riven will be ideal for the comp, but if you have an 8-Bit Emblem, you can go with Edgelord Riven. Without the Emblem, you will need to add Corki in for 8-Bit 4, and likely drop Mordekaiser, unfortunately dropping Pentakill and Sentinel.
8-Bit Corki Team Comp
[Link to Team Builder]
This next comp currently isn’t rated very well, but it’s still a playable comp. We have Corki as the main reroll carry, with Garen as the main reroll tank.
The rest of the comp is simply a combination of 8-Bit, Sentinel, and Big Shot units. Since Corki is a 1-cost carry, you shouldn’t try to force this comp. It’s an option if you find an early Headliner Corki, but at the time of writing, this comp isn’t performing very well.
In a future patch with more buffs and nerfs, we may see this comp move up in the meta.
Conclusion
That wraps up our quick guide on the new trait, 8-Bit. The trait is reminiscent of Noxus in Set 9. Both traits want to activate early in order to start stacking up bonus trait stats.
Getting 8-Bit early to start stacking up AD will be crucial to ensuring your 8-Bit carry is strong enough to carry the game.
We hope you enjoyed this guide, and hopefully it helps you climb some ranks. Good luck and have fun!
Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out our meta team comps page, or head to our Team Builder to try and come up with your own comps.
