How to Play Punk
Welcome to another in the series of our How to Play TFT trait guides.
The Punk trait is a small trait the incentivizes slow rolling similar to traits like Supers or Astral in the past. It’s not uncommon for there to be a dedicated reroll trait, and Set 10 is no exception.
If you haven’t checked out all of the Set 10 information yet, check out out Set 10 Reveal Page!
How Punk Works
Punk has two main bonuses. The first is a simple stat bonus for Health and AD. The second bonus allows you to discount your first shop roll each round. This will help comps reroll for 3-star carries.
You can also potentially pick up Punk early just to get some cheap shop rolls if you want to power up your board. (Although this is probably only good in very niche situations)
Punk Trait Bonus
Gain bonus Health and Attack Damage. This bonus is increased by 1% each time you spend gold on a Shop refresh. After Punks fight in combat, your 1st Shop refresh costs 1 gold and grants a first roll bonus.
- (2) +180 and +18%
- (4) +280 and +28%
- (6) +450 and +44%
Punk Synergy
Here’s the list of traits that branch from the Punk units:
- Mosher
- Rapidfire
- Guardian
- Executioner
There are no overlaps between the four Punk units, but that’s to be expected with such a small trait. These 4 other traits are a good starting point for what potential comps you can run with Punk.
You can opt to reroll for the Punk units and add other units to buff them up. Conversely, you can reroll for a different carry and use the Punk units as the trait bonus providers.
Punk Champions
Let’s briefly go over each Champion in the Punk trait and what you can do with them.
Jinx – Punk + Rapidfire
[Link to Champion Page]
Jinx is our first Punk unit, and she’s very clearly designed to be a carry unit. Her trait is full damage, and her Rapidfire trait also scales her damage. Getting an early Headliner Jinx can be a strong indicator to give Jinx reroll a try.
The earlier you get Vi, the sooner you can cash in those 1 gold rerolls to accelerate your reroll process. Just be wary that if you roll early, you might miss out on interest, which would be one step forward, one step backward.
One other note I want to mention is that Jinx reroll without Headliner might be underpowered. You really should aim to reroll for the ideal Headliner if you’re already rerolling. Try not to settle for less or you may not stabilize your comp.
Vi
[Link to Champion Page]
Considering Jinx is a 1-cost unit, it’s only natural that Vi also pairs alongside her. Vi will be your early game frontline while Jinx can be your backline damage.
Getting these two early will allow you to reroll for cheap, but at the cost of building economy. Even still, if you can get to your 3-star units faster, the tradeoff can be worth it.
Her ability reduces the Armor of her target, so make sure to place Jinx behind Vi so that they target the same unit. This will let Jinx shred through the frontline and hopefully win the fight.
Pantheon
[Link to Champion Page]
Just like Jinx and Vi, there are two 2-cost units that correspond to a frontline and backline unit. Pantheon is our frontline 2-cost Punk with the Guardian trait. The Guardian trait is purely defensive where Vi’s Mosher trait is more offensive.
It’s unlikely that Pantheon will be a reroll carry, but he will be great to boost your frontline or potentially reach Punk 4 with a Headliner.
Twitch
[Link to Champion Page]
Lastly, we have Twitch as our final Punk unit. He is another backline AD damage unit with the Executioner trait.
I can’t imagine Jinx and Twitch being in the same comp as they fulfill the same role, but maybe a double carry setup could work. Or maybe there’s an Emblem that makes the comp very powerful.
Either way, Twitch is another reroll carry you can target if you don’t want to run Jinx as your carry. Slow rolling for 2-cost units is more doable as you’ll have time to build up your economy before you start cashing in those discounted Punk rerolls.
Punk 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.
Punk Augment – Extended Play
This is the Punk specific Augment of the set, and provides bonuses when you star up a Punk unit. If you 2-star a Punk champion, your next shop refresh will cost 1 less. If you 3-star a Punk, you will gain an item component.
Assuming you’re playing a full Punk comp, you can gain 4 item components. This is pretty good as Buried Treasure II, another Gold Augment, gives 3 item components. However, you need to hit all of your upgrades to get these items.
It’s still a strong choice, and probably an instant pick if you’re going for a Punk Reroll comp.
Frequent Flyer
This Augment can work in tandem with the Punk trait. As you roll with Punk, you’re getting a small gold bonus.
After a certain point, you’ll have your rolls permanently cost less, letting you hit all your upgrades.
Little Buddies
This is a new Augment coming to Set 10 and it’s an interesting choice for Punk comps. Punk comps will naturally run a lot of 1 and 2-cost units, making this buff quite large.
This will be good if you can reach level 8 toward the endgame to run an additional 5-cost unit on a reroll board. This means you won’t get your Augment bonus until much later in the game, which can be too late.
But if you’re rolling hot and have time to level up, this Augment can be a consideration.
Punk 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.
Punk Emo Team Comp
[Link to Team Comp Guide]
This first team comp combines the Emo trait with Punk to make use of the Twin Terror Augment. This Augment empowers units that have multiple copies on board, and this board looks to use that to the fullest.
Twitch is the main damage carry to play through the early game, while Vex and Amumu come later to add more firepower and frontline respectively. The Punk trait works perfectly here as you get a discount each round for one reroll, letting you hit your units just a bit easier.
Punk Jinx Team Comp
[Link to Team Comp Guide]
This comp has been around for a while now, as it was known at the beginning of the set release. Even though the comp is not as powerful as before, it can still do well in the right circumstances.
For this comp, you generally want to have Pantheon be your Headliner as a Guardian unit. This allows you to hit 6 Guardian comfortably at level 8. You can also play this comp with Jinx Headliner, but you’ll make sacrifices at level 8 to do so.
Headliner Options:
- Pantheon Guardian (Keep comp as is)
- Jinx Rapidfire (You won’t be able to fit in 6 Guardian at level 8, but you can still do decently through the mid game)
- Jinx Punk (Can drop Vi late game for another Guardian unit like Kennen or Yorick at level 8)
Punk Vi Team Comp
[Link to Team Comp Guide]
Lastly, we have a team comp that revolves around Vi as the main carry. With all of these variations, you can comfortably play Punk regardless of which unit you hit as your Headliner.
For this comp, the ceiling is achieved with a Punk Emblem to reach 6 Punk. This will further buff up all of your Punk units, who are hopefully 3 star.
If you hit a different Punk unit as your Headliner, you can refer to the above comps as this one centers around Vi.
Conclusion
Overall, Punk is a very interesting trait that is the reroll focused trait of the set. Usually these traits can be quite polarizing as they’re either too powerful, or a bit too weak. In general, I find that reroll traits like Punk tend to be balanced to be a bit weaker.
At lower ranks, Punk can be a strong, simple, and fairly consistent comp, but as higher ranks, the power will start to fall off. Even still, if the conditions are favorable, you can definitely use Punk to reach top 4 or even 1st if luck goes your way.
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.
