Due to arrive on the PBE later this month.
Riot Games has revealed a new League of Legends spin-off called Teamfight Tactics, an Auto Chess-inspired strategy mode arriving on the test server later this month.
Teamfight Tactics will feel very familiar to those who’ve played Dota’s Auto Chess mode. It’s almost identical when it comes to core gameplay mechanics, with players fighting off seven opponents in a race to build the most powerful team.
Gold is spent in a store each round to recruit League champions to your team. You’ll place them on a board, and when the round starts they’ll fight automatically. It may sound simple, but there’s a great deal of strategy involved. There are race and trait bonuses to consider, units to upgrade and you’ll have both a team composition and gold economy to manage too.
In its official announcement, Riot Games shed some light on why it’s jumping into the Auto Chess genre:
Recently, we’ve been trying different kinds of modes that are deep and unique additions to the League experience. TFT is our next big exploration in that space and the first time we’re jumping into a different genre. We’ve always loved strategy games and recently we’ve gotten into the new auto-battler genre—folks around the office have been playing an insane amount of Dota Auto Chess in particular. We love it, and it actually got us inspired to create something new as a mode in League.
Teamfight Tactics will initially release as a public beta and Riot assures players it’ll listen closely to feedback during the mode’s infancy. It’s also promised to support the mode with “cool metagame features” including a ranked queue, which will arrive in a later patch.
Finally, Riot’s introducing Little Legends, a new customisation option for Teamfight Tactics players. These are cutesy avatars which can dance and emote, and you’ll unlock your first just by playing.
There are a total of six species, which are purchasable in the store for 750RP. Rare Eggs can be purchased for 490 RP which contain special variants of the same species. Receiving a duplicate will power up existing species, granting them new models and effects – a nice touch.
Teamfight Tactics is expected to hit live servers during patch 9.13.
