SET 16 INFO

STAGE 3 GUIDE:

This is a relatively short but important guide on how to approach Stage 3 on a fundamental level!

Post Krugs:

  • If on a 5 winstreak, look to level to 6 to throw in something useful at 3-1 to maintain your winstreak. Scout before you do this. A lot of players just habitually level while winstreaking but if you scout your potential opponents, see they’re beatable without leveling to 6, you can keep high interest WHILE keeping your streak! 
  • If on a lose streak, you can continue to lose streak with Cypher throughout all of Stage 3. If your board is decent, look to start saving HP by playing your best board. Good players often lose on 3-1, get a 6 lose streak, and then power spike on 3-2 after picking augment and slamming items.                                                                                              
  • As a general rule of thumb, don’t have 3 (ideally less than!) or more components sitting on the bench after your second augment. This will teach you to not greed your items and to make items that are useful but not Best-In-Slot! Oftentimes items have decent replacements that serve similar function, so learn to use these instead of always copypasting item builds.

3-2 Augment:

  • If you took an econ augment on 2-1, you should highly consider taking a combat augment (an augment that gives you raw stats) or item augment. The reason is that you can’t guarantee a useful combat augment on 4-2, so oftentimes if you go double econ augment into a third suboptimal augment your lategame will suffer. Taking an augment that gives your team combat value will guarantee that even if you lowroll your Stage 4 augment, you have at least 1 good combative augment.
  • However, you can go double econ augment if there is a comp that caps high and is expensive (Fast 9 Urgot/Dynamo). 
  • Item augments in general are really good right now because you often lack items in Stage 2-3.
  • Take RNG augments like A Magic Roll or even Portable Forge when your other options feel subpar, but don’t prioritize them (unless you’re playing for fun). Learn to settle for boring but useful augments like Bulky Buddies, Clockwork Accelerator, Cybernetic Bulk, etc.
  • A big thing to consider is how well your augment can scale into late game. Other than combat augments, augments like Coronation and One Buff Two Buff are very good for lategame because they offer a lot of value for the current high scaling comps.

If you’re winstreaking though, you also have to consider immediate strength AND scalability of the augment. For example, if I’m on a 6 winstreak, I’d most likely take Bulky Buddies over Prismatic Pipeline because it’ll give me immediate value and will be useful late game.

The first image is my board pre 3-2 augment, and the second is augment selection.

  • Since I’m playing for a late game capped board that is very contested (Urgot), the Champion Duplicator is extremely valuable to out-hit my contestors. I’m also missing anti-heal so the Red Buff  is useful and the Blue Buff can be put on either Vex or Urgot lategame.
  • Cybernetic Bulk offers less value in my opinion because I don’t have many items I  can spread.
  • Immovable Object could be very useful if I was heavily winstreaking and wanted to play for the best augment RIGHT NOW since my current board lacks any proper Blue Buff/Red Buff holders. But the problem is I will clump my entire team lategame against the 2+ Sejuani players, Kobuko players and the augment just overall less value compared to One Buff, Two Buff in my opinion. This is why you need to think about the scalability of your augment!

Stage 3 Carousel:

  • Items become a lot more important as the game goes on because you’re nearing endgame. A lot of units have crucial items (think Blue Buff on Vex, Guinsoo’s Rageblade on Zeri, etc.) as well so look to prioritize components rather than econ on Carousel.
  • Sometimes you can take a priority unit that has a useable but not great component. However, avoid taking a BAD component even if they’re on a high priority unit if you already have bad items (e.g. don’t take that Aphelios with a Needlessly Large Rod if you’re planning to play Marksman Vanguard and already have 2 Rods)

Post Stage 3 Carousel:

  • If you’re win streaking, you should highly consider levelling to 7 at 3-5 to keep your streak (remember to always scout before you do this, sometimes you may not need to based on potential matchups!). The exception here may be if you don’t have a good unit to throw in AND you can’t make 30g once you level.
  • You can level in Stage 3 regardless as long  as you make 30g. This is because this is when you really want to start saving HP, and adding an additional unit without losing too much econ interest can help continue winstreaks/mitigate losses. Doing this will also teach you to not be so attached to always making 50g, as HP is a resource too!
  • You can choose not to level if you’re playing Cypher, for obvious reasons.

Planning in Stage 3:

If you want to be a really good TFT player, planning ahead of time is ABSOLUTELY necessary.

  • You should scout at all points of the game if you’re trying to get into the top ranks, but you REALLY should start looking at what comps people are angling towards after Stage 3 Carousel. By this time most people have solidified their game plan and endgame comp.
  • That way, you can consider a Plan B comp that uses similar items if you are 3 way contested and are relatively poor.
  • The main takeaway here is to plan a few rounds or even entire stages before a key turn, like your typical 4-1 or 4-2 rolldown. Most of TFT’s comps now revolve around Vertical traits, which means abrupt pivoting is really hard because it’s near impossible to account for 1 and 2 cost trait units while panic rolling on level 8.
  • To plan a proper pivot in 2025, you have to plan several rounds or even an entire stage beforehand. If you’re 3 way contested Zeri and are poor, maybe you should angle Marksman Vanguard instead and start holding low cost Vanguards in Stage 3 to make your transition easier.

Stage 3 Neutrals:

This is for 3-7 or 4-1: 

You should clear your bench of any useless units that aren’t going into your level 8/9 board. This way, when you roll down, your bench and mind are clear and you won’t get dizzy because your bench is full.

Notice in the above image how clear my bench is since my game plan is simple: play around 6 Vanguard and probably go for Urgot at 9. 

Jhin in this case should be sold because there is no feasible way I could pivot to Zeri with no Exotech units and I would be much better off going 9 and playing Vanguard Urgot because I have the HP to sacrifice in Stage 4.