STAGE 4 GUIDE

Before you read this guide, check out standard leveling strategies here. This will help you understand the game plan approaching Stage 4 and how it all works together.

Stage 4 is one of the most important stages, as that is when you practically finalize your board. 

I’d say with confidence that this is one of the biggest things holding back players who are ranked Masters and below.

Why is Stage 4 so important?

Because damage taken is increased with each stage, Stage 4 is where losing fights start to hurt a lot. The mistakes most players make are: over-greeding, under-greeding and tunneling on units.

First of all what even is greeding? Greeding is when you choose to keep your gold instead of spending it, or you spend too little.

Over-greeding:

Greeding too much is, from my experience, a bit more common than greeding too little in this stage. Below I’ll discuss the top mistakes I see too commonly.

1. Not rolling enough at 4-1 or 4-2 because you want to keep your gold. Because TFT has a limited bag size for units, especially 4 and 5 costs, people are oftentimes playing for the same units if it’s a 4 cost meta. This is why greeding/rolling above 50 gold at all times is risky because this is the time where your opponents will be getting stronger and taking your units while you’re still saving your gold!

(insert 4-2 rolldown example)

Here is a classic example of a 4-2 rolldown. I have my endgame board already in my team planner. I can immediately level up and roll down for what I’m looking for, down to 10 or 0g. I am aware that I am contested and will lose a lot of HP if I don’t improve my board. Because I have over 35 gold to roll, I commit to the rolldown to stabilize.

2. Only rolling at cookie-cutter rounds and not rolling earlier (if contested). Remember, if you have over 35 gold to roll after leveling to level 8/9, especially if you’re low HP, you should level and roll. If you see that you’re being contested by 2 other people in the lobby for the same 4 costs, you have to roll at level 8 before them. You would roll most of your gold at 4-1 instead of 4-2 to gain access to these units before your contesters.

(insert 4-1 rolldown example)

In this example, I see I’m contested by at least one person and my HP is low. Because of this, I can’t really afford to lose another round AND risk not hitting my units. I go for the early leveling to have a better chance of securing my board.

3. Thinking you can go fast 9 when your board is bad and you don’t have HP to spare. 

       If your board is really bad during Stage 4 and your HP is not over 75, you really shouldn’t try to go level 9 if you’re trying to play your best. If you’re trying to climb, sometimes throwing away a free top 4 for fun is not the ideal play. We’ve all been in situations where we’re 80 HP at 4-1 and then we’re 30 HP at 5-1 trying to go level 9. You can greed level 9 situationally, but certainly not most games.

All in all, these are the most common overgreeding mistakes that I see in Stage 4. Remember, there’s no point in having money if you’re dead! (in game)

Under-greeding:

Under-greeding is when you roll too much when you could save your gold to push for levels/better units. This is another common thing that I see, especially in Diamond and Masters students. Here’s what I’ve noticed:

1. Rolling when you are high HP, have no pairs and have a lot of gold. Players who climb by playing for 3rd-4th will roll heavily to stabilize in Stage 4 ALL the time. The problem with doing this every game is that you will miss potential to go level 9 or 10 and get a 2nd/1st.

Here I see that I’m decently high HP and have a lot of gold to work with, so I choose to play for a higher cap. I’m going level 9 to play around 5 costs and bypass 4 cost carries. It is a bit of a riskier move sometimes because you can absolutely miss your units, but it has good potential reward.

2. Rolling when you’ve already upgraded key units or your board is strong in general for Stage 4. 

Sometimes I see players who have already upgraded their main carry and tank at level 8 continue to roll for supporting units when they have enough HP/gold to go level 9. This affects your late game strength potential because you don’t have the gold to cap out around 5 costs. In certain situations  you don’t even need fully upgraded carries/tanks if you have good items/augments. With enough experience/guidance, you’ll learn to know when you can greed for level 9 or 10.

Here I roll down a bit at 4-2 but stop when I feel like I’ve hit enough to go level 9. Even though not every unit is upgraded, I know intuitively from experience that I can greed a bit to help my chances of top 2-ing the lobby.

3. Never attempting to greed ever

This is more of a mindset issue that is definitely not exclusive to Stage 4. Players who tend to be more anxious or “safe” tend to be more risk averse. While this may be good for playing for top 4, you are leaving lots of potential LP on the table. I’ve always encouraged these players to step outside of their comfort zone, especially when they’re at an LP that they can’t demote from (like Masters 0 LP). Try greeding a bit more in the next few games to get experience on when you can or can’t greed. Sometimes it just takes reassurance from someone else to take the next step!

Tunneling too much:

Tunneling on units is a widespread issue in practically every elo. Here’s my guide on having backup plans, because they’re applicable here. 

Basically, you won’t always hit the 4 and 5 cost units that you want, especially with current bag sizes. You will sometimes have to hold backup tanks/carries just in case you don’t hit your primary units. This is because you can salvage placement by playing suboptimal units that can hold your current items.

Here, in this example, I don’t hit ______ but am holding ______ just in case I don’t hit any units I want. If I save enough HP Stage 4 by having upgrades, I can scam a top 4! 

Putting it All Together:

If you see yourself making some or even all of these mistakes, that’s ok. These are very common and are not easily fixable in a single day. As long as you are aware of these mistakes, you’ll gradually learn to make better choices the more experience you get!

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