Next month we will be saying farewell to Teamfight Tactics: Rise of the Elements, welcoming Teamfight Tactics: Galaxies in its place.
The new set will bring new champions, traits, and skins, as well as fresh boards and Little Legends.
A look back at Elemental Hexes
Riot added Elemental Hexes to Teamfight Tactics with the Rise of the Elements set to add replayability and variety. The hexes meant that players needed to consider adapting to a different style every game to make the most of the unique benefits available. However, Riot believes that there are clarity issues with the hexes and that they are underpowered to the point that players could simply ignore them.
Learning from this, Riot will be removing Elemental Hexes from gameplay and seek ways to increase the variability of gameplay.
Teamfight Tactics: Galaxies
The idea of the Galaxies set is that players will be sent to different galaxies. Each galaxy will have new rules and/or twists for that game. Riot has only mentioned two, one of them being the Neekoverse.
The Neekoverse Galaxy will give every player two Neeko’s Help items at the start. This gives players a decision on when and how to use the items. A player could use them at the start to quickly get an early lead or hold on to them for the late game to get a 2-star five-cost champion that can help carry the player to victory.
The other Galaxy does not have a name yet, but the first carousel will be filled with four-cost champions. Players will need to adapt to this Galaxy by determining whether to build around the chosen four-cost champion or sell the champion to gain an early gold lead.
Players will not know what Galaxy they are going into until the game starts, and they may not always go into another Galaxy. At the launch of the set, there will only be one or two Galaxies open, with more becoming active as the set goes on, and some potentially leaving too.
What are Riot’s goals with this set?
Firstly, Riot wants the freedom to add new features and expand the set. Elemental Hexes locked Teamfight Tactics in a stagnant way as they could not add more Elements to the game, especially with how Qiyanna interacted with them. The hope with Galaxies, however, is that they can add more to the set, expanding it over the months it is live.
Clarity is important to the game too. Elemental Hexes are simple, but there has been some confusion with how they interact with other things in the game. Galaxies, on the other hand, seem rather simple to understand.
Finally, Riot wants more variance and adaptability. The hope seems to be to move players away from guides so they have to adapt to what is happening. Adding this variety will also make the game more replayable too, knowing two games won’t be the same, or even close, to each other. As much as Riot is focused on making the game clearer, knowledge of the game will help players to overcome, improvise, and adapt.
The exact release date for Teamfight Tactics: Galaxies has not been announced, but it is expected to go live in March.
