Chumps Preview is a special kind of post where we unofficially preview games in Early Access, Beta, or are otherwise “unfinished.” This kind of preview is meant to be a first impression rather than a definitive review where we provide a rating to determine a game’s value. As such, we fully expect a game covered in a Chumps Preview to have room for improvement, some bugginess/incompleteness, and other features associated with similar games in the category.
Now that Tactician’s Crown is over, Riot Games’ Teamfight Tactics team has announced and shown off its newest TFT set: Cyber City! Starting April 2, tacticians will depart from Enter the Arcane’s Runeterran wonderland and enter a futuristic, anime-inspired world of Cyber City where the game has been hacked all the way down to its core! Recently, we were invited and shown a sneak peek of upcoming cosmetics, little legends, and other updates that all players should enjoy. As with prior TFT previews, our preview of Cyber City contained elements and features that are subject to change, rebalancing, and more between now and its official launch on April 2. The content that was shown to us (and discussed below) is NOT FINAL.
Enter the Arcane (TFT’s previous set) featured two significant changes, the Anomaly system and the introduction of 6-cost units, earning it the name of “Set 13 Evolved.” While I am unsure if 6-costs will make their way into this set after launch, the Anomaly system is gone and has been replaced by something called HACKS!
Hacks are the newest system in TFT, dramatically changing expectations about current systems in place. This means that shops, augment selection, champion carousel, and orbs can be hacked! Riot calls these “happy little hackciddents,” which is totally apt after playing several rounds during the rounds. The coolest thing about Hacks is how they often led to natural discovery of cool and unique combinations. One Hack involved the entire group of players wager between splitting a shared pot of gold or settling for a safe but small amount of gold. There is also a potential situation where I could choose either one strong gold augment or two slightly strong silver augments, making so that if I chose the latter I would end the game with four augments!
Hacks changed up my perceptions of augments and items to a delightful extent. For instance, the few times I received hacked items from minion/krug rounds, they functioned just like Pandora’s Items and allowed me to make thoughtful decisions regarding slamming items or keeping them on my item bench until they ended up being an item component that would help my team. While it’s still possible to get multiple repeated components, getting a hacked component helped alleviate the pain of having an item bench full of sparring gloves and nothing else. Feeling stuck with only defensive items for most of the game sucks, you know?
I have a feeling that many of TFT’s “for fun” players will absolutely love the silliness added by hacks while the vanilla TFT strategists will feel put off by the degree of variance introduced on a per-game basis. From my handful of rounds I played, Hacked Augments and Hacked Items gave me the same adrenaline cashout rush I would typically get when playing Choncc’s Treasure or the Set Revivals (where older sets are brought back and given unique spins). There probably will be folks who get lucky with the Hacks more than others, but the Hacks themselves don’t feel like they decide the outcome of a game like the early Anomaly-forcing at the start of Set 13.
I am very excited for hacks – far more than I was for charms or anomalies or Chosen or other even the initial introduction of Augments. Hacks change up the rules of TFT instead of simply injecting variance for the sake of roguelike variance. Sure, TFT isn’t a roguelike, but when it strikes that nerve of delightful randomness where every new game feels fresh, it feels like I’m playing something slightly new. The rulebreaking element of hacks will be great in resetting players’ expectations of how they play TFT.
Folks, I am excited to share that Kobuko is BACK and more badass than ever. Remember the cuddly yordle from Inkborn Fables? Now he’s an 8-bit 5-cost with a massive ability that evolves the more he casts it. While he looks far different than he did in the previous set, the decision to make him a boss who doesn’t know he’s a boss is thematically smart, as Kobuko is the sweetest and charming unit so far. The other 5-costs, like Zac and Garen, feature massive animations that clearly emphasize their power in a satisfying fashion.
In terms of unit variety, Cyber City has a good chunk of units who have yet to have their time in the TFT spotlight. I know that Yasuo and Syndra tend to be fan favorites, but I’m thrilled to see the likes of Fiddlesticks, Rhaast, Rengar, and Gragas return to the TFT Convergence. In the recent TFT learnings article (which, again, I strongly recommend you read), there was some discussion on TFT-specific units being added over “beloved League champions” like Yasuo or Syndra; this set is comprised of mainly League champions with the sole exception of my favorite unit so far – Kobuko.
While Cyber City includes some evergreen traits/origins like the tanky Vanguards and beefy Bruisers, but there are some new and inventive traits, too! The Anima Squad trait takes massive inspiration from League of Legends’ “Swarm” mode, granting the player familiar Swarm weapons that randomly activate from an Anima Squad unit. Even better – the chosen Anima Squad weapon doesn’t take up an item slot! The Street Demon trait functions similar to Set 13’s Experiment and Set 10’s K/DA traits in that the Street Demon trait randomly highlights hexes on your board. Placing an ally on that highlighted hex gives them a boost, with Street Demons getting additional bonuses.
The new traits in Cyber City add a nice breath of fresh air in terms of variety and uniqueness. Longtime fans will see some similarities with some traits from prior sets, but for the most part the traits feel like they’ve been shaped around distinct effects instead of generic stat boosts. As a Hyper Roll player, I’m excited to play Nitro comps just so I can get a gigantic T-Rex that fires a massive laser!
During the preview, we were informed that a massive amount of changes are coming to the Double Up mode. I love playing Double Up with my partner (we have matching Panda Chonccs, you know) – the changes that are being made to the mode will keep the mode up-to-date with how fluid TFT has become over the past few sets. There’s now a cannon on all players’ benches that allows for easier transferal of units between pairs.
I have been quite pleased with the cosmetics from the TFT over the past few years, with Doughcat and Pufflet being the newest Little Legends to enter my rotation of favorite cosmetics. The upcoming Little Legends that were shown during my preview looked adorable as always. I won’t spoil the upcoming Chibi…but the forecast looks bright! I’m going to personally try my hand at getting the newest Arena – it has a chef Squink!
Cyber City will be hitting the PBE (public beta environment) soon and will be coming to live servers later this year. I am excited to see all of the happy little hackciddents making games more chaotic and more fun than ever!
