Units, Classes, and Origins

Units in this game have a class and an origin, and if you put a certain amount of units with the same class or origin, you make those units stronger. Having a lot of units sharing one synergy can even further improve the synergy.

They also cast an ability after their mana bar is full, and some units take a long time with large mana costs, while some units can spam out their abilities with small mana costs. The way every champion gets mana(except one which will be mentioned in classes) is by auto-attacking, and each champion gets 10 mana per auto-attack. There are items and passives that help a unit get more, but the base amount is 10 mana.

There are also synergies that affect casting, such as Astro reducing the mana cost to cast an ability when there are 3 of those units on the board.

There are unit exceptions where they do not have an ability, but they have a passive to compensate for their lack of ability.

Each unit can be also be different tiers/costs, where more powerful units have higher costs(There are 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5-cost units, bought with the corresponding amount of gold).

Units also have stats that vary, but every unit has some amount of

• health
• starting and total mana
• magic resistance
• armor
• attack damage
• attack speed
• ability power
  Armor and magic resistance mitigate attack and magic/ability damage respectively, similar to League of Legends.

There are a lot of units with a different class and origins, and with different abilities, but once you use them, you can understand the role they play in combet; for example, Brawlers can absorb damage, Snipers do damage from afar, and Infiltrators try to take out damage-dealers in your opponent's backrow.

You can play units on your board based on your level or keep them on your bench. When you get 3 copies of the same unit, it upgrades into a more powerful, silver, 2-star version of itself, increasing its own stats.

You can even get 3 of those upgraded versions into its final upgraded form, its golden, 3-star form. The chance of 3-starring a unit is low, but it results in a high payoff(especially if you get a 3, 4, or 5-cost in its golden form, although extremely tough and nearly impossible for 5-costs).

When a 1-star unit is sold, you gain back that amount of gold. If an upgraded unit is sold, there a is a 1-gold sell penalty.
For example, a 2-star, 5-cost unit sells for 14 gold since you buy 3 5-costs, or 15 gold to make in the first place.
There are a lot of basics to get through, but this will hopefully give you an understanding of what to play.

The Board

The board consists of 8 rows of 7 hexes, with the bottom half of the board reserved for placing your units and the top half reserved for your opponents during combat rounds.

From your opponents' perspectives, they would all have the bottom half of the board.

The Classes

Blademaster(3/6/9)*

Blademasters' auto-attacks has a 30/70/100% chance to trigger 2 additional auto-attacks.
Note: If there are synergies that have very high numbers, this means that they can be extremely hard to get, an example being 9 blademasters. I will refer to them as a "chase synergy" from now on. They require extreme luck and specific components(I will talk about this in the items section), yet have very high payoffs. They also show a rainbow color when you complete one.

Blaster(2/4)

Blasters can fire an additional 3/6 shots(which has properties similar to auto-attacks) at enemies every fourth auto-attack.

Brawler(2/4)
Brawlers have 350/600 additional maximum health.

Demolitionist(2)
Demolitionists' spells/abilities stun their targets for 1.5 seconds.

Infiltrator(2/4/6)
Passive: Infiltrators jump to the back of the opponent's board at the beginning of combat.
Infiltrators gain an additional 40/80/150% attack speed at the beginning of combat, reset after every Infiltrator takedown(when an Infiltrator kills a unit).

Mana-Reaver(2)
Every Mana-Reaver auto-attack increases the mana cost of its target's next ability by 30%.

Mercenary(1)(Only one is Gangplank)
When a Mercenary unit is on your bench or on your board, there is is a chance your shop can contain Mercenary-only upgrades, costing 8 gold. These upgrades ONLY apply to the ability of your unit.
The upgrades for Gangplank are Larger Area, Double Impact, and Faster Impact(maybe not the exact names, but upgrades are self explanatory).
Note: When a Mercenary unit is sold so you have no more of them, you lose the upgrades; if you re-buy the unit in this case, you will have to buy upgrades again.

Mystic(2/4)(First teamwide buff regardless of synergy)
ALL allies gain a bonus 50/120 magic resistance.

Paragon(1) (Only one is Janna, a Star Guardian, you'll see why)
All ally auto-attacks are converted to magic damage, except ally Star Guardians, where their auto-attacks are converted to true damage.
Note: True damage bypasses both armor and magic resistance, magic damage is the damage dealt by abilities.In this trait, both damages are converted based on the unit's attack damage, since the damage comes from auto-attacking.

Protector(2/4/6)
Protector units gain a 30/40/50% maximum health shield after casting an ability. This shield does not stack, but can refresh if the shield is not full after casting.

Sniper(2/4)
Sniper units deal 9/16% more damage per hex of distance between itself and the target(applies to abilities and auto-attacks)

Sorcerer(2/4/6)
ALL units gain 20/40/70% increased ability power.
Note: All units benefit from ability power, not just units with strong abilities, whether it's in their passive or ability.
Starship(1)(Only one is Aurelion Sol)
Starship units gain 40 mana per second, do not auto-attack, roam around the board, and are immune to disabling effects more known as crowd control(which will be noted more in the units section).

Vanguard(2/4/6)
Vanguard units have an additional 125/300/900 armor.

The Origins

Astro(3)

Blademasters' auto-attacks has a 30/70/100% chance to trigger 2 additional auto-attacks.
Note: If there are synergies that have very high numbers, this means that they can be extremely hard to get, an example being 9 blademasters. I will refer to them as a "chase synergy" from now on. They require extreme luck and specific components(I will talk about this in the items section), yet have very high payoffs. They also show a rainbow color when you complete one.
Astro units have their mana costs reduced by 30.

Battlecast(2/4/6/8)

Battlecast units, when dealing or taking 10 separate instances of damage, heal when below 50% health and deal magic damage to the nearest enemy unit when above 50% health. They heal or deal 80/180/480/1000 magic damage.
Note: There are items which deals a lot of instances of damage over time, abilities that hit enemy units at the same time counts as one instance of damage, Blaster attacks counts as multiple instances of damage.

Celestial(2/4/6)
ALL allies heal 15/45/150% of the damage they deal(auto-attacks and abilities).

Chrono(2/4/6/8)
ALL allies gain 15% attack speed every 8/3/1/.5 seconds(attack speed affects auto-attacks).

Cybernetic(3/6)
Cybernetic allies with at least an item component gain 300/550 additional health and 35/70 additional attack damage.

Dark Star(2/4/6/8)
When ANY ally dies, Dark Star units gain 8/18/28/48 additional attack damage and 8/18/28/48% additional ability power.
Note: If any champion is pulled in from the bench during combat and dies, the Dark Star units will get the additional damage.

Mech-Pilot(3)
At the start of combat, 3 random Mech-Pilot units are combined into a Super-Mech with the combined stats and synergies(except the passive of Infiltrator), 3 random items, and a different ability and mana-cost. The Super-Mech's auto-attacks hit an area in front of him. When the Super-Mech dies, the Mech-Pilots are ejected and they continue fighting with 35% of their health.
Note: Levels work differently on the Mech than other units, as the mech has a combined level based on the pilots. This is why the mech can only be levels 3(pilots all 1-starred) through 9(pilots all 3-starred).
Mech ability: Mecha-Justice: The Mech launches a blast at a target, dealing 650/700/750/800/900/1200/5000 damage(base damage for levels 3/4/5/6/7/8/9) to the target and 350/375/400/425/450/600/5000 damage to nearby targets).

Rebel(3/6/9)
Rebel units gain a 150/225/400 shield and 10/12/20% damage for each adjacent Rebel unit.
Note: Grouping them up together is the best way to utilize this synergy.

Space Pirate(2/4)
Space Pirate units, on a Space Pirate unit's takedown, have a 50% chance of getting 1 gold(2 and 4 bonus), and have a 33% chance of dropping an item(ONLY 4).
Note: Getting this synergy early nets you a lot of gold, but using it late in the game is also very good, as getting a lot of items can win you games.

Star Guardian(3/6/9)
After a Star Guardian casts its ability, all other Star Guardians gain 15/25/60 mana.

Units

There are about 57 units right now with a lot of combinations, so I will link the entire list here. Clicking on each champion will show its stats, class, origin, and other units in its class and origin(very useful in-game).
Note: I did the traits because I tried to simplify all the synergies, while most of the units and abilities are complicated. There are a lot of numbers, and some abilities, like Riven's, would take a paragraph to simplify, while traits just need re-phrasing. Not only this, but the abilities have a lot of interactions against certain items, can have crowd control that can be single, multiple, or AOE(area of effect), and the ability targeting can be random, closest, farthest, or farthest but the ability hits the first enemy unit coming into contact. It's better to use the ability and see it in-game than reading it for the first time.

Items and Components

Components can be obtained through killing monsters, the carousel, or, more rarely, the 4 Space Pirate trait(although the first two are the common ways). They are obtained through orbs, which also could contain gold or champions.
Items are the result of combining two components together. Items have an additional effect There are 10 different components with 45 unique combinations, and can vary from offensive, defensive, tank, and utility items.
The 10 components are: Sword(most known for building attack damage items), Bow(mostly known for attack speed), Vest(known for tank items relating to armor), Cloak(known for tank items reducing magic resistance), Rod(known for increasing ability power), Tear(known for gaining more mana), Belt(known for tank items that increase health), Glove(known for increasing critical hit chance and dodge chance), and Spatula(this item is weird, and will be in a separate category).
Note: Components do increase stats between parentheses(sword by itself grants +15 attack damage, tear makes a unit start with 15 additional starting mana, e.t.c.), but full items might not do what the components are intended for.
For example, combining a Vest and Belt will give you Red Buff, which applies a burn that reduces healing for 4 seconds after the item holder auto-attacks . Even though the components are focused on surviving and taking damage, the item is mainly used for Blasters, as they can spread this burn on the 4th additional attack to apply and spread the burn effect.

Spatula Items, Chase Synergies, and Force of Nature

The TFT Sets

Each set in TFT had a certain gimmick(except for Set 1 because the company didn't know what direction they were going yet). This set gimmick is Galaxies, with each galaxy having its own gimmick. Galaxies can change the boards or how many items you can get.

List of Galaxies(as of 8/20/20)

Normal: Regular game, nothing special, 20% chance of getting this galaxy, 10% for all other galaxies.