Looking for ways to win at Teamfight Tactics? Why not give the Open Fort strategy a try? This auto-chess strategy involves hoarding your resources and taking early game losses in order to come back later with your superior economy.
Wondering on how to pull it off? Our TFT Open Fort Guide will give you the info you need to pull it off.
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What is the TFT Open Fort Strategy?
The gist of the Open Fort strategy is this: You want to lose. It sounds like nonsense, but it’s more complicated than it sounds. Essentially, if you’re using the Open Fort strategy, you’ll give up early game wins and health to amass as much gold as possible. A stronger economy provides more chances to buy and level up powerful champions, and you can turn the tide your way.
This strategy relies on a few mechanics present in Teamfight Tactics. First, players can earn extra gold in a losing streak as they do with a win streak, and losing a battle is a lot easier to pull off than winning one. Second, players in the lowest places get to pick first in Carousel rounds, giving them the chance to get the best items for their needs.
But to properly use this strategy, you can’t keep losing–you have to balance how badly you lose and know when to start winning. How much HP damage you take per loss is dependent on how close the battle is: The closer the match is, the smaller the HP loss.
To be the most successful at the Open Fort strategy, you want to lose, but you only want to barely lose, mitigating health loss while maximizing the losing streak.
TFT Open Fort Overview
There are a few ways to pull off this strategy, but the crux of the strategy is to balance losing health with gaining as much gold as possible. The part that makes the strategy hard to pull off is when to decide to stop hoarding gold and start spending to build up a team that can take down your opponents.
It’s important to note though, that unless you have really lucky rolls, the Open Fort strategy isn’t likely to net you first place. However, being in the top 4 is considered a win in Teamfight Tactics, and the Open Fort strategy will typically land you high enough for a win, if played correctly.
There’s an extra aspect to balance, too. Generally, you’ll also want to win the minion rounds for the items or extra gold they drop. Sometimes, with Open Fort, you’ll need to buy units to survive the minion rounds, then sell them off before the next PVP round in order to ensure another loss.
TFT Open Fort Tips
While the exact times you’ll switch from hoarding gold and losing to spending and winning will vary on a number of factors, there are some constants players can account for when implementing the Open Fort strategy.
Get to 10 gold before the first PVP round, even if it means not having Champions to field. An Open Fort player may need to buy units to survive the minion rounds, but getting to 10 gold is of utmost importance afterward. If you’re not at 10 gold because you got item rewards from the minion rounds instead of gold, the way to do this is to sell your Champions. Having no units sets you up for an automatic loss, which is what you want but you’ll also take more damage than you would if you had one or two fighters defeating an opponent’s Champion first.
While 50 gold gets you the max interest, sometimes it’s better to start spending before you hit it. 50 or more gold gets you five gold in interest a turn, and the maximum amount of interest you can earn in Teamfight Tactics. However, it’s generally better to start spending on better units in later rounds, or else the health loss will be too much to come back from. The time to start spending will change from match to match, but generally, once you hit the mid-game it’s time to start building a team.
Taking damage early on tends to put you in last place, giving you first pick on the Carousel rounds. Having first dibs gives you a big advantage, so you can pick the unit or item that will help you the most in team-building later on.
Once you’ve built up a bit of gold, getting to Level 6 is a priority. Levels let you do more than just put more units on the field. When you hit Level 6, your rolls will start having higher tier Champions in it, letting you start to build a team to start countering other players. The cost from Level 5 to Level 6 is 12 gold, so it’s best to try to hit Level 6 sometime in the mid-game, when you have a fair amount of gold already saved up and can spare the 12 without too much interest lost.
