How HP really works in Teamfight Tactics for Teamfight Tactics (TFT) - Tips, Tricks, and Strategies - Tacter (2024)

So the most important part that decides everything is the base HP for every unit. A unit like Renekton for example starts off with 650 HP as 1 Star, goes up to 1170 HP as 2 Star and ends up with 2106 HP if you upgrade him to 3 Star.

This is his base HP and the game will use this value for every calculation, either to increase or reduce its value. We are mainly interested in increasing the HP, so we have to focus on two more Aspects to get the full picture: Bonus HP and HP Amplifiers.

Bonus HP is very easy to recognize, because it will always appear as a flat value. There are tons of mechanics in the game that will increase your HP by a flat amount, for example:

• Every Item built from Giant's Belt, like Warmog's Armor, Sunfire or Redemption
• Elusive Emblems that have a base HP value of 150 HP
• Ornn items like Anima Visage or Infinity Force
• Augments like Cybernetic Bulk or Endurance Training
• Traits like Bruiser give out 100 flat HP to every unit on your board
• Wood Ixtal or Bandle Cafeteria granting permanent flat HP every round
• Aatrox possessing a unit grants +250 HP and Omnivamp

What's important to remember is this: Anything involving a flat number is VERY good if you want to increase the HP of your units, because it will add up to a new Base HP that you can amplify with other mechanics.

This is the point where a lot of players get tricked and come to the wrong conclusion, because HP Amplifiers work on a percentage.

• Sterak's Gage increasing the HP by 20% after dropping below 60%
• The Bruiser trait increasing the HP of your Bruisers by either 10%, 45% or 85%
• The Zaun Chemtank Mod increasing the HP of the holder by 40%
• The Shurima trait increasing the HP of your strongest Shuriman unit by 20% or more
• Bel'Veth consuming her first Coral increasing her HP by 50%

This is the most important part: HP Amplifiers do not interact with each other. Every single HP Amplifier will only take the Base HP into account. If you ever find an interaction where they work off each other, then it is likely a bug. Stacking Sterak's Gage was very powerful at the start of this set for this reason.

Thanks to Bonus HP increasing your Base HP, you can still create some very strong setups.

Here we have a Renekton 1 Star with no traits active and only a Sterak's Gage, which grants 200 flat HP.

• His Base HP is 650+200 = 850
• The Sterak Proc will increase his HP by 20%

This means once the item procs his final HP will be 850+(850x0.2) = 1020

In the next example we have the same Renekton 1 Star, but this time we are also running 4 Bruiser and add a radiant Warmog to his Sterak. The Bruiser trait grants 100 HP flat HP to all units and radiant Warmog grants 1300 HP in total.

• This means his Base HP is 650+1300+200+100 = 2250
• 4 Bruiser will increase his HP by 45%
• The Sterak proc will increase his HP by 20%

This means his total HP is 2250+(2250x0.45)+(2250x0.2) = 3712.5The Amplifier for both Sterak and the Bruiser trait do not interact with each other. This means putting a Sterak's Gage on a 3 Star unit is good, because the unit has high base HP, but you won't see a large HP increase on a Rek'Sai 2 Star simply because she is a bruiser. If you would add 2 Shurima to the previous example you would simply add 450 HP to Renekton once he ascends.

One of the reasons why Cho'Gath is so great at reaching high HP numbers is because his passive allows him to increase his Base HP by a large amount. This interacts great with the Bruiser trait, which has a snowball effect since he is more likely to stay alive and receive more stacks.

However the true king of reaching HP is a completely different unit: Swain.

His ability grants him a flat HP amount both on his first cast and a slightly lower value on every consecutive cast. If you upgrade him to 3 Star he receives 500 HP on his first cast and 385 HP on every cast after. This HP scales with AP, which makes items like Archangel, Rabadon and even the Sorcerer trait quite effective at reaching large numbers.

The best part about Swain is that he becomes stronger in overtime. His AP will double, which works together with Archangel. Since his ability grants him flat HP and is not considered a heal, the value doesn't get decreased, making him impossible to deal with!

Since all of the HP he receives can get amplified, this makes him the perfect candidate for Amplifiers like the Bruiser Emblem. There are also a ton of great Zaun options with the overcharged Hextech Exoskeleton, Shimmer Injector and Unstable Chemtank all having great synergy with the HP values that he generates.