If you’re never lucky when getting item drops in Teamfight Tactics, remember that Riot Games always has your back. Game designer Mort said on Twitter that the game has “bad luck protection” in neutral rounds for item drops.
“Getting no items early increases the odds of getting items later,” he wrote. “You just have to adapt and play through your weaker early game.”
He didn’t detail the numbers of this bad luck protection, however. Even though he said the odds increase, it’s unclear if it ever reaches 100 percent if you’re really unlucky. But Mort confirmed late-game neutral rounds like Dragons, Elder, and Rift Herald always give items, regardless of previous drops.
What we know about item drops in TFT is what the company recently shared about the first three neutral rounds. Players have an 87.5 percent chance of finishing these three first rounds with at least one item, while those who fall into the other 12.5 percent will surely get nine gold total to make up for it to some extent. While gold doesn’t scale into the late game as items do, at least it’s a good bonus to boost your early game.
In that last situation, if what Mort said scales fast, players would have a high chance of getting an item in the next neutral round. That’s how players with bad luck are still compensated late into the game.
Items in TFT are key to several comps. A Volibear with good items, for example, can take you far into several matches and maybe even win you a tournament like streamer JoshOG did recently. A good item combo can be exactly what you need to turn a match around, and that bad luck protection ensures players at least have a chance at doing so to some extent.
The next time you play TFT with only a few items, remember to try to survive the early and mid game. You’ll be rewarded in the late game.
