The Yordle trait in TFT Set 9, explained

Both beloved and hated equally across the fandom, Yordles are one of the regional traits with their own unique abilities in Teamfight Tactics. Plus, unlike other traits, you have a way to get four-star units that have even more powerful abilities to unleash on your foes, which makes them a powerful strategy in TFT Set Nine.

How the Yordle trait works in TFT Set 9

To start, the Yordle trait has a flat buff for its units no matter how many of them you have on your board, as long as you have a minimum of three. All Yordles gain 10 percent extra attack speed per star level of said unit. So, if you get three Yordles in the early game, all one-star, they all have a 10 percent attack speed buff. Later in the game, if you get them all to three-star, they have a 30 percent buff each.

Now, what makes the Yordle trait truly one-of-a-kind is its ability to have a player gain four-star Yordle units. When a player has three Yordles on their board, as long as they have three different units on their board at the three-star level, their strongest Yordle unit will become a four-star unit.

Keep in mind you don’t need all three of those three-star units to be Yordles to activate that bonus, but one of them does need to be a Yordle for it to evolve.

Related: TFT Set 9.5 spoilers highlight Bilgewater region with new trait and Region Portal

If you manage to get five Yordle units on your board, two of your three-star Yordles will become four-star. That four-star bonus provides extra stats across the board and an improvement on their ability that you can see at the bottom of the description for Yordle units. You can see this note whether you have the Yordle trait active or not.

All Yordle units in TFT Set 9

• Poppy (Yordle/Demacia/Bastion)
• Tristana (Yordle/Gunner)
• Kled (Noxus/Yordle/Slayer)
• Teemo (Yordle/Strategist/Multicaster)
• Heimerdinger (Piltover/Yordle/Technogenius)

The five Yordle units match the highest potential buff the trait can provide, but that isn’t the only way to get to the Yordle buff. If you get an augment that adds a Yordle unit to your trait counter, or if you get a Yordle emblem to throw on another non-Yordle unit, you can speed your way to the best bonus this trait has to offer.

As for which traits work best with Yordles, you have to think about the goal of getting three different three-star units. Traits that have cheap units that you can grind for early game are some of the other regional traits, like Demacia for Poppy and Kayle, or Noxus for Cassiopeia, Samira, and Kled.

For lategame, units like Jarvan IV add Strategist while Sona adds Multicaster. Yordle comps allow a lot of flexibility depending on which other larger traits are strong.