What are direct damage items in TFT and how do they work?

Teamfight Tactics always innovates its mechanics with each new Set, but items (brought across from counterpart League of Legends) have been present from the beginning. The workings of many mechanics are not always explained and many players may be uncertain when receiving certain Augments as options in their TFT rounds.

The Augment Gadget Expert, for example, says “Direct Damage items deal 25% more damage as true damage. Gain a Statikk Shiv.”

It can be easy to intuit the Statikk Shiv item applies this direct damage, but what this direct damage is and what other items benefit from this Augment is unclear.

What is direct damage in TFT?

Direct damage is an item ability, and is only available on certain power-ups. Without an item, a champion will never deal direct damage.

In fact, direct damage is as if the item carried by the champion is attacking enemies, applying damage to specific targets based on criteria varying from item to item.

Statikk Shiv, for example, has the following effect: “Every third attack shocks four enemies for 50 magic damage and reduces their Magic Resist by 50 percent for five seconds.” It’s as if this item deals damage to specific targets, regardless of the champion it’s equipped on, although it’s the champion’s attacks that trigger the effect.

This effect is different from that of burn items like Sunfire Cape and Morellonomicon. They are not considered direct damage items, as burns act as passive effects.

What are the direct damage items in TFT?

There are currently four direct damage items among the TFT combined items, not counting their Radiant versions:

• Bramble Vest
• Ionic Spark
• Runaan’s Hurricane
• Statik Shiv

These are the items you should choose to combine if you have the Gadget Expert Augment, as it increases the damage done by all of them by 33 percent.

If you’re looking for which units to equip these items on, the Bramble Vest should be equipped on your main tank, units like Braum Zac, Zippy, and Terra. Ionic Spark should be placed on champions who want to be close to their opponents while still dealing magic damage with their abilities like Lillia, Diana, Jayce, and Shyvana. Runaan’s Hurricane is for AD carriers who use basic attacks as their main source of damage like Nidalee, Twitch, Varus, and Rengar.

Finally, Statikk Shiv has an interesting interaction to guarantee more mana for users through the combination with Spear of Shojin. It can be equipped on units that need a lot of mana, like Kai’Sa, Soraka, and Zoe, and AD chargers that deal magic damage.