How to play Teemo in TFT Set 5 Reckoning

Teemo is back for his third-straight Teamfight Tactics set, but the cute little Yordle is returning with quite the devilish twist.

In Reckoning, Teemo is a legendary unit. But if you see him in your shop, his card will be red instead of the usual legendary gold. This is because Teemo brings a new mechanic to the game with his trait Cruel, which makes it so the champion is bought with a player’s health instead of gold.

Costing six full health points to purchase each individual Teemo, it might seem like the little fur ball isn’t worth the hassle. But if a player finds themself ahead in the early game, then picking up a Teemo can seriously help your board’s firepower.

The early game and transitioning into Teemo carry

Teemo has been designed with two helpful traits and one not-so-helpful trait. The easiest way to learn how to play the champion is by associating one of those traits, Hellion, with the early portion of the game. The second trait, Invoker, involves the transition into your desired endgame composition.

Hellion, similar to the Woodland trait in Set Two, is made up of mostly one-cost units. This means it’s easy to get online early on in the game. That power spike can lead to an early win streak, netting the player some juicy bonus interest gold.

An early Hellion composition might look something like this. Building early mana and attack power items on Ziggs, who’s a great item holder for Teemo, should help you through the early game. Your frontline should also be two-starred early on.

After stabilizing with this board, players should begin looking for units with the Invoker trait and keeping them on the bench.

At around level six, players should begin thinking about dropping two of their Hellion frontliners, usually Poppy and Kled. Replace them with units like Ivern, Taric, or Rell. This composition should do well enough against the opposition until the first Teemo is picked up.

Endgame board and positioning

There are two strong final board options that are similar to each other but incorporate different units depending on what the player hits in their shop.

The easiest Teemo composition to transition to is a Hellion and Invoker hybrid team that features some of the units from earlier on in the game, making the transition easier to pull off.

The idea is that this composition wants to buy as much time as possible for Teemo and Kayle to dish out the damage. And if they’re given a little time, these two can deal enough damage to defeat any board.

Both Revenant and Hellion traits resurrect the unit in some way. Adding the bulkiness provided by the Mystic and Verdant traits on top of this, Teemo should have more than enough time to delete the enemy team.

The second variation is equally simple since it features the same core of Teemo, Taric, and Ivern. But this time, it’s more of a chase composition, meaning this board is likely only achievable by going to level nine after a long win streak because of how many expensive units it requires.

This is close to the highest ceiling of any reasonably attainable composition in the set and will be a top-four caliber team in any lobby.

In either iteration, Teemo should be cornered or completely surrounded by allied champions to improve his chances of survival—especially considering the fact it’s not common to play defensive items on Teemo. The best defense is a great offense, after all.

Teemo’s range isn’t the longest. At just four hexes, he’ll sometimes need to travel to be within range of the enemy. For this reason, it can be wise in some situations to have the champion positioned in the third row of the board so he can cast a little bit quicker.

Now live in a beta version on the PBE, TFT Set Five Reckoning is scheduled to hit the live servers on April 28. Champions are subject to having their abilities reworked and stats adjusted before the live release.