The definitive Teamfight Tactics Galaxies item tier list

It’s been just over a week since the release of the new set in Teamfight Tactics and it’s settling into a decisive metagame.

Details have been slowly trickling out of high Elo games, showing which compositions and items are the most effective. So far, it seems as though having perfect items is more important than ever in this set.

Here’s our item iter list for Teamfight Tactics Galaxies. The tiers are based on a mixture of criteria, including raw strength, flexibility, and niche synergy.

S tier (Best of the bunch)

• Force of Nature
• Morellonomicon
• Guardian Angel
• Seraph’s Embrace
• Quicksilver
• Infinity Edge

The top-tier items are powerful for completely different reasons. They can absolutely carry your game under the right circumstances.

Force of Nature is a little self-explanatory in terms of why it’s so good. By joining two Spatula items, you’ll be able to place one extra character onto your board from your bench free of cost.

In the case of Morellonomicon, it’s rare to find a good composition right now that doesn’t feature this item on one of their carry characters. It causes spells to burn enemies for 30 percent of their maximum health over 10 seconds, as well as preventing healing for that time. It’s great on characters like Rakan, Aurelion Sol, Ekko, or Miss Fortune because their builds often have them casting their spell often. With this item, they can continually apply and reapply burn damage to the entire enemy team.

Another item that’s mandatory to build in most circumstances is Guardian Angel. Usually used in compositions featuring an AD-focused carry like Jinx, Shaco, and Gangplank, this item allows the wearer to revive with 400 health after a two-second delay. This item lets characters with a certain “clutch” factor revive and clean up the rest of the board. It also gives the wearer an additional attack damage boost through its basic item combination.

Infinity Edge is a similarly used item, placed on characters like Irelia and Shaco. It gives the wearer an additional 100 percent critical strike damage. It’s a great ADC item.

An item like Seraph’s Embrace is very versatile. It’s especially good on characters like Miss Fortune, Aurelion Sol, or Syndra. The item provides the wearer with a flat 40 mana upon the start of a round. After casting their spell, it rewards the wearer with an additional 20 mana. Put this on a character that wants to repeatedly cast their spell, for crowd control or damage, and watch your enemies die before you.

The Quicksilver item is great on any of the important characters on your board. It makes the wearer immune to all crowd control and adds a little bit of magic resistance on top. This item is great on a character like Xin Zhao who carries his team through the frontline.

A tier (Consistently strong)

• Rabadon’s Deathcap
• Jewelled Gauntlet
• Bramble Vest
• Dragon’s Claw
• Hand of Justice
• Guinsoo’s Rageblade
• Red Buff
• Zephyr

The items in this tier aren’t quite the best, but they’re still definitely worth investing in.

Rabadon’s Deathcap is always a solid item for AP champions and can be used in interesting ways. It amplifies each and every spell’s power by 50 percent, meaning healing and shielding spells will also scale with Rabadon’s bonus AP. But it’s mainly placed on characters like Syndra who can deal an insane amount of damage with this damage boost.

Similarly, the Jewelled Gauntlet is placed on characters that do big damage with their spell. Champions like Gangplank and Syndra really benefit from the ability to hit critical strikes with their spells. Both the Gauntlet and Deathcap are must-have items in a Star Guardian Sorcerer composition because they’re the items that make this team successful in the late game.

Both the Bramble Vest and Dragon’s Claw are tank items, increasing the wearer’s armor and magic resistance respectively. The Bramble Vest also has a unique ability that negates bonus damage from incoming critical hits. It even deals magic damage to all nearby enemies (once every 2.5 seconds) upon being hit by an enemy’s basic attack. These items make a team’s frontline incredibly durable. A composition that relies on its shields, healing, and pure bulk, like the Protector Mystic team, needs these items to do their job.

The Hand of Justice item allows the wearer to either deal 50 percent more damage or have their basic attacks heal 50 health on hit. This item involves a little RNG because having the extra damage is more helpful than the small amount of healing, but it does provide extra mana and damage through its basic items. Characters like Yasuo and Kayle thrive with this item.

Guinsoo’s Rageblade grants the wearer an additional five percent bonus attack speed for the rest of combat without a stacking limit. Characters like Irelia, Kayle, and Xayah rely on this item to help them carry late in a fight. You can’t go wrong with this item in any Blademaster, Valkyrie, or Chrono composition.

Red Buff has been buffed in the latest patch and is now completely viable. Similarly to the Morellonomicon in the tier above, it applies a burn on hit for 30 percent of the maximum health of the target, as well as reducing healing for the length of the burn. The only difference is that this item doesn’t burn targets with their spell, meaning there’s less damage potential with this item. Lucian is a great option for this item.

Zephyr has always been a great competitive item. It provides a small amount of health and magic resistance to the wearer as well as CCing a target at the start of each fight. This wouldn’t be great if it were random, but you can actually choose your specific target by angling the item holder correctly. This item is great for giving your carry champs the time to get their damage out without being harassed.

B tier (Reliable)

• Spear of Shojin
• Giant Slayer
• Bloodthirster
• Ionic Spark
• Thief’s Gloves
• Rapid Firecannon
• Statikk Shiv

These items are all good options and should only be passed up for more elite items.

Spear of Shojin is always a reliable item to have on characters that you need casting their spell often. Generally, this item doesn’t see too much playtime on carry champions since there’s no inherent damage buff from it. It is, however, crucial that characters like Lulu and Rakan have at least one Spear of Shojin attached to them so that their CC occurs often enough to be useful.

Both the Giant Slayer and Bloodthirster items are used on ADC champions but they aren’t as essential as Guardian Angel or Infinity Edge, especially since the Bloodthirster’s healing on hit was recently nerfed. Giant Slayer is great on Jinx if you’re planning on using her as your primary carry.

With the Ionic Spark, enemies within two hexes have their magic resistance reduced by 50 percent (doesn’t stack). When they cast a spell, they’re zapped, taking magic damage equal to 225 percent of their max mana. This item sees most of its play in a Mech composition because an enemy team will completely surround the Mech and the item can damage the entire enemy team simultaneously.

Thief’s Gloves fetches two temporary items at the beginning of each planning phase and attaches them to the wearer. Although this item does scale with the player’s level and it can be handy for creating a winning streak for extra gold early on, it’s essentially RNG and can’t be relied on in the late game. Never put this item on your carry.

Rapid Firecannon and Statikk Shiv are both solid items for characters like Kayle and Xayah. Although neither should be a priority for your ADC, both can provide solid attack speed boosts if no other item is available. If possible, stacking two Statikk Shivs on Xayah will net the best results.

C tier (Middle of the road)

• Hextech Gunblade
• Locket of the Iron Salari
• Sword Breaker
• Death Blade
• Trap Claw
• Warmog’s Armor
• Last Whisper

These items can be great in niche builds but should never be your first priority.

Hextech Gunblade is definitely a solid item for a character like Aurelion Sol. But with so many characters that can blow up an entire team so quickly, the healing benefit is rarely useful in the late game.

Stacking Locket of the Iron Solari is more of a niche strategy now but it can be useful in some scenarios. There’s nothing wrong with this item, but as defensive items go, there are far better ones.

An item like the Sword Breaker isn’t as impactful as it was last set, but it still has the potential to clutch out wins. The item gives the wearer’s basic attacks a 25 percent chance to disarm the opponent for three seconds. This is best used on a character like Lucian.

Death Blade grants an additional 15 attack damage for each kill contribution for the remainder of combat. This item has the potential to wipe entire teams but doesn’t have the immediate damage impact of items higher on this list.

Trap Claw and Warmog’s Armor are both solid defensive items. Put a Warmog’s on any of your frontliners alongside a Bramble Vest and Dragon’s Claw, and you can just sit back and enjoy your own unkillable tank.

D tier (Decent in some situations)

• Runaan’s Hurricane
• Chalice of Favor
• Shroud of Stillness
• Titan’s Resolve
• Frozen Heart
• Luden’s Echo

All of these items have some use but should be mostly avoided. For example, a Syndra can make good use of a double-stacked Luden’s Echo. It provides mana, spell damage, and chunks nearby enemies for good damage. It’s great against the popular Rebel synergy because they have to be placed beside one another at the beginning of the round.

E tier (Lackluster)

• Zeke’s Herald
• Zz’Rot Portal
• Redemption

None of these items are worth investing in. They’re either ineffective or just plain bad. If you can, you should avoid them at all costs. 

The only items that aren’t listed here are the Spatula items that create synergies. These items can make or break a game but can’t be fairly ranked on effectiveness due to being match specific.

This item tier list is a starting point for TFT. It’s bound to change and it’s admittedly subjective. We’ll make sure to update it as the meta changes in the months and patches to come.