Monsters Attack! Gameplay Overview

Welcome to Spatulopolis, the city that never sleeps—because you’d have trouble sleeping too with all these monster attacks! In this article we’ll cover a few of the new traits and champions coming in our next set, but to read more about the mechanic updates or our learnings from Dragonlands, click on the respective links.

The World of Monsters Attack!

Being sleepless in Spatulopolis doesn’t bother the local Spatulopolites much—in fact, monster attacks are their largest economic driving force. The attacks fuel the industries of construction, Kaiju-food processing (the Crabgot Rangoon is a must), therapy, and of course, heroes. Heroes—sheesh, don’t get me started.

Alright, I’m starting—this city is chock-full of heroes: robotic programs, animal-dress-up-vigilantes, straight-up-thieves, heck, even angsty-techy-tweens are heroes.

Thankfully it’s not all heroics. The monstrous Threat trait (more of an anti-trait, really) adds a unique and flexible twist to Monsters Attack! But I won’t get too far into the weeds here, because we did that in our mechanic article last week.

Star Guardian

The Star Guardians (3/5/7/9) of Spatulopolis believe that the city revolves around them. They’re well-dressed, graceful, and without a doubt the most loved super squad in the city. But if you ask me, I’m not sure if they care more about Spatulopolis or their reputation.

When together their arrogance compounds. Together, their teamwork and encouraging remarks spiral out of control, allowing Star Guardians to gain additional Mana that increases at trait breakpoints. A full field of Star Guardians can take advantage of Mana-generating Augments and items to spam spells faster than a Squink’s tentacle wriggle emote.

Star Guardian:

• Lux: Tier 1 Spellslinger
• Rell: Tier 2 Defender
• Yuumi: Tier 2 Mascot, Heart
• Kai’Sa: Tier 3 Recon
• Nilah: Tier 3 Duelist
• Ekko: Tier 4 Prankster, Aegis
• Taliyah: Tier 4 Spellslinger
• Syndra: Tier 5 Heart

The most powerful Star Guardian, Syndra shares a trait, Heart (2/4/6), with the crew’s cat, Yuumi, that allows their entire team to gain stacking Ability Power for the duration of combat whenever Heart champions cast their spell. Since Star Guardians love casting spells, you’re certain to benefit from the pair’s Heart trait. Syndra’s spell, Force of Will, allows her to capture a unit on your bench in one of her orbs (which are actually familiars called Multi), before she hurls them at the closest enemy, knocking them up and dealing magic damage. That unit then bursts from the orb with a small shield. While that unit is unaffected by Traits, they’re likely affected by the emotional impact of being placed inside of Multi, and tossed thoughtlessly into Syndra’s foes.

Gadgeteen

Too young to be Star Guardians, and too apathetic to join their apprenticeship program, Gadgeteens (3/5) generate a random modified weapon every round that can be equipped by any unit. These weapons are powerful (like preteen emotions) but not durable (also like preteen emotions) lasting only two rounds.

Gadgeteen:

• Lulu: Tier 1 Heart
• Poppy: Tier 1 Defender
• Annie: Tier 2 Ox Force, Spellslinger
• Zoe: Tier 3 Prankster, Hacker
• Nunu: Tier 5 Mascot

HAHAHAHAHAHA! Nunu and Willump slowly roll a ball around the board, dealing magic damage to all enemies it passes through, and gaining Mana each second. Upon reaching enough Mana, Nunu and Willump will grow the ball, increasing their speed, radius and damage of the ball. Nunu and Willump’s second trait, Mascot (2/4/6/8) allows the pair to support your squad even after death. When Mascots die, they retreat to the sidelines to cheer on their team, granting Health regeneration that increases with each cheering Mascot! Being the cheerful representatives that they are, Mascots regenerate double.

LaserCorps

Not all heroes are upbeat youths in bright colors. But, what the LaserCorps (3/6/9) lack in color, they make up for in drone technology and the will to stop Threats at any cost. LaserCorps agents take combat drones that deal magic damage to their agent’s target. Make no mistake, these drones aren’t loyal or beloved to any agent—they belong to the LaserCorps and will become re-assigned to the nearest LaserCorps agent upon the death of their owner. When the LaserCorps aren’t fighting monsters in the interest of Spatulopolis’s protection, the company has a vested interest in surveillance technology… also for Spatulopolis’s protection.

LaserCorps:

• Ashe: Tier 1 Recon
• Renekton: Tier 1 Brawler
• Yasuo: Tier 2 Duelist
• Senna: Tier 3 Sureshot
• Sejuani: Tier 4 Brawler
• Zed: Tier 4 Duelist, Hacker
• Mordekaiser: Tier 5 Ace

LaserCorps are packed full of splashable trait combos with the returning Brawler and Duelist, as well as the newer Recon, Sureshot, and Hacker. Each of these complementary traits can be activated at (2) allowing for vertical LaserCorps comps to splash into these lower threshold synergies as needed. As for the Ace (1/4) of the comp, Mordekaiser, you’re going to want to run just him, or all four Aces to activate this all-or-nothing trait. At one Ace, Mordekaiser will execute all enemies he damages under 15 percent max Health, but if you run all four Aces, Ace units will execute enemies under 30 percent max Health.

Mordekaiser’s ability, Skylines, transports the board into the Corporate realm (no, this is not our Realm), shredding the Magic Resist and then slamming a literal building onto the board, dealing magic damage to all enemies in the impact zone. (The construction crews and scaffolding companies of Spatulopolis are the real heroes here.)

A.D.M.I.N.

As the city’s Automatic Defense Mechanism for Immediate Neutralization, A.D.M.I.N. (2/4/6) creates their own trait to meet the city's pressing needs. Activating the trait allows you to choose a paired cause and effect for your A.D.M.I.N. program. As you add A.D.M.I.N. champions to your super team, you’ll be able to configure an additional effect to the cause you’ve already taken. Each effect is balanced around how easy and frequent it is to activate, and not all causes will be able to be used with all effects for balance purposes. Check out the list of cause and effects below:

Causes:

• On cast
• Every three autos
• On enemy death
• Upon dropping below 40% Health
• A.D.M.I.N. only at start of combat
• A.D.M.I.N. only every 5 seconds
• Teamwide at start of combat
• Teamwide every 5 seconds

Effects:

• Gain stacking Ability Power
• Gain stacking Attack Damage
• Gain Mana
• Gain a percent max Health shield
• Chance to drop gold
• Gain Attack Speed
• Heal
• Gain permanent max Health

A.D.M.I.N.:

• Blitzcrank: Tier 1 Brawler
• Camille: Tier 2 Renegade
• Leblanc: Tier 3 Spellslinger, Hacker
• Soraka: Tier 4 Heart

Best of luck administering your foes a swift defeat.

Civilian

Scared is just a feeling. Bravery is an action. Civilians are regular folks who take action. Inspiring stuff right? And inspire is just what they do. If there is a Civilian (1/2/3) alive, all allies fight harder to protect them, gaining Mana every few seconds that increases with more living Civilians.

Civilian:

• Galio: Tier 1 Mascot
• Sivir: Tier 2 Sureshot
• Janna: Tier 5 Forecaster

Heroes, and contributing members of society—couldn’t be true! But it is—Galio and Sivir work at rival eateries, and Janna is Spatulopolis’s beloved Forecaster. Unlike weather forecasters in our world, Janna’s forecasts are always correct thanks to her passive ability Forecast, which picks a weather pattern every game. Depending on the weather, Janna will empower herself and allies in hexes surrounding her with the following buffs.

Forecasts:

• Rainy: Gain Mana at the start of combat
• Sunny: Gain shield for a few seconds at the start of combat
• Windy: Gain a buff that increases their Attack Damage and Ability Power every few seconds

Underground

Sworn enemies of the A.D.M.I.N., this team of hackers and rogues are always on the verge of their next big heist. When active, the Underground (3/5) work towards a heist, gaining progress after each win, and even more after each loss against another player. Periodically you can choose to take the loot they’ve worked towards, resetting their heist—or you can stay in the game, for an even bigger payout. How far can you take the heist before it takes you?

Underground:

• Kayle: Tier 1 Duelist
• Ezreal: Tier 2 Recon
• Vi: Tier 2 Brawler, Aegis
• Sona: Tier 3 Spellslinger, Heart
• Samira: Tier 4 Sureshot, Ace

While it’s a long shot to call them heroes, the crew has been known to steal for the greater good—and the greater loss of the LaserCorps. One of my favorite ways to play the Underground is transitioning into a mostly Threat comp after running with a fair bit of loot, but utilizing Samira as your carry can also allow you to pivot to 4 Aces for the larger execute threshold while still running part of your original Underground crew.

Mecha: PRIME

Mechs, roll out! Galaxies’ favorite Mech-Pilot trait makes a return as Mecha: Prime. With Mecha: Prime you will use the Prime selector to designate the mechanized master of your comp—they will become your Prime and combine with the two closest Mecha: Prime units gaining a portion of their Attack Damage and Health. Take a look at the champions whose powers combined can lead your team to victory:

Mecha: Prime

• Wukong: Tier 1 Defender
• Draven: Tier 2 Ace
• Jax: Tier 3 Brawler
• Sett: Tier 4 Defender
• Leona: Tier 5 Renegade, Aegis

Leona’s ability, Deus Ex Machina, locks onto her current target and fires an orbital laser dealing massive magic damage to the target and significantly less to enemies around the target. The orbital laser will continue to fire until its target or Leona dies. Being a melee AP carry, Leona benefits from a mixture of tank and flat Ability Power items. An Ionic Spark will get her through tanky frontliners, too!

As you can see, Spatulopolis is packed full of heroes, and I’ve barely scratched the surface. There are plenty more traits and champions to uncover, as well as more great info in other pieces written by TFT’s most handsome, most talented, most heroic dev. Be sure to check out Mort’s Set Mechanic Overview article, and Mort’s Dragonlands Learnings piece! Finally, I know your busy schedules make it tough to keep all the dates for our release straight, so we had an artist mock this up for you!