Uncharted Realms Gameplay Overview

Welcome to…

With 24 new units, 5 new Dragons, 4 new traits, and a new Dragon unit designed exclusively for TFT, there’s a TON to sink your claws into. All that (and more) goes to PBE on August 23rd, and to live servers with patch 12.17! But before we get started, be sure to check out the new cosmetics that were uncovered with the shifting lands and learn a bit about our Dragon changes while you’re at it, because they’re pretty different this time around! In fact, the entire landscape of the Dragonlands has shifted through powerful earthquakes and magic induced terraforming. That’s just what you get when you have a bunch of Little Legends running around playing with draconic magic. But you know what? I’m not here to point fingers (but it is your fault); I’m here to provide some information about those new units and traits.

But before that, let’s see what units weren’t cut out for exploring the Uncharted Realms!

Departing the Dragonlands

The Dragonlands are changing. Hidden lagoons and magical caverns have opened up, and some traits and units have been washed away. Let’s see who's been cleaned out:

• Trainers’ star pupil, Nomsy, is now the expert. While these Trainers may be gone, you’ll likely see them again:
  • Heimerdinger
  • Tristana
  • Lulu
• The time to Revel is long past. The Lagoon is super effective at dousing these firecrackers. These fire workers are out of a job:
  • Tahm Kench
  • Jinx
  • Corki
  • Sona

• They say Legends never die. But that’s just a line from a pop song. It’s time for these Legends to become just that…legends:
  • Anivia
  • Ornn
  • Volibear will remain, but will no longer be a Legend

• And then there’s those who just didn’t pass Dragon Academy. Say goodbye to these chronic class cutters:
  • Aatrox
  • Taric
  • Ashe
  • Thresh
  • Shen
  • Kayn
  • Nami
  • Elise
  • Illaoi
  • Ryze
  • Ornn
  • Neeko
  • Talon
  • Pyke

With these washed out explorers leaving Dragonlands, let’s see who’s riding the new wave by discussing our new vertical first!

Lagoon

Shifting lands means shifting sea fronts, and with them, the awakening of the spirit of the tides, Sohm. Our new fishy friend would’ve been happy hidden from the rest of the world, but they’re also happy to be accompanied by a trait full of fun sea-goers—he’s less happy about the coral bleaching that is happening at an unprecedented level.

Lagoon: Lagoon units gain Ability Power and Attack Speed that increases at trait breakpoints (3/6/9/12). Additionally, a Seastone appears on the board, storing power when Lagoon units cast Abilities.

As you empower your Seastone you’ll unlock more loot, with a couple of surprises to boot! The Seastone stores and tracks power throughout the game, with more impactful loot coming as you reach deeper thresholds.

Check out what the tide brought in:

• Malphite: Tier 1 Bruiser
• Taliyah: Tier 1 Mage
• Kai’Sa: Tier 2 Dragonmancer
• Zac: Tier 2 Guardian
• Seraphine: Tier 3 Evoker
• Zeri: Tier 3 Cannoneer
• Nilah: Tier 4 Assassin
• Sohm: Tier 4 (7 Gold), Dragon, Mage

Lagoon gives you a flexible frontline with Bruisers or Guardian (Zac). Kaisa is your go-to carry for playing Lagoon as a reroll comp. Give her a blue buff and she’ll fill the Seastone fast. You can also use Kai’Sa as an item holder for Sohm, but we’ll get to that later. Nilah can take your Attack Damage items and make good use of them as an Assassin, but make sure to add another Assassin to the mix before slamming that Infinity Edge on her.

Ah, you may have noticed Sohm, one of our new Dragons who’s been developed from the ground water up just for Uncharted Realms. Let’s take a brief intermission to talk about Lagoon’s TFT-exclusive Dragon!

Sohm: Tier 4 (7 Cost) Lagoon, Dragon, Mage

• The spirit of the tides, Sohm formed the great reefs of the Dragonlands as a home for his fishy friends. There he preferred to be forgotten to the world, just Sohmbody that you used to know, but times have changed and now Sohm has reawakened to protect —-will you help him?
• Ability: Sohm sends out the tide to an unmarked target, marking them with a Tideblossom and dealing magic damage to enemies along the way. Tideblossoms transfer to a nearby target if the enemy dies. After 3 casts, Sohm’s next cast instead summons a vortex under each Tideblossom, dealing even more magic damage to enemies in the area.
• Strategy: Sohm loves the water, and everything blue, so be sure to give him a Blue Buff. Because Lagoon already supplies AP for him, adding a Jeweled Gauntlet and Infinity Edge can really put him over the edge!

Darkflight

Not everything that has emerged from the fluctuating lands of Uncharted Realms is as pristine and serene as a water Dragon at a Dragon spa.

Darkflight: The unit in the Darkflight hex is sacrificed at start of combat, granting a copy of a random item they have to each Darkflight champion as well as bonus health that increases at trait breakpoints (2/4/6/8).

Non-craftable items and Emblems are corrupted when they're copied, instead becoming Darkflight Essence.

Let’s meet who leaps through the night:

• Aphelios: Tier 2 Cannoneer
• Rell: Tier 2 Cavalier
• Rengar: Tier 3 Assassin
• Swain: Tier 4 (7 Gold) Dragon

Darkflight is a medium sized trait that focuses on duplicating items at the cost of sacrificing a unit. Pick your ideal item that you'd love for each Darkflight champion to use like Hand of Justice or Warmogs, or use it to make multiple copies of a utility item like Zephyr or Zz'Rot. Don't forget that you only get to duplicate one item from the sacrificed unit, so just equip what you need!

No longer a Dragonmancer nor a Ragewing, Swain has moved up in the world… literally with his newfound ability to fly and command dragonlings.

Swain, Dragon Tyrant: Tier 4 (7 Cost) Darkflight, Dragon

• Ability: Swain releases his dragonling flock, launching dragonlings toward nearby enemies that each deal magic damage to their target, then return to Swain and heal him for a percent of his missing Health.
• Swain serves as a new carry-with-sustain option using his control over weaker Dragon-kind to carry out his bidding…
  
• With the new trait Darkflight, he has potential both as a full AP backliner, or as a frontliner with tank items. Finding healing Augments like First Aid Kit, or Celestial Blessing can allow you to index further into damage while placing him aggressively.

With Dragons on the mind, let’s introduce a few more of our new Dragon units!

Uncharted Realms’ Frequent Flyers

Alright, the title of this section is a bit of a lie, because not all of our new Dragons can take flight, but who am I to crush their dreams?

Nomsy: Tier 3 (6 Cost) Dragon, Mage, Prodigy

• Fireballs!: Nomsy shoots a Fireball at her target. Upon impact it explodes releasing even MORE fireballs!
• Prodigy: Every game Nomsy will be able to summon a new Trainer: Heimerdinger, Tristana, or Lulu. Her summoned Trainer will have their trait and spell from Dragonlands, but they’ve been adjusted to scale with Nomsy’s power.
• Not only does Nomsy summon her old Trainers, she’s also learned from them. Nomsy benefits from the trait of their past Trainer. Heimerdinger makes Nomsy a Mage, Tristana a Cannoneer, and Lulu an Evoker.
• Nomsy and her summon share a Trait, providing two towards that specific trait breakpoint, because that’s the power of friendship!

Zippy: Tier 3 (6 Cost) Dragon, Guild

• Ability: Zippy shields himself and somersaults toward the highest percent health enemy, dealing a percent of his Attack Damage as physical damage and knocking them back slightly.
• Zippy is a hyperactive Dragon. He just wants to roll around and mosh. Zippy’s tanky, disruptive, and downright goofy.
• Zippy shores up your frontline in the mid-game and provides a surprising amount of crowd control. While he can carry as well, he's REALLY bad at focusing down targets. It's not his fault. He gets distracted easily.
• Neither of our tier 3 (6 cost) Dragons can appear in Blue/Grey Loot Orbs, because hitting one of these units during early PVE rounds would be as unfair as playing against me.

Terra: Tier 5 (8 Cost) Dragon, Monolith

• Passive Trait, Monolith: Reveal three hexes that grant units starting combat in them Damage Reduction
• Ability: Terra slams the ground causing an earthquake around them, dealing physical damage based on a combination of their Armor, Magic Resist, and Attack Damage. At the end of the earthquake Terra's scales are hardened for 6 seconds, granting Armor and Magic Resist.
• A juggernaut of late game comps, this Legendary Dragon brings effects that are powerful for late-game flex players! Terra can hold a combination of tank and AD items, and always provides great utility to your team via Monolith hexes

Shifting Traits in Changing Lands

We’ve got a couple of new trait breakpoint changes. Most of these are to allow us to swap out units, but we also had the goal of adding more flexibility with comp diversity. Expect a bit of rebalancing for these traits as well.

Dragonmancer (3/6/9) >>> (2/4/6/8)

Jade (3/6/9/12) >>> (3/5/7/9)

Ragewing (3/6/9) >>> (2/4/6/8)

Guardian (2/4/6) >>> (2/4/6/8)

As with the land, so goes the sky. Astral has been reworked. After each player combat, you’ll get an Astral orb. The more Astral units you have, and the higher star level they are, the more valuable the Astral orb will be. We’re also adding a bit more Ability Power to the trait!

Augments

On top of Augments tied to our new traits, we've added some more unique Augments. We won't have time to check out all of them, so I’ll mention a few favorites here, but remember the exact numbers are likely to change as we head to PBE.

Lucky Gloves (Gold): Thief's Gloves will always give your champions items that they can use well. Gain a Thief's Gloves.

Lucky Gloves is my go to Augment when I am too dizzy to itemize correctly. After taking it I focus on grabbing brawler’s gloves, but a better version of myself would also prioritize the correct carry items—self improvement is hard.

Scoped Weapons (Gold, Prismatic): Your units that start combat in the back 2 rows gain +2 Attack Range and 15% Attack Speed.

The Prismatic version of this Augment grants infinite attack range and even more attack speed. Me Scoped Weapons Olaf no pivot.

Dragon Imperialist (Gold): If you only have 1 Dragon, Dragons execute enemies they damage who are below 25% Health.

With Dragons no longer being unique, this Augment is sure to make you feel nostalgic for the first half of Dragonlands, but it’ll also allow you to unleash the TRUE power of Imperialist Swain!

Consistency (Gold): Gain double streak gold.

If you’re the type of player that likes to play open fort (loss streaking on purpose) and then turn it around to win streak to first place, this Augment is for you!

Age of Dragons (Prismatic): If you only have Dragons, every 5th attack from a Dragon fires a Dragonsoul blast that deals magic damage equal to 12% of their target's max Health. Gain a Nomsy and 2 random Tier 4 Dragons.

MY DRAGONS!

Ah you made it to the end. Just as a reward, I’ve got a cool cheat sheet for you. There’s a high quality version somewhere around here.

Wow that was a lot, but it’s still just scratching the surface. There’s lots more gameplay to explore, but I should leave some discoveries for you to uncover. If you want to learn more about our changes to Dragons (and the Treasure Dragon) check out the /Dev article with Mort and I, and if you want to learn more about the new cosmetics give this one a read. Finally, I know it can be hard to keep all the dates for our release straight amidst your busy schedule, so we had an artist mock this up for you to help!