Gizmos and Gadgets Gameplay Overview (2024)

Gizmos & Gadgets Gameplay Overview

A sneak peek at a few team compositions that arrive with Gizmos and Gadgets.

Academy is back on Tacticians, so stow your hoverboards, weapons—and would you please stop drinking that Chemtech concoction—cause we’ve got a new set to get into! It’s been about two weeks since we officially announced Teamfight Tactics: Gizmos and Gadgets during Worlds—very hype, I know, so by now you’re probably ready for a big drop of info. Well, here it is, and by now, you know the formula, so let’s say goodbye to our favorite champions from Reckoning and meet the new champs taking over the city!

The World of Gizmos and Gadgets

Throw everything you know out the window—and now pick it back up, cause we may be able to put that in the Hexcore. What’s a Hexcore you ask? Well, it’s where all your Hextech Augments go! And if you’re wondering about those it may be stay tuned for more info later!

But today’s overview is all about champions and traits, so let’s get into some of the brilliantly insane comps vying for power in Gizmos & Gadgets!

Academy

Class is now in session. With Academy (2/4/6/8) knowledge is power, but the question is, how do we get this knowledge? Gathering knowledge is easy, you just constantly expose yourself to new ideas, vet your sources, and trust science—oh wait, you wanted to know how the Academy trait gets power… It’s pretty similar actually, Academy champions gain bonus Attack Damage and Ability Power that’s amplified each time an ally casts an ability.

In our most studious composition we’ll be running all seven avid learners and are hoping to get an Academy Emblem, or Augment that’ll take us to 8!

Chemtech

These tormented experiments and demented experimentors are dead set on setting your opponents health bar to 0. Upon dropping below a health threshold, they kick things into overdrive, gaining damage reduction, Attack Speed, and regenerating a percentage of their maximum Health each second. As you add more Chemtech champions to your army your trait breakpoints (3,5,7,9) add to the duration of this effect.

Here’s the roster of monsters making monsters:

Singed: Tier 1 Innovator
Twitch: Tier 1 Assassin
Warwick: Tier 2 Challenger
Lissandra: Tier 3 Scholar
Zac: Tier 3 Bruiser
Dr. Mundo: Tier 4 Mutant, Bruiser
Urgot: Tier 4 Twinshot
Viktor: Tier 5 Arcanist

The more Chemtech champions you run, the longer the buff’s duration will be. With healing that scales with a champ’s max Health, Chemtech can make super tanks even more super. But Chemtech doesn’t just give you a frontline that can keep fronting, it also gives protection to the backline carries of the trait. With Urgot and Viktor, Chemtechs won’t just experiment on themselves, they’ll also test for the solubility of enemy compositions.

Mutant

One of our most ambitious traits yet, Mutants will adapt and change every game. The Mutant (3, 5) trait randomly takes one of seven forms for the entirety of the game. During the same game, all players will play with the same activated Mutant trait. The specific trait benefits might look familiar, but that’s just because the champions of this trait learn from the past to adapt to the future!

Each of these traits still activate at 3 Mutants and evolve to improved versions at 5. Here are the possible mutations for Mutant:

Synaptic Web: Mutant champions have reduced mana cost. (Minimum 10 mana.)
Hyper-Adrenal Glands: Mutants attacks have a chance to trigger 2 additional attacks against their target.
Bio-Leeching: All allies gain Omnivamp.
Cybernetic Adaptation: Mutants with at least one item gain bonus Health and Attack Damage.
Metamorphosis: Every two seconds all Mutants grow, gaining Armor, Magic Resistance, Attack Damage, and Ability Power. This effect stacks up to five times.
Voidborne: Voidborne Mutants execute targets at low Health. At 5 Voidborne Mutants, they deal true damage.
Voracious Appetite: When an ally dies, all Mutants gain bonus Attack Damage and Ability Power.

Depending on what Mutation is active for the game, you should pick and choose what mutants you’ll be running as a carry from this roster:

Kassadin: Tier 1 Protector
Kog’Maw: Tier 2 Sniper Twinshot
Cho’Gath: Tier 3 Colossus Bruiser
Malzahar: Tier 3 Arcanist
Dr. Mundo: Tier 4 Chemtech Bruiser
Kai’Sa: Tier 5 Challenger

Running Mutants requires you to adapt each time you play it. Success will be found when you concentrate on multiplicative benefits, such as having a Metamorphosis game and focusing on building super tank carries like Cho’Gath and Dr.Mundo. I’ve had a blast with protect-the-Kai’Sa hypercarry comps while rolling both Voracious Appetite and Voidborne. My advice with Mutants, is figure out what works in the moment and commit hard to it—but remember to have fun experimenting!

Mercenary

Oh does fortune favor the bold with this trait. Running 3 Mercenaries gives you a treasure chest on your bench that opens when you win against a player. At the start of each planning phase you’ll roll two dice to add more and more loot to your chest. The longer you go without opening the chest, the luckier the dice get. If you hit 5 Mercenaries, the dice will get even luckier! And hitting 7 Mercenaries will make winning combats roll a third golden die—it’s a roll die or die game at 7 Mercenaries.

Here’s your high-rolling guns, swords, and golden idols for hire:

Illaoi: Tier 1 Bruiser
Quinn: Tier 2 Challenger
Gangplank: Tier 3 Twinshot
Miss Fortune: Tier 3 Sniper
Tahm Kench: Tier 5 Bruiser Glutton

With this trait, getting an early Mercenary 3 into an Augment that counts towards the trait is a certain recipe for a reaction VOD worthy of fetching the camera. With cashout mechanics similar to Fortune in Fates, there are sure to be some first place or ARRgth moments. But don’t worry, to err is to be human, to arr is to be a pirate, and to make err-arrs is to be a Mercenary.

Scrap

Sure they look a bit scrappy, especially that laughing fuzzbucket Ziggs, but have you seen what they can do with all that trash? At the start of combat, a number of incomplete item components scaling with trait breakpoints (2,4,6) on Scrap champions turn into ephemeral full items for that combat. Scrap champions also gain a health shield at the start of combat that grows with each item equipped in your army.

Let’s see what junkers are ready to scrap:

Ezreal: Tier 1 Innovator
Ziggs: Tier 1 Arcanist Yordle
Blitzcrank: Tier 2 Bodyguard Protector
Trundle: Tier 2 Bruiser
Ekko: Tier 3 Assassin
Janna: Tier 4 Enchanter Scholar
Jinx: Tier 5 Sister Twinshot

Dedicating yourself to 6 Scrap successfully requires planning ahead. At 6 Scrap all item components on your Scrap champions become completed items at the start of each combat, and the Health shield is doubled! To take advantage of turning trash into treasure you’ll have to distribute your components wisely. And if you choose to play Double Up without me, be sure to try this trait out, as no other comp is better at carrying trash.

Yordle

I’ve been Yordeling from the mountaintops for this comp. At 3 Yordles, you’ll get a random free Yordle on your bench after each player combat. And at 6 Yordles, Yordle mana costs are significantly reduced. But there’s also something else happening with this trait… something so powerful that I fear typing it here.

If you want access to that power, try running all of these Yordles:

Poppy: Tier 1 Bodyguard
Ziggs: Tier 1 Arcanist Scrap
Tristana: Tier 2 Sniper
Lulu: Tier 2 Enchanter
Heimerdinger: Tier 3 Innovator Scholar
Vex: Tier 3 Arcanist

Since Yordle plays similar to an econ trait, such as Draconic from Reckoning, you want to hit 3 Yordles as early as possible. Your carries for the Yordle comp are Vex, who should be played and built on the tanky side with resistances that strengthen the shields she creates, and Heimerdinger, who wants AP items and a Blue Buff, but can also experiment with things like Statikk Shiv and Giantslayer. As with all champions, there is no best-in-slot build that’ll carry you from game to game, instead you should adapt to the lobby you are duking it out in—building Giant Slayer to get through Health stacking tanks and Statikk Shiv to crack heavy Magic Resist.

Innovator

Innovator will be the last big trait I’ll discuss in this overview. You could say we’ve been building up to this trait. Innovators build a mechanical companion to join them in battle. At 3 Innovators, you’ll get a Mechanical Scarab that projects a barrier on itself and an ally, taunting nearby enemies in the process. At 5 Innovators, you’ll get a Mechanical Bear that definitely wants to play too! The Bear’s spell causes it to surge with Hextech power, granting itself and allies bonus Attack Speed. The final form comes at 7 Innovators, and it’s something I won’t drag-on too much about, but real quickly, it’s a Mechanical Dragon whose roar fears enemies and encourages allies to deal extra damage.

Here’s a list of innovative inventors imagining Scarabs, Bears, and of course, Dragons:

Ezreal: Tier 1 Scrap
Singed: Tier 1 Chemtech
Zilean: Tier 2 Clockwork
Heimerdinger: Tier 3 Scholar Yordle
Seraphine: Tier 4 Socialite
Jayce: Tier 5 Enforcer Transformer

Every Innovator has a role. Utilize Singed as your frontline, and Zilean to slow down fights, buying time for your mechanical inventions to take over. And if you manage to get to 7 Innovators, kick back and enjoy the success that took gears to make. Even though there are quite a few low cost Innovators, I recommend going for a fast level 8 to take advantage of Seraphine and Jayce, while splashing in another Socialite to amp up your carry!

Colossus

Look, I know I said Innovator was the last big trait I’d talk about—that was no lie! This next trait is more than just big, it’s COLOSSAL. Colossus champions are bigger, more powerful, and take up two slots in your army. Having just one of them will make it so all colossus are immune to crowd control effects, but adding another big guy will also grant them significant damage reduction.

Here are your three Colossus units (that count as six):

Cho’Gath: Tier 3 Bruiser Mutant
Sion: Tier 4 Imperial Protector
Galio: Tier 5 Bodyguard Socialite

To effectively field Colossus champions you’ll need to level, level, level. Lucky for you there are a couple Augments that can help you get the much needed XP. And when you do power level, adding an additional Socialite, can give one of your carries more POWER.

Okay, that’s it for traits, next let’s discuss some of the 5-costs taking over!

Jinx: Sister Scrap Twinshot

Crashing in with her Super Mega Death Rocket, Jinx is causing chaos for friend and foe. Jinx’s ability has her riding a rocket into the sky, then come crashing down near the center of the most enemies dealing magic damage. Of course, she’s not done yet; Jinx will then leave a zone of destruction at the epicenter of her landing. That zone burns friends and foes remaining inside equal to a percentage of their max health. The zone will stay for the rest of combat.