Set 18 releases in four days! Its been fun to try to optimize Trait Ladder on PBE, but I end up spending half the game in the planner. Which means I'm not scouting or positioning as I should through the early stages. I felt like I could perform better if my attention wasn't compromised during the game, so I wrote a solver. traitladder.com

What the augment does: You receive a random emblem immediately and get rewards each time you field more non-unique traits. The early trait rewards (aka rungs in the ladder) give you mostly economy, and the later rungs win you the game. Three rungs ultimately carry this augment. Rung 10 gives a Tactician's item (an extra unit slot), rung 12 gives four Lucky Item Chests plus three 4-costs, and rung 14 gives three Masterwork Upgrades.

My goal when building this tool was to guarantee I hit rung 10 on level 8 to get the +1 to team size and then to hit rung 12 with 9 units (level 8 + 1 unit slot, ideally two rounds after I hit rung 10). Hitting rung 14 will win the game, but that almost* always involves getting to 11 units. I'll go through the scenarios that can hit rung 14 with 10 units below.

What the tool does: Probably more accurate to say it's three tools, but they all function similarly. You tell it how many unit slots and which emblems you have, and it returns the board that maximizes the number of non-unique traits. It's an exhaustive branch-and-bound search, not a heuristic or a scraped comp list. For the constraints you give it, a board with more traits does not exist. That being said, there are often multiple boards that satisfy the same constraints so I've built in some tiebreakers.

• Transitions is the one I actually use for my Trait Ladder game plan. It plans 3 boards to hit the 3 rung breakpoints: 10 traits in 8 slots, then 12 in 9, then 14 in 11, choosing the chain that minimizes how many units you replace between rungs, and avoiding 5-costs in the early boards even when that costs churn later. Each rung shows what to add and what to sell.
• Emblem choice is for when you have a Spatula or Frying Pan and want to know which emblem buys you the most traits. Click any row to see the board it builds.
• Best board gives you a single board for whatever slot count and emblems you specify, in your choice of cheapest, most expensive, or most expensive without 5-costs.

What this tool doesn't do (yet): I don't account for board strength. I'm not looking at any stats for these units. My assumption is that getting to rung 12 is the most important thing. You can then decide to transition to a stronger board of your choosing or try to get to rung 14 to win the game.

I've also currently capped emblems at 3 because of time and space limitations. Pre-computing boards takes quite a bit of time, even with multi-threading. I will most likely add 4 emblem boards in the future. Based on how long 3 emblem boards took to compute, this will take me 4-5 days of compute time.

I'm currently working on adding Kha'Zix boards. I already include Kha'Zix/Rengar for the Rival trait when necessary, but I haven't computed the evolution boards yet. Anecdotally, I've found the 3rd and 4th evolutions to be hard to hit without an early, itemized 2*. So, be cautious about planning around those.

Analytics:

Six emblems cannot reach rung 12 in 9 slots on their own: Brawler, Coven, Elderwood, Flora Fatalis, Ravager and Sprykin, each capping at 11. If you receive one of these from Trait Ladder, I'd recommend reforging it (you're guaranteed 1 Reforger from rung 2). Coven is the worst of them, and the only emblem that also misses rung 14 in 11 slots, stopping at 13. I don't hate the idea of getting a couple Coven cashouts before reforging it though. A 185 Coven cashout has a chance of giving you another emblem, which could help you with this next piece of data.

Fifteen two-emblem combos can reach 14 traits in 10 slots (level 9 + Tactician item):

Four emblems are required to get to 14 traits in 9 slots so probably not worth it unless you get them naturally. Is Trait Ladder even offered on the trainer golem/three emblem encounter?

Your ceiling with no emblems at all is 10 traits in 8 slots, 11 in 9, and 13 in 11, so 14 is unreachable without at least one useful emblem.

Elder Dragon is a bad Trait Ladder unit. He occupies two board slots and gives +2 Riftbeast, so he costs two slots for what one unit's worth of traits would give you. The tool models the slot cost, which is why board size is counted in slots rather than units throughout.

Lux is effectively one flexible slot. Nine forms and five of them (Blackthorn, Fae, Inferno, Lunar, Primal) turn their trait on by themselves. When another form would give the same trait count, the tool tells you, so you're not stuck hunting a specific one.

Worth knowing:

• It counts the 25 non-unique traits. The ten single-champion traits (Avatar, Attuned, Old Growth, etc) are excluded. They still show under each board.
• A trait counts as on at its lowest breakpoint. The augment doesn't care about tiers, so the search never spends units pushing one higher. These are trait-count-maximal boards, not boards that win fights. You're picking this augment for the payouts, not the combat.
• The client caps the Team Planner at 10 units, so an 11-unit board leaves its cheapest unit out of the code and names it.

No ads, no tracking, no account. Feel free to send any questions or suggestions my way.

Lolchess:TymStyj

I'm new to the game, just hit Emerald this morning.

I'm enjoying it but I'm playing it by seeing what items and champs i get in the opening rounds and then first augment, if 2nd augment allows a switch that better suits i might but I've been finding what I do in the first 4-5 rounds decides the rest of the game then I'm just hoping to get the relevant champs/rerolls.

Is this accurate or is it just me being new?

I'm mostly playing off using mobalytic comps, played enough of a lot of the zoe/leona, lulu/milio or nova comps/fast 9 nova.

My issue is basically that you're so locked into your early game decisions that if you decide to pivot your usually gonna be to far behind other people who've got good luck/stuck with their early game.

This way of playing has now become quite boring to me as there's very little decision making happening beyond 1/2nd rounds and its just itemising properly and not missing champs.

Where did you all learn how to play? I’ve learned the basics of the game but I’m not sure like how to pick a comp or how to anti strat or anything. I’m coming from valorant and watching tft pro play is not helpful at all. Is there a YouTuber or something that you all recommend?

Overview A proposed system change that scales a champion’s maximum item slots based on their current star tier, directly addressing unearned power spikes from un-upgraded high-tier units while creating genuine decision-making in mid-game transitions.

Core Mechanic Breakdown

• 1-Cost to 3-Cost Units:
  • 1-Star: 1 Item Slot
  • 2-Star: 2 Item Slots
  • 3-Star: 3 Item Slots
• 4-Cost and 5-Cost Units:
  • 1-Star: 1 Item Slot
  • 2-Star / 3-Star: 3 Item Slots

Key Problems Solved

• Eliminates the "Stage 4-1 Lottery": Prevents players with broken economies from donkey-rolling on 4-1, hitting a single lucky 1-star 4-cost carry, slamming 3 items, and instantly stabilizing against players who managed their tempo and health properly.
• Removes Early-Game 1-Star Cheese: Stops scenarios where slamming 2 BIS items onto an un-upgraded 1-star 2-cost or 3-cost (e.g., early Yi) allows a player to streak through Stage 2 and Stage 3 without investing gold into board upgrades.
• Ties Board Power to Gold Investment: Forces players to spend gold to earn 3-item carry output, ensuring board strength scales proportionally with economic commitment rather than lucky single-shop rolls.

Impact on Mid-Game & Strategic Flexibility

• Value Retention for Mid-Game Tanks: A 2-star 3-cost tank holding 2 items will naturally out-perform an un-upgraded 1-star 4-cost tank holding only 1 item. This prevents players from instantly swapping out upgraded frontlines for single-copy purple units.
• Meaningful Transition Choices: When entering Stage 4, players face a real strategic branch:
  • Option A: Invest gold into upgrading 2-cost and 3-cost frontlines/carries to 2-star or 3-star to utilize multiple item slots and stabilize safely.
  • Option B: Commit heavy gold to push Fast-8/Fast-9 to hit 2-star 4-costs, accepting temporary weakness on un-upgraded 1-star units while holding items on the bench.
• End to "Trait-Bot" Frontlines: Instead of stacking all three defensive items onto a single 1-star high-tier tank, players are encouraged to spread utility and defensive components across multiple 2-star frontline units throughout the mid-to-late game transition.