Positioning in TFT: the basics

The numbers come from high elo:

Set 18 Patch 18.5 77,232 high-elo games Games from 6 Oct to 20 Oct

Each player places their units on their half of the board, 4 rows of 7 hexes. Good positioning doesn’t change how strong your units are, but it decides who takes the hits first and whether your carry gets to deal its damage.

The basic rules

• Tanks in front. Melee units with lots of health go in the front row: they’re the ones that soak up damage.
• Ranged damage in the back. Longer-range units go in the back rows, where they take longer to be reached.
• Keep the carry safe. A back corner is usually the safest spot for the unit that deals the damage.

Adapt your positioning to the opponent

Before each fight you can see who you’re up against. If the opponent has units that jump to the backline or deal area damage, spreading out your units or moving your carry to the other corner can save the round. That’s what scouting is for.

What TFT Coach can (and can’t) tell you

The Riot API doesn’t provide unit positions in matches, so we can’t know which positioning wins more. That’s why the layouts on comp pages are a guideline, calculated by role from each unit’s data:

• 1-hex range: front row (second row if it’s the carry).
• Medium range: middle rows.
• Long range: back rows, starting with the corners.
• The carry is placed first, then the units with the most health.

How TFT Coach helps

In the in-game coach, when you pick a target comp you’ll see a suggested layout for your units, with the ones you’re missing in gray, and a button to place them that way on your board.