TFT Set 9.5 Guide: How to Play Piltover

How to Play Piltover

Welcome to another in the series of our How to Play TFT trait guides.

Set 9.5 has been out for a little bit now, so it’s about time to revamp the Piltover guide. The trait is still largely the same, but there are some notable changes from Set 9 to 9.5.

Let’s get right into the guide.

If you haven’t checked out all of the Set 9.5 information yet, check out our Set 9.5 Reveal Page!

How Piltover Works

Piltover is like a little mix between Underground and the new Void trait. On top of being an economy based trait, you also get an extra unit on board in the form of a T-Hex.

As you lose rounds, the T-Hex builds up charges. Once you win a round, those charges are converted into Power, making the T-Hex stronger. You will also gain loot based on the charges you built up.

In Set 8, getting Underground early wasn’t too difficult as you needed to get Kayle, Ezreal, and Vi who were 1, 2, and 2-cost respectively. Getting Piltover 3 early will be a bit tougher as you will need to find Jayce or Ekko, who are both 3-cost units.

Keep an eye out for an early Jayce or Ekko drop from minions or your shop as you may be able to get Piltover early.

Piltover T-Hex Details

When you are on a lose streak, the T-Hex will gain more and more charges. Furthermore, The T-Hex also gains an ability once it reaches 20 charges.

While I usually will post the Loot Table for Piltover, it’s constantly being changed. Just know that more charges = more loot.

Piltover Trait Bonus

Piltover: Gain the T-Hex. Every time you lose a player combat, the T-Hex gains Charges. Winning converts the Charges to Power for the T-Hex. You may also sell the T-Hex if it has any Power, resetting the T-Hex and converting its Power to loot.

• (3): Gain the T-Hex.
• (6): Each loss counts as 2 losses instead. Winning grants bonus loot.

Piltover Synergy

The Piltover roster has 5 units in total, with only a few other traits to branch into. Here’s a quick rundown of all the shared traits:

• Zaun
• Rogue
• Yordle
• Technogenius (Heimerdinger exclusive)
• Gunner
• Sorcerer
• Bruiser

While none of the units share any traits other than Piltover, the most notable traits are Zaun and Gunner. With Set 9.5, Zeri is no longer in the game. This means that the new default 4-cost carry for Piltover comps is Aphelios, who is Targon and Gunner. While you won’t reach 4 Zaun easily anymore, you can still make a core with Gunner 2 or 4.

Piltover Champions

Let’s briefly go over each Champion in the Piltover trait and what you can do with them.

Note: These abilities are based off the PBE, so while the values may have changed, the overall champion design should remain the same.

Orianna – Sorcerer + Piltover

[Link to Champion Page]

Orianna is the first Piltover unit, and while she will be important for getting the trait early, she likely won’t stay for long. Sorcerer comps don’t seem to synergize very well with Piltover, as the other traits don’t complement Sorcerer comps.

As such, you’ll see Orianna more as a way to get the T-Hex early, and look to replace her once you find both Ekko and Jayce. You could also save her to try and reach 6 Piltover, but that relies on an Emblem/Augment and finding Heimerdinger.

Vi – Bruiser + Piltover

[Link to Champion Page]

Vi is the only 2-cost Piltover, and she brings the Bruiser trait. Her ability reduces Armor, which is quite useful for AD comps, so try to position her in a way that she hits multiple enemies.

Her Bruiser trait is useful for the early and mid game, but if you only plan on using Piltover 3, you will likely replace her in the late game once you find Heimerdinger. Even still, you can utilize her Bruiser trait well for a good portion of the game.

Ekko – Zaun + Rogue + Piltover

[Link to Champion Page]

Ekko is the first 3-cost Piltover, and he provides 3 traits. Zaun is nice to pair with Jinx in the early to mid game, with potential to go to 4 Zaun with Warwick/Silco (although not recommended).

His ability makes him a pseudo tank in the frontline, so don’t be afraid to place him up close.

Jayce – Gunner + Piltover

[Link to Champion Page]

Jayce is the other 3-cost Piltover, and he provides utility in the form of buffing Attack Speed. Be sure to place him next to Aphelios to give him the bonus Attack Speed from his ability.

Jayce’s Gunner trait also incentivizes you to build around Aphelios, so while you could technically look toward things like Rogue or Yordle for Piltover comps, Aphelios is an easier and more consistent carry choice.

Heimerdinger – Yordle + Technogenius + Piltover

[Link to Champion Page]

Lastly, we have Heimerdinger. Heimerdinger is a great late game unit on just about any team, as his Technogenius trait allows you to gain a lot of board power without taking up too many team slots. The only caveat is that you need a lot of gold to power up Heimerdinger’s turret.

Furthermore, his ability is also good, as it provides a large AoE CC ability.

Best Piltover Augments

Here is a quick list of some of the standout Augments for the Piltover trait.

Piltover Heart / Soul

Getting Piltover Heart or Soul in the early game will greatly increase your chances of success with Piltover. The earlier you can get Piltover 3 active, the more rounds you have with the T-Hex.

While we don’t know the exact loot table for the T-Hex, it’s likely that the loot “scaling” is almost exponential. Economy traits like this are usually high risk, high reward, but you can also play it safe if you happen to get good upgrades and win streak.

Pandora’s Items (Legend)

It’s quite common to see Pandora’s Items with Piltover. You don’t gain any combat stats early, which is what you want to lose streak. You also get to make your perfect items on your carry like Aphelios. In this first patch of Set 9, we saw tons of players also build 2-3 Zeke’s Herald on Jayce, but this was nerfed. The strategy can still work, but it won’t be as strong in higher ranks.

Tiny Titans (Legend)

Your Tactician heals 30.0 Health, grows larger, and has 130.0 maximum Health.

If you plan on spamming Piltover, Tiny Titans might be a good choice. Having the extra Health means you can afford to lose an extra round or two, which can be the difference between 8th and 1st. However, Piltover is heavily reliant on finding the units early, so forcing this comp might not be the best idea.

Shimmering Inventors

Your Piltover units gain 5% Attack Speed for every 10 gold you have (Max: 50%), and have a 40% chance to drop 1 gold at round start. Gain 3 Piltover units.

This Augment is the Piltover specific Gold Augment. To be quite frank, I’m not super impressed by it. Assuming you have 3 Piltover units, you have an expected gold of 1.2 per round. The bonus Attack Speed can be nice, but Aphelios isn’t a Piltover unit. Furthermore, as you lose streak, you usually don’t want your board getting stronger in order to maintain the streak.

However, if you find this Augment early, like at 2-1 (if it’s possible), picking this Augment greatly increases your odds of getting 3 unique Piltover units early. All things considered, gaining 3 Piltover units might be the most important part of the Augment.

Piltover Team Comp

With everything in mind, let’s go over a sample team comp for the Piltover trait. Keep in mind that these team comps aren’t meant to reflect the meta. These are simply different paths you can go down when approaching the Piltover trait.

As different patches come and go, different variations will be better than others, or the trait as a whole might be underpowered.

Piltover Aphelios Team Comp

This team comp is a “simple” 4-cost carry team comp. However, the important thing to keep in mind is how you play the early game. The sooner you find Piltover 3 the better. Once you find them, you can go on a losing streak to gain value from the T-Hex.

When you’re ready to transition, you can level up and stabilize your board.

Sejuani is also there as she pairs nicely with Vi. This comp uses the 6 Gunner trait with an Emblem on Ekko. If you can’t make an Emblem, you can always look to cap your board at 4 Gunner with 5-costs like Heimerdinger and Sion instead.

Conclusion

Overall, the new Piltover trait is a fairly fresh take on the economy trait. While getting 3 Piltover units early will be harder than Underground, hopefully the payoff will be a bit higher.

We hope you enjoyed this guide, and hopefully it helps you climb some ranks. Good luck and have fun!

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out our meta team comps page, or head to our Team Builder to try and come up with your own comps.