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How to econ in TFT - The best ways to manage your economy in Teamfight Tactics

How to econ in TFT - The best ways to manage your economy in Teamfight Tactics

When you're playing Teamfight Tactics, you often see players with (almost) unreal amounts of money very early into the game, and you can't help but wonder how, just... how?! Well, if you haven't figured out the elusive way of econing in TFT, then I'm here to give you all the information that you need in order to get a better grasp of it.

First things first though - what does it mean to econ in Teamfight Tactics?

If you're not all too familiar with the term 'econ', it's short for the economy. Every player gets bonus Gold each round, according to 3 things:

  • Whether the round has been won or not (+1 Gold)
  • Win/lose streak bonus (up to +5 Gold)
  • Interest Gold bonus (up to +5 Gold)

To econ means to prioritize saving Gold instead of spending it on rerolling and upgrading units. This can be achieved by saving up as much Gold as you can (either by win or lose streaking) and trying to earn +5 Gold from the overall Gold bonus.

The golden rules of TFT - understanding the basics

Now that you know what it means to econ, let me briefly explain what Teamfight Tactics is all about, and how you can achieve that.

There are 2 main resources players have in TFT. These 2 resources are extremely important, and they can cost you the game if you sacrifice either one of them: Gold or Life. In this guide, you'll learn:

#1. You can't win all the games, so focus on winning the ones that you can (analyze the opponents' boards).

#2. Get an idea of which players are stronger and which ones are weaker than you, so you'll know where you stand in the game.

#3. Focus on upgrading whatever you can when you get the chance (might be a Chosen, might be a 3* unit).

#4. Life is always more important than Gold.

#5. You should roll some Gold when you are close to 2-star units. Don't spend too much Gold on rerolling.

#6. Don't die with 50 Gold for the sake of econing!

Prioritizing your HP, or how to stay healthy in TFT

Since Life is such an important resource (arguably the most important one), you want to save up as much as possible. In the past, people were able to lose streak and still emerge victorious with 20 HP. However, since Set 4, you can't safely rely on that anymore because you'll end up losing way too much HP.

The idea is to spend just enough Gold to get by and level up, so you will not lose too much in the end. Like I mentioned in point #6 above, you don't want to die with a bonus of 50 Gold, because really - what's the point of econ if you don't use it?

How econ works in TFT?

At the very start of the game, you'll get less Gold which then slowly increases, as follows:

  • Stage 1-2: 2 Gold
  • Stage 1-3: 2 Gold
  • Stage 1-4: 3 Gold
  • Stage 2-1: 4 Gold
  • From Stage 2-2 onwards: 5 Gold

The way you manage your early game can be very important since you can end up with 30 Gold (depending on what drops you get) at the end of these stages.

Based on how the early game stages progress, you will then try to choose how you want to econ:

Aggressive econ

If you got a strong early game (that means you already made a couple of units 2-stars and have a Chosen) you could try to aggressively level up and upgrade units, giving you a solid start. That means you will try to win streak early on, and build yourself an advantage.

However, to keep this going into the late game, you must spend consistently on leveling up so you will stay ahead of the other players.

Great for:

  • Setting up for the late game
  • Saving HP and Gold (from win streaks) early on
  • Punishing weak players

Weaknesses:

  • If you're unlucky, then you might be digging your own 8th place grave.
  • If another player is stronger than you and ruins your win streak, you might have a hard time recovering
  • It might be difficult to transition into the late game unless you have some hyper carries
  • You might not get the items you want or need from the Carousel

TFT econ guide

Greedy econ

The Greedy econ focuses only on getting to 50 Gold ASAP and then trying to maintain that. It could be difficult or easy to do so, depending on how you start. If you're lucky and get a Fortune Chosen (or even 3 Fortunes early on) this could be considerably easier.

Which packs should you buy in Teamfight Tactics?

That's pretty much it - all you want is to get 50 Gold as fast as possible, then start leveling up your units and yourself. Oh, and keep that 50 Gold solid!

Great for:

  • You're rich (you have Gold)
  • It's easy to do by lose-streaking
  • If you use Fortune it could give you some amazing stuff once you get your first win (after a long lose-streak)
  • You can get the items you want from the Carousel
  • You are not committing to anything, so it should be fairly easy to see what you should and shouldn't build (based on what your opponents pick)

Weaknesses:

  • You might end up losing TOO MUCH health.
  • You could die with 50 Gold if you lose streak for too long (please don't!)
  • It might be difficult to recover from.
  • You might not be able to reroll fast enough and die.

Balanced economy

A balanced economy is all about finding a happy medium between HP and Gold, all while setting yourself up for success in the late game. You want to save Gold, but not fall too far behind in terms of level, and you want to level, but not as much as you would with aggressive econ.

This is ideal for most team compositions, so it's a pretty flexible way to econ in TFT. You're basically keeping all your options available whilst trying to find the best strategy overall.

Good for:

  • It's balanced, so you can be either aggressive or greedy with your Gold.
  • Depending on how the game's going, you can choose to win streak or lose streak.
  • It's a timeless econ tactic that works no matter the patch, set, year, decade.

Weaknesses:

  • If you make the wrong decision, you might set yourself up for failure.
  • You could end up stuck in a hard place, where you don't know what to do.
  • It could be difficult to adapt and learn, so you should practice in a few Normal games to know exactly when it is best to do X task. (leveling up, rerolling)

What's the take?

In Teamfight Tactics, you want to be very careful with your Gold and HP because it's pretty much the only way to stay in the game. Never spend all your Gold on rolling for units, and instead spend the Gold on leveling up. That will pay off a lot more in the end and will lead to more wins.

Cristina Mesesan
Cristina Mesesan
Cristina is a lifelong gamer who also loves digital art, she's worked as an animator and tried some game level designing in Unity. Her biggest passion is pixel games (Stardew, To the Moon), and she adores writing and sharing her knowledge about games.