Neutral Monsters Revolt, Fairies Roam: Forest-Themed Innovation in the New Season of Teamfight Tactics

Author / Hashichai

Edited by < the Reliable Editorial Desk >

In many games, losing to jungle monsters is a little embarrassing. But in the new "Nature's Power" set of Teamfight Tactics, the jungle monsters themselves become units on the board. Facing an opponent with a fully assembled 10-pc Rift Critters trait, you may well find yourself powerless.

On August 20, the "Nature's Power" set went live in Teamfight Tactics. Having been invited to try the test server ahead of launch and to talk with the set's design team, I felt this could be one of the most distinctive sets yet.

The visual theme of "Nature's Power" is an enchanted forest of strange flowers and beasts. The forest tale can be heartwarming or dark, and both sides are expressed through unit abilities, trait effects, and board interactions.

Starting with trait characteristics, nearly every trait in the new set ties into the forest theme.

For example, the "Eternal Woods" trait is like summoning a Stoneplate Tree and Blooming Flower to fight for you in the forest; LeBlanc, in her green dress, has a chance to copy units on the board. The "Flower Fairy" trait summons flowers and butterflies around your units, providing attack and spell power bonuses plus healing.

"Blackthorn" sounds much more like dark magic — its trait effect sacrifices units to buff other allies.

The "Yordle" trait activates a "Furry Big Friend" to fight alongside you at just 3 units. Yordles ride on the Furry Big Friend, with backline units gaining damage and frontline units gaining resistances.

The "Rift Critters" trait mentioned at the start is more like a "jungle monsters rise up" narrative set in the forest theme. Normally, jungle monsters have little presence on Summoner's Rift — apart from the Red and Blue buffs and the Elder Dragon being remembered for their buffs, the fate of ordinary camps like Murk Wolves and Rift Scuttlers is to be farmed for gold.

But what if the monsters could grow? Under the theme of "Nature's Power," the jungle monsters have sounded the horn of counterattack.

On the TFT board, the monsters keep their looks while their attack forms have been adapted — for example, the Blue Sentinel Golem attacks with a charge, while the Blue Sentinel fires a blue magical laser. With items equipped and buffs applied, even the little critters can pack some punch.

The strength of the Rift Critters trait is that with at least 3 critters you gain an "Alpha Sigil" that buffs one chosen critter — put it on the Blue Sentinel, for instance, and it gains a "blue buff"-like mana regeneration effect.

Put it on the Red Brambleback, and this ranged unit gains a "red buff" that boosts its attack power.

Fighting as a group is another hallmark of the critter trait. As a large trait, at 5 critters, every third shop refresh is all critter units.

Seeing the shop full of monsters makes completing the trait feel amazing, and the 10-critter trait grants +2 unit slots. The 5-cost Elder Dragon is both tanky and has an execute ability, which is why it takes up 2 slots — with other traits, players often have to give up some board units for it. But with the 10-critter trait, bringing in the Elder Dragon feels effortless. Anyone who sees that board would call it a "victory for the monsters."

As for individual units, Riot Games Lead Game Designer Matthew Wittrock says the most representative unit of this set is undoubtedly Ivern. As a 5-cost, Ivern generates special-tile groves on the board. If Ivern comes out early enough, you can watch him plant groves across the entire board, unlocking qualitative buffs — enlarging units on the board, boosting their stats, even copying them as they fight.

I think Grand Elementalist Lux is the most special unit of "Nature's Power." This set, her trait quirk is "traits count double," making her great for rounding out traits. Rolling for Lux isn't hard — the hard part is finding, at stage 9 or 10, a Lux that activates the traits in your hand, and deciding whether to invest in her.

Beyond the above, the two most interesting traits I experienced were "Nemeses" and "Spirit Blossom."

"Nemeses" incorporates the "Hunt" easter egg from Summoner's Rift, where Kha'Zix and Rengar duel each other. In TFT, Rengar is an early-game unit, gaining gold every 8 takedowns; Kha'Zix scales late, gradually unlocking four traits including "Executioner" and "Sorcerer" as his takedowns stack.

But the "Nemeses" trait restricts players to choosing either Kha'Zix or Rengar to trigger their respective "stack on takedown" rewards — unless you grab the "Historic Reconciliation" augment, which lets both Kha'Zix and Rengar trigger their stacking rewards at once, and grant each other mana and healing buffs. It's an augment you'll definitely want to try once you get it.

Matthew Wittrock shared that the design intent behind this trait was for the "stack on takedown" mechanic to let players feel the flow of an assassin growing stronger as takedowns stack. They also hoped to recreate what happens on Summoner's Rift: two players as nemeses, one playing Rengar, the other Kha'Zix — while making two units sharing the same "stack via takedowns" mechanic produce different experiences.

In actual play, I haven't yet encountered a match where one player ran Rengar and another Kha'Zix, but even without "Historic Reconciliation," investing in either unit is quite fun, and they can be paired with different emblems like "Flower Fairy" or "Blackthorn" for surprising results.

The core mechanic of the "Nature's Power" set is "Nature Sprites": every other shop refresh, purchasable buffs appear to the right of the shop. Inspired by the "random staves" mechanic of the "Magic n' Mayhem" set, there are over 200 different effects.

Think of them as an all-new version of the staves. Riot Games Senior Game Designer Tim Jiang believes players found the old "random staves" relatively bland because once you got a staff, it rarely changed your overall strategy.

The design intent behind "Nature Sprites" is to make the change easy to perceive by tying into your comp's traits, while in terms of power balancing both qualitative leaps and smooth transitions for your comp — ideally enough to influence the state of the game and your current strategy, while remaining approachable for new players.

Normally, which comp you play in a match depends on the units, items, and augments offered, especially in the early game. From my offline and test-server experience, "Nature Sprites" feel like augments that appear more frequently, yet combine game-changing power with smooth transitions.

"Nature Sprites" come in many types. Some grant XP, refreshes, or items as supplements — these basic ones are generally great value. Others are bounty-style: win the next round for an item forge; win several rounds in a row for XP, refreshes, items, and so on — you have to choose based on your comp's current strength and strategy.

There are also sacrifice-type sprites: lose some Little Legend health in exchange for a unit duplicator or some refreshes — very useful for comps that need to roll for their core units in the early-mid game.

There are also lots of fun utility types, like "Abandon Ship," which gives you a full reshuffle to re-pick your board, and "Armistice," which offers both players 1 gold each with no health loss.

Powerful "Nature Sprites" can also bring a degree of qualitative change, early or late. For example, "randomly get a 4-cost unit" is a wonderfully simple gamble — in one game I got the must-contest 4-cost Ahri, and I could then build my comp entirely around her.

In another game at stage 2-3, a 1-gold "Nature Sprite" randomly offered a 4-cost hero, and gave me Amumu — the 4-cost tank who was very strong during testing — which fit my Inferno + Eclipse comp perfectly.

The most thrilling "Nature Sprite" is the mid-to-late "Grand Metamorphosis," which permanently transforms a 4-cost unit into a 5-cost — the result can directly change your comp's strength.

Some "Nature Sprites" also serve traits: if you're running the Nemeses trait with Kha'Zix or Rengar, what you need most is to hit 3-star fast, and a specific sprite will directly give you a Kha'Zix or Rengar with 3 takedowns already stacked.

Overall, "Nature Sprites" are very rich in type — there are no-brainer resource types that help you transition through the early game, and riskier types with variable payoffs, easy to pick up yet capable of delightful leaps in power.

Most of the time, a single "Nature Sprite" felt weaker in impact than augments or the Carousel — but through higher frequency, richer variety, and some randomness, it introduces one change among your current units, items, traits, and other elements, giving you a reference point in comp building without overshadowing your own decisions.

Used well, it can raise your ceiling in a match and synergize with augments and your comp.

For example, "Barter" sells one of your units that round for 250% of its gold value — on its face, you sell a 5-cost and get 12.5 gold. But some uploaders discovered that combining it with "Wanderer's Ally" or "Worth the Wait" lets you quickly hit 3-star or even 4-star low-cost units; when "Barter" comes up, you sell them for the equivalent of 30–40 extra gold.

Then use that extra gold to push a 4-cost to 3-star, and when "Greater Metamorphosis" appears (permanently transforming a 4-cost into a 5-cost), you land a 3-star 5-cost. This staff combo punch on the board is so good that anyone watching would want to pay for an account just to try it.

The "Spirit Blossom" trait, the big trait tied to the "Nature Sprites" mechanic, unlocks another dimension of the ceiling.

At 3 Spirit Blossom units, "Nature Sprites" upgrade — the sprites offered are discounted or upgraded in power. At 5 Blossom, a "Nature Sprite" always appears in the shop. At 7 Blossom, you gain 4 gold for every "Nature Sprite" purchased — once unlocked, you can buy power-boosting "Nature Sprites" every round and even profit gold from buying them. Pair it with the augment "Sprite's Reward," which grants 2 gold each time you buy a "Nature Sprite," and you can literally play this trait like a roguelike.

Spirit Blossom's strength depends on the quality of your 3-cost and 4-cost units. Running multiple Blossoms alongside "Nature Sprites" makes it easier to hold your economy — but how many Blossoms to run, which "Nature Sprites" to take, whether to push Blossoms early or late, whether to shore up Blossom strength or chase other 4-costs and 5-costs — those all demand more thought.

As a live-service game, Teamfight Tactics needs innovation every set — that's what players expect. From last set's "Starborn" to this set's "Nature's Power," Teamfight Tactics has shown two models of innovation.

If "Starborn" removing the Carousel was the more overtly visible change, then "Nature's Power" looks at a glance full of "refreshes": the "Nature Sprites" mechanic draws inspiration from "Magic n' Mayhem"'s "random staves," and the theme of "Nature's Power" takes its cue from the "Rise of the Elements" set.

As Teamfight Tactics passes its five-year mark, its mechanics have gradually grown more complex. After experiencing this "Nature's Power" set, I felt that although some elements seem familiar at first glance, the fun of playing it feels completely different.

My direct impression is that "Nature Sprites" raise the ceiling of both experience and decision-making — especially after hitting level 9, when you're trying to secure the right 4-costs and 5-costs while also tracking sprite refreshes. Of course, there are also comps like "10 Rift Critters" or "Eclipse Angel" that are simply strong once completed.

If I had to distill the hallmarks of "Nature's Power," I'd immediately name the strong carries like Ivern, Master Yi, and Fiddlesticks, and just as quickly recall the fun comps like Flower Fairy Rengar, Blackthorn Ahri, and the fast-9 Dragon Draven. For many players, what distinguishes whether a set succeeds is simply whether it has enough identity.

"Nature's Power" may not be the greatest set ever, but from my experience, with art and mechanics so deeply fused, compared with past sets, this one delivers a truly distinctive innovation.