League of Legends news » TFT Interface Update

When you start up a game of Teamfight Tactics in patch 9.24 you may notice that the interface on your screen looks a bit different. Today we're going to talk about what's changing and why.

What's changing?

We're adding a new user interface element: The Level Bar

• Displays your current level and XP progress.
• Displays the drop rates for different tiers based on your level.

To better accommodate for these additions, we've moved the lock button to the right corner of the shop and are swapping the positions of the Buy XP and Refresh buttons.

Uh, I'm definitely going to mix up the XP and Refresh buttons.

Yup. This isn’t a change that we make lightly. We know how this especially impacts those of you that have been playing for a while.

From what we’ve observed and experienced in our internal playtests, the first game with this new change in effect is quite painful, however players are able to adjust to the change within 3-5 games.

Why and why now?

There’s never a good time to make a change like this, but the longer you wait the worse it gets as more players get used to a previous set of controls. With TFT, we’re always learning new lessons about the experience as we go, this is one of the harsher ones.

This change is about investing in TFT and its future. The relationship between Buy XP, Level, and how it affects what appears in your shop is not an obvious, understandable one. It’s something that you currently have to learn from a friend or a guide rather than something that is naturally communicated as a core part of the game.

For those of us who have already sunk several 8th place finishes into the game trying to hard force Ocean Mages the buttons and their functions are an afterthought. But for someone just discovering the game it’s an important concept that they’re completely unaware of. Keeping all these elements next to one another (Buy XP, Level, Tier Drop Rate) helps reinforce their connection and makes them more prominent. Making this more obvious and understandable is something we think is important and is the biggest reason why we’re making this change.

These additions are the first set of changes we’re introducing targeted towards making the game more understandable. Moving forward, there shouldn’t be any more button flips, but this is space we will be continuing to invest in and improve.