Everything You Need To Know About the New TFT Set 9 Mechanics: Portals and Legends

With its new set mechanic, the portals, players will move around Runeterra while playing TFT Set 9.

After eight sets where they explored the world, TFT is finally heading home to the League of Legends universe with Set 9, Runeterra Reforged. Players will not only feel the varying effects different Runeterra regions have on the game with the new set mechanic, but they will also experience the different visuals of the world around them via newly added arena skins.

ionia arena — *Ionian Arena, Image via Riot Games*

Discover Runeterra with the new addition of portals

In TFT Set 9, portals will play a crucial role in shaping the gameplay experience. At the start of each game, players are presented with three portals, representing different regions in the world of Runeterra. These portals can significantly impact how the game unfolds.

Which portal is chosen will be determined by a player vote. Each player will be offered three regions from a pool of 11. Once the voting concludes, the game selects a portal at random from the regions that received votes. This adds an element of unpredictability, as even with a majority of votes for a specific portal, there is no guarantee it will be chosen.

Each portal represents a distinct region in Runeterra, and players can learn more about the chosen portal by inspecting it for a detailed description. These regions likely offer unique gameplay mechanics, abilities or bonuses that will significantly shape players' strategies and tactics throughout the game. There are a total of 30 portals in Set 9.

tft set 9 portals — *Image via Riot Games*

Bandle City

Scuttle Puddle: Every PvE round is replaced by scuttle crabs that give extra loot
Yuumi’s Zoom Zone: Player combat rounds last 20 seconds instead of 30 before overtime starts
Bandle Cafeteria: Gain a Spatula on 2-1. At shopping start, units equipped with a Spatula, emblem, or Tactician’s Crown feed a Poro Snax to their closest ally, granting them seven permanent health. Units will feed one Snax per item they have equipped.
Yordle Pordles: On the first and fifth round of each Stage, get a free high-tier unit. The unit’s tier increases with game time.

Demacia

House Lightshield: Gain a powerful Crown of Demacia on 2-1. If the wearer dies, you instantly lose the fight.
Petricite Forest: All units are 15 percent larger and have 150 bonus health.

Freljord

Hearth-Home: On 4-5, gain a consumable Masterwork Upgrade that lets you upgrade one equipped item into its radiant version.
Ornn’s Forge: Randomly on either 2-5 or 3-5, gain an Ornn Anvil.

Ionia

The Dreaming Pool: At the start of each stage, gain a champ that slots into your team.
God-Willow’s Grove: A spot on your bench becomes the grove. The unit in it contributes their traits as though they were in your army.
Placidium Library: Gain a consumable on 3-5 that when you place it on a unit opens an Armory with an Emblem of each of their traits.

Noxus

Noxkraya: Each time you take an Augment, a random arena Hex appears. Units on an arena Hex gain an item that they can use.
Immortal Bastion: On 2-1, gain a placeable battle flag that grants 20 percent attack speed and a 10 percent maximum health shield to units that start combat adjacent to it.

Piltover

Jayce’s Workshop: All Augments offered during this game will be Prismatic.
The University: The first Augment round will be a Prismatic Augment.
Stilwater Hold: No Augments will be offered during this game.

Shadow Isles

Thresh’s Sanctum: When any champion perishes, collect their soul. Every 40 souls you collect, gain loot.
Yorick’s Graveyard: Every time a player perishes, all players open an Armory containing four of the eliminated players’ completed items.

Shurima

Warlord’s Palace: The 4-7 NPC round is replaced by an Armory of treasure that can be rerolled infinitely for two gold per reroll.
Shifting Sands: If you don’t have an Item Remover on your bench at the start of each round, get one.
Shurima Bazaar: Component carousels have Two Components on them instead of one.

Targon

The Summit: Starting at Stage Two, gain a Lesser Champion Duplicator at the start of each stage. On Stage Five and beyond, gain a Champion Duplicator instead.
Tagon Prime: When you reach 40 HP, gain a blessing from the Targonian Gods.
Marus Omegnum: On 2-5 and 4-5, gain a Tactician’s Crown.

Void

The Lavender Sea: Starting on 2-1, after every carousel and PvE round, a void symbiote infects a new board Hex. The Hex grants 20 percent damage reduction if it’s in the first two rows or 20 percent increased damage if it’s in the back two rows.
The Rupture: Travel to a random location that is not currently shown.

Zaun

The Sump: There is no interest during this game. Instead, starting on 2-1, gain three gold every round.
Glasc Industries: Every time you build a completed item, gain three gold.
Ecliptic Vaults: Every time you select an augment, gain four gold per Augment you have.

Legends, augment rerolls and visual updates

Portals aren’t the only freshness coming up with this set either. And unlike portals, these next set of changes are here to stay as they might not be exclusive to this set. Starting out with the quality of life changes to the UI such as an improved champion inspect tool, inspect champion option during carousels and the ability to interact with champions on trait and class pages. Augments are also getting changed since the Hero Augment mechanic is gone. Now, players can now individually reroll each augment slot once on every stage.

Then there are the Legends, not to be confused with the cute Little Legends that represent you in-game. Legends are selectable characters that players can choose before entering a game. Each Legend represents a specific play style or preference, and selecting a Legend will influence the augments players will encounter throughout the game.

At the start of a TFT game, players have the opportunity to pick one Legend from a pool of 15 available options. Each Legend comes with its own set of preferences and specialized augments. The Legend chosen by a player will impact the augments they see during the game by ensuring that at least one of the augment choices players encounter at specific stages of the game will include a Legend Augment. Here are all 15 Legends and examples of which augments they offer up.