Teamfight Tactics' new season introduces an experimental 15-minute mode

Teamfight Tactics reckons with demonic penguins
(Image credit: Riot Games)

Teamfight Tactics is introducing an experimental new gamemode you can fit in a bathroom break, courtesy of next season's new Labs feature.

Riot teased the inclusion of a "simpler, faster" gamemode earlier this year, hinting at a version of TFT that could be played in under 20 minutes. With the reveal of TFT's Reckoning set, the developer has introduced Hyper Roll—a vastly streamlined new mode that arrives as part of a new "Labs" feature for testing new gametypes.

Starting at a meagre 10 health, Hyper Roll will knock you down 1hp (increasing to 2 later on) at the end of every loss. Gold interest has been removed, while sweeping changes have been made to drops, levelling and neutral minion rounds. In short, it sounds very appealing to folks like me, who bounced off autobattlers upon finding they weren't any shorter than a full round of the MOBAs they spun off from.

Reckoning is making some sizeable changes to regular ol' TFT, mind. A new season means new classes, with Reckoning's line-up including Forgotten, Hellion, Nightbringer, Cavalier, Ironclad, Revenant, and Dawnbringer. But the big new feature this time 'round are shadow items—corrupted versions of existing items that promise greater power, at a price.

Shadow Components used to build these items will start appearing in the carousel after round one. But they'll also pop-up in the new Armoury, a shop akin to the existing champion store that'll let you straight-up buy a limited selection of item parts.

Finally, this season's Reckoning Pass introduces new cosmetic booms, little legends and arenas, including two new stages flaunting a live band, beachside grill, and a "win-streak powered spatula". Reckoning begins on April 28th, though the new set will go live on the game's test servers later this week.

Natalie Clayton
Features Producer

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.

Read more
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s getting a new roguelite wave defense mode that sounds a whole lot like a souped-up take on Killing Floor
A mascot character from The Finals winks at the camera while brandishing a minigun.
The Finals new season is here, toting permanent team deathmatch and a giant minigun
overwatch 2 season 15 cosmetics
Overwatch 2 is getting radical changes that might finally help that '2' make sense, starting with a third-person mode and over 160 hero perks
League of Legends promo image - huge dude in a huge suit of armor holding a huge axe
Riot walks back unpopular League of Legends changes: Hextech Chests are coming back, and the Blue Essence cost for new champions will be cut in half
League of Legends key art detail
League of Legends players are up in arms after an update to get rid of 'unnecessary complexity' makes it a struggle for new players to earn anything
Mel from Arcane stares, contemplatively, in a new trailer for Season 1 of League of Legends 2025.
League of Legends' new season trailer is basically an epilogue to Arcane with 6 new Fortiche champion redesigns in it—so if it's not a preview of the upcoming Noxus show, I'll eat my hat
Latest in Strategy
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
Civilization 7 Great Britain - Modern Civ art (via YouTube)
As Civilization 7 struggles to keep up with Civ 5 player counts, a new patch is coming tomorrow with still more UI changes and gameplay tweaks
Battle Brothers
Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
King wielding his axe against would-be assassins in Norland.
Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
Age of Empires 2
Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'
Endless Legend 2 Kin faction reveal
It's turtle time: Endless Legend 2's first faction is the fortification-loving Kin of Sheredyn
Latest in News
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway