TFT Consumables: When to Use a Reforger, Remover or Duplicator

TL;DR: A Remover fixes the holder, so spend it when the move changes your next fight. If Riot’s 14.23 line still holds, the next one is at most a stage away. A Reforger gambles on the recipe, so use it only when the item is wrong for any line you’d play, and stack your wrong items on one unit first, because one Reforger rerolls them all. A Duplicator saves the most on your last copy: on a 3-cost at level 7, the first copy costs about 19 gold to find and a copy with 6 left costs about 47. So if you’re rolling anyway, roll first and duplicate last.

Worked examples are hypotheticals: sums on Riot’s numbers, not records of real games. Gold figures are averages on the shop odds Riot last printed. No Riot page printing Reforger odds was found. So where the sums need odds, each result is treated as equally likely, and they say so. What each consumable does is on senseos.gg’s consumables page. This page is the timing.

Which one fixes your problem?

What’s wrong	What you want	What it does, by the game’s text	What it costs you
Right item, wrong unit	Magnetic Remover	Every item comes off the champion	One Remover
Wrong item	Reforger	Every item comes off and turns into a random one of similar kind	One Reforger and a gamble
Not enough copies	Champion Duplicator	One 1-star copy, placed on your bench	One Duplicator, so spend it where it saves most
Wrong item, and you want the parts	In Set 18, the Salvager Wisp, if your shop offers one	Benched units lose their items, which break apart	The Wisp’s price, and that round’s one Wisp

When should you use a Remover?

When moving the items changes your next fight. By the game’s text it won’t work on a unit in combat, and 13.24 (December 2023) has it bounce off when your item bench lacks the room. Riot’s 14.23 notes (November 2024) give the bench 20 places, let Removers and Reforgers stack, and drop a Remover from every PvE round whether you hold one or not. No later line changing that was found, so check your bag.

If that line holds, your supply has a rhythm. By the game’s round list, each stage from 2 on ends in a PvE round, so you’d collect one more every stage:

By the end of	Removers collected from Stage 2 on	Rounds to the next one, at worst
2-7	1	7
3-7	2	7
4-7	3	7

So a held Remover loses value fast, and an unspent one does nothing once you’re out. The late game guide makes the same point for your last rounds. Run this list:

Your spot	The call
A better holder is on your board now	Use it
Items sit on a stand-in you’ll replace next round	Wait for the replacement, then use it
You’re about to sell the unit	Save it. In 14.6 (March 2024), Riot treats selling as another way items come off a unit
You only want to move one item	Use it, and put the other two back. They all come off together
A pivot may be coming	Keep one, since the pivoting guide moves items with it, but spend any extras
You hold a Golden Item Remover	Use it freely. It has no limit, and 14.13 (June 2024) turns your other Removers into Reforgers

That last row matters in Set 18 too. Riot’s 18.4 notes fix Min-Max so it hands out the Golden version. If both 2024 lines still hold, taking it means your later PvE Removers arrive as Reforgers, so read your bag and plan for those.

The Remover is why a slam on the wrong holder is cheap. It doesn’t change a recipe, though. That’s the next one.

When should you use a Reforger?

When the item is wrong for any line you’d play, and you can name several results you’d accept. Riot’s 11.12 notes (June 2021) keep each item in its own tier, so a completed item stays completed. No Riot page printing the odds was found, so here’s a hypothetical. Set 18’s item list in the game data files holds 36 core completed items. Say each of the other 35 is equally likely, and each item on the unit rolls on its own:

Results you’d accept	One item rerolled	At least one good result from 3 items	Good results expected from 3
1	3%	8%	0.09
3	9%	24%	0.26
5	14%	37%	0.43
10	29%	64%	0.86

Three things follow:

• Hunting one item doesn’t work. About 3% a roll isn’t a plan.
• Count what you’d accept before you press it. Most carries can use more than their best-in-slot, as the itemization guide shows. If your list has 10 items on it, one Reforger on 3 items is a fair bet.
• Stack your wrong items first. One Reforger on a unit holding 3 wrong items is three rolls for the price of one. But it rerolls good items too, so take those off first. A Remover plus a Reforger is often worth the two.

Don’t reforge an item that works. Compare what you have with the table. An item that does the job is a sure thing, and the table shows how often a reroll lands somewhere better.

Components are a poor use. A Reforger on a component is 1 result from 7 others, if equal, or 14% for an exact partner. A new random component is 1 in 8 at the same assumption, and the slamming guide has that table. So it’s little better than one more drop, and Riot’s 14.16 notes (August 2024) called rerolling a component the best case of one short-lived Reforger, without much excitement.

Some uses aren’t a gamble. Riot’s 14.18 notes (September 2024) turn a Spatula into a Frying Pan and back, and one Tactician’s item into another. If you want the other half of the emblem list, that’s a sure swap. For an emblem you can’t use, the odds are on the emblem guide.

When in the game? Once your line is settled and the item is still wrong. Earlier, you might still pivot into a carry that wants it. Much later, you have fewer rounds for the new item to matter. Riot’s 14.23 notes also put a Reforger in Prismatic orbs holding a Spatula or Pan, so check your bag before you plan around having none.

When should you use a Duplicator?

On the copy that would cost most to find. The game’s text gives three sizes: a full Champion Duplicator for any champion, a Lesser for a 3-cost or cheaper, and a Tiny for a 1-cost. Each one places a 1-star copy on the bench.

Here’s what that copy would cost you by rolling, using the rolling guide’s sum, where 20 gold shows about 45 champions in Set 18. A roll is 2 gold: “Reroll 2”, seen on the Reroll and Buy XP buttons in a patch 18.5 game on 29 October 2026, with Riot’s 17.2 notes in support. Riot’s last printed odds for these levels are 40% for a 3-cost at 7 (17.1), then 30% for a 4-cost at 8 and 15% for a 5-cost at 9 (16.1). Pools are 18, 10 and 9 copies, by Riot’s 14.15 notes, and the game data files list 14, 14 and 10 champions at those costs. The sum treats every copy left at that cost as equally likely, with the other units’ copies all in the pool. In gold, rolls plus the unit’s price:

Copies of your unit left in the pool	3-cost at level 7	4-cost at level 8	5-cost at level 9
18	19
10	30	25
8	37	30
6	47	38	48
5	56	44	56
3	91	70	88
2	134	102	128
1	264	198	248

So a Duplicator tends to get better the longer you hold it. As copies leave the pool, every remaining one costs more. Here’s a 3-star of a 3-cost, which takes 9 copies:

When you use it	Copies left	Gold it saves
On your first copy	18	About 19
On your ninth copy, with no rival	10	About 30
On your ninth copy, with a rival on 2 copies and another on 2	6	About 47

So if you’re rolling anyway, roll first: the rolls might find the cheap copies for you, and you keep the Duplicator for the expensive one. If that one copy is all you’d roll for, use it first and keep the gold. As Riot’s 14.15 notes point out, the 18 copies of a 3-cost are what let two players finish one without a Duplicator.

It also works when the pool can’t help you. Riot’s 10.12 notes (June 2020), when it was still Neeko’s Help, say it works with no copies left, and the spare copy stays out of the pool afterward. Its 10.10 notes (May 2020) had it failing in that spot, which implies that it normally takes a copy from the pool. No later Riot line on this was found, and today’s game text only describes the copy, so treat that as Riot’s newest line, not a Set 18 confirmation.

When to spend it early:

Your spot	The call
It finishes a 2-star now, and that wins fights you’re losing	Spend it. The HP guide prices those fights
It finishes a 2-star, and you’re winning or the fight won’t flip	Hold it for a costlier copy
You hold 1 copy of a unit you may not keep	Hold it. One copy doesn’t change your board
You have a pair of a thinning 4-cost or 5-cost	Hold it for that third copy. It’s the top end of the table
Your bench is full	Free a slot first. The copy lands on your bench, and no Riot line was found on what happens with no room

In Set 18, a full Duplicator can arrive at level 9 from Max Build (18.1). At that level, on a 5-cost with 6 copies left, it saves about 48 gold.

What about the Salvager and the rest?

Salvager, in Set 18, only if your shop offers one. By the game data files, this Wisp makes any unit you bench lose its items, which break apart. Riot’s lines in 18.2 and 18.4 name it as a Wisp, and 18.4 adds other low-cost Wisps partly to stop it being forced each game. So take it when it shows up and your recipes are wrong, and don’t plan a slam around it. Riot’s 14.18 notes kept an earlier Salvager from breaking Tactician’s items. No Set 18 line on what the Wisp does to those or to emblems was found, so read the card.

Lucky Item Chest. By the game data files, it opens a choice of items recommended for the champion you use it on. So use it on the unit that will keep the item, not on a stand-in.

Masterwork Upgrade. It’s covered in the Radiant items guide.

What order should you use them in?

When you’re holding several, this order avoids most waste:

1. Decide your line. Everything after this follows from it.
2. Remover first, to sort items. Put the wrong ones together on one unit.
3. Reforger next, on that unit. Now you know what you have.
4. Build and place. Combine what’s loose, and put items on your real holders.
5. Roll. Stop at your number.
6. Duplicator last, if you rolled anyway. Use it on whatever the rolls didn’t find, if it finishes a star-up. If that copy was all you’d roll for, use it before step 5 and keep the gold.

All of this happens in planning, since a Remover won’t work on a unit in combat.

What does that look like in a game?

A hypothetical. It’s Stage 4, level 8, and you’ve settled on an AD carry. Your carry holds a good AD item and a Morellonomicon, a stand-in holds a Gunblade, and your bag holds a Remover, a Reforger and a full Duplicator. Your carry is a 4-cost, you hold a pair, and 3 copies are left.

• Remover on the carry. Keep the AD item aside.
• Stack the wrong items. The Morellonomicon joins the Gunblade on the stand-in.
• Reforger on the stand-in. That’s 2 rolls. If 10 of 35 would help, there’s about a 49% chance at least one does.
• Duplicator on the carry, before you roll. The third copy is about 70 gold by the table, and nothing else on your board needs rolling for, so this is the case it’s for. You’ve kept that gold.

What changes when Set 19 lands?

Riot’s schedule lists 19.1 for December 1, 2026, and warns that dates can change. The reasoning holds: a Remover fixes holders, a Reforger gambles on recipes, and a Duplicator is worth most on your scarcest copy. Re-check the 19.1 notes for these: whether Removers still drop from PvE rounds, the count of core items, shop odds and pool sizes, and how many champions sit at each cost. The Salvager paragraph is Set 18’s, since Wisps are that set’s mechanic.

What should you do in your next game?

Your spot	The call
A better holder is on your board	Use a Remover now
A unit you’re selling holds items	Sell it, and save the Remover
An item works, but isn’t best-in-slot	Keep it
An item fits no line you’d play	Stack it with other wrong items, then reforge
You want one exact item	Don’t count on a Reforger
You want a Pan instead of a Spatula	Reforge it. It’s a sure swap, on Riot’s 14.18 line
You have a Duplicator, and you’re rolling anyway	Roll first, and spend it on what you missed
You have a Duplicator, and that copy is all you’d roll for	Use it, and keep the gold
A 2-star now would stop you losing	Spend the Duplicator now
A Salvager Wisp shows up, and your recipes are wrong	Consider it

If you’d like a second opinion in the moment, TFTSense reads the items in your bag and tells you what to slam and who should hold it.

Sources

All read November 4, 2026. No Riot page on when to spend a consumable was found, so each number links to the Riot page that sets it.

• Riot Games, patch 10.10 notes, published 2020-05-12, and patch 10.12 notes, published 2020-06-09, for Neeko’s Help and the pool.
• Riot Games, patch 11.12 notes, published 2021-06-08, for the Reforger’s tiers.
• Riot Games, patch 13.24 notes, published 2023-12-05, for a Remover with no room.
• Riot Games, patch notes for 14.6 (2024-03-19), 14.13 (2024-06-25), 14.15 (2024-07-30), 14.16 (2024-08-13), 14.18 (2024-09-10) and 14.23 (2024-11-19), for selling items, the Golden Item Remover, pool sizes, Reforgers, Removers, Spatula and Pan swaps and the item bench.
• Riot Games, patch 16.1 notes, published 2025-12-02, patch 17.1 notes, published 2026-04-14, and patch 17.2 notes, published 2026-04-28, for shop odds and the line that supports the reroll price.
• Riot Games, patch notes for 18.1 (2026-08-25), 18.2 (2026-09-09) and 18.4 (2026-10-06), for Max Build, the Salvager Wisp and Min-Max, and Riot’s Enchanted Wilds Overview, published 2026-07-27, for one Wisp a round.
• Riot Games, Patch Schedule, Teamfight Tactics, for the 19.1 date.
• The game itself: “Reroll 2”, seen on the Reroll and Buy XP buttons in a patch 18.5 game on 29 October 2026.
• The game’s data files, read November 4, 2026, in a version not yet updated for 18.6, for the round list, what each consumable does, core items, champions per cost and the Salvager Wisp. The chances and gold figures here are this guide’s own arithmetic.

Update log

• 2026-11-04: First version.