TFT Fast 8: When to Push Level 8 and What You Give Up

TL;DR: Fast 8 means putting gold into XP rather than rolls until level 8, then rolling there. The reason is the odds: Riot last printed 4-costs at 10% per shop slot at level 7 and 30% at level 8, so the same gold shows three times as many. From level 7 with an empty bar it’s 56 gold, and from level 6 it’s 92, less any free XP. Push when your total gold is at least 1.5 times what’s left to level, your HP can pay for the rounds it takes, and you’ll land with gold to roll. You give up 28 rolls at level 7 (2 gold a roll), some interest, and odds on 2-costs and 3-costs.

The worked examples are hypotheticals: sums on Riot’s numbers, not records of real games. Every gold figure is before the free XP you get each round, because we found no Riot page that prints that amount.

What does fast 8 mean?

Riot uses the phrase in its 14.15, 16.1 and 18.4 notes without defining it or naming a round. Here’s how we use it: you hold off on rolling, put your gold into XP until level 8, and make your main roll there.

It’s a bet on one level. Riot’s 14.6 notes treat level 8 as the place to sit while you star up 4-costs, and 16.1 made reaching it dearer in Set 16 while making the 4-costs easier to hit once there. For how the level fits a whole game, our leveling guide has level-by-stage charts. Its charts predate the XP change below, though its cost table is current.

What does level 8 cost right now?

56 XP from level 7. Riot’s 18.2 notes (September 9, 2026) cut it from 60, and cut the two steps after it from 68 to 64. The mid-patch update there, headed September 14, restored those two and kept the cheaper level 8. Riot’s 18.3 notes list no XP cost change, and neither do 18.4, 18.5 or 18.6. On 18.5, on October 29, the game showed 56 XP to leave level 7, with 36 for the step before it and 68 for each of the two after. The lower steps come from Riot’s 14.15 list: 10, 20 and 36 XP to reach levels 5, 6 and 7. The whole ladder and its history are on senseos.gg.

An XP buy is 4 gold: “Buy XP 4”, seen on the Reroll and Buy XP buttons in a patch 18.5 game on 29 October 2026. Riot’s 2021 Hyper Roll article prints the same figure, and Riot’s notes treat 1 XP as 1 gold: the 18.2 cut of 4 XP is 4 gold back in its own words. So a buy is 4 XP. That same article says a little XP also arrives by itself each round, but we found no Riot page that prints how much. Watch how far your bar moves between rounds and take that off the figures here.

From, with an empty bar	XP to level 8	XP buys	Gold	The same gold in rolls
Level 7	56	14	56	28
Level 6	92	23	92	46
Level 5	112	28	112	56
Level 4	122	31	124	62

With XP already on your bar, subtract it and round up to the next 4:

XP on your bar at level 7	XP left	XP buys	Gold
10 of 56	46	12	48
20 of 56	36	9	36
30 of 56	26	7	28
40 of 56	16	4	16
50 of 56	6	2	8

The rolls column uses 2 gold a roll: “Reroll 2”, from those same buttons, with a Riot line in 17.2 as support. Our rolling guide has more.

What does level 8 change?

Riot’s Set 18 pages print no odds table, and its notes up to 18.6 print no change to these rows, so these are the last it published, not a live table: level 7 in 17.1 (April 2026) and level 8 in 16.1 (December 2025). Riot’s notes don’t catch every change: 16.1’s own “before” row for level 8 (17/24/32/24/3) matches no earlier row we found in them. The game data behind our champions list held these same rows on November 4, in a file not yet updated for 18.6. The “seen” columns are our arithmetic: 20 gold is 10 rolls, and with every other shop holding a Wisp that’s about 45 champions.

Cost	Level 7 odds	Level 8 odds	Seen per 20 gold at 7	Seen per 20 gold at 8
1-cost	19%	15%	8.6	6.8
2-cost	30%	20%	13.5	9
3-cost	40%	32%	18	14.4
4-cost	10%	30%	4.5	13.5
5-cost	1%	3%	0.5	1.4

For one named 4-cost, with 10 copies each and 14 four-costs in the game data behind Set 18’s roster, that’s about 62 gold of rolls per copy at level 7 and about 21 at level 8, assuming every copy left in the pool is equally likely. Riot doesn’t publish how a slot picks within a cost.

A level also raises how many units you can field. Riot’s notes take that as read, printing only bonuses to it such as Riftbeast (10)‘s extra slot, and we leave it out of the sums. Count it as a reason on top of them.

When does pushing beat rolling at 7?

When you hold at least 1.5 times the gold left to level, if 4-costs are what you’re after. Rolling everything at 7 shows your gold times 10%. Leveling first shows what’s left times 30%. Those lines meet at 1.5 times the level’s price.

Gold left to level	Total gold where leveling first draws even
56	84
40	60
24	36
12	18

A hypothetical: level 7, 20 of 56 XP, 70 gold. Level 8 takes 36 gold, and 1.5 times that is 54, so you’re past the line. Leveling leaves 34 gold, which is 17 rolls at level 8 and about 23 4-costs seen. Rolling all 70 at level 7 is 35 rolls and about 16 4-costs. The level stays with you either way, and the rolls don’t.

Two limits on that sum:

• It only counts 4-costs. If your carry is a 3-cost, it runs the other way: 3-costs fall from 40% to 32% at level 8. Riot’s 14.6 notes treat 7 as the level to stay on for those, and our reroll guide has the rest.
• Being below the line doesn’t mean roll at 7. It means rolling at 7 shows more 4-costs than leveling right now would. Holding until you’re past the line often beats both, unless a fight needs the gold today.

What does the push cost in interest and rolls?

It depends how much bank you keep while you push. Every 10 gold you hold pays 1 gold a round, a rate we work out from a 2021 Riot line. We found no Riot page that prints the normal maximum, which our economy guide explains, so this table stays in the range where that doesn’t matter.

Start at level 7 with an empty bar and 50 gold. Each round, spend everything above the bank you’ve chosen on XP. Income is 5 gold of base income, Riot’s last printed figure, plus interest, with no win gold and no free XP.

Bank you keep	Level 8 on round	Gold when you arrive	Gold by round 7
50	7	54	54
30	6	34	42
20	5	22	36
10	4	12	31
0	3	4	27

Read the last column. Reaching level 8 on round 3 rather than round 7 costs 27 gold by round 7, about 13 rolls. That’s the price of four more rounds at level 8. Free XP moves every line earlier, and so does winning: a win on a run of 6 or more pays 4 gold a round, which takes 1 or 2 rounds off each line.

Here’s what else you give up:

• Rolls at level 7. 56 gold is 28 rolls there, which show about 50 3-costs, or about 3.6 copies of one named 3-cost. If a 2-star 3-cost would win your next fights, that’s the trade.
• Cheap upgrades. A copy of a named 3-cost goes from about 16 gold of rolls to about 19, and a named 2-cost from about 19 to about 29. If your board still wants those, finish them before you press.
• The fights in between. See the next section.

When can your board afford it?

Multiply the rounds the push takes by what a loss costs. A lost player round is a flat amount by stage, and each enemy unit left adds 1. Adding Riot’s 14.9 and 16.1 lines, that’s 6, 7 and 10 in Stages 3, 4 and 5.

Stage	One loss, 5 enemy units left	Two losses	Three losses
3	11	22	33
4	12	24	36
5	15	30	45

Riot doesn’t state a round for level 8, and we won’t give you one as a rule. Here’s the reasoning instead. Going from Stage 3 to Stage 4 adds 1 HP to each loss, and going from Stage 4 to Stage 5 adds 3. So a push that lands during Stage 4 pays little more than one that lands in Stage 3, and a push that drifts into Stage 5 starts paying noticeably more per miss. 16.1 also raised Stage 3’s damage to keep that stage mattering as Riot expected fast 8 and 9 to get more consistent. So keep a real board on the table while you press.

Your board right now	The call	Why
Winning without help	Push with gold above your bank	Wins pay 1 gold plus streak gold, and that funds the push
Close, and one more level could flip it	Push now	The level does both jobs
Losing, a level won’t flip it, three or more losses left	Hold, then push in one go	Don’t pay for XP round by round while your bank could be earning
Two losses or fewer left	Stop pushing and roll at your level	A level you don’t live to use is worth nothing. See our rolling guide
Your carry is a 3-cost or cheaper	Don’t push yet	The odds you need get worse at 8

The third row agrees with our reroll guide: don’t level just because you can. Level when it changes a fight, or when you’re ready to roll at the new level with gold to do it.

How much gold should you land with?

Enough to finish what you hold. When Riot raised the level 8 odds in 16.1, it also reminded players to bring some gold. Here’s the average for one named 4-cost, counting copies you hold as gone from the pool:

You hold	Rolls at level 8, in gold	Buying	Total at level 8	Total at level 7
2 copies	26	4	30	81
1 copy	48	8	56	153
No copies	69	12	81	220

Other players holding 3 copies raises the level 8 totals to about 44, 82 and 115. A second target that would do just as well cuts the rolling roughly in half.

Landing with nothing is the failure this table warns about. You’d arrive on about 4 gold, earning 5 a round, which is 2.5 rolls. Our rolling guide has how long a bank takes to rebuild.

What has Riot said about level 8 in Set 18?

These are what Riot wrote at each point, not a list of what to play. Balance moves every patch.

• Enchanted Wilds overview (July 27, before launch). Riot’s overview describes Elderwood played for fast 8 or 9 around a Sprykin Gnar.
• 18.2 (September 9). Riot cut level 8 because late levels had been hard to reach, and joked that a roll-down can miss but an XP press can’t.
• 18.2 mid-patch (September 14). It kept level 8 cheaper, noted that players were getting Maokai and Draven online more easily, and nerfed both.
• 18.4 (October 6). It buffed AP Nidalee to give fast 8 and 9 another AP carry, raised Level Up!‘s instant XP from 6 to 10, and raised Forest Guide from 5 gold to 6.
• 18.5 (October 20). A note on an augment change calls 4-costs very strong this set.
• 18.6 (November 3). Its balance pass includes small buffs aimed at 4-cost lines.

Shop Wisps matter here too. 18.2 put All Fours at 3 gold and Search Party at 1 or 0 gold (Riot prints 1/0 without saying which applies when, and 18.4’s mid-patch update prints the same line again). Riot’s notes give only the prices. By the game data in our Wisps guide, both put 4-costs in your shop, and All Fours shows 5 of them, which would take about 22 gold of rolls at level 7 and about 7 at level 8. So it’s worth buying on the way up if you see it.

What should you do in your next game?

Your spot	The call
Hunting 4-costs, gold past 1.5 times the level’s price	Level first, then roll
Hunting 4-costs, gold short of that	Hold if you can, then push in one go
Hunting 3-costs or cheaper	Stay and roll at your level
Winning and on a streak	Push with what’s above your bank
Two losses or fewer left	Stop pushing and roll
Just reached 8 with no gold	Field your best board and rebuild before you roll

If you want a second opinion while you play, TFTSense gives econ and leveling calls.

Next: fast 9 for when level 8 isn’t the end of the push.

Sources

All read November 4, 2026.

• Riot Games, Teamfight Tactics patch 10.6 notes, published 2020-03-17, for base income.
• Riot Games, Teamfight Tactics: Hyper Roll, published 2021-04-14, for the 4 gold an XP buy costs and the XP that arrives by itself in standard TFT.
• Riot Games, Gizmos & Gadgets Set Mechanic Overview: Hextech Augments, published 2021-10-21, for max interest of 7 at 70 gold, which gives the rate of 1 per 10 used here.
• Riot Games, patch 14.6 notes, published 2024-03-19, for what levels 7 and 8 are for.
• Riot Games, patch 14.9 notes, published 2024-04-30, for player damage by stage.
• Riot Games, patch 14.15 notes, published 2024-07-30, for copies per champion, the XP steps up to level 7 and Riot’s use of a fast level 8.
• Riot Games, patch 16.1 notes, published 2025-12-02, for the level 8 odds, player damage and Riot’s reasons.
• Riot Games, patch 17.1 notes, published 2026-04-14, for the level 7 odds.
• Riot Games, patch 17.2 notes, published 2026-04-28, for the line that supports the reroll price.
• Riot Games, Enchanted Wilds Overview, published 2026-07-27, for Wisps in the shop, team size bonuses and the Elderwood line.
• Riot Games, patch notes for 18.1 (2026-08-25), 18.2 (2026-09-09, with the mid-patch update headed September 14), 18.3 (2026-09-22), 18.4 (2026-10-06), 18.5 (2026-10-20) and 18.6 (2026-11-03), for XP costs, Set 18’s Wisps and what Riot said at each patch.
• To check that the odds rows, XP costs and copy counts stayed the same, we also searched Riot’s other notes from 13.24 to 17.9, including the 2025 notes numbered 13.3 to 13.8 and 14.1 to 14.8, and 14.14, which sits at a different address.
• The game itself on 18.5, on October 29, 2026, for the XP steps from level 6 to level 10, and for “Buy XP 4” and “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 champions per cost, as a cross-check on the odds and copy counts, and for what the Wisps do.

Update log

• 2026-11-04: First version.