TFT Rolling: When to Roll Down, When to Slow Roll and When to Save

TL;DR: Roll down when you can survive only about two more lost fights, when you’re at the level where the cost you need is most common and you hold enough gold to finish, or when one fight is worth more than the interest. Slow roll when you need many copies of a cheap unit and your board already holds. Otherwise save: every 10 gold you hold pays 1 gold a round, which is half a roll. A roll is 2 gold, so 20 gold is 10 rolls, and the first rolls find more than the last. Pick the number you’ll stop at before you press.

The worked examples are hypotheticals: sums on Riot’s numbers, not records of real games. Chances and gold per copy are averages from the odds Riot last printed, with a full pool, so your own shops will run hotter and colder.

What does a roll actually cost?

2 gold, and sometimes interest on top.

The button says so: “Reroll 2”, seen on the Reroll and Buy XP buttons in a patch 18.5 game on 29 October 2026. Riot’s 17.2 notes (April 28, 2026) support it, trimming a gold offering from 12 to 10 and describing that as one reroll fewer. Every sum here uses 2 gold, and Riot’s notes up to 18.6 print no change to it.

Every 10 gold you hold pays 1 gold a round. We work that rate out from a 2021 Riot line where an augment lifts max interest to 7 at 70 gold. We found no Riot page that prints the normal maximum, as our economy guide explains, so no sum here counts interest on more than 50 gold.

Roll from 50 gold down to	Rolls	Interest lost each round until you climb back
40	5	1
30	10	2
20	15	3
10	20	4
0	25	5

Three things follow:

• Each 10 gold you hold pays half a roll a round. Dropping from 50 to 30 gives you 10 rolls now and costs you 1 roll a round afterward. Ten rounds later the player who held has caught up on rolls and still has the 20 gold. So holding wins if your board can survive those rounds, and rolling wins if it can’t.
• The roll that crosses a ten costs more than the rest. From 32 to 30 costs 2 gold. From 30 to 28 costs 2 gold plus 1 gold a round until you’re back on 30.
• A shop is about 4.5 champions while you roll. You can count five slots on your screen, though we found no Riot page that states the number. Wisps take the rightmost slot of every other shop during planning, and the unit behind one only shows when planning ends. So 10 rolls show about 45 champions, or 40 at Blossom (5), which puts a Wisp in every shop. Every count below uses 45.

Which level should you roll at?

The one where the cost you need is most common. Riot said so when it gave each level a purpose in November 2023: 2-costs at 6, 3-costs at 7, 4-costs at 8, and at 9 the 5-cost that finishes your board. Its 14.6 notes (March 2024) treat 7 and 8 as the levels to sit on while you star up 3-costs and 4-costs, and speak of odds as a drop rate per slot.

You need	Level	Odds Riot last printed for that cost, per slot	Gold of rolls per copy of one named unit
2-costs	6	40% (14.24, December 2024)	About 14
3-costs	7	40% (17.1, April 2026)	About 16
4-costs	8	30% (16.1, December 2025)	About 21
5-costs	9	15% (16.1)	About 30

Riot’s Set 18 pages print no odds table. Its 18.1 to 18.6 notes and its Enchanted Wilds overview print no change to these rows, so these are the last numbers it published, not a live table. Riot’s notes don’t catch every change: 16.1’s own “before” values for levels 8 and 9 (17/24/32/24/3 and 12/18/25/33/12) match 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. Every level is on our champion pool and odds guide, and the rules on their own are on senseos.gg.

The last column is our arithmetic: 45 champions per 20 gold, times the odds, times that unit’s share of its cost. Copies per champion are 25, 18, 10 and 9 for 2- to 5-costs (Riot’s 14.15 notes, with no later change in its notes that we found, and the same figures in the game data), and Set 18 has 13, 14, 14 and 10 champions at those costs, by the game data behind our champions list. Riot doesn’t publish how a slot picks a champion within a cost, so we assume every copy left in the pool is equally likely, which fits its 18.1 line on Pandora’s Bench tying a champion’s likelihood to the copies available.

Should you roll now or level first?

A level costs gold, and better odds only repay that if you have gold left to roll. Rolling everything now shows your gold times the low odds. Leveling first shows what’s left times the high odds. The two lines meet here:

Hunting	Level move	Odds	Level first once your total gold reaches
3-costs	6 to 7	25% to 40%	2.7 times the gold left to level
4-costs	7 to 8	10% to 30%	1.5 times
5-costs	8 to 9	3% to 15%	1.25 times
4-costs	8 to 9	30% to 33%	11 times, so in practice never
5-costs	9 to 10	15% to 25% (level 10 from 13.23)	2.5 times

That only counts champions seen. A level also stays with you, where a roll is gone. Our fast 8 and fast 9 guides work these moves through.

Going higher also hurts cheaper units. 3-costs fall from 40% at level 7 to 32% at 8 and 25% at 9, which is the reason a reroll line stops climbing. Our reroll guide covers which line rolls where.

When is a roll-down forced?

When your HP can’t pay for another miss. A lost player round costs a flat amount set by the stage, and each enemy unit left adds 1. Adding Riot’s 14.9 and 16.1 lines gives base damage of 6, 7, 10 and 12 in Stages 3 to 6. With 5 enemy units left, here’s how many losses you survive:

HP	Stage 3 (11 a loss)	Stage 4 (12 a loss)	Stage 5 (15 a loss)	Stage 6 (17 a loss)
60	5	4	3	3
40	3	3	2	2
30	2	2	1	1
20	1	1	1	1
10	0	0	0	0

The rest is our reasoning from that table:

• Two losses left is your last comfortable roll. A roll-down can miss. With two losses in hand you can stop at a number, lose one fight and try again next round. With one, this is your only try.
• One loss left means no bank. Gold buys nothing once you’re out. Roll what the fight needs and keep only the price of the unit you’re hunting.
• The stage steps move the line. Base damage rises by 4 going into Stage 3, 1 into Stage 4, 3 into Stage 5 and 2 into Stage 6. 40 HP is three losses in Stage 4 and two in Stage 5. Riot doesn’t publish a round to roll on, and we won’t give you one as a rule, but a board that’s going to lose in Stage 5 is cheaper to fix in Stage 4.
• Rolling late narrows your Wisps. Since 18.4, stat consumables, Golden Goose, Major Gambit and Barter stop appearing below 20 HP, because last-life rolls were leaving players with no gold and no Combat Wisps.

HP isn’t the only trigger. On 5 or more wins, dropping a round costs 9 gold over three rounds, so a roll that holds for several fights can pay for itself. Our HP management guide covers how much health to spend and when.

Should you roll down, slow roll or save?

Your spot	The call	Why
Two losses or fewer left, and the next fight looks lost	Roll down	A bank is no use once you’re out
At your carry’s level, with gold to finish	Roll down once	A 2-star fits in one bank: about 81 gold for a named 4-cost from nothing, 30 from a pair
You need nine copies of a cheap unit, and your board holds	Slow roll	A 3-star doesn’t fit in one bank
Your board wins the next fight anyway	Save	You’d pay interest for a fight you already win
Your board loses anyway, and rolling won’t flip it	Save, if HP can pay	Same sum, and your bank keeps paying
A close fight, one level from better odds	Run the sum above	The level may do both jobs

What is a slow roll?

Riot uses the term in its 14.10 and 17.6 notes without defining it. We mean this: hold a bank on a ten, and roll only what comes in above it each round. With base income of 5 gold, Riot’s last printed figure, and before any win or streak gold:

Bank you hold	Gold a round	Rolls a round
50	10	5
30	8	4
20	7	3.5
10	6	3
0	5	2.5

It suits cheap units because of the copy count. Nine copies make a 3-star, which is how 18 copies of a 3-cost let two players finish one. On average that’s about 173 gold for a named 2-cost at level 6 and about 210 for a named 3-cost at level 7, rolls and buying included. No bank holds that, so income has to pay for it over several rounds. The catch is that your board has to survive those rounds, so start once it’s holding, not before.

Where do you stop?

Pick the number before you press, because a shop that nearly hit is a bad moment to choose. These are the stops, in order:

• When the fight’s won. If your board now beats the next opponent, more rolls buy the same win.
• On a ten, unless the next roll has to happen.
• Above the price of your target. A 5-cost you can’t afford is a wasted shop. Late on, keep a few gold more for a Wisp: past Stage 5, one Wisp in two is a Combat Wisp, and Riot says late gold is what lets you choose between them.
• When the rolls stop paying. Each extra set of rolls finds less than the one before:

Rolls	Gold	One named 4-cost at level 8, holding a pair	Either of two at level 8, holding a pair of each	One at level 7, holding a pair
5	10	33%	55%	12%
10	20	55%	80%	23%
15	30	69%	91%	32%
20	40	79%	96%	41%
25	50	86%	98%	48%

A second target does more than more gold: 20 gold with two targets finds as often as 40 gold with one. That’s the sum behind our reroll guide’s point about rolling for several hits at once.

• When the copies are gone. Riot describes the shared pool as something that tells you when to roll harder. It also tells you when to stop. With the rest of the cost tier full, a named 4-cost at level 8 costs about 21 gold of rolls per copy with 10 left, 29 with 7 left, 40 with 5 left and 66 with 3 left. If your gold won’t cover that, switch targets. Our scouting guide covers how to count them.

A hypothetical: Stage 4, level 8, 52 gold, 38 HP, a pair of your 4-cost carry and a close fight next. At 12 HP a loss you survive three more, so nothing forces your hand. Roll to 30: that’s 11 rolls and about a 58% chance of your third copy, and it costs 2 gold of interest a round. If you miss, you still hold 30 gold earning 8 a round, with HP for another try.

What do you do when you miss?

1. Stop at your number. The gold you keep is next round’s rolls. Rolling from 20 to 0 buys 10 rolls and leaves you on 5 gold a round.
2. Field the strongest board you have. Each enemy unit left costs 1 HP, so a narrower loss is cheaper even when it’s still a loss.
3. Check the Wisp. 18.4 added four 0-cost Wisps you only see under 10 gold, from 4-1 to 5-7, and 18.5 added two of them to Stage 3. A Combat Wisp only helps the coming fight, so buy one when that fight matters.
4. Change the target before you change the plan. Look at what you did hit. A pair you didn’t plan on may be closer to a 2-star than your carry is.
5. Rebuild. With 5 gold of base income, interest and no win gold:

Gold after the miss	Rounds back to 30	Rounds back to 50
0	6	8
10	4	6
20	2	4
30	0	3

So the last 20 gold of a roll-down costs you four rounds of getting back to 30. Win and streak gold shorten every line. That’s the real price of “just a few more rolls”, and sometimes it’s still right, when the rolls are what keep you in the game.

How do free rerolls and Shop Wisps change the sums?

• A free reroll is 2 gold with no interest attached, so use those before gold. Riot’s Set 18 notes list the Reroll Subscription opening encounter, Max Build (10 free shop rerolls, and 3 more at level 9, both in 18.1) and Patience is a Virtue, whose initial rerolls went from 4 to 5 in 18.5. Read the card in your game.
• A Shop Wisp can beat rolling. Riot’s notes print only a price for All Fours, 3 gold since 18.2. What it does comes from the game data in our Wisps guide: it turns your shop into all 4-costs. That’s 5 of them for 3 gold, where 3 gold of rolls shows about 2 at level 8 and under 1 at level 7. You get one Wisp a round, and prices keep moving: 18.6 took Middle Path, a shop full of 2-star 3-costs, from 4 gold to 5 because Riot found it too reliable for the price.
• Every Wisp’s price is rolls. A 3-gold Wisp is 1.5 rolls, plus 1 gold a round if it takes you below a ten.

What should you do in your next game?

Your spot	The call
Two losses or fewer left	Roll what the fight needs
Three or more losses left, and a close fight	Roll to the next ten, then look again
Right level, gold past your 2-star’s price	Roll down once and stop at your number
Wrong level for your target	Run the level-first sum before you press
Cheap carry, board holding	Slow roll above a ten
Winning anyway or losing anyway	Hold
Just missed	Stop, field your best board and rebuild

For a second opinion on these calls while you play, TFTSense gives econ and leveling calls.

Sources

All read November 4, 2026. Riot has no single current page for shop odds or the reroll price, so each number links to the Riot page that prints it, and the reroll price comes from the button in the game, with Riot’s 17.2 line as support.

• Riot Games, Teamfight Tactics patch 10.6 notes, published 2020-03-17, for base income.
• 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 13.23 notes, published 2023-11-20, for what each level is for, the level 10 odds and the shared pool.
• Riot Games, patch 14.6 notes, published 2024-03-19, for level purposes and odds per slot.
• Riot Games, patch 14.9 notes, published 2024-04-30, and patch 16.1 notes, published 2025-12-02, for player damage by stage, and 16.1 for the level 8 and 9 odds.
• Riot Games, patch 14.10 notes, published 2024-05-14, and patch 17.6 notes, published 2026-06-23, for Riot’s use of “slow roll”.
• Riot Games, patch 14.15 notes, published 2024-07-30, for copies per champion.
• Riot Games, patch 14.24 notes, published 2024-12-10, for the level 6 odds, and 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.
• The game itself: “Reroll 2” and “Buy XP 4”, seen on the Reroll and Buy XP buttons in a patch 18.5 game on 29 October 2026, for the reroll price.
• Riot Games, Enchanted Wilds Overview, published 2026-07-27, for how Wisps sit in the shop.
• Riot Games, patch notes for 18.1 (2026-08-25), 18.2 (2026-09-09), 18.3 (2026-09-22), 18.4 (2026-10-06), 18.5 (2026-10-20) and 18.6 (2026-11-03), for Set 18’s Wisps, augments and the absence of odds changes.
• To check that the odds rows 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’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 All Fours does.

Update log

• 2026-11-04: First version.