Pirates Season 1
Introduced in Season 1, Pirates were seen as one of the most favored compositions as the Pirate lineup included three champions capable of dealing damage from the Marksman trait: Graves (1 gold), Gangplank (3 gold), and Miss Fortune (5 gold).
Strengths:
One strength of Pirates in Season 1 is that regardless of winning or losing, players receive a maximum of 4 gold per round. For some players accustomed to saving gold, this additional gold is too much to upgrade champions. Moreover, with a winning streak (or losing but not losing too much health), a player can earn about 10 gold per round just from a 6-win streak.
Weaknesses:
However, the main limitation of Pirates in Season 1 is that they only provide gold; thus, some champions need to be leveled up to survive long-term in a situation where item drops are not abundant. Furthermore, by the end of the game, the money hack benefit of Pirates becomes less effective, as players will focus on the damage output of champions like Gangplank, Graves, or Miss Fortune to calculate their compositions.
Nonetheless, with champions that have strong damage, decent durability, and control abilities (Graves, Gangplank, Pyke), as long as the carry has items, it’s sufficient.
Thieves Season 3
This can be considered the most perfect “gold hack” trait that Riot has ever brought to TFT players. Not only is it a superior development from Season 1, but in Season 3, players can also experience powerful abilities like Darius’ “one shot one kill” or Gangplank’s Cannon Barrage wiping out the entire enemy team in one cast.
Strengths:
This can be regarded as the highest quality “money hack” version ever seen in TFT, as it not only provides gold but also a massive amount of items when activating the 4 Thieves trait. In reality, reaching level 7 to buy 5-gold champions is easy with this composition, as the damage output in the early and mid-game comes from two champions, Jayce and Darius, both priced at just 3 gold.
By acquiring Gangplank early (ideally by the end of round 4 to just before the shop phase in round 5), players can gain a huge amount of gold along with many accompanying items. Moreover, Darius and Gangplank are champions with immense damage potential, capable of carrying the team well into the late game. Additionally, Gangplank can also upgrade himself with gold, making this one of the strongest compositions in TFT Season 3 by the late game.
Weaknesses:
With such a composition, it is very difficult to find weaknesses in Thieves in Season 3. However, it must be acknowledged that the core champions of this build cost from 3 gold upward and rely heavily on items providing Ability Power, while items like Rod of Ages, Gloves, and Tear are often heavily contested. But overall, this can be seen as a minor weakness as the item scarcity can be compensated by activating the highest level of Thieves.
Fortune God Season 4 and 4.5
In Season 4 and 4.5, Riot replaced Thieves with a new trait that provides both gold and items, but of course, it comes with special mechanics: Fortune God. From this phase, a term frequently used by players and even League of Legends casters emerged: “breaking the jar.” This is also the precursor to the “eco white” strategy of selling health that many players favor, especially in Season 5.5 with the introduction of the Divine Blessing mechanic.
Strengths:
Providing a large amount of gold and items, Fortune God champions also possess good damage and durability, making them easy to integrate into compositions for strategic changes when necessary. Additionally, Fortune God champions have wide-area crowd control capabilities, ensuring the backline has enough time to deal necessary damage.
In the late game, players can combine various compositions. Fortune God themselves also provide damage (from Jinx, Katarina, Darius) and durability, control (Tahm Kench, Sejuani). Furthermore, any lack of items and gold can be resolved with just one “breaking the jar” play.
Weaknesses:
Besides providing gold and items, Fortune God does not offer any additional stats, making them quite weak in the late game. Furthermore, to “break the jar”, players using the Fortune God trait either have to maintain a winning streak (which is rather difficult) or maintain a long losing streak. Both are risky strategies that require players to be truly skilled and have good adaptability to situations.
Dragon Tribe Season 5 and 5.5
Replacing Fortune God from the previous season, Dragon Tribe was introduced. However, in this season, while it remains, Dragon Tribe is now only a “tool for players to earn gold and items,” and outside of that, these champions will only be strong when combined into… other compositions.
Strengths:
Unlike Fortune God in Seasons 4 and 4.5, Dragon Tribe in this season can provide Dragon Eggs, and the eggs will hatch at some point, but importantly, even if players lose, they will still receive Dragon Eggs. Especially, in Season 5.5, Dragon Tribe no longer depends on Heimerdinger to activate the highest level, and players can fully obtain a considerable number of gold eggs very early.
Weaknesses:
However, compared to all the traits like Pirates, Thieves, etc., that have appeared before, Dragon Tribe Season 5 and 5.5 can be seen as the weakest “money hack” composition, as the damage output is primarily reliant on Heimerdinger (5 gold), while other names like Ashe or Sett are mainly for trait activation. Sett had a brief moment of dominance but has disappeared currently, while Zyra is only strong in the Mage composition, and Udyr serves to hold items for Jax in the Warrior composition.
In general, apart from Season 2, Riot has consistently provided players with compositions capable of strong “money hacks” for both gold and items. However, playing Dragon Tribe or Fortune God will only make players long for Thieves from Season 3 even more.