The 12.13 patch for Teamfight Tactics will shorten several rounds to speed up matches, and will also include a rework for Aurelion Sol

League of Legends’ auto-battler spinoff Teamfight Tactics is getting a major patch soon. TFT Update 12.13 makes some key changes to the game’s flow, tightening up match times by shortening several rounds. The update also includes a much-needed rework to astral dragon Aurelion Sol, tweaks the carousel experience in Double Up, and does the usual champion and trait balance upkeep players have come to expect with updates.

Riot says it’ll be reducing match length by a total of 50 seconds by shaving 10 seconds off of augment rounds 2-1, 3-2, and 4-2, the treasure dragon stage 4-7, and stage 5-1, which comes immediately after the treasure dragon round. It’s not a massive shift, but those some of the rounds in which most players find themselves twiddling their thumbs are being tightened up just a smidge, which is nice.

Aurelion Sol has had quite the journey in this set, with the initial iteration of the dragon having the capacity to become incredibly powerful when paired with the right items. With update 12.13, Aurelion Sol will be reworked, and will be able to summon an unstable black hole under a random enemy unit. This will implode after two seconds, hitting all enemies in the vicinity with magic damage and increasing their damage taken by 20% for 10 seconds.

The black holes get deadlier once 20 seconds has elapsed in a round: they become larger and do 50% more damage. A three-star Aurelion Sol “creates a cosmically large black hole,” Riot says, so prepare to have the nature of reality kicked around a bit on the board.

Pick order should be clearer when playing in the experimental Double Up mode, thanks to being represented visually in the scoreboard on the right side of the screen.

In terms of rebalancing, the Astral and Warrior traits will be getting buffs, while the Assassins, Revel, and Mirage: Dawnbringer’s Determination will be nerfed.

The full patch notes can be found over on the official Teamfight Tactics site.

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A PC gamer since the 1980s, Ian enjoys strategy games, RPGs, and FPS classics like Unreal and Quake. He's happiest commanding orcs in Total War: Warhammer or diarising his journey in Dark Souls.