How to Play A Golden Quest Augment and Win (Set 12, TFT)
TFT’s Set 12 forwent having an econ trait and instead introduced 4 new, high stakes augments. These augments allow you to win big or fizzle out and take an 8th. They are fun as they give players the best chance of achieving 3 star 5 cost units or other insane boards!
Each augment is high risk, high reward and requires a unique playstyle that can be hard to master. I will be going over each one as well as giving tips and tricks of how to be successful with the A Golden Quest Augment while avoiding common mistakes that cause players to go bot 2 with these augments. Make sure to check out the guides for the other high stakes augments to know how to play them properly!
High Stakes Augment: A Golden Quest
A Golden Quest is a gold augment that can be offered at stage 3-2 which requires the player to rack up 161.8 gold in order to get their reward of a 2 star 5 cost unit with 3 tailored completed items. Why 161.8 gold? It refers to the Greek letter phi which denotes the golden ratio which is approximately 1.618033988749.
You can see where the 161.8 comes from now! One benefit of adding the 0.8 also makes it eye-catching and not “just another number” when a player glances at the augment.
Currently, this augment isn’t performing well for placement average, but it does have a solid win rate! This means that a lot of players are either going bot 2 with it or getting 1st or 2nd with it. It’s a high risk augment for a reason!
How to Play A Golden Quest Augment
Augment Selection
One of the most important parts of playing this augment is knowing when to take it. The augment is offered at 3-2, so you have already played your opening stage at this point. You will want to access a couple of things before taking this augment
1. How much gold do I have?
2. How much health do I have?
3. How strong is my current board?
4. Am I in a portal or did I have an opening augment that allows me to have stronger economy?
These are all important questions to assess before selecting this augment. Obviously, the ideal spot is having a strong opener with a solid economy. This will allow you to take that momentum and continue saving health as you move onto stage 3 and 4. It will allow you not to roll to stabilize and therefore hitting the cash out earlier.
For your final augment selection, you will want to pick a combat augment. You already have a major economy augment from A Golden Quest, so the best way to round out your team is to select an augment that will support your 5 cost unit as well as the rest of the team to ensure that you won’t die even after your cashout.
How to Cashout Without Dying
After deciding to commit to the augment, you want to get to 161.8 gold as quickly as you can without losing too much health. This means that you will want to keep as much gold as you can while balancing not taking too much damage. If you are losing by 5+ units every round and aren’t close to cashing out, then you might be forced to roll. A common mistake is players never rolling no matter what and just dying a round or two before they would cash out. Sometimes a single roll and two for crucial upgrades can make the difference of saving 10-20 health in the mid game allowing you to more easily cashout. You need to be killing units each round to be able to safely cashout.
Ideally, you should be cashing out in early stage 4 with around 20-30 health to spare – two lives. Cashing out below two lives can get scary as if you aren’t the strongest board in the lobby you can easily lose even with your cash out.
Cashout Bonus Tip: You can sell multiple or all units on your board if you need to hit the threshold. As soon as you hit the threshold you will automatically cash out – you don’t need to play a round with an empty board. So be ready to move quickly once you cash out!
I Cashed Out, Now What?
Congrats on cashing out, but the game isn’t over yet! There is a lot to do on your cashout turn, so let’s break it down here!
The way the rest of your game plays out is highly dependent on which 5 cost you got. You will have to be flexible and understand what units your 5 cost plays best around. For example, if you cash out with Briar, then you will want to have a Shapeshifter on your board to make her stronger. If you have Norra & Yuumi then consider adding 2 Mages to your board. Match up your traits to activate your 5 cost and empower it as much as you can.
The next step is pushing levels. You have a few options:
Go to level 8, do some light rolling, and then econ back up to go to level 9 with plenty of gold to roll at 9
Go to level 8 and roll a lot to make sure you are guaranteed to not die and get a top 4. This is best when you only have one life and you have to make sure you are the strongest player in the lobby
Go straight to level 9 and roll to 0 to make a strong board as well as see solid shops in stage 4 and onwards. This can be risky if you aren’t able to make a strong enough board. I recommend this most often when you already have a solid board and have health to play with as well as assuming you got one of the stronger 5 costs to play around.
After building around your cashed out 5 cost, you can go further by adding additional 5 cost units and in some cases 4 cost carries to support your 5 cost. Remember that a 2 star 4 cost will often be better than a 1 star 5 cost!
Example Cash Out Comp for Morgana, Norra, or Xerath
[See Team Comp]
Tip: Assuming you are stable and at least level 9, be on the lookout to potentially 3 star your 5 cost for a near guaranteed win. You have 3 of the unit already, so be on the lookout for additional copies. However, if someone else has one copy of the unit, you can no longer 3 star it, so make sure you are scouting and not holding onto units that make you lose future economy or board strength.
I’ve seen players have success with cashing out especially if they are fortunate enough to hit one of the stronger 5 costs in the game. I have also seen multiple players die off before cashing out.
By taking the A Golden Quest augment at the proper time, not getting too greedy with your gold, and by not letting your guard down after cashing out by leveling smart and assessing your board strength compared to the lobby to ensure your win!
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