Teamfight Tactics (TFT) is changing up the formula with Set 17: Space Gods by removing a foundational piece of its in-game experience, the Carousel. The Carousel functioned as a comeback mechanic for players, giving low-health players first dibs on a rotating shop of champions and items, while high-health players would have to wait their turn.
In its place will be the Realm of the Gods, a celestial bazaar with deities currying your favor and the set’s main mechanic. Instead of waiting for your turn on the Carousel, players will now pick between gods, gain their respective boons, and earn rewards.
In a new interview with Polygon, Noëmi Couté, the set design lead, informed us that Realm of the Gods will not be returning in the immediate future, but there’s potential that it’ll come back in the future in a more revamped state.
“Early on, we actually had a way more complicated version of this mechanic and we didn’t really start with removing the Carousel. I had this idea for what I was calling a carousel bazaar and I wanted … a Choncc shop, a Pengu shop, and maybe Shadow Pengu shows up,” said Couté. “I wanted this kind of social experience where players can come to the Carousel, shop for what they want, see everybody moving around shopping between different vendors.”
However, due to technological and time constraints — and the sheer number of fundamental changes — the original idea was simplified to its core elements.
“I think the system has a lot of potential. It just is going to take a lot more repetition and experiments than we actually have time for on a standard set timeline,” Couté said. “I would personally love to take another stab at this once we have data on what people liked, what people didn’t like, and a bit more time to actually flesh out the more complicated version of what we wanted.”
While the Carousel will return in Set 18, it might be removed again in the future as the development team builds on the Realm of the Gods mechanic, similar to how Galaxies and Augments have evolved over time. This also suggests that fans of Set 16 and Unlocks may see an expanded version of the mechanic in later sets.
