Q: If the on-death payload deals true damage, do shields still block it?

Yes. True damage in TFT ignores Armor , Magic Resist , damage reduction, and damage amplification. The TFT-namespaced wiki is explicit that those are the only carve-outs. Shields are not on that list. Normal shields absorb every damage type: physical, magic, and true. So an on-death area-of-effect (AoE) blast that fires as true damage still gets soaked. Any shield the targets have up at the moment of the explosion absorbs it. Either way, pre-positioned shields on the back line are the cleanest counter-pattern, because they work against every flavor. Note: Check the damage word before you plan around it. The on-death area payloads currently in the game are typed magic rather than true. So Magic Resist and percent damage reduction cut them as well.

Q: What's the difference between on-death (the dier side) and on-kill / on-takedown (the killer side)?

The difference is which unit owns the trigger. On-death is a trigger on the unit that fell. Its own items, traits, or augments fire when its HP reaches 0. On-kill and on-takedown are triggers on the unit that did the killing or assisting. An entirely different unit's effects bank credit when an enemy falls. The two often resolve in the same instant against the same target. But they belong to different units' rule sheets. An untargetable or invulnerability window, like a defensive item's Health-threshold escape, denies the attacker on-kill credit. It keeps the target from ever reaching 0. For that same reason the target's own on-death does not fire either. Both hinge on the one death event. Note: The two sides are otherwise independent. Stack-on-takedown items keep stacking on the killer regardless of whether the killed unit had any on-death payload.

Question 1

What does "on death" actually mean in TFT?

Accepted Answer

On-death is a trigger that fires the moment a unit's combat health reaches 0. That is when it falls in the current round.

The unit returns next round at full health regardless. So "death" here means the in-combat removal event, not permanent loss. Effects keyed to it discharge a stored payload at the instant of that event.

All three of the classic shapes are live right now.

An artifact that banks Health through the fight and detonates it.
A Wisp and an augment that drop gold when the right unit falls.
Several champion passives that leave a fresh body on the board: a spirit, two smaller rock creatures, or a wave of saplings.

Note: The trigger is always a one-shot per combat per unit. Once the unit has fallen, that combat's on-death has fired.

Question 2

If the on-death payload deals true damage, do shields still block it?

Accepted Answer

Yes.

True damage in TFT ignores Armor, Magic Resist, damage reduction, and damage amplification. The TFT-namespaced wiki is explicit that those are the only carve-outs. Shields are not on that list.

Normal shields absorb every damage type: physical, magic, and true. So an on-death area-of-effect (AoE) blast that fires as true damage still gets soaked. Any shield the targets have up at the moment of the explosion absorbs it.

Either way, pre-positioned shields on the back line are the cleanest counter-pattern, because they work against every flavor.

Note: Check the damage word before you plan around it. The on-death area payloads currently in the game are typed magic rather than true. So Magic Resist and percent damage reduction cut them as well.

Question 3

Do multiple on-death sources on the same unit all trigger?

Accepted Answer

Generally, yes.

Each on-death source is its own discrete trigger keyed to the unit's death event. So stacking different on-death items, traits, or augments on one unit generally fires every one of them when that unit falls.

Mixing one damage-storage on-death with one shield-on-death with one gold-drop on-death is the normal pattern. They each resolve.

A champion's own on-death passive is a fourth, separate lane again. It belongs to the unit rather than to anything it is holding. So it fires alongside whatever the items do.

Note: What does not stack additively is two copies of the same effect. Most TFT items cap at one copy per unit. The on-death artifacts are single-equip. One of them prints "Unique - only 1 per champion" directly in its own rules line.

Question 4

How is an on-death area payload spread over the enemies it catches?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the verb, because the two shapes behave in opposite ways. Neither one fades with distance.

The dominant current shape is a split. The artifact that banks Health all fight long releases it "as magic damage split between enemies within 4 hexes". So the total is fixed, and the radius is a flat yes-or-no boundary.

Catching one lone enemy dumps the entire stored payload onto that single unit.
Catching six divides the same total six ways.

That inverts the usual positioning advice. Against a split blast you want your own units clustered inside the radius, because more bodies sharing it means less damage each. You also want the enemy carrier detonating next to your whole team rather than isolated on your carry.

The second shape is an undivided explosion. Every enemy in the area takes the printed amount independently. The current Wisps that make your champions explode on death work this way. Against those, spreading out is correct.

Note: In neither shape does a unit one hex from the epicentre take more than a unit at the edge of the radius.

Question 5

Is "becoming invulnerable for a moment before dying" the same as on-death?

Accepted Answer

No. Those are death-prevention effects, a separate layer that resolves before the death event, not at it.

A per-unit example is a defensive item that triggers at a Health threshold. The unit briefly becomes untargetable, sheds negative effects, and heals. So it cannot be hit down to 0 during that window. Its on-death does not fire, because it never falls.

On-death triggers, by contrast, only resolve once a unit's health has actually reached 0.

The two layers are independent. A death-prevention skip can preempt one death-event. But every subsequent fall still procs on-death normally.

Note: Distinct from both is the player-elimination escape. An augment that lets you survive what would otherwise eliminate you keeps YOU in the lobby. It does not save a single unit in combat.

Question 6

Is selling a unit treated as death for on-death triggers?

Accepted Answer

No, in practice.

Selling happens out of combat, so there is no combat health reaching 0. It is not the trigger event that on-death effects key off. On-death payloads are uniformly described as firing in-combat at the death moment. Some items are also described as firing on a fallback timer.

The TFT-namespaced wiki documents on-death effects only in combat-tied terms. Selling returns the unit to the pool and its items to inventory.

Treat "died this combat" and "sold this round" as fully separate game events.

Note: This is a community-confirmed convention. No wiki source documents an exception.

Question 7

What's the difference between on-death (the dier side) and on-kill / on-takedown (the killer side)?

Accepted Answer

The difference is which unit owns the trigger.

On-death is a trigger on the unit that fell. Its own items, traits, or augments fire when its HP reaches 0.

On-kill and on-takedown are triggers on the unit that did the killing or assisting. An entirely different unit's effects bank credit when an enemy falls.

The two often resolve in the same instant against the same target. But they belong to different units' rule sheets.

An untargetable or invulnerability window, like a defensive item's Health-threshold escape, denies the attacker on-kill credit. It keeps the target from ever reaching 0. For that same reason the target's own on-death does not fire either. Both hinge on the one death event.

Note: The two sides are otherwise independent. Stack-on-takedown items keep stacking on the killer regardless of whether the killed unit had any on-death payload.

On Death

Items that benefit from On Death (5)

Champions that benefit from On Death (5)

What benefits from On Death (5)

Augments with On Death effects (4)

Traits that benefit from On Death (1)

Wisps with On Death effects (8)

What enables On Death (8)

Frequently asked questions

Description

Items that benefit from On Death (5) #

Champions that benefit from On Death (5) #