Q: Can I put items on a summoned unit?

No. The 3-item-per-unit rule documented on the Item page applies to champions. Summoned units are not champions for the purpose of equipping. There is no slot UI (user interface) on them, and the game refuses item drops onto them. A summon can still arrive already carrying items when its source says so. One current Wisp spawns a Dummy holding the items of your first itemized tank when that tank dies. Even then the items came with the spawn. You can't add or swap any afterwards. Note: Otherwise, if a summon's strength scales, it scales off the summoner's items, level, Ability Power, or Attack Damage. It does not scale off anything the summon carries.

Question 1

What does "summon" mean in TFT?

Accepted Answer

A summon is a secondary unit added to the board by an ability, item, augment, trait, or Wisp. Examples are soldiers, plants, beasts, spirits, mini-pets, trait-spawned minions and relics.

Summons fight alongside your champions. They can move, attack, and be targeted by enemies. But they are not shop-bought champions:

You do not place them on the bench.
You do not normally equip them.
They have their own scaled Health, Attack Damage and Ability Power pool, tied to whatever spawned them.

Summon-scaling traits and augments exist because summons form their own stat-class. One current trait empowers each summoner's own summons in a different way. Another gives you placeable plants whose max Health and Ability Power rise with that trait's star level.

Question 2

What's the difference between a summon and a clone?

Accepted Answer

A clone is a duplicate of a unit you already have. It copies that unit's star level, usually its stats, and sometimes its items. It stands on the board as a separate body.

A summon is a distinct, pre-defined entity created from scratch by the trigger: a soldier, a plant, a beast, a spirit. It has its own kit and its own scaled stats. It copies nothing from a board unit.

Items are the one place the two overlap more than people expect. Most summons carry none. But a current Wisp spawns a Dummy that arrives holding the items of the tank that died.

Both are "non-shop" units. Both benefit from active traits. Neither adds to your trait piece counts. They just originate differently.

Note: See clone for the duplicate-of-an-existing-unit case.

Question 3

Do summoned units count toward the summoner's traits?

Accepted Answer

No. Trait bonuses are counted from the champions you field. Each champion carries an origin and a class, and meeting that count is what grants the bonus. A summon is a separate entity, not another copy of the champion that spawned it. So it never pushes a trait to its next breakpoint.

Summon-scaling traits work the other way round. They read how many summons are alive, or how strong they are, and pay out from that.

One current trait empowers each of its members' summons in a different way. It improves every one of those effects at its higher breakpoint.
Another gives the whole team extra Durability, doubled once enough of its plants are alive at the same time.

Note: Reading summon state is not the same as counting summons as trait pieces.

Question 4

Can I put items on a summoned unit?

Accepted Answer

No. The 3-item-per-unit rule documented on the Item page applies to champions. Summoned units are not champions for the purpose of equipping. There is no slot UI (user interface) on them, and the game refuses item drops onto them.

A summon can still arrive already carrying items when its source says so. One current Wisp spawns a Dummy holding the items of your first itemized tank when that tank dies. Even then the items came with the spawn. You can't add or swap any afterwards.

Note: Otherwise, if a summon's strength scales, it scales off the summoner's items, level, Ability Power, or Attack Damage. It does not scale off anything the summon carries.

Question 5

Can summons take damage and be killed?

Accepted Answer

Usually, yes. Summons have their own Health, Armor, and Magic Resist. They take damage from enemy attacks and abilities like any other unit on the board. They disappear when their Health hits zero or their duration runs out, whichever comes first.

Some are built to soak exactly that. A current on-death summon spawns with a set max Health and immediately taunts, forcing enemies to attack it instead of your carries. Summon-scaling traits pump this pool and make spawned units tougher. But they still die normally.

Note: A few summons are spawned untargetable on purpose. A current ability summons four helper birds that enemies simply cannot attack for the seconds they are out.

Question 6

How long does a summon last?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the summon, and the spell text tells you which kind you have.

Many ability summons carry a fixed duration and despawn when the timer ends. A current ability summons four helper birds "for 5 seconds", and that number scales with Ability Power.
Others carry no timer at all and stay until something kills them. An on-death summon left behind by a dying champion holds the board for the rest of the fight. Trait-spawned plants you place before the round persist as board fixtures rather than expiring.

Note: Across-round persistence is the rare case. Most summons are cleared at round end, along with the rest of the combat board.

Question 7

Do summons trigger the summoner's on-death effects? Do augments apply to them?

Accepted Answer

No to the first. On-death effects are tied to the unit they are attached to. A summon dying is not the summoner dying. The current on-death summons make this plain in reverse: the champion has to die before the spawn happens. So the trigger belongs to the champion, never to what it left behind.

For the second question, most start-of-combat augments only apply to units already on the board when combat starts. So summons spawned mid-fight miss those windows. Augments and items that explicitly read "summoned units" or "allies" are the ones that reach them.

Note: See on-death for the source-side rule.

Question 8

Can I lose a round if only my summons are left alive?

Accepted Answer

Generally, no. A round is decided when one side runs out of fightable units, and active summons count as fightable for that check. If your last champion dies but a summon is still on the board attacking, combat continues. It goes on until that summon is killed or its duration ends.

Note: A separate rule bears on the score-out math. Only real board units, not summoned units, count toward the player damage your opponent takes. So leaving a tanky summon alive does not spare you damage the way a surviving champion would.

Summon

Items with Summon effects (1)

Champions with Summon effects (7)

Augments with Summon effects (3)

What enables Summon (3)

Gold (1)

Silver (2)

Traits with Summon effects (4)

Wisps with Summon effects (9)

What enables Summon (9)

Frequently asked questions

Description

Items with Summon effects (1) #

Champions with Summon effects (7) #

Augments with Summon effects (3) #