Description
True Damage is damage that bypasses both Armor and Magic Resist.
Read moreShow less about True Damage
The damage number on the source is applied directly to the target's current Health.
Note: Shields still absorb true damage like any other damage type.
Listed in: Anti-tank, Team buffs
Items that deal True Damage (7)
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- +150 HP
- +20% AP
- +1 Mana Regen
Attacks and Abilities deal 1% Burn and 33% Wound to enemies for 10 seconds. Burn: Deals a percent of the target’s max Health as true damage every second. Wound: Reduces healing received.
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- +45% AS
- +3% Damage Amp
Attacks and Abilities 1% Burn and 33% Wound enemies for 5 seconds. Burn: Deals a percent of the target’s max Health as true damage every second. Wound: Reduces healing received.
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- +150 HP
- +20 Armor
Gain 8% max Health. Every 2 seconds, deal 1% Burn and 33% Wound to an enemy within 2 hexes for 10 seconds. Burn: Deals a percent of the target’s max Health as true damage every second. Wound: Reduces healing received.
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- +300 HP
- +35% AP
- +2 Mana Regen
Attacks and Abilities deal 2% Burn and 33% Wound to enemies for 10 seconds. Burn: Deals a percent of the target’s max Health as true damage every second. Wound: Reduces healing received.
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- +80% AS
- +6% Damage Amp
Attacks and Abilities 2% Burn and 33% Wound enemies for 5 seconds. Burn: Deals a percent of the target’s max Health as true damage every second. Wound: Reduces healing received.
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- +300 HP
- +40 Armor
Gain 16% max Health. Every 2 seconds, deal 2% Burn and 33% Wound to an enemy within 2 hexes for 10 seconds. Burn: Deals a percent of the target’s max Health as true damage every second. Wound: Reduces healing received.
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- +20% AS
The holder gains the Rapidfire trait. Attacks deal 1% of the target's max Health as true damage.
Your team gains 10% Attack Speed. Rapidfire champions gain more on every attack, up to 10 stacks.
- 2
- +3% per Attack
- 3
- +5% per Attack
- 4
- +8% per Attack
- 5
- +12% per Attack
Champions that deal True Damage (2)
2 champions · paste in the game's Team Planner
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Razor Leaves Summon five razor-sharp leaves that converge on the current target, dealing a total of 340 / 510 / 770 physical damage and applying 20% Wound and 1% Burn for 4 seconds. Scarlet Buff: Cinderling gains 22% Attack Damage each cast. Wound: Reduces healing received. Burn: Deals a percent of the target's max Health as true damage every second. -
Tantrum Passive: Every second, restore 33 / 59 / 172 Health and deal 12 / 18 / 150 magic damage to enemies within 1 hex. Active: Deal 100 / 150 / 2000 magic damage to enemies within 2 hexes and Stun them for 1 / 1 / 6 seconds, increased to 3 / 3 / 13 seconds if the target is Burning. Burn: Deals a percent of the target's max Health as true damage every second.
Augments that deal True Damage (2)
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Soul Awakening Prismatic Combat start: Your team gains 1.5% Attack Damage and Ability Power per second for 10 seconds. At max stacks, deal 12% bonus true damage.
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The Tower Silver Gain a giant Training Dummy. Every 4 seconds, it zaps the 3 nearest enemies dealing 5% max Health true damage.
Traits that deal True Damage (2)
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Your champions gain a 5% max Health shield and deal 8% bonus magic damage. Gain additional bonuses for each unique 3-star champion: 1 : Increase shield and magic damage by 1% for each 3-star. 3 : 15% and 12 5 : Convert 40% of the bonus magic damage to true damage. 7 : Every 4 seconds of combat, a 3-star champion ascends to 4-star.
Wisps that deal True Damage (3)
What enables True Damage (3)
- Blaze Combat
Fire spreads across the board, dealing true damage to enemies.
- Lightning Storm Combat
Every 1 second deal 5% Max Health true damage to an enemy.
- Lightning Strike Combat
Deal 10% Max Health true damage to all enemies.
What counters True Damage
What True Damage counters
See also
Frequently asked questions
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What is true damage in TFT, and what does it ignore?
True damage is one of the three basic damage types in TFT. The other two are physical (AD) and magic (AP).
The TFT pages of the wiki define it as damage that ignores resistances, damage reduction, and damage amplification. Resistances here means Armor and Magic Resist. So the number on the source goes through as written, no matter what defensive stats the target has stacked.
Note: That makes it the only damage type whose tooltip value is also its delivered value. This holds before you consider shields and other special effects.
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Do shields absorb true damage, or does true damage bypass them too?
Normal shields absorb true damage.
The shield pool is consumed first, whatever the damage type: physical, magic, or true. Only damage that overflows the shield reaches Health.
True damage's bypass clause only covers Armor, Magic Resist, damage reduction, and damage amplification. Shields are a separate layer with their own rules. So a unit sitting under a shield is fully protected against true-damage ticks until the shield is consumed.
Note: In League there is one exception, the Nexus Obelisk's special true damage that pierces shields. That exception does not exist in TFT.
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If Armor and Magic Resist don't reduce it, how do you defend against true damage?
There are three main levers.
- Raw max Health. Against flat true damage, more HP means each hit removes a smaller percentage of the bar.
- Shields. They absorb true damage at face value until they are consumed.
- untargetability or invulnerability windows. These block all damage types.
Armor, MR, and generic damage-reduction percentages do nothing against true damage.
Note: Max-HP stacking does not help against percent-max-HP true damage like Burn. Those scale up with your HP pool, so the time-to-kill stays roughly constant.
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Does damage amplification ("+X% damage") boost true damage in TFT?
No. This is one of TFT's quiet differences from base League.
The TFT true-damage page of the wiki lists damage amplification by name among the things true damage ignores, alongside resistances and damage reduction. So a buff that reads "deal X% more damage" applies to physical and magic outputs. It does not apply to the true-damage portion of the same source.
In base League, true damage is amplified by most amp effects. TFT changed this rule on purpose, and it has been stable across recent sets.
Note: This is why true-damage trait bonuses and burn ticks feel "locked" at their tooltip values.
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Can true damage from abilities critically strike?
Only if an item or the ability itself unlocks it. By default, abilities do not crit on their own. Only basic attacks do.
A small class of items unlocks ability crits. Those items clearly cover true damage as well as magic damage. The official wording is that critical strikes from abilities trigger from magic and true damage instead of all damage.
With one of those enabling items plus crit chance, the true-damage portion of a spell can land critical hits.
Note: Without that, or without an ability that natively states it can crit, the true-damage tick stays at its flat tooltip value.
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Does Omnivamp (or lifesteal) heal the dealer when they deal true damage?
Omnivamp does. Lifesteal is the narrower stat.
Omnivamp converts a percentage of all post-mitigation damage into healing. It does not matter whether the damage was physical, magic, or true.
Lifesteal only heals from basic-attack damage, not from ability damage or DoT (damage over time) effects. Many true-damage sources are abilities or burn ticks rather than basic attacks.
Both stats heal at reduced effectiveness against non-champion targets and on AoE (area of effect).
Note: Heal-and-shield-power amplifies most heals but does not multiply Omnivamp's conversion rate.
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What's the difference between true damage and physical damage when Armor has been reduced to 0?
They feel identical in the moment, but only one is locked in.
Resistances in TFT are floored at 0. Sunder, Shred, and other reductions can take Armor or MR to zero but not below. So once a target is at 0 Armor, incoming physical damage is unmitigated. The community shorthand calls this "effectively true damage."
The difference is that physical damage still:
- respects damage reduction and damage amplification.
- can be re-mitigated the moment any Armor is restored.
- reads as physical for on-hit triggers.
Note: Tooltipped true damage permanently bypasses all of that, regardless of the target's current resistance values.
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Does anti-heal (Wound / Grievous Wounds) interact with true damage at all?
Not on the dealing side. Wound and Grievous Wounds are healing-side debuffs. They reduce the healing the affected unit receives, with no mention of damage type. So applying anti-heal to a target does not change how much true damage that target takes.
The relevant interaction runs the other way. Many anti-heal sources are bundled with Burn, which itself ticks as percent-max-HP true damage. So the target ends up taking unmitigated DoT (damage over time) and healing less to compensate.
Note: The two effects sit side by side in the same tooltip but operate on different stats.