Description
Generic enhancement — temporarily boosts an attack, ability, or stat beyond its baseline. Empower effects are usually one-shot bonuses tied to a single attack or cast (e.g., Caitlyn's Headshot passive empowers a chance-based attack — 15% per shot; Vex's Active fires 3 empowered strikes), not permanent stat gains.
Champions (2)
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Aim For The Head Passive: Attacks have a 15% Lucky chance to fire an empowered Headshot, dealing physical damage. N.O.V.A. Strike: Mark all enemies, increasing damage taken by 10%. The first time marked targets drop below 50% Health, Headshot them for physical damage. Lucky: Check twice and take the better outcome.
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Lend Me a Hand, Shadow! Passive: Every time Vex attacks, Shadow strikes a nearby enemy, dealing 27 / 40 / 250 magic damage. Whenever an enemy is struck 5 times by Shadow, Shadow strikes them again. Active: Shadow launches 3 empowered strikes, dealing 140 / 210 / 1000 magic damage instead.
Traits (9)
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Meeple attract Meeps that empower Meeple abilities in meepy ways. They also gain bonus Health. Cloning time = Champion cost
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Stargazers chart a different constellation every game. Stargazers in empowered hexes gain various bonuses, starting at (3) units. More hexes reveal at each player level.
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Stargazers chart a different constellation every game. This game: The Fountain. Allies in empowered hexes heal 1% max Health every 2 seconds. Stargazers in empowered hexes heal an additional 3% and gain stacking Attack Damage and Ability Power every 2 seconds. More hexes reveal at each player level
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Stargazers chart a different constellation every game. This game: The Huntress. Combat Start: Mark the highest Health enemies. Allies in empowered hexes gain 15% Attack Speed. Stargazers in empowered hexes gain more and heal for 15% of their max Health when a marked enemy dies. More hexes reveal at each player level
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Stargazers chart a different constellation every game. This game: The Medallion. More hexes reveal at each player level
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Stargazers chart a different constellation every game. This game: The Mountain Every 5 player combats, gain a Stargazer Emblem. Stargazers in empowered hexes gain various bonuses. More hexes reveal at each player level
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Stargazers chart a different constellation every game. This game: The Serpent. Allies in empowered hexes gain 5% Durability. Stargazers in empowered hexes gain more and poison enemies, repeating a portion of damage dealt as magic damage over 3 seconds. More hexes reveal at each player level
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Stargazers chart a different constellation every game. This game: The Altar. More hexes reveal at each player level
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Stargazers chart a different constellation every game. This game: The Boar. Gain gold after winning player combat. Allies in empowered hexes gain 8% Health, Attack Damage, and Ability Power. Stargazers gain more. More hexes reveal at each player level
Frequently asked questions
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Is "empower" a defined keyword in TFT, or just a regular word?
It's a generic enhancement verb in tooltip text, not a defined keyword like Burn or Stun. The community glossaries don't list it as a separate stat or status, and no TFT-namespaced wiki page exists for an "Empower" mechanic. When an ability or trait says a unit "launches empowered strikes" or "fires an empowered" version of an attack, the empower part is descriptive — the actual rules live in the surrounding numbers (chance, damage, scaling). Treat the word as a flag that the effect is a stronger one-shot variant of something the unit already does, then read the specific tooltip for the contract.
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Is an empowered attack a one-shot bonus or a persistent buff?
Almost always one-shot. The pattern in TFT tooltips is "the next attack..." or "X empowered strikes..." — the empower is consumed when the qualifying hit lands and goes away. It's not a duration buff like attack speed or damage amp that ticks for N seconds across many attacks. Read the count in the tooltip: if it says "3 empowered strikes," you get exactly three; if it's a percent chance per attack to fire an empowered version, each successful proc is its own one-shot. Persistent stat buffs use words like "gains," "for the rest of combat," or a duration; empower text doesn't.
Sources
- Caitlyn (TFT) — League of Legends Wiki (passive: "Attacks have a 15% chance to fire an empowered Headshot, dealing ... physical damage" — per-attack one-shot) (opens in new tab)
- Vex (TFT) — League of Legends Wiki (active: "Shadow launches 3 empowered strikes, dealing ... magic damage instead" — finite per-cast count) (opens in new tab)
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Does a "% chance to fire an empowered attack" roll once per attack or once per combat?
Once per attack. The standard TFT shape is a per-attack independent roll: each basic attack rolls the printed chance, and a success replaces (or augments) that single attack with the empowered version. A Set 17 trait makes this explicit by adding a "check twice and take the better outcome" rule on top of chance-based ability procs — that only makes sense if each attack carries its own roll. Over many attacks the empower fires roughly at the printed rate; short fights can streak high or low because each roll is independent.
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When an active ability fires "N empowered strikes... instead," do the normal passive strikes still happen?
No — the word "instead" in the tooltip is load-bearing. When the active resolves, it substitutes the empowered version for the normal output during that cast: e.g. an ability that says "launches 3 empowered strikes, dealing X% AP as magic damage instead" replaces the regular passive-strike payload for that cast, it doesn't add the empowered strikes on top of the normal pulse. After the cast resolves, the unit's regular passive resumes for the next attacks. So the empower is a swap during the cast window, not a stacking add-on.
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Can two empower sources stack on the same unit?
Two distinct sources (e.g. a passive empower-on-attack plus a separate trait or augment that empowers the next cast) generally fire independently because they listen for different triggers. What does NOT stack cleanly is two copies of the same empower source on one unit — TFT treats those as duplicates and usually only counts one. If you're combining a per-attack empower with a per-cast empower, expect them to coexist; if you're trying to double up the exact same buff, expect a single trigger. When in doubt, the patch notes are the source of truth — Riot has historically added explicit guards when stacked-empower interactions broke balance.
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Does an active ability's empowered strike count as a "cast" for on-cast items?
The cast itself is what triggers on-cast items, not the empowered strikes the cast produces. A spellblade-style item that says "the holder's first attack after each Ability cast deals ... bonus magic damage" fires its on-cast hook once when the ability resolves; the empowered strikes inside the ability are part of the ability's payload, not separate casts. Mana-refund and shield-on-cast items work the same way: one cast event, one on-cast trigger, regardless of how many empowered hits the ability spawns.
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Do empowered hits from a multi-cast trait still fire at full strength?
No — the bonus occurrence from Set 17's multi-cast trait Replicator runs at reduced effectiveness. Replicator makes a unit's ability "occur a second time at reduced effectiveness": one extra resolution, scaled to 22% strength at 2 Replicators and 45% strength at 4. That reduction applies to the ability's damage numbers, including the empowered-strike damage the ability is built around. So a unit whose active fires N empowered strikes will still fire N strikes on the bonus occurrence, but each strike's damage is scaled down by the trait's strength percentage. Whether per-strike on-hit/on-cast hooks all re-fire at full versus reduced rate is patch-volatile — read the current notes if it matters for the line.
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What's the difference between "empower" and "damage amp"?
Damage amp is a stat that multiplies all post-mitigation damage from a unit for as long as the buff is up — it scales every attack and ability hit while active. Empower is a tooltip flag for a stronger one-shot variant of a specific instance: this attack, this cast, these N strikes. Damage amp is broad and durative; empower is narrow and consumed. They stack cleanly on the same unit when both apply: an empowered hit landed during a damage-amp window benefits from the amp multiplier on top of its already-bigger empowered base. The mechanic-page edges section here lists which entities pair the two.