TFT Patch 17.9 Notes: Rhaast Hits Triple Damage, Milio Gets Scary, and Space Gods Signs Off

Riot built its final Space Gods patch as a farewell party rather than a balance pass. TFT patch 17.9 hands Rhaast more than three times his old ability damage, turns Twisted Fate into a coin flip with real consequences, and reworks Milio into something analysts already want reverted.

Enchanted Wilds arrives on August 26, which leaves you exactly two weeks to abuse whatever survives.

When does TFT patch 17.9 go live, and when does Set 18 start?

Rodger “Riot Prism” Caudill and Katie “Riot Ukime” Guo published the notes on August 11, and patch 17.9 launched on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, alongside League of Legends patch 26.16. Set 18, Enchanted Wilds, goes live at the end of the patch cycle on August 26.

Riot also confirmed something unusual: Space Gods stays playable for a limited time after Enchanted Wilds launches. If you have a comp you love, it survives past the set transition.

Which change matters most in patch 17.9?

Milio, and not because Riot buffed his numbers.

His spell now has a 40 percent chance to cast a second time on an additional target, and that extra cast can bounce onwards to new targets. Riot paid for the mechanic with lower damage on paper: primary spell damage falls from 255/380/575 AP to 200/300/470, and bounce damage drops from 85/130/190 to 60/90/150.

The compensation nerf looks reasonable until you run the chain. A bounce that finds new targets can keep going, so the practical ceiling sits far above the tooltip. TFT Flow flagged the rework as the most impactful change in the patch and raised the possibility of a B-patch, arguing that Riot may take balance more seriously than usual on a final patch precisely because Set 17 continues running into Set 18’s launch.

Riot normally lets the last patch of a set stay silly. This one has a longer shelf life than usual.

Rhaast is the biggest raw number

Rhaast	Before	After
Ability damage	120/180/300 AD	400/600/1,000 AD
Spell duration	2 seconds	1 second

Riot halved the spell duration and more than tripled the payoff. The notes spell out the intent: give Rhaast a Sterak’s Gage and he becomes the AD bruiser you already know from Summoner’s Rift. Consequently, he shifts from sustain frontliner to burst carry.

Anyone still running him as a tank should rebuild around damage before the set ends.

Twisted Fate becomes a gambling problem

Riot rewrote his card outcomes rather than tuning his numbers.

• A rolled 9 now always grants gold, regardless of star level. Previously only 3-star Twisted Fate got that bonus.
• A rolled 1 costs him 15 percent of his maximum health as true damage.
• Minimum damage collapses from 200/305/460/800 AP to 30/45/70/120.
• Maximum damage climbs from 450/675/1,015/1,725 AP to 680/1,020/1,550/2,650.

The spread between his floor and his ceiling widened enormously. High rolls now win fights outright, while low rolls do almost nothing and hurt him on top of it. Riot described the intent plainly: better high-rolls, weaker and more tilting low-rolls.

Trait and unit changes

Shepherd received the only trait change in the patch, aimed at making the summon feel worth building around.

Shepherd	Before	After
Total mana reduction	0/50	0/40
AP per cast	15	10
Summon shield duration	4s	3s
Tail Sweep damage	200/230/275 AP	200/300/400 AP
Shepherd (7) wave damage	220 AP	300 AP

The summon casts more often and scales harder deeper into a fight, at the cost of shorter shields and less AP per cast.

Tier 2: Gwen, Milio and a Meepsie rework

Gwen picked up modest help. Her Groove threshold rises from 40 to 50 percent enemy health, so she enters her damage state earlier, and primary target damage climbs from 145/220/410 AP to 155/235/440. Riot’s stated goal was pulling her out of B tier rather than making her a first pick.

Meepsie changed role entirely, from Magic Tank to Magic Fighter. Her base attack damage drops from 65 to 20, attack speed rises from 0.55 to 0.65, and mana falls from 50/100 to 0/55. Most importantly, her ability now uses her champion augment Big Bang instead of her old spell. Passive damage falls to 30/45/70 AP, spell damage to 180/270/425, bonus passive damage per Meep from 60 to 50 percent, and stun duration from 1.25/1.5/1.75 seconds to 1/1/1.5.

Tier 3: gold and attack speed

• Lulu now drops 1/4/7 gold from The Medallion, up from 1/3/5.
• Maokai gains base attack speed (0.6 to 0.7) and his NOVA Selector damage scales at 12 percent max health instead of 8.
• Rhaast takes the numbers above.

Reroll Lulu became a genuine economy engine with that change, since seven gold every six casts compounds fast.

Tier 4 and 5

Tahm Kench’s Oracle pays more gold per round, though Riot did not publish the exact figure. Zed joined the base champion pool, which removes the Invader Zed augment entirely and makes him available without augment luck. Riot balanced that availability with a base health cut from 1,300 to 1,100.

What should you play in the last two weeks?

Rhaast carry comps deserve the first test. Tripling ability damage rarely survives a set transition untouched, and this patch has no future to protect.

Milio boards are the second obvious target, with the caveat that Riot could B-patch him. Playing him now beats playing him in a week.

For economy, reroll Lulu and Tahm Kench both improved without drawing much attention, and neither depends on a mechanic Riot is likely to revisit before Enchanted Wilds.

What is coming in Set 18?

Enchanted Wilds arrives August 26 with Wisps as its core mechanic. Riot published a Dev Drop walking through the set, plus shorter clips covering Enchanted Wilds in 60 seconds, the Wisps mechanic and the wildest five-costs of Set 18.

Set 17 champions have already started shifting toward Set 18 identities. Gnar became a Brawler and Morgana picked up Conduit in patch 17.8, both changes Riot described as previews of Enchanted Wilds traits.

Full numbers live in Riot’s official TFT patch 17.9 notes. For more, see our TFT coverage and our breakdown of LoL patch 26.16.