In TFT Set 16: Lore & Legends, the Lifting Competition is a Gold-tier quest augment that rewards you for stacking massive amounts of Health across your Bruiser units. On the surface it looks like a "go Bruiser vertical" augment — but in practice, it plays much more like a tempo-into-transition tool. The players who understand that distinction are the ones consistently finishing in the top three.

This guide breaks down exactly how the augment works, how to play each phase of the game, and when it actually makes sense to swing for the Impossible Lift versus cashing out early and riding the gold to a stronger endgame.

How Lifting Competition Works

When you take Lifting Competition, you immediately receive a Shen and a Sion — two Bruiser units — giving you an instant four-unit Bruiser opener if you pair them with two other Bruisers from the shop.

At the start of each planning phase, the game totals the combined maximum Health of every unique Bruiser on your board. If that number exceeds the current lift threshold, you receive a reward and the next threshold activates. There are four tiers in total:

The first three lifts are the bread and butter. They collectively give you roughly 28 gold and 6 components, which is enough to accelerate to Level 8 faster than most lobbies can react. The Impossible Lift is genuinely transformative — a Radiant item alone can win you the game — but it requires a very specific late-game board state to actually achieve.

Early Game: Stage 2-1 to 3-2

Take this augment at 2-1. The earlier you begin accumulating Bruisers, the faster you tick through the first two lifts and start snowballing. Taking it at 3-2 is not wrong if the lobby forces it, but you give up one full check cycle and typically miss the first threshold reward in a timely window.

Your immediate goal is fielding four unique Bruisers. Shen and Sion are already in your hand. Round out the roster with any two Bruisers available in the shop — Blitzcrank, Briar, Darius, and Mundo are all low-cost options that appear frequently in Stage 2.

Item priority in the early game is flat HP above almost everything else:

• Warmog's Armor — the single best item for the quest. +500 HP plus a strong passive for sustained fights.
• Redemption — +300 HP plus team healing. Excellent early.
• Sunfire Cape — +400 HP with a useful burn aura on tanks.
• Gargoyle Stoneplate — no flat HP, but scales defensively in big fights. Lower priority for the quest.

Every 1,000 HP you add to your Bruisers gets you measurably closer to the next threshold. Components like Giant's Belt and Chain Vest that build into HP-granting items should be prioritized in your carousel choices throughout Stages 2 and 3.

Mid-Game: The Tempo Pivot

Here is where most players make the critical mistake: they commit fully to the Bruiser vertical in the mid-game because it feels thematic. In high-elo play, the first three rewards are used to accelerate away from Bruisers, not deepen the commitment.

By Stage 4, the ideal line looks like this: you've banked the three lift rewards (roughly 28 gold + components), you're sitting on a healthy HP total from your items, and you use that gold advantage to level faster and 2-star your 4-cost carries before the rest of the lobby can. Your Bruisers remain in the lineup as frontline — they don't go anywhere — but they stop being the centerpiece of the board.

The two most reliable mid-game transition targets:

The Impossible Lift: Worth It?

The 34,000–36,000 HP target for the final reward sounds absurd, and it mostly is — which is why it's called the Impossible Lift. Reaching it requires a board that looks very different from a normal Stage 5 composition:

• Multiple 3-star Bruisers (3-star Volibear and Sylas are the most achievable targets)
• Bruiser Emblem on a naturally high-HP unit like a 2-star 5-cost
• Anima Visage or Warmog's Armor stacked on multiple frontline units
• Supporting augments like Big Friend or Ixtal Sunshards to push raw HP further

The Radiant item payout is undeniably strong — a Radiant Warmog's or Radiant Bloodthirster can single-handedly carry a game. But chasing the Impossible Lift means staying Bruiser-heavy until Stage 5-6, which sacrifices the tempo advantage that makes this augment worth taking in the first place.

Phase-by-Phase Cheat Sheet