Infusions are a consumable item sold at any shop for 500 gold. They come in the weapon and crystal varieties, and each grant a generous bump of combat stats for their cost. We’re going to breakdown the math behind infusions so you know when to commit to a temporary boost to your character’s competitiveness.

When do I start infusing?

Because infusions are a consumable item that expires 150 seconds (2.5 minutes) after you consume them it’s important to time your purchase and consumption to give yourself the most value. There are a few ways we could validate purchasing an infusion, but the simplest would be gold value. Below are two charts that show gold value of the stats gained for drinking each type of infusion; weapon and crystal.

At level 12 each infusion is worth roughly 2000 gold and they cost a mere 500 gold. At that 4:1 gold to bonus ratio it validates buying them four times for gold efficiency. If each lasts for 2.5 minutes, then if you think the game will end in the next ten minutes, start popping these suckers.

Why do some teams start buying infusions so early? One factor is their matches tend to not last very long because of how popular early game team comps are. However, that can’t be the only issue here, because infusions are often started only a few minutes into a game in some higher tier matches, which would be more than ten minutes before the game could reasonably end.

How about now?

The reason for these early investments come down to power spikes. For example, if you’re playing Vox and you know that overdriving Sonic Zoom at level eight is going to provide you a huge damage boost, you can leverage that spike with an early Weapon Infusion. Looking at these early infusion matches, it seems this is what’s happening; a player will buy an infusion right around when they expect to get their ultimate or overdrive an important ability. The advantage they get from their juiced-up power spike gives them a huge edge in team fights and helps their team pull ahead early and push into a short game.

Another factor worth considering is the importance of map objectives. If Taka infuses while he is level four he gains a very large boost to his combat effectiveness, while also increasing his longevity, and sustains that bonus through the level five or six gold mine fight. Not only is he carving jungle minions more efficiently, he’s also a larger asset to his team at pivotal battles in the game.

This isn’t the most gold efficient method, but that doesn’t make it ineffective. That early spike can make it well worth starting earlier than the previously-mentioned ten-minute estimate. This is also very risky though, and can severely stunt a carry if they find the game drawing out longer than they expected with them being under built compared to the enemy’s well-built, now infused carry.

Which one should I get?

Well, that depends on a couple factors: first, who are you playing? If you’re playing Celeste, you probably shouldn’t stress over getting a Weapon Infusion. Likewise, someone like Taka doesn’t benefit greatly from having Crystal Infusions. That being said, if your hero is crystal oriented, but could still use the extra attack speed, like say Adagio, at 658 gold worth for the attack speed, shield, and armor of the weapon infusion, he may as well dump some extra gold on it near the end of the match. If your build is already finished, keep your hero double infused whenever you can. Even if your hero doesn’t scale well with the offensive traits of one of the infusions, he’ll still gain some nice shield and armor without using an item slot.

Can i beat it?

These early infusions are very similar to Tension Bow; when you buy it, you’re making a commitment to end the game before its advantage wears off. This tactic can easily be countered. Wait for your opponents infusion to expire, stall out the game, and then infuse when you have a good opportunity.

anything else i should know?

The score screen is the best notification of which players on either team have infusions. Around and after 15 minutes into the game you should be watching that score screen like a hawk to make sure you’re not walking into a fight 2000 gold behind because your opponent wisely infused before initiating.