

Teams are now facing a few new, difficult questions. Having a definite identity in the space is just as important as pedigree, and over the last month or so, both Teamfight Tactics and Dota Underlords have done well in that regard. Having Valve and Steam support helps, but there were a lot of developers looking to get in on the initial auto chess craze, especially on mobile. The team seemed to hone in on some of Underlords' defining features-the upgradeable race and class traits, as well as the "item rounds"-to create some room for itself in the crowded auto chess space. While Drodo's Auto Chess seems the most faithful to the original, Valve's effort has been evolving at a near-breakneck pace with weekly updates. And while this might have left some purists turning up their noises, it made Teamfight Tactics stand out that much more in what had already become a vast sea of imitators.
#Dota underlords or teamfight tactics mod#
And considering how many people play League of Legends, that's a not-so-insignificant advantage.īut where the initial releases of Auto Chess and Dota Underlords felt very much like extensions of the mod rather than something original, Teamfight Tactics introduced some really wild new ideas like the unit carousel and a simplified item combining system.
#Dota underlords or teamfight tactics install#
Teamfight Tactics gets to pull in the install base of League of Legends by living inside its client, rather than a standalone like Auto Chess or Underlords. It's not a huge surprise, given a few factors. Each autobattler is starting to develop an identity all its own, and what this means for the future of the genre is exciting.Īs it stands, Teamfight Tactics is certainly the most popular game.

Drodo is the odd duck out, but a notable one it's the team that created the original Dota Auto Chess mod, who have since moved on and developed a standalone for mobile that it plans to bring to the Epic Games Store. You're likely familiar with Riot and Valve for their respective MOBAs, League of Legends and Dota 2. There have been a good few games that have entered the space, but today, we're talking about the biggest ones: Riot Games' Teamfight Tactics and Valve's Dota Underlords, as well as touching on Drodo Studios' Auto Chess. You build up your army's strength by combining identical units and synergizing their passive traits, and repeat until one board is left standing. Then your board fights another player's-or sometimes, a neutral set of monsters-and the loser takes damage to their health bar. You build up gold to spend on units, which you can buy from a rotating random selection, to place on your board each round. If you're still unfamiliar, an autobattler or "auto chess" is essentially a mixture of a deck-building card game, tower defense, and poker. But now, everything's starting to solidify and the key players are clear. What started as a mod for Dota 2 has skyrocketed in popularity, getting some big developers involved and many more trying to replicate the formula. It's been just over a month since the "auto chess" gold rush kicked off.
