Dota Underlords
The Update In Which Spectre Takes a DaggerNov 19, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsHERO CHANGES Alchemist: Acid Spray: Damage changed from to Radius changed from to 2 Lifestealer: Feast: Percent of target HP per hit changed from to 3 Star Effect: Bonus Attack Speed changed from 50 to 30 Bonus Movement Speed Percent changed from 50 to 30 Shadow Shaman: 3 Star Effect: Hex duration changed from 5 to 7 Slardar: Attack Damage Minimum changed from to Attack Damage Maximum changed from to Spectre: Spectral Dagger: Damage changed from to Cooldown changed from to Bonus Attack Speed changed from 200 to 175 Spirit Breaker: Charge of Darkness: Fixed a bug where Spirit Breaker would not damage the target of the Charge. Damage per bash changed from to Tusk: Maximum Health changed from to Viper: Maximum Health changed from to ALLIANCE CHANGES Brute: Damage Reduction changed from to Damage on apply changed from to Rogue: Evasion Percent changed from to Scaled: Magic Resistance Percent changed from to Troll: Attack Speed Bonus for Trolls changed from to Attack Speed Bonus for other allies changed from to We Rotated Out Some More BugsSep 24, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsUNDERLORD CHANGES Anessix: Demon Archer no longer scales up damage as Anessix gets closer to casting her ultimate. Rejuvenating Ritual: Description fixed to comport with how the ability actually works. Enno: Dr. Enno's Soothing Balm: Description fixed to comport with how the ability actually works. Hobgen: Let's Go Crazy: Now affects Hobgen himself too. Jull: Happy Hour: Now affects Jull himself too. HERO CHANGES Axe: Culling Blade: No longer blocked by Aphotic Shield. Meepo: Poof: Meepo will shift target cells as needed while channeling, instead of interrupting the channel and starting again whenever his original target cell becomes invalid. Pangolier: Shield Crash: Fixed taunt not working. Puck: Illusory Orb: Puck no longer casts Illusory Orb at out of range targets. Wraith King: Raise Dead: When a dying hero is in range of both friendly and enemy Wraith Kings, the zombie created will be of the same team as the dying hero. ITEM CHANGES Horn of the Alpha: No longer does player damage at the end of the round. ALLIANCE CHANGES Shaman: Fixed a bug where Alliance summons could do damage at the end of the round. Regularized which Shaman unit summons the creature. The units are sorted by star level, then by draft tier, then by position (preferring backline heroes), and finally if there is a tie the hero bought (or combined if 2 or 3star) first wins. The Update In Which Medusa's Split Shot Gets Its Shots SplitSep 4, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsGENERAL Fixed a crash in Battle Pass UI on Android. Fixed the spotlights shining brightly and blue-ly on Phantom Assassin and Alchemist. Fixed Alchemist's pants being a bit too shiny and slightly invisible. Fixed a bug where Legion Commander could gain mana from performing a Delta Slam. Fixed Faceless Void appearing to be frozen inside Chronocube (this was a purely visual bug). HERO CHANGES Bristleback: Quill Spray: Cooldown changed from to Medusa: Split Shot: Damage reduction for extra shots changed from -20 to Extra shots changed from 2 to Puck: Illusory Orb: Damage changed from to Cooldown changed from to Queen of Pain: Maximum Mana changed from 100 to 60 Scream Of Pain: Mana Cost changed from 100 to 60 Slark: Essence Shift: Stolen Damage changed from to Stolen Attack Speed changed from to Spectre: Spectral Dagger: Duration of the buff changed from 5.0 to 4.0 Spirit Breaker: Charge of Darkness: Charge now damages the target enemy just like enemies along the way. Sven: Maximum Mana changed from 100 to 80 God's Strength: Mana Cost changed from 100 to 80 Troll Warlord: Fervor: Bonus Attack Speed per stack changed from to Maximum stacks changed from to Wraith King: Raise Dead: Wraith King will no longer raise a zombie from a Fallen hero that is in the process of reviving. Zombie: Maximum Health changed from to ITEM CHANGES Kaden's Blade: Kaden's Blade's damage is now affected by changes to attack damage on a percentage basis (like the Swordsman and Fallen buffs and like Medusa's Split Shot damage decrease). ALLIANCE CHANGES Fallen: Item cooldowns are no longer refreshed on revive. HP Percent for reviving units changed from 50 to 40 Heartless: Armor debuff changed from to Spirit: The damage and effect duration a Spirit hero does during a Delta Slam now varies by their star level. Base damage changed from 200 to 130 Base effect duration changed from 3.0 to 1.5 2 star multiplier is 1.5x (damage 195, duration 2.25) 3 star multiplier is 2x (damage 260, duration 3.0) Warrior: Bonus armor changed from to Magically Invulnerable Hotfix + Lord RewardAug 28, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsFIXES Alchemist is now properly magic immune during all of Chemical Rage. Fixed Necronomicon Brill Bruiser increasing Demon damage. Fixed Shaman alliance creatures not spawning near the highest-star-level Shaman. Fixed Shaman alliance creatures not being targeted by some abilities. Fixed an issue where the Early Bird challenge that now involves Shamans wasn't tracking progress. Fixed an issue where Tomato and Potato didn't get enough bonus damage. Lords of White Spire, you should now have your reward! If you don't get a popup, check out the Wanted Poster Titles screen in Loadout to see the new title.New Blood On The StreetsAug 27, 2020 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35233241/8e63fd79fd39d768925ebb7f4ad69778bf1da5a4.png Introducing a big shakeup on the streets of White Spire as new heroes and old friends/enemies/frenemies join the fray. We've got a lot in store for you this update, everything from a big roster shakeup to new alliances, items, and even a new way to play Standard matches. We've also compressed ranks downward, it's time to show off what you can do with the new lineup! And don't worry Lords, though you may be (temporarily?) Dethroned, we've given you a little keepsake (it will unlock soon after the rank reset). Note that this is a compatibility-breaking update, so until you download the new client on your mobile device you'll only be matched with other users running the old version too. RANK RESET Ranks above Grifter are being compressed downwards by one major level and Grifter and all lowered ranks will be reset to the first minor level. For example, if you're a Big Boss I-V, you'll be a Boss I. If you're a Grifter V you're only reset to Grifter I. Lords of White Spire will be reset to Big Boss I. CLASSIC MODE We've added a Classic Mode option to Standard Casual. Missed those Creep waves and don't want Anessix or Jull to interrupt the nostalgia? Check it out! You can play Classic by turning on the Classic checkbox in the Standard Casual tab on the Play screen or by playing a Private Match in Standard. NEW HEROES Vengeful Spirit: Tier 1 Heartless Fallen Ability: Wave of Terror: Vengeful Spirit lets loose a wicked cry in a straight path, damaging enemy units along the way and reducing their armor. 3 Star Effect: When Vengeful Spirit dies, she damages all enemies nearby. Meepo: Tier 2 Rogue Summoner Ability: Poof: Meepo teleports to a random enemy, dealing damage to all adjacent enemy units. Ability: Divided We Stand: Passive. Whenever Meepo casts an ability, he creates a copy of himself with the same health he currently has. If Meepo or any clone dies, all Meepos die. 3 Star Effect: Clones copy Meepo's item as well. Spirit Breaker: Tier 2 Savage Brute Ability: Charge of Darkness: Spirit Breaker charges towards a distant enemy, Bashing it and enemies along the way. 3 Star Effect: Spirit Breaker's attacks have a chance of Bashing his target. Spectre: Tier 3 Void Demon Ability: Spectral Dagger: Spectre flings a dagger at an enemy hero, dealing damage and drawing a Shadow Path. Enemies on the path lose Movement and Attack Speed. Spectre runs to attack the target unit and gains massively increased Movement and Attack Speed. While on the path Spectre also gains phasing movement. 3 Star Effect: While Spectre is alive, whenever a Demon casts a spell all Allied Demons erupt in flames and wreathe their targets in fire, dealing damage in a wide swathe and setting units hit on fire. Death Prophet: Tier 4 Heartless Fallen Ability: Exorcism: Death Prophet sends out evil spirits to roam the battlefield, dealing damage to all enemies they pass through. At the end of the duration, the spirits re...The Update In Which Back Issues Become AvailableAug 20, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsGENERAL As we put the finishing touches on the coming large update, we've enabled back issues for the Early Bird. You can now go back to earlier weeks and claim any rewards you may have missed by being a Late Bird. Fixed an issue accessing prior weeks of the Early Bird. Note that this update may take a few days to roll out on iOS but should be available now on PC and Android. And don't worry--you may have guessed the new heroes, but we still have some surprises up our sleeves. Along with a few knives, this is White Spire after all! Coming Soon: New Blood On The StreetsAug 13, 2020 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35233241/9c23342b88b2cc7e49b42d5f06d517df91945b61.png Hey everyone, As you may have noticed, Underlords updates have been coming slower as of late. There are a bunch of reasons for this. Some of them are internal (many of us have been helping other recent Valve projects ship), some of them are external (2020 everybody). So what will you be seeing soon? In the next few weeks you can expect a hero rotation bringing with it 8 new heroes, old friends, new alliances, and new items as well as a rank reset. See below for a sneak peek! See you in White Spire! {STEAM_CLAN_LOC_IMAGE}/35233241/d08199a892a64318d39868bdb0544f4bf94b2b89.png {STEAM_CLAN_LOC_IMAGE}/35233241/dd485cccf089dfff01a5ccde4744c71f37e56d56.png The Update In Which Lifestealer Gets Even AngrierAug 6, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsHERO CHANGES Legion Commander: 3 Star Effect: Allies within attack range of Legion Commander's Duel target will attack that target along with her during the Duel. Lifestealer: 3 Star Effect: Lifestealer gains Rage. On cast Lifestealer becomes Magic Immune and gains +50% Move Speed and +50 Attack Speed. The effects last for 5 seconds. Maximum Mana changed from 0 to 75 Snapfire: 3 Star Effect: Ol' Scatterblast also reduces enemy armor by 5 for the duration of the debuff. Ol' Scatterblast: Debuff duration changed from to Debuff Attack Speed loss changed from to Storm Spirit: 3 Star Effect: Storm gains Overload. Casting a spell creates an electrical charge which is released in a burst on Storm's next attack, dealing 150 magical damage and slowing the target's Attack Speed by 50 for 1.5 seconds. A Triangular Attack by Storm counts as an attack, in which case all units Storm hits in the Attack take the damage and are slowed. The Update In Which You Get An Icon And You Get An Icon And...Jul 27, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsGENERAL Added 3 Star Effect ability icons/descriptions for all heroes that currently have a 3 Star Effect. HERO CHANGES Lycan: Shapeshift: Wolves summoned changed from to Magnus: Reverse Polarity: Duration changed from 2 seconds to 1 second Presence of the Dark UpdateJul 23, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsHERO CHANGES Windranger: 3 Star Effect: At the start of charging her bow for her Powershot, Windranger gains 100% evasion and becomes magic immune. This lasts for 3 seconds. Magnus: Max Mana changed from 0 to 100 3 Star Effect: Magnus gains Reverse Polarity. On cast, enemies within 2 cells take 100 damage and are stunned for 2 seconds. Mana Cost 100, Cooldown 40. Shadow Fiend: 3 Star Effect: Shadow Fiend gains Presence of the Dark Lord. Enemies within 2 cells suffer -8 armor due to Shadow Fiend's terrifying presence. Morphling Copied This Update For YouJul 16, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsGENERAL Fixed a bug with Mirana where she would fail during cast if rooted. Now when rooted she will still fire her arrow but will not leap. Fixed an issue where Vigilant units would have their targeting break if an enemy cast an ability while the Vigilant unit was leaping (Mirana, Templar Assassin, others if thrown into the air). Fixed a bug with Enthralled Legion Commander where Legion Commander's Champion bonus would be based on her new crew's number of active Alliances rather than her old crew. Now if her new crew does not have an active Champion alliance already she will use her old crew's number of active Alliances when computing the Champion bonus. Fixed a bug with Kaden's Blade FX where the FX would trigger on multiple units at once. (This bug was caused when the issue causing Kaden's Blade to not generate mana was fixed last Friday.) Fixed an issue with Enno's Experimental Growth (Bloodbound Warlocks) Streetfight lacking text. UNDERLORD CHANGES Hobgen: Let's Go Crazy: Will now affect units spawned after Hobgen casts Let's Go Crazy, not just units alive at the time he casts. Friendly Fire: Changed damage type from Magical to Pure HERO CHANGES Bloodseeker: 3 Star Effect: Bloodseeker heals when any enemy within 1 cell of him dies, not just his current target. In addition, he gains the Critical Hit chance and bonus of the current active level of Assassin Alliance, if any. Bristleback: 3 Star Effect: Quill Spray cooldown lowered to 1 second. Morphling: 3 Star Effect: Morphling gains the in-combat bonuses of all active enemy Alliances as if he were an enemy Champion. Nyx Assassin: 3 Star Effect: Nyx Assassin also applies Vendetta after every 4 successive attacks. The counter is reset if Vendetta triggers due to teleporting. A Dark and Demonic UpdateJul 9, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsHERO CHANGES Doom: Attack Rate changed from 0.769 to 0.909 Armor changed from 5 to 15 Terrorblade: Terrorblade 3 Star Effect: Pure Damage Bonus Percent vs Demons changed from 100 to 125 Now an active ability: duration 5 seconds, cooldown 6 seconds. ITEM CHANGES Vladmir's Offering: Damage boost changed from 8 to 5% Enno-ugh of That CrashJul 3, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsHotfixes Fix a crash involving Enno's spin and Arc Warden clone spam. Fix a crash with Kaden's Blade. Arc Warden: Clones gain 20% less mana per clone (stacks multiplicatively). Clarified Abaddon's 3 Star Effect description. The Curse (and the bonus) refresh each time Abaddon successfully lands an attack on his target, but on changing targets Abaddon must land 3 strikes to Curse the new target and receive the Attack Speed bonus again. We Brought You An Update Which Brought You An Update Which...Jul 2, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsGENERAL Fixed an issue with Early Bird display of Board Spray rewards. Fixed an issue with Io's 3 Star Effect sometimes triggering when it shouldn't. Fixed some 3 Star Effects being purgeable when they shouldn't be. Fixed a longstanding interaction issue between Aegis and Io's Relocate which could lead to two revived copies of a Hero existing at once. Now Io will only consider selecting an Aegis-carrying Hero for Relocate if that Hero has already died its second time (i.e. been revived by Aegis and killed again). Fixed Axe's Counter-Helix killing Spiderlings even when they are invulnerable due to Broodmother's 3 Star Effect. HERO CHANGES Abaddon: 3 Star Effect: Abaddon gains the ability to apply the Curse of Avernus to enemies he attacks. Once Abaddon has attacked the same enemy unit 3 times in a row that unit becomes silenced for 2 seconds and Abaddon gains +30 Attack Speed against it. The bonus is lost if Abaddon changes targets. Arc Warden: Tempest Double: 3 Star Effect: Clones now clone items. Drow Ranger: 3 Star Effect: Drow Ranger's arrows become Frost Arrows. These arrows slow a hit unit's movement by 50% and its Attack Speed by 20. The effect lingers for 2 seconds. An Update That's A Little Less HeartlessJun 18, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsHERO CHANGES Arc Warden: Arc Warden clones no longer spawn Eidolons. Beastmaster: At three stars, Beastmaster takes 75% less damage from summons and is immune to their magic. Juggernaut: At three stars, Juggernaut gains Blade Dance: each attack has a 20% chance to Critical Hit for 200% Damage. Pudge: Fixed an issue with Pudge's 3 Star Effect (Flesh Heap) where magic resistance could sometimes go negative. Queen of Pain: At three stars, the Queen of Pain captivates nearby enemies, allowing her a 25% chance to evade attacks from enemies 2 cells away. ALLIANCE CHANGES Heartless: Armor Debuff changed from to A Pudgy UpdateJun 12, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsThis update is available now on PC and Android; iOS devices can take advantage of the new gameplay by playing multiplayer games until the iOS update deploys. GENERAL Fixed an issue where the challenge would not load correctly when first opening the Early Bird after a new week releases Increased number of each Tier 3 hero in the pool from 15 to 18. Fixed issue with current Picross puzzle where it had multiple solutions and required guessing. HERO CHANGES Luna: Luna 3 Star Effect (Eclipse): Beam Damage changed from 200 to 150 Omniknight: Purification: At three stars, Purification now has a 2-cell radius instead of 1 cell. Pudge: At three stars, Pudge becomes a Flesh Heap. Pudge gains 500 Max HP and 10% Magic Resistance each time an enemy dies within 1 cell of him. Snapfire: Mortimer Kisses: Damage changed from to Viper: At three stars, Viper performs a Viper Strike every 5 attacks. The enemy unit takes 250 damage per second and loses 80% move speed and 80 Attack Speed, with the slowing tapering off over the 3 second duration. ALLIANCE CHANGES Brawny: Changed Health bonus from per kill to vary by star level of the Brawny unit. 1 star Brawny units get bonus Health per kill; 2 star units get bonus Health per kill; and 3 star units get bonus Health per kill. A Top Tier UpdateMay 28, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsGENERAL Further performance and stability improvements for iOS and Android--to the point where we've officially added back the iPhone SE, 6S, 6S Plus, and iPad Air 2 to the Supported Devices list. Fixed the XP table in the Rulebook not matching the game. Fixed an issue where projectile impact sounds sometimes wouldn't play. Fixed an issue with Auras from abilities and items where sometimes when their source unit was Broken, they would still affect the source unit even if they properly did not affect other nearby units. And, of course, we hope you enjoy this week's new Early Bird! SHOP TIER ODDS This update introduces a change to the shop unit tier odds in Standard/Duos to encourage three-starring 1, 2, and 3-cost units. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35233241/19b48593ccdce072732c1a4b864eabdc5f06addc.png HERO CHANGES Broodmother: 3 Star Effect: All friendly Spiderlings (both hers and Insect Alliance Spiderlings) are invulnerable while Broodmother is alive. Dazzle: 3 Star Effect: Dazzle gains Shallow Grave. All friendly units within 1 cell of Dazzle survive an extra 5 seconds after receiving a killing blow. Luna: Attack Damage Minimum changed from to Attack Damage Maximum changed from to 3 Star Effect: Luna gains Eclipse. In Luna's time of need, Selemene blocks the light in a radius of 2 cells around Luna and showers enemies with 15 beams of lunar energy, one every 0.3 seconds, doing 200 Magical Damage per beam and stunning for 0.5 seconds, with a maximum of 5 beams per enemy unit. Razor: Fixed an issue with Razor's 3 Star Effect where enemies could lose Attack Damage more than 10 times (Razor's stealing limit). Shadow Demon: 3 Star Effect: Shadow Demon gains Soul Catcher, which activates during Demonic Purge. At the start of Demonic Purge, the affected unit loses 30% of its current health. At the end of the Purge, if the unit surives, it regains half that amount. Snapfire: Mortimer Kisses: Fixed an error in the description where the duration of the fire was reported as seconds. This was actually the attack slow duration; the fire duration is 5 seconds. Fixed the attack slow modifier; it was speeding up enemy attacks instead. Enemies affected by the magma now properly lose 20 Attack Speed for seconds. Treant Protector: 3 Star Effect: Treant Protector gains Living Armor. During Leech Seed, friendly units healed by the Seed gain +5 Armor. Leech Seed: Fixed an error in the description: the damage interval is once every second, not once every 1.5 seconds. Hotfix May 21May 21, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsHOTFIXES Fixed iOS startup error. If you continue to encounter it after this hotfix, please uninstall and reinstall the app. Fixed Jull not appearing in this week's Early Bird Streetfight. Fixed Happy Hour causing Sticky Napalm to proc when the delayed damage is applied. Fixed Crystal Maiden's cooldown reduction not stacking with Octarine. The following fixes are live on PC and Android and will appear on iOS once approved: Fixed Early Bird appearing on top of Post Game screen in some circumstances. Fixed missing opponent poster in this week's Early Bird Streetfight. Fixed Crystal Maiden's cooldown reduction not displaying on ability tooltips during combat. Enjoy this Axe-citing Update!May 21, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsGENERAL Enjoy this week's Early Bird! Fixed an issue with Duos and Parties where a party could only have one team color other than Random selected at any time. Fixed issues with Prestige 5 where City Crawl nodes were unselectable. To rectify you may have to force quit and restart the application after first starting it after the patch. Introducing a much stabler experience on 2GB iOS devices! Reduced banding on the glow on benched units. HERO CHANGES Crystal Maiden: At three stars, friendly units gain 20% cooldown reduction. Earth Spirit: Geomagnetic Grip: At three stars, units hit by Geomagnetic Grip are also stunned for 1.5 seconds. Enigma: Midnight Pulse: Damage changed from % to % Terrorblade: Maximum Mana changed from 100 to 80 magicResist changed from to 30 Metamorphosis: Mana Cost changed from 100 to 80 At three stars, Terrorblade gains +100% Pure Damage against Demons (or an enemy Champion with an active Demon Alliance). Tiny: At three stars, each time Tiny Tosses an enemy, he grows in size, gaining +75 Attack Damage and +5 Armor but losing 10 Attack Speed, up to a maximum of 5 times. Witch Doctor: Paralyzing Cask: At three stars, Witch Doctor also curses units hit by the cask for 4 seconds, doing 20 damage per second. At the end, the unit takes an extra 40% of all damage taken during the curse. ALLIANCE CHANGES Spirit: Damage changed from 225 to 200 The Early Bird (is the word)May 14, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsGood evening! (or morning, or... whatever) In addition to our regular bug fixes, balance patches, and more three star unit updates, today we are introducing The Early Bird weekly newspaper. The Early Bird is a weekly paper that contains the latest news from White Spire, new challenges to complete, and more. Complete the weekly Puzzle, Streetfight, and Objective to unlock the weekly reward! The Early Bird feature is available to players who have unlocked the Battle Pass. Enjoy this week's issue, and see you in White Spire! {STEAM_CLAN_LOC_IMAGE}/35233241/67045600a083613059b296e51d37bc4f055a2b74.png GENERAL Fixed an issue where Streetfight items would show at the wrong Prestige level in the City Crawl map view. Fixed an issue with the Play Again button in City Crawl Streetfights. Fixed an issue with "Win x rounds with alliance active" objectives which were completing when you had at least one unit of that alliance. They now require the alliance to actually be active. UNDERLORD CHANGES Anessix: Enthrall: Enthralled Brawny units now retain their Brawny HP buff. Enno: All Out Attack!: Poison Stacks changed from 2 to 3 Hobgen: Friendly Fire: Fixed an issue where units who moved into target cells after Friendly Fire was cast would not be damaged. Damage changed from to Fire duration changed from 3.0 to 5.0 Jull: Happy Hour: Cooldown changed from 8 to 10 HERO CHANGES Chaos Knight: At three stars, Chaos Knight's allied Knights always count as adjacent to a friendly Knight. Io: Maximum Health changed from to Tether: Fixed a major issue where Tether would increase, rather than reduce, damage to Io and the target unit. Damage taken by Io and tethered target changed from % to % Attack Speed buff changed from to Relocate: At three stars, the revived hero also has their cooldowns reset. Lycan: Shapeshift: Wolves summoned changed from 2 to Razor: At three stars, Razor steals 7 attack damage from his target on each successful attack, up to a maximum of 70 damage. This is reset for Razor, but not the target, on switching targets. Slardar: Corrosive Haze: At three stars, Slardar also bashes the target for 100 Physical damage and a stun of 1.5 seconds. Tiny: Toss: If there are no free cells available near enemies, Tiny will toss his enemy into the nearest free cell rather than not casting. Warlock: At three stars, Warlock prevents friendly Demons from silencing each other when casting abilities. ALLIANCE CHANGES Demon: See above. Knight: See above. Dota Underlords Has Already Doubled Artifact's Peak Player Count on SteamJun 21, 2019 - GitHypEarlier today, Valve opened the public beta for Dota Underlords, their second attempt at a Dota 2 spin-off, which has already surpassed Artifact with a peak of 119k concurrent players on Steam.
Calling Valve’s first spin-off a “flop” would be a bit of an understatement. After peaking with 60k players back in November 2018, Artifact: The Dota 2 Card Game ended last year outside Steam's top 100 most played games, and right now, only has a total of 60 players online. That’s right. Six. Zero.
Shortly after the downfall of Artifact earlier this year, a user-created mode within Dota 2 called “Auto Chess” started to grow in popularity -- resulting in Dota 2’s player base on Steam increasing by over 100k players for the first time in years.
For those who haven’t played yet, unlike Dota, Auto Chess is more of a resource management game where eight players take turns placing hero units on an 8x8 chess board – each round doesn’t actually play out anything like chess and the goal is to create the strongest combination of heroes.
Auto Chess’ rise as its own genre is very similar to how Dota itself started as a user-made mode in Blizzard’s Warcraft III. Recently, Valve tried to acquire the original creators of Auto Chess, Drodo Studio; however, the deal fell through, and the Chinese devs just announced at E3 that they're bringing their own standalone version of Auto Chess to the Epic Games Store later this year.
With all the games Epic has stolen from Valve this past year, Valve made the brilliant decision to release the free-to-play Underlords sooner than later and beat Epic to market. But Epic isn’t even Valve’s biggest competition right now... and the creators of League of Legends also just released their own take on the Auto Chess genre called Teamfight Tactics.
For years, LoL has dominated the MOBA market with millions more players than Dota 2. Based on current Twitch viewer counts, it looks like Riot Games could once again come out on top here with 20x more viewers and TFT being the most watched game on Twitch today.
But Valve still has one big advantage over Riot’s new game that could help Underlords win the late game battle. In addition to being on Steam, Underlords is also now available on Android and iPhone with full crossplay support that allows PC players to finish matches on mobile devices and vice versa.
At the moment, Riot’s TFT is not on Android or iPhone and the developer hasn’t given any information on when, if ever, they plan on releasing the game for mobile devices.
This is critical because back when the battle royale genre was still new and Fortnite was battling PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, it was Epic bringing their game to mobile first that helped Fornite explode in popularity, skyrocketing past PUBG, and quickly becoming the most popular game in the world. LoL might have the bigger player base, but Valve's focus on the mobile market could help Dota Underlords quickly catch up to Riot's numbers.
For those who haven’t played yet, unlike Dota, Auto Chess is more of a resource management game where eight players take turns placing hero units on an 8x8 chess board – each round doesn’t actually play out anything like chess and the goal is to create the strongest combination of heroes.
Auto Chess’ rise as its own genre is very similar to how Dota itself started as a user-made mode in Blizzard’s Warcraft III. Recently, Valve tried to acquire the original creators of Auto Chess, Drodo Studio; however, the deal fell through, and the Chinese devs just announced at E3 that they're bringing their own standalone version of Auto Chess to the Epic Games Store later this year.
With all the games Epic has stolen from Valve this past year, Valve made the brilliant decision to release the free-to-play Underlords sooner than later and beat Epic to market. But Epic isn’t even Valve’s biggest competition right now... and the creators of League of Legends also just released their own take on the Auto Chess genre called Teamfight Tactics.
For years, LoL has dominated the MOBA market with millions more players than Dota 2. Based on current Twitch viewer counts, it looks like Riot Games could once again come out on top here with 20x more viewers and TFT being the most watched game on Twitch today.
But Valve still has one big advantage over Riot’s new game that could help Underlords win the late game battle. In addition to being on Steam, Underlords is also now available on Android and iPhone with full crossplay support that allows PC players to finish matches on mobile devices and vice versa.
At the moment, Riot’s TFT is not on Android or iPhone and the developer hasn’t given any information on when, if ever, they plan on releasing the game for mobile devices.
This is critical because back when the battle royale genre was still new and Fortnite was battling PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, it was Epic bringing their game to mobile first that helped Fornite explode in popularity, skyrocketing past PUBG, and quickly becoming the most popular game in the world. LoL might have the bigger player base, but Valve's focus on the mobile market could help Dota Underlords quickly catch up to Riot's numbers.
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