"Auto Chess" redirects here. For the game genre it spawned, see
auto battler
.
2019 video game
Dota Auto Chess
is a
strategy video game
mod
for the video game
Dota 2
. Developed by Drodo Studio and released in January 2019, the game features teams of automated
Dota 2
heroes fighting battles on a chessboard. The mod had over eight million players by May 2019 and its popularity led to the rapid creation of the
auto battler
genre. Later in 2019, Drodo Studio developed a standalone version known simply as
Auto Chess
, while
Valve
, the developer of
Dota 2
, developed their own standalone version known as
Dota Underlords
.
Gameplay
[
edit
]
This elimination style game features elements derived from
Dota 2
. Up to eight players are assigned to their own chessboard upon which their "home" battles are fought. Each player controls a character called a courier, which tracks the player's
health
, gold (displayed as the courier's mana), and
experience level
. At the beginning of every round, an enemy team appears on the player's board (home games) and the player's team appears on an enemy's board (away games). The teams fight in an automatically generated battle over which the player has no direct control- hence
Auto
.
Players create a team of pieces which are randomly drawn and purchased from a shared pool of over fifty distinct
Dota 2
heroes- each with its own statistics, abilities, and persona. Three of the same piece combine to form a 2-star piece, and three 2-star pieces combine to form a 3-star piece. Each piece also belongs to a class and at least one particular race. Assembling a sufficient number of pieces in a race or class grants a "synergy" which increases the power of either a certain group of pieces or a player's entire team. Each synergy has multiple tiers of increasingly powerful buffs based on how many of each race or class are on a player's board. Synergy buffs may increase the defending team's stats, decrease the opponent team's defenses, or initiate synergy-specific abilities. Because the pool of pieces is shared by all players, synergies which are contested by multiple players are more difficult to assemble. Up to 8 unused pieces can be held on a player's bench.
Gameplay proceeds over the course of several dozen rounds with each round containing three phases: income, preparation, and battle. Income is rewarded at the beginning of each round based on a few different factors. On top of a base amount, players receive one gold in interest per multiple of ten gold (up to forty) currently in their bank. Winning and losing streaks of five or above grant bonus gold. When a player ends another player's win streak by winning an away game against said winning player, they receive extra gold. When a player is knocked out of the game, players that have contributed to their elimination receive gold and/or items. Players also earn one gold immediately upon winning a battle- notably before the next round's interest is calculated.
During the preparation phase, players can spend their gold to buy pieces, to buy experience, or to re-roll the options in their shop. They can also adjust their team- placing and rearranging pieces within the first four rows of their board, selling them, or moving them to the bench. As a player gains additional levels over time or by spending gold on experience, more powerful pieces become available to be rolled and purchased.
The battle phase is straightforward, as players have no control over any of their pieces on their board during this time. Pieces follow basic algorithms to fight and to use their abilities until only one team is left standing. The winning player deals damage to the losing player based on the surviving pieces in the winner's army. During battles, players observe their matches and others in order to determine tactical adjustments to positioning, to identify threats, and to scout for conflicting piece or team compositions.
During mob rounds, players may acquire items after killing neutral creeps and can give these items to their pieces. Each item has unique effects and some can be combined to form stronger versions.
[1]
Upon a successful fight during every tenth round, the creeps drop a relic. Relics reward players with "neutral items" that manipulate the normal game rules in their favor.
Rankings
[
edit
]
Dota Auto Chess
has its own
ranking system
. After the end of a game, the rank of players changes based on how well they placed. Players who survive longer place higher and thus earn greater rank increases. There are six basic ranks in the game: Queen, King, Rook, Bishop, Knight and Pawn, with Queen the highest rank. The Pawn, Knight, Bishop and Rook ranks are split into numerical rankings from 1-9, while there is a single King and single Queen rank.
[1]
Additionally, the top ten thousand Queen players on the global leaderboard are shown alongside their standing. At the end of April 2019, the developer added a season system. After the end of a season, higher rank players achieve better rewards and the rank will reset.
[2]
Cosmetics
[
edit
]
All players have a basic courier at the beginning. After each game, players in the top rank are awarded "candies". Each player can achieve no more than ten candies per day. Players with Custom Pass can achieve five more candies per day.
[3]
Players can spend 40 candies to roll a new courier or spend hundreds of candies to add a cosmetic effect on their couriers.
[4]
Couriers have different rarities. The rare couriers are usually bigger and more appealing than normal ones. Some couriers can combine to form new couriers that cannot be bought directly. Beside earning candies in game, players can pay for candies. In January 2019, players could scan
QR codes
in the game to pay for candies from a third party store.
[5]
Drodo Studio later disabled candy codes, but candies are still available from some third party sellers out of the game.
[5]
[6]
Development
[
edit
]
When asked about the inspiration of
Dota Auto Chess
shortly following the mod's release, Drodo Studio stated that they drew inspiration from the Chinese
tile-based game
Mahjong
for reference. Generally played by four people, the objective of Mahjong is to spell out a particular combination of cards through a series of replacement and
trade-off
rules while preventing opponents from achieving their own combinations. The game focuses on technique, strategy and calculation, but also relies on luck.
[7]
[8]
While drawing inspiration from Mahjong,
Dota Auto Chess
made changes to accommodate the battle-oriented gameplay.
[9]
The game also drew inspiration from a popular mod for
WarCraft III
called
Pokemon Defense
.
[10]
Dota Auto Chess
was released by Drodo Studio to the
Steam
Marketplace on January 4, 2019.
[11]
Since its release, Drodo Studio has updated the game with
game balance
adjustments, bug fixes and new content updates. The content updates include adding and removing pieces, as well as adding new synergies to the game.
[12]
[13]
With the viral surge of popularity of the mod,
Valve
, the developer of
Dota 2
, flew Drodo Studio to their headquarters, to discuss recruiting them for developing a standalone version of
Dota Auto Chess
. Valve and Drodo Studio concluded that they could not work together directly, though they agreed that would build separate standalone adaptations of the game and would support one another.
[14]
[15]
On June 1, 2019, Valve updated a monthly paid 'Auto Chess Pass' in the
Dota 2
store, with a share of the revenue going to Drodo Studio.
[3]
Standalone game
[
edit
]
2019 video game
A standalone
Auto Chess
by Drodo Studio was released on
Android
on April 18, 2019, on
iOS
on May 22, 2019, and on Windows via the
Epic Games Store
on July 19, 2019, and for
PlayStation 4
on December 16, 2020.
[16]
[17]
[18]
[19]
Drodo Studio stated that besides the development of
Auto Chess
, they would continue to upgrade
Dota Auto Chess
.
[20]
Reception
[
edit
]
The game had over 8.5 million subscribers by May 2019, with more than 300,000 active players daily.
[21]
A tournament was held in early March 2019.
[22]
Several publications praised
Dota Auto Chess
for its creative gameplay rules accessibility. VPEsports noted that
Dota Auto Chess
feels like a very strategic game: "It's a strategy game, with a feeling of a turn-based game, it has the key ingredients of card games and it requires the player to plan ahead while being rather good with APM."
[23]
Game Informer
offered the praise that "It's not chess, and it's not
Dota
, but it's a great game to queue up and play with friends or solo."
[24]
"It takes a few games to start to understand how everything works, but its got some really fun strategy hooks underneath everything."
PCGamesN
called
Dota Auto Chess
"the most successful third party
Dota
custom game ever".
[25]
Dota Auto Chess
is often compared favorably with Valve's
digital collectible card game
,
Artifact
, with a number of publications stating that despite the two titles being released in close proximity,
Dota Auto Chess
has proven to be the more enduring game.
[26]
[27]
Several publications pointed out there was still room for improvement of the game.
VP Esports
noted that some bugs in the games needed to be fixed.
[23]
VentureBeat
tested the
Drodo Auto Chess
mobile game and noted that players who hadn't played
Dota Auto Chess
on PC might feel confused when figuring out the information of the unit on the field, saying "Drodo's mobile
Auto Chess
is a significantly better way to play the original great mod if you already know and comprehend the original game, and for that, it should be a success. But it feels like a perhaps smaller-scale version of
Auto Chess
, one designed around the small screen both visually and as a game, might be the one to take over the world like previous mods have."
[28]
The popularity of
Dota Auto Chess
quickly inspired a host of games, creating the
auto battler
subgenre.
[29]
In China, there was a reported eight companies having registered the "Auto Chess" trademark in January 2019.
[30]
[31]
After failing to reach an agreement with Valve, Drodo Studio partnered with Chinese production company Imba TV and Long Mobile to develop a standalone mobile version of the game called
Auto Chess
. Announced on March 15, 2019,
Auto Chess
replaced
Dota
elements and features with its own separate setting.
[20]
With Valve's direct technical support,
Dota Auto Chess
players are capable of migrating accounts to the mobile version to receive rewards.
[32]
In June 2019, game developer
Riot Games
announced that
League of Legends
would feature an auto battler of their own, known as
Teamfight Tactics
.
[29]
That same month, Valve's standalone version of the game,
Dota Underlords
, was released in early access for PC and mobile platforms.
[33]
A version based on
Hearthstone
by
Blizzard Entertainment
, titled
Hearthstone Battlegrounds
, was also announced later that year.
[34]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Gilliam, Ryan (3 May 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess beginners guide"
.
Polygon
. Retrieved
3 May
2019
.
- ^
Milella, Vincenzo.
"Dota Auto Chess: Rank System and Distribution"
.
Esportstales
. Retrieved
2 February
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Matthiesen, Tom (1 June 2019).
"Valve adds the Auto Chess Pass: get extra rewards for just $0.99 per month"
.
invenglobal
. Retrieved
1 June
2019
.
- ^
"Detailed Dota Auto Chess Candy Guide"
.
gamerdiscovery
. 11 March 2019. Archived from
the original
on 31 May 2019
. Retrieved
11 March
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Milella, Vincenzo (30 November 2020).
"Dota Auto Chess: Patch Notes List"
.
esportstales
.
- ^
Chen, Hongyu (20 February 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess Breaks 300K Concurrent Players, Razer Partners With SN Gaming"
.
esportsobserver
. Retrieved
20 February
2019
.
- ^
Vickroy, Donna (25 March 2015).
"Growing interest in ancient Chinese game"
.
Daily Snowtown
.
- ^
Stanwick, Michael (2004).
Mahjong(g) Before Mahjong(g): Part 1
. The Playing-Card. pp. 32 (4): 153?162.
- ^
"??《刀塔自走棋》作者??巨?多多工作室"
.
sohu
. 18 January 2019
. Retrieved
18 January
2019
.
- ^
"How mahjong inspired this popular PC game"
.
sohu
. 22 February 2019
. Retrieved
18 January
2019
.
- ^
Boudreau, Ian (January 14, 2019).
"This new Dota 2 custom mode is way more popular than Artifact"
.
PCGamesN
. Retrieved
June 6,
2019
.
- ^
Sergey_3847 (4 April 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess Gods Strategy Guide: Mars and Zeus"
.
Gameskinny
. Retrieved
4 April
2019
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- ^
Gopya (28 March 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess: Zeus and Mars skills revealed"
.
Vpesports
. Archived from
the original
on 31 May 2019
. Retrieved
28 March
2019
.
- ^
Dota Team (21 May 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess"
.
dota2 blog
. Retrieved
21 May
2019
.
- ^
Chen, Hongyu (22 May 2019).
"Valve Developing Its Own Standalone Version of Dota Auto Chess"
.
esportsobserver
. Retrieved
22 May
2019
.
- ^
BOUDREAU, IAN (27 May 2019).
"THE MOBILE VERSION OF DOTA AUTO CHESS IS PLAYABLE NOW [UPDATED]"
.
pockettactics
. Archived from
the original
on 29 May 2019
. Retrieved
27 May
2019
.
- ^
Senior, Tom (June 10, 2019).
"The Dota Auto Chess modders are making a version exclusive to the Epic Games Store"
.
PC Gamer
. Retrieved
June 10,
2019
.
- ^
Jones, Ali (4 July 2019).
"Auto Chess' PC alpha kicks off this week"
.
PCGamesN
. Retrieved
3 August
2019
.
- ^
Romano, Sal (16 December 2020).
"Auto Chess for PS4 now available in Early Access"
.
Gematsu
. Retrieved
17 December
2020
.
- ^
a
b
Hongyu, Chen (15 March 2019).
"ImbaTV Partners With Drodo Studio for Auto Chess Mobile Game, League Coming Soon"
.
esportsobserver
. Retrieved
15 March
2019
.
- ^
Jones, Ali (30 April 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess player count tops eight million"
.
pcgamesn
. Retrieved
30 April
2019
.
- ^
Chen, Hongyu (27 February 2019).
"Lab Series Sponsors Invictus Gaming, ImbaTV and Douyu to Host First-Ever Dota Auto Chess Competition"
.
esportsobserver
. Retrieved
27 February
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Div (17 February 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess Surpasses 4M Subscribers: What's Next?"
.
vpesports
. Archived from
the original
on 31 May 2019
. Retrieved
17 February
2019
.
- ^
Tack, Daniel (14 January 2019).
"What Is Dota Auto Chess And Why Is Everyone Playing It?"
.
Gameinformer
. Retrieved
14 January
2019
.
- ^
Stubbs, Mike (21 March 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess Guide: how to download and play the biggest custom game ever"
.
PCGamesN
. Retrieved
21 March
2019
.
- ^
Kolev, Radoslav "Nydra" (25 February 2019).
"Opinion: Auto Chess is a better fit for Valve than Artifact ever was"
.
vpesports
. Archived from
the original
on 31 May 2019
. Retrieved
25 February
2019
.
- ^
Warr, Philippa (8 February 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess: The joyful deck-based Dota 2 game that Artifact isn't"
.
pcgamesn
. Retrieved
8 February
2019
.
- ^
Kaiser, Rowan (30 May 2019).
"Auto Chess on mobile is improving … but confusing"
.
venturebeat
. Retrieved
30 May
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Lanier, Liz (June 10, 2019).
"
'League of Legends' Getting New Teamfight Tactics Mode"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
June 11,
2019
.
- ^
"自走棋在?破30万 商?遭??等公司?注"
.
uuu9
. 26 February 2019
. Retrieved
26 February
2019
.
- ^
Grubb, Jeff (14 March 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess heads to mobile without Dota"
.
venturebeat
. Retrieved
14 March
2019
.
- ^
Walker, Alex (18 March 2019).
"Dota Auto Chess Is Getting A Mobile Spin-Off"
.
kotaku
. Retrieved
18 March
2019
.
- ^
McWhertor, Michael (2019-06-13).
"Valve's Auto Chess competitor is Dota Underlords"
.
Polygon
. Retrieved
June 13,
2019
.
- ^
Goslin, Austen (2019-11-01).
"Blizzard announces Hearthstone Battlegrounds, a new autobattler set in the Warcraft Universe"
.
Polygon
. Retrieved
2019-11-09
.
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