Gaming
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Dominate ranked play in Dota Underlords with these 6 tips
There's a new Valve game and it's out now, but before you jump into Dota Underlords you're going to need a few pointers to give you an advantage over the competition.
Valve time is a mysterious thing. We can wait months or even years for anything from a new official map in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive to a simple Dota patch and then they can release a game with absolutely no warning after announcing it mere weeks ago.
The latter has just happened, with Valve dropping Dota Underlords on everyone who has a TI9 Battle Pass, before releasing it for everyone else in a few days. We may still be waiting for Half-Life 3, but if Auto Chess-style games are your thing, then Valve are probably in your good books right now.
Dota Underlords is Valve's take on the popular Dota Auto Chess mod and it's now a standalone game that's totally separate from the Dota 2 client. It's coming to mobile, too and you can also play on PC. That update will add an all-important ranked mode, so you can show off how good you really are.
Of course, you're going to want to be prepared and ready for the ranked grind, so here are some top tips to make sure you'll be in the best shape to get on the ranked ladder as soon as it launches.
1. Make sure to 'Yo' everyone at every opportunity
Remember a few years ago, when there was that mobile app called Yo and the only thing you could do in the app was send 'Yo' to your friends? It was entirely pointless, yet it had over three million downloads and raked-in investment cash. There's a version of that in Dota Underlords, where you can click on one of the items in the kill feed at the top of the screen and it will 'Yo' that message, even sending an audible 'Yo' to other players in the game.
You could argue that it will get into your opponents heads, but really it's a pretty pointless, albeit fun, thing to do. We expect to see you Yo-ing at all times, even just to get the smallest, littlest bit into your opponent’s head.
2. Blood-bound is hilarious and a legit strategy
Some Alliance bonuses are really good and others seem a little underwhelming. At first, Blood-bound seems like the latter, but build around it and you'll have the most fun possible, while also doing reasonably well in the game. Whenever a Blood-bound unit dies, the other Blood-bound units still on your board receive double attack damage for the rest of the round and the only two units with this Alliance are Ogre Magi and Warlock.
On paper it sounds rubbish, but if you sacrifice a couple of Warlocks and Ogres on the front line and have a beefy Ogre on the backline, by the time the backline Ogre reaches the fight he'll have two or four times his original damage, making him near unstoppable. It becomes hilarious, because as units become stronger they grow in size, so you may have a unit that literally doesn't fit on your screen if you play this well. Oh, and Ogre and Warlock are available from round one, so if you commit to this early, you can dominate the first few rounds.
Even if every ability is going off, Drow will still do damage
© Red Bull
3. Don't lock into a strategy just because you get an early global item
The global items for certain Alliances can be acquired right from the first round and some of them, such as the Brawny and Scrappy items, can seem very appealing in the early stages. While these items are often a solid choice, don't be afraid to scrap them further down the line if your board suits a better strategy.
Keeping some low level Tinkers or Clockwerks on the board just because they might explode when they die probably isn't worth it if you can swap them out with some other heroes that have more utility and synergise better with the rest of your board. Staying locked into something just because you got a global item in one of the first three rounds can often cost you, so be flexible.
4. Always think about your economy
Running out of gold can be a disaster. Sometimes you need to be able to re-roll a few times to get what you need and sometimes you need that extra five gold to be able to level-up and get another unit on the board. If you come to that stage and you have no money left, then you're probably in trouble.
While you probably don't want to be hoarding tons of cash, making sure you have a good amount and playing the interest game to make sure it keeps healthy is always a good idea.
If you're sat at 31 gold and thinking about re-rolling the shop to see if you can get an upgrade you don't urgently need, then it might be better to not do that and get the extra interest gold at the end of the round. On the opposite side, if you have 36 gold and don't have anything left to do, then you may as well get some extra XP, as you'll still get the same amount of interest at the end of the turn and you'll be closer to a level-up. Always be thinking ahead of what your gold will get you.
5. Loss streaks are a thing you can do if you're careful
You probably shouldn't try this until you're pretty comfortable with Dota Underlords, as it can go very very wrong, but if you get an unlucky start, then going on a loss streak intentionally might not be a bad idea. These give you extra gold after every round and unless you're confident of going on a win streak, it's a great way to build your economy up.
With some extra cash, you can keep re-rolling to make your strat work, or simply level up a ton to have a unit number advantage over opponents. They key is knowing when you can end it and when exactly you should do so. You're going to need to go on a long win streak afterwards to make sure you stay in the game and remain in contention, so manage your units and money well, but give it a go if you're feeling risky.
6. There isn't a real meta yet, so go crazy
Sure, Blood-bound is top banter and our campaign to get the 'Yo' meta started is ramping-up, but when it comes to out-and-out top strategies, the community is still figuring it all out. There's no top strategy, no definitive list of heroes or Alliances that are better than the others and no items that are objectively the best – except Black King Bar, which is really good at all times.
The point here is that you really are free to try out every possible combination. Want to try and turn some Hunters into tanks? Give it a go. Think that doing a Scaled, Druid build is the way forward? Try it. Think that only using one really strong unit for the whole game is a good idea? You're wrong, but give it a bash. There are no team-mates to shout at you and you never know, you might discover the next great strategy.
