Auto Chess vs Dota Underlords vs Teamfight Tactics: Which Should I Play?

Auto Chess vs Underlords vs Teamfight Tactics: Which should I play?

With the recent rollout of League of Legend's Teamfight Tactics on June 26th for North America, the three major contenders for Auto Chess-type games are now playable for the general public.  But what is an Auto Chess? Which is the best? 

What's Auto Chess/Auto-Battlers?

Auto Chess-like games, also called auto-battlers, are a new and popular strategy subgenre that involves purchasing units with set skills and behaviors, then placing them on a board and letting them auto-battle opponents' units.  Players compete in a pool of typically 8 players, fighting one random opponent's board or neutral enemies every round. Each round, players gain currency that can be used to buy more units, while duplicate units can be merged together for a stronger unit.  At the end of each lost round, players lose health based on their units' performance, with the last man standing crowned the winner. The typical game runs around 30-40 minutes. For those familiar with the card game, it can be described as a "draft" style game and fills a similar niche.  In fact, many Hearthstone players have been playing these games.

Which is the "Real" Auto Chess?

The development of these games has a bit of a story to them.  The original Auto Chess (widely known as "Dota Auto Chess", or DAC) is a mod for Dota 2 by Drodo Studios.  After Valve and Drodo failed to reach an agreement on developing it into its own game, Drodo worked with Chinese studio Dragonest to create their own standalone game, Auto Chess:Origin, while Valve created Underlords instead.  Meanwhile, Riot Games developed their own take on the genre, Teamfight Tactics, as a new gamemode for their popular game League of Legends.

Which one should I play?

In short, each version has a major hook that will appeal to players.  

• Auto Chess:Origin is developed by Drodo Studios, the people who created and balanced the popular Dota Auto Chess mod.  It is closest in gameplay and balance to Dota Auto Chess.

• Dota Underlords is developed by Valve, and thus features all the original DotA 2 characters, as well as some systems specific to Valve, like ability to choose item drops.

• Team Fight Tactics is developed by Riot Games, and respectively features League of Legends champions.  It's major difference is the "draft" based system for units.

What are the detailed differences between each game?

Due to their involved development, Auto Chess and Underlords are the most similar of the three major Auto Chess offerings.  Teamfight Tactics has a few similarities and differences to each of the other games as well, but is the most differentiated of the three.

Gameplay

Auto Chess is almost a 1:1 of Dota Auto Chess in terms of gameplay.  Those familiar with the popular Dota 2 mod will feel right at home, with plenty of Quality of Life improvements on UI readability and gameplay-smoothing to keep players comfortable.  Some units are unavailable as of now but will be made available in the future updates.  Matchmaking is reportedly better as well due to dedicated systems. There are a few gameplay concepts unique to Auto Chess as a genre:

• Pieces: These units are a player's fighting ability.  Once purchased and deployed on the chess board, during battle they will fight against enemies following a simple behavior.  Each piece also has unique skills that can help turn the tide when they build up enough mana to activate it.  

• Race/Class/Rarity: Every piece will have some combination of race and class that will provide tribal synergy stat bonuses with matching pieces.  Rarity determines a piece's price and the likelihood it will appear in the shop.

• Shop: Each round, players can buy randomly selected pieces from a pool shared by all competitors.  For a small fee, the selection can be rerolled.

• Gold: Gold is used to purchase pieces and exp.  It is earned every round, with bonuses based on win/lose streaks, or even interest.  Pieces can also be sold back for gold.

• Level: This determines the number of units a player can have on the board, as well as effects the rarity of units that can appear.

• Items: Similar to their MOBA counterpart, items provide stat buffs and effects to the equipped character.  They are randomly obtained from combat against neutral monsters while equipping multiple items to one character can result in a stronger, combined, item.

A general explanation more of the terms for Auto Chess can be found here.

Dota Underlords retains all the major gameplay components with a few notable changes besides UI:

• Item drops: Winning a round against neutral monsters presents the players with a choice of items, compared to the random item drops in Auto Chess.  This presents more consistency and strategic complexity.

• Item Equips: Each character can only hold one item, as opposed to the multiple in Auto Chess.  Although this may seem to simplify strategy, it also pushes players away from the strategy of pushing all their drops into a "superunit".  Additionally, items can be swapped freely.

• Units: Although units generally have the same or similar effects between Auto Chess and Underlords, Valve has added a few unique units to their game (i.e. Pudge), as well as reworking a few characters and abilities from Auto Chess.

Teamfight Tactics has a few fundamental changes, but also recognizable similarities as well.

• Board: Unlike the square chessboard of Auto Chess and Underlords, Teamfight Tactics uses a hexagonal grid instead.  The overall board layout is still square, but this affects some pathing behavior and area of effects.

• Units: Players deploy Champions from League of Legends in Teamfight Tactics.  Skills are based on their MOBA counterpart, which will make League players feel right at home.

• Shared Draft: Every third round in a stage all players will be teleported to a carousel containing various units, during which they can gain a free character in order of player ranking.  Since the most behind players get to pick first, it is a pretty decent catchup mechanic.

• Items: Items in Teamfight Tactics are closer to the Auto Chess incarnation, where they are randomly dropped during neutral rounds.  Alternatively, they come attached to Shared Draft champions. Combination is automatic, and selling a Champion will refund the item.  Two basic items combine into one higher tier item. 

Outside of the Game

The homescreen for the games typically offer social and customization functions.  

Auto Chess' homescreen serves as a launcher for all other kinds of functions outside the base game.

• Wiki: On the top of the home screen, Auto Chess contains a character wiki that can be sorted by race, class, and quality.  From here players can check out a character's stats and skills at each rarity.

• Candy Store: Candies (the premium currency earned from fights), and Donuts (the purchasable premium currency), can be exchanged here in a gacha system for cosmetics including new avatars, icons, arenas, and more.  

• Friends List: Here players can access social functions with their friends, such as a chat.

Dota Underlords in comparison has a more minimalistic home screen.  However, since it is still in beta, there will most likely be more added. Notably, as of writing there are no customization or monetization options in Dota Underlords, but their addition is to be expected in the future.  

• Wiki: Similar to Auto Chess, Dota Underlords has a wiki function with all the in-game information on pages neatly laid out for easy comparison.  

• Friends List: For players who are signed in with their Steam account, players can form parties and play with their friends in public matches or versus bots.

• Play: Right now Dota Underlords has three options of play: Vs. other players, versus bots, and training.

Teamfight Tactics is launched from the League of Legends launcher as a separate game mode.  Thus, it inherits all the features that normal League players enjoy.

• Friends List/Chat: People maintain their friends list from League of Legends and can chat with them as well.  

• Shop: Teamfight Tactics introduces new avatars that can be bought in the shop.  Since it is the same shop as League of Legends, players do not need to purchase a separate currency to spend money for Teamfight tactics.

Conclusion/Summary:

Still can't quite decide?  We summed up the most pertinent points here!

The games can be installed at these following links!

Auto Chess:

iOS / Android 

Dota Underlord:

iOS / Android / PC

Teamfight Tactics:

PC

This article covers games that are in development and will be updated to reflect their most recent state.