Valve stopped developing Dota Underlords. The last patch arrived on 8 December 2021 and its headline note extended the Season 1 end date to 2031, which in practice means no further content or balance work. Servers stay online and matchmaking still fills, with SteamDB tracking roughly 1,000 to 1,300 concurrent players in August 2026 against an all-time peak of 202,334 on 23 June 2019, so what you are playing is a frozen 2021 auto-battler rather than a supported competitive game.
These tips go beyond the basics. They're the strategies experienced players use to play more efficiently, the hidden mechanics most people miss, and the optimizations that compound over a full playthrough. If you're just starting, check our beginner's guide first.
Essential Tips
1. Know what you are signing up for before you install
Know what you are signing up for before you install. The 8 December 2021 patch pushed Season 1 to 2031 and no balance changes have followed, so every comp you read about in a 2020 guide is still exactly as strong or weak as it was then. That stability is genuinely useful for learning, but there is no meta to keep up with.
2. Bank to ten gold as fast as you can
Bank to ten gold as fast as you can. Interest pays one gold per ten held up to a five gold cap, so the difference between sitting at nine and sitting at fifty compounds over a 30-round match into more heroes than any single lucky reroll gives you.
3. Three Warriors is the cheapest stable opening in the game because the alliance grants armor to the entire team, not just to the Warriors
Three Warriors is the cheapest stable opening in the game because the alliance grants armor to the entire team, not just to the Warriors. Even if you intend to finish on Mages, Warriors buy you the early rounds without spending on rerolls.
4. Positioning beats board strength against Assassins
Positioning beats board strength against Assassins. They jump the back line at combat start, so putting your carry in a corner surrounded by two bodies means the jump lands into your frontline instead of onto your damage dealer.
5. Take the Underlord that patches a hole rather than the one with the best animation
Take the Underlord that patches a hole rather than the one with the best animation. Anessix summons an extra Demon that counts toward that alliance, Jull is a melee tank, Hobgen sets targets on fire for a percentage of maximum health per second, and Enno leaps around poisoning the back line. Each appears in one of two builds chosen at random, so read the offered build, not just the name.
6. Do not chase a three-star hero unless you already hold six copies
Do not chase a three-star hero unless you already hold six copies. Nine copies come out of a pool every other player is drawing from, and the gold you burn rerolling for the last three usually buys a stronger two-star board instead.
7. Break your economy deliberately, not accidentally
Break your economy deliberately, not accidentally. If you are on a losing streak and below roughly 40 health, spend down to buy survivability now, because interest you never live to collect is worth nothing.
8. Blade Mail on the unit the enemy focuses first turns their carry into a liability, since it reflects 30 percent of incoming damage
Blade Mail on the unit the enemy focuses first turns their carry into a liability, since it reflects 30 percent of incoming damage. It is one of the few defensive picks that punishes a stronger opponent rather than merely delaying them.
9. Play City Crawl if the queue is empty
Play City Crawl if the queue is empty. It is offline campaign content built before development stopped, so it plays exactly as designed regardless of how many people are online, and it teaches board reading better than losing eighth place repeatedly.
10. Expect no cross-platform rescue
Expect no cross-platform rescue. The game shipped on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS in February 2020 and the mobile clients are as unmaintained as the PC one, so the combined pool is still small.
Advanced Strategies
Build Optimization
The difference between an average build and an optimized one is massive. See our builds guide for full breakdowns.
For Warrior Frontline (A-Tier):
- Focus on 8x8 board placement combinations for maximum output.
- Core gear: Aegis of the Immortal
- Stat priority: Offensive stats first
For Assassin Burst (A-Tier):
- Assassins jump the enemy back line at the start of combat and try to delete the carry before it acts. The comp wins or loses in the first two seconds of the round, which makes it high variance and very punishing against a spread board.
- Core gear: Damage items on the two highest-star Assassins, Refresher Orb on your ability user
- Stat priority: Critical damage and attack speed first, survivability last
Mechanic Interactions
Understanding how Dota Underlords's systems interact is where the real optimization lives. Our combat guide covers this in detail.
8x8 board placement + three-copy hero upgrades: You arrange purchased heroes on an 8x8 grid during a preparation phase, then the round resolves automatically with no further input. Combined with three-copy hero upgrades, three copies of the same hero merge into a two-star version, and three two-stars merge again into a three-star.
alliance bonuses + gold interest and streaks: Fielding several heroes from the same alliance grants a shared bonus that scales in steps, so three Warriors give the whole team armor. When paired with gold interest and streaks, you bank interest of one gold per ten held, capped at five per round, and win or loss streaks pay their own bonus on top.
Underlord pick at round 10 scaling: At round 10 you choose one of four Underlords, Anessix, Hobgen, Jull or Enno, and each is offered in one of two randomly selected builds. The Underlord fights on your board for the rest of the match, so the pick changes both your damage profile and your alliance count.
Equipment Efficiency
| Equipment | Best Use Case | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Aegis of the Immortal | Your single most important frontline body in a Warrior or Knight board | A tier five item that brings a unit back after it dies, buying an extra window of frontline time in the round that decides your health bar. |
| Vladmir's Offering | Hunter and Warrior boards with five or more attacking units | Tier five aura item that raises damage across your team rather than one unit. |
| Blade Mail | The unit the enemy Assassins are going to jump first | Defensive item that reflects 30 percent of damage taken back at the attacker. |
| Refresher Orb | Your highest-impact ability user in Mage or Warlock comps | Refreshes all cooldowns and restores 50 mana once per battle after an ability is cast. |
| Vitality Booster | Early item picks when you do not yet know which comp you are building | A flat 250 health, which is unexciting and quietly one of the most reliable picks in the early item rounds. |
Location Efficiency
Standard (Full match, roughly 30 to 45 minutes): The main eight-player mode, where everyone starts at 100 health and the last player standing wins. Rounds alternate between player-versus-player fights and creep rounds that hand out item picks.
Knockout (Short match, roughly 15 to 20 minutes): A shortened format that compresses the same eight-player structure into a faster match. Economy matters less because there are fewer rounds to compound interest across.
Duos (Full match, needs a partner): Two players share a health pool and experience while running separate boards, so a partner who feeds losses drags you down directly. Queue times are the worst of any mode given the current population.
City Crawl (Solo, play at your own pace): The single-player campaign layer built around White Spire, offering scripted challenges and puzzle boards rather than ladder matches. It is the part of the game least affected by the end of development because it never depended on a live population.
Ranked matchmaking (Requires completing placement matches): The competitive ladder still runs and still places you against opponents, but the pool it draws from is four figures rather than six. Match quality varies wildly as a result, with strong veterans sitting in the same queue as returning players.
Mistakes Even Veterans Make
- Following a 2019 or 2020 tier list without checking it predates the final December 2021 balance state.
- Rerolling the shop every round and arriving at round 20 with no interest and a two-star board.
- Stacking every damage unit in one corner where a single area ability hits all of them.
- Picking an Underlord for its ability description without checking which of its two builds was offered.
- Queuing Duos solo during off-peak hours and blaming the game for a wait that a four-figure population cannot fix.
Pro Quick Tips
- Know what you are signing up for before you install. The 8 December 2021 patch pushed Season 1 to 2031 and no balance changes have followed, so every comp you read about in a 2020 guide is still exactly as strong or weak as it was then. That stability is genuinely useful for learning, but there is no meta to keep up with.
- Bank to ten gold as fast as you can. Interest pays one gold per ten held up to a five gold cap, so the difference between sitting at nine and sitting at fifty compounds over a 30-round match into more heroes than any single lucky reroll gives you.
- Three Warriors is the cheapest stable opening in the game because the alliance grants armor to the entire team, not just to the Warriors. Even if you intend to finish on Mages, Warriors buy you the early rounds without spending on rerolls.
- Start with Assassin Burst, switch to Warrior Frontline when ready
- Invest in Aegis of the Immortal above everything else
- Clear areas in order: Standard → Knockout → Duos → City Crawl → Ranked matchmaking. See our maps guide
- 8x8 board placement + three-copy hero upgrades together are stronger than either alone
More Dota Underlords Guides
- Dota Underlords Dota Underlords Overview
- Dota Underlords Best Builds
- Dota Underlords Tier List
- Dota Underlords Walkthrough
- Dota Underlords Beginner's Guide
- Dota Underlords Weapons Guide
- Dota Underlords Combat Guide
- Dota Underlords Boss Guide
- Dota Underlords Maps & Locations
- Dota Underlords Crafting Guide
- Dota Underlords Classes & Characters
Similar Games
If you enjoy Dota Underlords, check out these related guides:
- Sid Meier's Civilization V Tips & Tricks: strategy game with similar mechanics
- Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Tips & Tricks: strategy game with similar mechanics
- RimWorld Tips & Tricks: strategy game with similar mechanics
