Dota Underlords, Valve’s stand-alone Auto Chess mode, is out in closed beta

Dota Auto Chess is its own stand-alone game now.

Image via Valve

A little less than a month after Valve decided to make a stand-alone version of the explosively-popular Dota Auto Chess mode, Dota Underlords has just been released in closed beta for owners of The International 2019 Battle Pass.

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Dota Underlords is the stand-alone auto chess game mode Valve has been working on since talks with the developers of the original mode, Drodo Studios, said it wasn’t interested in making this version.

Players will be able to enjoy all of the features they liked in the version of Dota Auto Chess that was built into the Dota 2 client. There will be eight-player rooms that make everyone battle each other with a combination of building, leveling, and management to see who can outstrategize each other.

In this new edition of the game, players will battle to dominate the city of White Spire. And the best part is, anyone who has the Battle Pass for this year’s International can join in on the closed beta now. Since the initial testing is done, Dota 2 Battle Pass owners can jump in to help stress test the game’s servers and preview what the full game will be.

In the closed beta, players can play online against seven other players in rooms or practice offline against AI bots. They’ll also be able to group up with other players in a party to play together in both offline and online modes.

The game will be in closed beta for the next week before entering open beta for others to test out the game.

Players who purchased the Battle Pass can link Dota Underlords to their Steam library through the Dota 2 dashboard.

When the open beta launches, Dota Underlords will be free for everyone to play on Steam, Android, and iOS. This will also enable ranked matchmaking and both crossplay and cross-progression across all platforms.

Author
Image of Cale Michael
Cale Michael
Lead Staff Writer for Dota 2, the FGC, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and more who has been writing for Dot Esports since 2018. Graduated with a degree in Journalism from Oklahoma Christian University and also previously covered the NBA. You can usually find him writing, reading, or watching an FGC tournament.