It might seem like a brutal revision, but it's an influx of life into the game that makes Teamfight Tactics feel fresh all over again. Even returning faces might have new abilities, or play a different role thanks to a shifted alignment. While the item combinations have remained the same, most of the champions are brand new, with new boons accrued by deploying units of similar elemental affinities or class alignments. Similar to card games like Magic: The Gathering, a set in Teamfight Tactics cuts a large number of the units and synergies available in favor of a full-on reset. Riot's answer is to completely revise the pool of available units with each set. TFT has a whole new set of units to tool around with, and even breathes new life into old ones. The more pieces you add to the pool, the less likely it is players will be able to pull the unit they need if one player is sitting at five of six units they need for, say, a Noble or Assassin synergy, finding that last unit should feel like a relief, not an impossibility.
Every round, a player's shop is pulled from the available pool of units, with different rarities showing up depending on how long the game's gone on and how high of a level players are.
The greatest issue with expanding an autobattler is the glut of units that can accumulate, update over update. On Riot Games' side of the fence, Teamfight Tactics has revealed it will be rotating through "sets," starting with the set currently on the Public Beta Environment called "Rise of the Elements." It coincides with League of Legends' own elemental theme for the coming season, but it's also a novel new way of approaching rotation. The result is a glimpse of auto chess' future, and a reminder of how much room there is to explore. This week, both launched massive updates, their own overhauls they've been building for a long time. Teamfight Tactics has confirmed its here to stay, and Dota Underlords isn't going anywhere. It's a mix of real-time deck-building, where you have to adapt on the fly depending on what options you're given through the unit shop and what opponents are fielding, and hands-off tactics the thrill of building a perfect board and then letting go, watching as a spectator to see if you've built the perfect team or another loss. The genre's best advantage was how malleable it was players manage and arrange a board of units who then clash with other players' boards, combining synergistic warriors and dealing damage until only one is left standing. Those two publishers rose above the din of other "autobattlers," as they'd be called, and have largely dominated the scene, barring the mobile Auto Chess from the original mod's creators. It seemed to hit fever pitch in record time, drawing comparisons to battle royales and MOBAs before it, but the fight for top-billing didn't last long.
The "auto chess" craze, named after a mod for Dota 2 called "Dota Auto Chess," saw both Riot and Valve quickly invest in the growing scene. Two major updates, launched within days of each other, are completely changing how this mix of deck-building and semi-automated strategy plays out. Riot Games' Teamfight Tactics put a playfully interactive spin on the formula with carousels and emotes, while Valve's Dota Underlords adhered more closely to the blueprint of the original Dota 2 mod.īut months have passed, and the two titans of auto chess are rewriting the rules. The dust has settled in the rush for the autobattler genre, and it's not surprising who emerged as its strongest pillars.