Gadgets Philippines – July 2019

http://www.gadgetsmagazine.com.ph july 2019 63

“Auto Chess” was created by Chinese game

developer Drodo Studio as a custom game

mode for DOTA 2. The game was uploaded

to the DOTA 2 client back in January and was

almost an instant hit for both DOTA 2 fans and

casual gamers looking for a game that could

stimulate the brain.

Auto Chess is a strategy game that combines

aspects of tower defense and the mind games of

chess. The complexity of the game has brought

upon a new sub-genre of games dubbed as the

Autobattler.

The game features eight players and is played

on an 8x8 chess board where players could

play a piece/character. At the start of a round,

each pieces, would battle opposing pieces. At

the start, players could only play a single piece.

Clearing a wave or round gives you gold and

experience. Gold is used to buy new pieces

while experience is used to level up. Leveling up

means adding more pieces to your board, your

level determines how many pieces you could

play.

Gold and experience are just the beginning.

Each piece is then divided into different races

and class. Owning a number of pieces with the

same race or class gives the player a boost to

his pieces. Playing three exact pieces on the

board would upgrade that exact piece giving the

player a bigger boost and a higher damaging

piece. Each piece have their own special attacks

that either heal friendly characters or provide an

area of effect damage to the enemy.

Aside from the boosts, enemy pieces also have

a chance to drop an item. Each item also have

their own use and value. An item sends your

units to the back of your enemy for maximum

damage, adds armor so you could be beefier and

handle more damage or have a chance to use

your special attack. Each piece has a maximum

of six item slots. Some items could be combined

to make a new item that also has different

effects. Players have a chance for an item drop

in the first three rounds and every fifth round

thereafter.

So how do you win in Autochess? Unlike

regular chess where you play one-on-one,

Autochess lets you face seven other players in

a game. You start each game with a hundred

health points (HP). You lose HP when you fail

to eliminate all the opposing pieces for the

round. How many HP you lose also depends

on how many opposing pieces are left on the

board. The best way to avoid losing HP is to

strategize which pieces you would play and

where you would place them on the board.

Different players have different strategies on

where to place their pieces. It’s up to you to

figure the best strategy to overcome each

type of playout.

If you want to try out the game but hesitant

because it’s a DOTA2 mod you don’t need to

worry, Drodo Studio has already released its

own stand-alone game after failing to find an

agreement to work with Valve. As of this writing,

the game is only available on Android and IOS

but they have also announced a PC version

coming soon. Valve, on the other hand, has also

released its own version called DOTA Underlords

and is now available via open beta for all DOTA

2 battle pass holders, it will be available for free

on the Steam store, Google Play and Appstore

soon.

Lastly, League of Legends (LoL) fans could also

play their own version soon on their LoL client.

LoL developer Riot revealed that an Autobattler

game called Teamfight Tactics is already on their

beta servers and would soon come to the main

client as a limited time game mode.