How to play guide for Dota Auto Chess

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This page will serve as a basic how to play guide for Dota Auto Chess. New information is being added all the time! Feel free to edit this guide with any tips, tricks, and suggestions.

Introduction[ | ]

The game of Autochess is an 8-player PvP game mode in Dota 2 based around an 8 by 8 chess board, where the individual chess pieces are Dota 2 heroes. Each round, every player gets a random set of heroes from a limited pool to choose from and place on their side of the the board (4 by 8).

The players are then matched against each other (or against neutral creeps every 5 rounds) where the chess pieces battle against each other automatically. If a player loses the battle, he then loses 1 health points from each enemy hero left on the board (2 or 3 if the enemy hero is powerful). The game is won when only one player is still standing.

Basic Gameplay[ | ]

Heroes[ | ]

Main article: Chess pieces

At the start of every round, each player chooses from a selection of 5 random heroes, or chess pieces. The player buys some of these heroes with gold and places them on the board to battle. The player can spend 2 gold to re-roll their 5 heroes to buy other heroes.

The bought heroes are placed on the player's "reserve" tiles and can be moved from the "reserve" tiles onto a board tile to fight the enemy. Only one hero can occupy a single tile.

Every hero starts with one star, representing its level. Heroes with higher stars have more health, more damage, and upgraded abilities. If you place 3 equal heroes on the board, you will upgrade the 3 heroes into a hero with one higher star (with the exception of druid), up to 3 stars.

For example, placing 3 Level 1 Axe onto the board makes one Level 2 Axe.
For example, placing 3 Level 2 Luna onto the board makes one Level 3 Luna.

Every hero is characterized by at least one species, one class, and one ability. There are 15 species and 11 classes in the game.

Controlling different heroes of the same species provides beneficial effects (with the exception of ogre, demon, and dwarf).
- For example, beasts give all allies +10% attack damage if there are 2 different beasts on your board.
  - +20% if there are 4 different beasts.
Controlling different heroes of the same class provides beneficial effects (with the exception of priest).
- For example, mages reduce the magic resistance of all enemies by 35% if there are 3 different mages on your board.
  - An additional 45% if there are 6 different mages.
Abilities are unique to the hero and work like a normal DotA 2 ability. Active abilities require mana, which is earned every time the hero hits or gets hit by another unit.

The number of heroes that the player can have on the board is limited. The player can have a maximum of 8 heroes on their reserve slots, plus a number of heroes on their board based on courier level.

For example, if the player's courier level is 5, the player can only have a maximum of 5 heroes on their board (plus 8 on reserve).
For example, if the player's courier level is 9, the player can only have a maximum of 9 heroes on their board (plus 8 on reserve).

The player's courier level can be increased by gaining experience.

1 exp is gained at the end of each round. There are a total of 50 rounds.
The player can spend 5 gold whenever they want to gain 4 exp.

Because the number of heroes the player can field onto the board is limited, the player must manage the space they have in order to upgrade heroes to a higher level. The player must also constantly be selling less powerful heroes to get back gold to buy more powerful heroes. Level 1 heroes can be sold for the same amount of gold that they were initially bought for.

If the player starts a round with having placed too many heroes on their board (more than the limit), heroes are randomly selected and sent back to the reserve slots, or automatically sold if there is not enough space on the reserve slots, until there is no overflow of heroes.

Additionally, there's a limited pool of heroes for every game, shared by all players.

For example, for chess pieces that cost 1 gold, the chess pool size for each hero is 45.
For example, for chess pieces that cost 5 gold, the chess pool size for each hero is 10.

Therefore, if someone in the game has a lot of some heroes, you're less likely to get those heroes. The strategy is to keep track of what types of heroes your enemies are buying and buy lesser used heroes, or even buying heroes to deny the opponents from getting them.

Gold[ | ]

Main article: Gold

Gold is earned at the start of each round from 3 sources:

Basic income for each round
Win or lose streak (up to 3 gold)
Interest (10% of your current gold, rounded down to the nearest integer, up to 5 gold)
- For example, if you have 6 gold, you get 0 interest (10% of 6 is 0.6 which is rounded down to 0)
- For example, if you have 25 gold you get 2 interest
- For example, if you have 61 gold, you get 5 interest

Gold is earned before the end of each round from 1 source:

1 gold for beating the enemy (winning the round)

Creeps[ | ]

The player fights against neutral creeps in the first 3 rounds and in every fifth round except for Round 5. Creeps can drop items when killed, which can be be picked up by the courier and equipped onto heroes for bonus effects.

Sometimes, heroes must be repositioned to be more effective at fighting against specific neutral creeps. Creeps that you really need to worry about repositioning your heroes are:

Round 15 wolves, which behave like assassins, cutting into your backline
Round 35 Black Dragon, which does splash damage

Controls[ | ]

Q-select your piece and move it to the board

W-retrieve your piece from the board

E-sells your piece for gold

F-spend 5 gold to get 4 experience

D-spend 2 gold to refresh your hero pool

Space-pulls up your hero pool

Tab-cycle through opposing boards

Alt-with your courier selected, shows XP / XP needed for the next level at the bottom of the courier portrait

Tips and tricks[ | ]

Learn all the combo effects and synergies to utilise the chesses.

Determine your team combos (Ex: Goblin - Assassin, Knight - Troll, Warrior, Mage, etc...). You should change your build depending on the situation (Ex: If you want to go Goblin - Assassin build but 2 or 3 people are building that team/Your rolls are pretty bad and have a lot of unnecessary cheeses - You should change to another combo).

Buy things you need to buy for your future team. You can buy some heroes that is not for the combo you wanted but can help you survive early game, and can sell it later.

From round 7 you must not buy anthing unless its really necessary,if you do that, in round 14 you will have 50 golds to maximum the interest golds each round (+5 gold), you will have a really good economy afterward to build your team. Dont let your gold drop below 50.

In early game you shouldn't roll.

In mid game you should roll max is 3 times for 1 round to not hurting your economy. The rest of gold should go for leveling up your courier.

In late game spend all your gold for courier to level max and rolls for last pieces of combo you need.

You can also check out community's guides and strategies. You can discuss and add your own there.

Game mechanics[ | ]

Some tribal synergy can have underlined mechanic that may work differently from how you expect them to, which is described on each tribe's page. You can also check out how some other concepts and game mechanics work.

Matchmaking Rating[ | ]

Matchmaking Rating