DOTA Underlords Free-to-Play Auto Chess Game Gets First Battle Pass
Valve has just launched its first battle pass for Dota Underlords, which is its own version of the popular Auto Chess mod for Dota 2. Appropriately called Proto Pass (because it is a prototype battle pass), beta testers can access the content for free, in hopes that they will provide feedback to Valve as it works on a proper Season 1 Battle Pass.
"Like many aspects of the beta, the Proto Pass is a learning experience for the Underlords team—so please keep the feedback coming so that we can adjust plans for our Season 1 Battle Pass accordingly," Valve says.
The Proto Pass introduces a few new things to the Dota Underlords equation. Chief among them is the ability to earn experience points by completing daily quests and challenges, which in turn enables gamers to level up faster.
Each level of the Proto Pass also comes with a new reward. Reaching level 5, for example, unlocks a new board called Path to Sunbreeze. It's a brighter board "for those who want to stab their enemies in broad daylight."
Players can also now unlock emotes and upgradeable banners, in addition to the new board type. In addition, Proto Pass introduces win streak effects, respawn effects, fireworks effects, and portrait rings, the latter of which adds some flair to players' silhouettes.
Beyond the new goodies, Proto Pass brings with it a bunch of bug fixes and general improvements. Some of them include the following...
- Scoreboard UI improved.
- Post game now shows items and alliances.
- Post game now includes scoreboard overview.
- General UI improvements and bug fixes for different aspect ratios and devices.
- Expanding on last week's change: Combat continues until all projectiles have completed their travel, up to a max of 5 seconds.
- Fixed Neutrals not displaying stats correctly in the unit stats panel in combat.
- Fixed heroes stunned with short duration spells (like Clockwerk's Battery Assault) resetting their attack timers and thus attacking faster than allowed.
- Increased accuracy of the matchmaking system at high skill levels.
On the mobile side, Steam's invisible mode is now supported, and Valve claims it added more performance improvements on both iOS and Android. I found that it already ran pretty well on an iPhone XS Max before the Proto Pass, but hey, I won't scoff at adding performance tweaks.
The Proto Pass is available now when firing up Dota Underlords and signing into Steam.
