Auto Chess Slot Machine

1. In Dota Auto Chess, your default playable courier is the Dire Donkey. If you want to get one up on the competition, or just kit yourself out with a fancy new courier, you’ll need to earn a currency called Candy. Once you’ve got enough of this stuff, you can hit the in-game slot machine for a chance at a unique courier.
2. That's the story of Dota 2, and that'beds furthermore the tale of Dota Auto Chess, a current Dota 2 Custom Game that's attracting a lot of interest. Car Chess will be worth attempting out if you're fascinated in strategy video games or electronic card video games, and not just because it'beds free.

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Dota Auto Chess is being hailed as one of the fastest growing games of 2019, and is especially unique since it is essentially a 'game within a game' that has seen record-breaking player numbers since it's launch in January 2019. Let's explore why this dark horse is winning the race.

Dota Auto Chess is unique from other games in that it has elements of both the battle royale and card game genres. What about this combination is making it such a winner?

There are two aspects to consider when looking at a game’s popularity:

1. How viable it is as a spectator sport?
2. How accessible and fun is it to actually play?

StarCraft is a good example of a game that is a great to spectate: in it's prime, it opened the world to the idea of spectator esports, and many viewers didn't really play the game, but could reasonably understand what was happening with the help of shoutcasters. Playing StarCraft, however, is different story (unless you have 200+ APM and have been practicing since you were 9).

Overwatch, on the other hand is a fun game to get into and play, especially with friends, but decidedly hard to watch since not all of the actions can be captured by one camera angle.

Unlike these examples, Dota Auto Chess is one of the rare games that offers a solid playing and spectating experience, excelling in both categories.

Low skill floor gameplay

Fundamentally, Auto Chess is a simple game. Combine units to level them up. Certain units give each other buffs when played together. Be the last player standing. Simple.

The low skill floor makes it attractive for new players to try out the game, and the complex strategies needed to climb in rank retain the more hardcore players.

Addicting RNG slot machine

People love to gamble (looking at you, every game with lootboxes). Playable units in the game are offered in a shop that works similarly to a slot machine. Most of the time, you get mediocre units, but sometimes you hit the jackpot and get the legendaries you need to boost your team.

Intermittent rewards have been shown to be the most success method of behavior training, and I can’t think of a better reward than 3 Tidehunters at level 8. Keep those rerolls coming baby.

This RNG aspect not only freely gives players the gambling high that lootboxes bring, but also allows players to blame 'bad RNG' when they lose, removing blame from themselves or other players. Low salt, high fat.

Consistent high and low intensity

Like the name suggests, the combat phase in Auto Chess happens automatically. You get 30 seconds between rounds to level up and put in units, and during the rounds your units auto battle. While most games are high intensity from start the finish, the mix of regular and paced low and high intensity for Auto Chess makes it so you never need to take a break.

Great for friends

This one is a given for most games released today, but the fact that you can easily play with your friends makes it so that each game is a social experience rather than just a gaming session. You can choose to work together and take down other players, or take your friend’s units to stop them from leveling up.

You can create a lobby with just your friends, which is reminiscent of hosting a LAN or even board game night.

Whether in a private or public lobby, Auto Chess is a great game to kick back and chat about anything while your units wail on each other.

It also doesn't hurt that the game is totally free.

Easy viewer interaction

Since Auto Chess is a mod within DotA 2, there isn’t a matchmaking system based off of your rank. Because of this, most people use custom lobbies to find games with players of similar skill. As long as you’re near the same rank as your favorite streamer, you can play with them anytime they’re playing.

This level of viewer interaction doesn’t exist in most games and allows for positive stream sniping as demonstrated by streamers like Waduhek and bananaman.

Anti-ghosting by design

There is no fog of war in Auto Chess. At any time, you can see what all other players in the match are doing, so there's no need to hide anything. Other players' units, gold, and items can be checked by scrolling around the map and looking at their board.

Normally, streamers utilize a 1-5 minute delay on their stream to stop stream viewers from gaining an unfair advantage, but in Auto Chess there’s no point. This encourages streamers to not be afraid of disadvantages while streaming, and to stream with no delay.

Why do you think Dota Auto Chess is such a hit? Let us know on Twitter.

Or, read more about how Auto Chess follows in the footsteps of Dota 2.

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PC Review - 'Might & Magic: Chess Royale'

by Jared Hall on April 17, 2020 @ 12:00 a.m. PDT

Might & Magic: Chess Royale hopes to take advantage of the rise in popularity of both the auto-battler and battle royale formats. Available in both desktop and mobile formats, the game functions primarily like an auto-battler, but each game consists of 100 players, and the last man standing is declared the victor. Despite the name and the board shape, Chess Royale has virtually nothing in common with traditional chess.

Chess Royale adheres closely to the standard auto-battle format. Each round begins with purchasing units from the shop. The shop offers five units chosen at random, and you can pay a fee to re-randomize the available units. Once units are purchased, they are placed on your bench, and from your bench, you can place them on the board to do battle. The board has three rows per side, so you can place your tougher melee units up front and the ranged units in the back. The number of units allowed on the board is determined by your level, which increases as the game progresses, starting at two units and ending with eight or nine in the late game. Levels can also be purchased with gold to increase your unit cap.

After the purchasing timer expires at around 30 seconds, battle commences. All units are controlled by AI and attack whatever is closest to them, building up mana, and casting the unit's associated ability once mana is full. There are some exceptions, with assassin-type units leaping into the opponent's back line to cause havoc on their ranged attackers. Combat is automated, so the player can sit back and watch the fireworks. There is also a chart showing overall damage done for each unit to analyze your army's effectiveness. At the end of combat, the losing player loses one hit point. Lose three hit points, and you are eliminated. To further complicate the issue, there are five different tiers of units, each unit can be upgraded twice, and each unit belongs to two alliances.

Slot Machine Games

The tiers affect the cost and power of units, starting at one gold for a white unit and five gold for legendary orange units, with and a color spectrum of green, blue, and purple in between. Each tier is increasingly more powerful and rare, with many orange units never appearing in the shop throughout the course of a game.

Auto Chess Slot Machines

Once a unit is purchased, it begins as a bronze one-star unit. To upgrade to a silver two-star unit, you must purchase three copies of the same unit. At this point, the three copies merge into a more powerful single unit. Three copies of a two-star unit (nine purchases total) can also be merged into a very powerful gold three-star unit.

Finally, each unit belongs to two alliances, indicated by two square, colored icons. These alliances provide special bonuses once their requirements (usually possessing a certain number of units belonging to that alliance) are met. For example, possessing two assassin units will give all assassins a chance to critical strike, and four assassins will increase the critical strike chance and damage bonus.

Chess Royale's unique offering, aside from the 100-player game format, is the addition of spells. There are six spells available in a game that is randomized daily. These spells fall into three tiers, and each tier is unlocked after a certain number of players have been eliminated. Once a spell is purchased, it remains in effect for five rounds of combat. Purchasing another copy of the same spell refreshes the duration and increases the effect. Spells seem to have an impact (in theory) on the standard meta game, keeping things fresh from day to day. For example, one spell reduces all healing for both allies and enemies, which lowers the value of any healing strategies for the day.

What most auto-battlers devolve into — and Chess Royale is no exception — is a slot machine. Players pull the randomize lever on the shop, hoping to get copies of what they already have, or gain particular units that mesh with their current composition. In some games, you get super lucky and get a three-star unit on the third round, and in other games, you can't upgrade a two-star unit to save your life. There is a lot of RNG involved in determining the victor. You'll get trounced in some games no matter how experienced you are, and sometimes even a complete newb can steal a win.

This particular auto-battler strikes me as simpler than other offerings in the genre, and it's possibly a good place to start if you are new to auto-battlers. There are no items to equip on units, there are no hero units to manage, and there's no interest on held gold. There are fewer decisions to make when compared to something like Dota Underlords, and for a new player, that translates to fewer opportunities to make a poor decision.

There is a rewards system, so you can unlock things as you play, but the unlocks are currently limited to avatars, borders for your avatars, and emotes. This brings me to the battle royale screen, which is unique to this auto-battler. Between each round of combat, the chessboard display is hidden, and a screen of all 100 player avatars in the game is shown. This would be the screen where you show off your unlocked avatars, borders and emotes. You can also display a national flag, which I thought was a neat perk, and a constant reminder of how ignorant I am of the many flags in the world.

While I understand the battle royale screen is supposed to display the state of the game, how many players remain and how many hit points each have left, it seemed more like a feeble attempt to make avatars, borders, and emotes valuable. However, with 100 players all spamming silly two-word emotes, and 1 hp of damage flying back and forth between various players, it becomes a jumble of nonsense and isn't very engaging. I would prefer to use that time to consider my army and strategy rather than this screen constantly interrupting me. This would be a perfect time to read unit stats and spells to understand the game, but you are forced to look at everyone's avatar.

The 100-player format also makes having a responsive strategy nearly impossible. You can see other players' units on the battle royale screen, but you don't get to see their army layout, and there are so many players that creating a counter-strategy is basically impossible. In a smaller format, you can keep tabs on who the top dogs are and adjust your strategy to deal with their particular setup.

All in all, despite Might & Magic: Chess Royale being free to play, I have a hard time recommending the game as anything other than an introduction to auto-battlers or a very casual experience to distract a few minutes while waiting in line. It's overly simplified and displays little in the way of character. With several games of this nature on the market, it's difficult to see how Chess Royale could compete.

Score: 6.7/10