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Valve has released what they are calling The Big Update for Dota Underlords today. This update adds in new Underlords, a Duos Mode, a Freestyle Mode, new Heroes, and even a new UI. Arguably, the biggest addition made to the game is the addition of Underlords. That's right, the characters for which the game is literally named after, now play a much larger role in the game.
Before each match, you will get to choose an Underlord to lead your crew. They will fight alongside the heroes you select, use abilities, provide buffs, and they will grow stronger over the course of each match.
Duos will allow you to play alongside a friend against seven other teams of two players each. You and your partner hire and level your own groups, but you will be able to help your partner by sending gold and heroes to each other. Health is also shared between the two of you. Your level is also shared between the two of you. This mode will first be for Casual matchmaking only but a Ranked Duos is coming soon.
I'll include some of the other update highlights. If you want the full list of changes, and there are many, you can always check out the full changelog from today's update.
Freestyle Mode – The Board is Your Test Lab
We’ve also added a new mode we’re calling Freestyle. With Freestyle mode you can quickly set up and test different scenarios. Maybe you want to test out different theories for your own strategies, or maybe you want to put a new hero through its paces to learn what they do and how they fight in a battle. Or if you’re like us you just want to see who would win between 32 Tomatoes and 32 Potatoes (Potatoes by a mile).
New Heroes for Hire, and New Alliances to Form
Insects, Healers, Brute, and Champion Alliances can now be formed, and favorite Heroes like Faceless Void, Io, Broodmother and Legion Commander are now for hire in the shop. In total, 12 Heroes have been added to the roster, filling out the new Alliances and padding a few of the existing ones. The team has also made a host of balance and gameplay updates to the rest of the Underlords roster, so head over to the patch notes for details if you’re curious.
Too Many Heroes? Introducing JAIL
You may be asking yourself “Wow, that’s a ton of new heroes. How am I ever going to get anyone to Rank 3 in a match?†We hear you, and the local law enforcement of White Spire also hear you. A random group of 8-12 heroes will now be detained in The Rookery for a day, and this group will update every day. To see who’s in jail, and what they’re in there for, we’ve added jail buttons to the dashboard, the game-start panel, and the Shop. Not to worry though – even though these heroes are in jail, all Alliances can still be fully completed.
New UI. So Fresh, So Clean
Meanwhile, the team has been overhauling our PC and Mobile user interfaces. From the new Dashboard (lovingly referred to internally as the Beautiful Corner), to the new notification message system (all yo-able of course), to the new full-featured in-game PC UI - we’ve worked hard to give the whole experience an upgrade. This is all in addition to the new interfaces to help you communicate with your Duos partner, set up experiments in Freestyle mode, pick Talents for your new Underlord, and all of the other new features that have been added in this Big Update.
A Note About Ranks
When this update rolls out, ranked play will be disabled for a few hours as we watch to make sure things are stable. Once we set ranked live, player ranks will be compressed a bit as part of the new update. Try to beat your previous record, or be the first to climb back to Lord of Whitespire.
We’ve also added a new mode we’re calling Freestyle. With Freestyle mode you can quickly set up and test different scenarios. Maybe you want to test out different theories for your own strategies, or maybe you want to put a new hero through its paces to learn what they do and how they fight in a battle. Or if you’re like us you just want to see who would win between 32 Tomatoes and 32 Potatoes (Potatoes by a mile).
New Heroes for Hire, and New Alliances to Form
Insects, Healers, Brute, and Champion Alliances can now be formed, and favorite Heroes like Faceless Void, Io, Broodmother and Legion Commander are now for hire in the shop. In total, 12 Heroes have been added to the roster, filling out the new Alliances and padding a few of the existing ones. The team has also made a host of balance and gameplay updates to the rest of the Underlords roster, so head over to the patch notes for details if you’re curious.
Too Many Heroes? Introducing JAIL
You may be asking yourself “Wow, that’s a ton of new heroes. How am I ever going to get anyone to Rank 3 in a match?†We hear you, and the local law enforcement of White Spire also hear you. A random group of 8-12 heroes will now be detained in The Rookery for a day, and this group will update every day. To see who’s in jail, and what they’re in there for, we’ve added jail buttons to the dashboard, the game-start panel, and the Shop. Not to worry though – even though these heroes are in jail, all Alliances can still be fully completed.
New UI. So Fresh, So Clean
Meanwhile, the team has been overhauling our PC and Mobile user interfaces. From the new Dashboard (lovingly referred to internally as the Beautiful Corner), to the new notification message system (all yo-able of course), to the new full-featured in-game PC UI - we’ve worked hard to give the whole experience an upgrade. This is all in addition to the new interfaces to help you communicate with your Duos partner, set up experiments in Freestyle mode, pick Talents for your new Underlord, and all of the other new features that have been added in this Big Update.
A Note About Ranks
When this update rolls out, ranked play will be disabled for a few hours as we watch to make sure things are stable. Once we set ranked live, player ranks will be compressed a bit as part of the new update. Try to beat your previous record, or be the first to climb back to Lord of Whitespire.
