Edit: Added few bits here and there, deleted the life update bit now that’s outdated. Working on a more polished version of this

Okay, it’s time to talk about auto battlers. They have been on the rise lately with the continued popularity of DOTA AUTO CHESS and with the release of subsequent… genre titles…. ehem. You know, stuff like Dota Underlords, Teamfight Tactics, and Drodo’s own Auto Chess. Market is slowly becoming more and more saturated, and none of the more popular titles haven’t really touched up on the original Auto Chess formula.

You may ask, “What is the original Auto Chess formula?”. Well, here we go.

Auto battler is a subgenre of turn-based strategy game where the player purchases units of increasing strength with random occurances to fight other players in a free-for-all format. Unlike the similar “deck-builder” strategy games (see: Clash Royale), auto battlers focuse mainly on strategically building decks on-the-go, with special stat boosts added and a unit leveling system that focuses more on strategy rather than good units or player interaction.

Here are some common features of this genre:

8 players fight off in a free-for-all format. Last one standing wins. In a ranked format, top 4 are the ones who are awarded at the end.

Players are given gold and some preparation time before every round. Players can then buy units with that gold or buy experience. Gold is given passively or when the player wins/loses as a bonus. Passive gold is a set amount but may increase with win/loss streaks, interest, or other systems. Units are dispensed randomly into a group of 5-6 at a time in a “shop”; players can spend gold to “reroll”, or swap out the current group and replace it with a new one. Experience is gained passively or can be bought with gold (usually a set price, costlier than most units and rerolling price). Enough experience levels up the player, allowing them to put more units on the board and allowing player to get higher cost units from the shop more easily.

Units can be either “benched” or placed on a chessboard-like game field; once the preparation time is up, they will fight on their own against enemy units. Unit placement matters, as each unit behaves differently on the board. Units can “level up”, gaining stats or even new abilities. 3 of the same units grant one upgraded unit, to a max level of 3. Units have different costs, often in 5 different tiers (usually there is a 1-to-1 relationship between tier and cost). Higher the tier, the more expensive, impactful, and rarer the unit. Leveling up a 3, 4, 5, or higher tier unit is much harder than leveling up a 1 or 2 tier unit. Units belong in certain subspecies; different units of the same subspecies grant synergies, a substantial stat boost that often guides the way players place and buy units. Synergies may be unique to a certain unit or a small group of units. Synergy bonuses may be extended to an amount that is unachievable with only the units in that subspecies.

Every couple of rounds, players will encounter an NPC round where they fight off non-player enemy units. These grant not only experience and gold when slain, they also grant items that can be equipped by allied units. Items grant passive stat boosts. Items can be benched as well. Items may also be combined by placing certain items together in one hero; they may grant even greater stat boosts or possibly additional capabilities that may change the course of the game significantly. Equipping an item is permanent, though selling off that unit will give back the item.



As you may see, strategy and randomness are the two guiding factors of this formula; player skill is largely focused on having good luck and knowing their item compositions/unit synergies, more so than mechanical skill or reflexes, traits that are commonly valued in traditional RTSs or MOBAs (a genre that this game mode originally came from- Auto Chess is based off a MOD of StarCraft, or so I heard. Please correct me if I’m wrong). However, unlike common deckbuilding games or trading card games, like Hearthstone or Clash Royale (or even Clash of Clans, which is actually a lot more similar in that players determine the placing of the units and units fight automatically), decks are built on-the-go and improved on-the-go, and only the units that are on the board are used, which also differentiates it from Arena/limited format games of TCGs. Randomness is involved, but the chances of better units are improved over the course of the game, unlike others where randomness predetermines the units from the very beginning.

It can be hence said that auto battlers maximize variance (where randomness gives the player a set of tools to work with and its up to the player to decide how to use them- the player is in control of the results) for strategy and uncertainty (where the player does not know the outcome because it’s random; commonly called “RNG”, the player is not in control of the results) during combat.

More and more games are starting to add new features (gimmicks) to the original format; Teamfight Tactics where certain items grant additional origins for better synergies and a random drafting system of items and champions that gives losing players a chance to pick up better champions before others, potentially setting up for a comeback. Dota Underlords has different obstacles that the player can strategically place for covers or other benefits during combat.

I am very curious as to what other changes devs can bring to this formula- right now I can think of the combination of this with the battle royale format, where 50-100 players gather in a (possibly) double-elim or other out system shorter than the traditional 100 HP system. This forces the unit selection and board size to shrink up, which is a nice constraint to have that can bring up some new idea to the board, literally.

Also, I saw this Tweet:

https://twitter.com/nexidava_/status/1145603950080454656

So I came up with some ideas for a Pokemon auto chess.

First off, basics: gold = pokeballs, unit levels = evolve. Duh.

Synergies are represented by types. Pokemon with two types at once have a primary type and a secondary type; secondary types may enjoy synergy bonuses but may not contribute to the unit cap required by that synergy. For example, let’s say that flying type enjoys +30% attack speed for 3 units/+50% attack speed for 6 units (only for flying type pokemon). Charizard (I know boring example, hear me out though), who has a fire primary type/flying secondary type, enjoys 30% increased AS when there are other primary flying type pokemon on the board but does not contribute to the units required. So, when there are 5 primary flying type pokemon and a Charizard, they all enjoy 30% AS, not 50%. Synergies have weaknesses, just like the original game; let me change the rules here a bit as well, and make that: Weaknesses only affect abilities- there are no damage multipliers for auto attacks. Secondary types don’t count towards weaknesses (Charizard doesn’t get x4 damage by a rock type). damage multipliers are x1.6 instead of the traditional x2. Ignore all other factors that affect damage multiplication. All pokemon will use abilities that are the same type as their primary type, so no damage multiplier for using the same type ability. All units with the same name are the exact same- no random stat distribution for each unit.

Bending the rules a bit, all units have a basic attack; basic attacks charge up PPs, which can be used to cast abilities. Abilities differ by each pokemon; they gain better abilities as they evolve. For instance, a Charmander may use ember as their ability; a Charizard may use Flamethrower instead.

Low-cost units evolve twice and will be common throughout the game. Mid-tier units evolve once or don’t evolve and will be rareer. High tier units will (mostly) be legendary pokemon and do not evolve.

Megastones evolve the pokemon beyond its final evolution state. They have the following properties: Stat boost will be proportional for the “4th evolved” version of the pokemon. Their abilities will also significantly improve to a Z-skill (sorry for the mix and match, I need more time), a one-per-type ability. So a mega-evolved Charizard and Turtonator use the same ability, Inferno Overdrive, even though Turtonator uses Shell Trap for its ability.



Side note: As you may have noticed, not all pokemon from the pool will have actual mega-evolutions in the actual game. Let’s just say that they… just exist? Maybe a golden glow-up for non-megas and a model change for pokemon who have actual megas available. If pokemon have a secondary type, this is elevated to a second primary type. Certain pokemon will also gain an additional secondary. Mega Charizard X, for instance (not that I’m adding X and Y vairants, just X is the default. I’m sorry Y fans), will have fire and flying primary and dragon secondary.

Mega evolutions last for 5 battles before becoming deactivated. There can be only one mega-evolved pokemon on the field at one time.

Megastones are obtained randomly by defeating non-player enemies or keeping a winning/losing streak (randomness still involved there). They can also be combined through items (this is a quick concept, I don’t have time to get into items)