Here are 10 tips every Underlords player should know to win more games.

If you already know the basics of Dota Underlords and have played a few games, this guide is for you. If not, we highly recommend reading our Beginner’s Guide first!

By the end of this article, you should be armed with more knowledge to become an Underlords master, so read on!

10 Tips to Win Games in Dota Underlords

Here are 10 tips to improve your performance and win more games in Dota Underlords:

Avoid “Rolling” in the Early Rounds Fill up your Reserve Space Don’t Rush 3-Star Units Start with Tanky Heroes Round your Gold to Multiples of 10 Diversify your Composition Losing Rounds is a Strategy Position Your Units Properly Know when to Buy XP and Level Up Don’t Force Builds, Learn to Adapt

Avoid “Rolling” in the Early Rounds

Rolling—resetting your hero selection shop for 2 Gold—should be avoided in the early game.

2 Gold is very precious during that time. Rolling is only useful in the mid-late game where you have more spare Gold to spend, and you want to focus on upgrading a single important hero.

It’s better to spend your Gold stockpiling 1-Star units and hope to come up with good hero pairs.

This brings us to our next tip…

Fill up your Reserve Space

You can sell 1-Star units for 100% refund and not lose anything if you sell them later.

Use this knowledge to maximize your reserve space.

Always fill your bench with 1-Star units during the early game. This gives you a greater chance to make 2-Star pieces on the next rounds.

If you end up not using them or better pieces come up, then just sell the 1-Star units for full value.

Having several 2-Star heroes on the board puts you in a good position. Speaking of which…

Don’t Rush 3-Star Units

Related Guide: How to Upgrade & Level Up Units in Dota Underlords

Tempting as it may be, don’t focus too much on upgrading a 2-Star unit into 3-Star. Focus on getting multiple 2-Star units first.

Having many 2-Star units is more achievable and gives you more stability than focusing on rushing 3-Star units.

They will immensely help you survive until the mid-game rounds and you’ll have more snowball potential.

Remember that you need a total of 9 pieces of a Hero to get him to level 3–it’s not that easy!

Shared Unit Pool

Also, note that there’s a shared unit pool in the game: there’s a limited amount of each unit shared to all players throughout the game.

Meaning, the more players are building certain heroes/alliances, the lesser chances they’ll appear in the Shop. So, keep an eye on what units your enemies are building.

Start with Tanky Heroes

A common early game strategy for beginners is to start with durable tank units with lots of HP.

Warriors like Axe, Tusk, Juggernaut, and Tiny are all great openers.

Brawny and Knight Alliance units are great tankers too, as their synergies give your units bonus armor (Warrior), increased HP (Brawny) or damage reduction (Knights). Knights need to be beside each other though in order for their synergies to take effect.

After that, you’ll want to back them up with damage-dealing (DPS) units like Mages.

Round your Gold to Multiples of 10

Take advantage of the 10% Gold interest mechanic—you get 1 Gold for each 10 Gold you currently hold. This is capped to 5 Gold at 50 Gold. (Related: How to Earn Gold in Dota Underlords)

Current Gold Gold earned 10 Gold 1 Gold 20 Gold 2 Gold 30 Gold 3 Gold 40 Gold 4 Gold 50 Gold 5 Gold 50-100 Gold 5 Gold

Try to always round up or round down your Gold into a multiple of 10.

There is no downside to having 10 Gold instead of 15 Gold, but you might want to save that 1 Gold from 30 to 29.

In the mid-late game, aim for 50 Gold for the interest.

Once your money goes above 50, spend the excess. Remember the “Fill up your bench” tip above.

Diversify your Composition

Heroes in Underlords belong to at least two Alliances. Having multiple heroes of the same Alliance on the board will give you bonus effects called Synergies. (Related: Alliances Synergy List)

It’s tempting to just fill the board with units of the same Alliance for the bonuses—but don’t over do it!

A better strategy is diversifying your army composition with different Alliances and classes (tanks, DPS, etc).

For example, try to complement beefy melee tanks with glass-cannon mages or even some healers.

Once you get the hang of the game and familiarize the alliance synergies, you can start testing out combos and builds.

Losing Rounds is a Strategy

It might not make sense but you can actually win games by losing rounds! Wait, what?!

You get bonus Gold for both winning and losing streaks. If you’re losing, it’s better to just force losses every round to get additional Gold.

Consistent losses are better than alternate wins and losses.

Consecutive Wins/Losses Bonus Gold per round 3–5 +1 6–8 +2 9+ +3

Just take your time, take advantage of compounding interest, and get a huge power spike once you’ve accumulated enough Gold.

Be careful though as this strategy requires you to sacrifice some HP. Think of it as trading health points for Gold.

Position Your Units Properly

Related Guide: How Position Your Units in Dota Underlords

Positioning is a whole layer of depth in Dota Underlords and even one cell can spell victory or defeat.

Before deploying a unit to the board, think about why you decide to place that unit on that exact cell.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

Tanks on front, squishy damage-dealing units in the back Units closer to the center of the board generally take more damage than those that are not Units should be active right away, ex. don’t put melee heroes on the back to prevent unnecessary walking time Units should use their ability at least once Familiarize the coverage of area-of-effect (AoE) abilities and position units accordingly so they hit as many targets as possible

Know when to buy EXP and Level Up

Leveling up increases your unit limit and unlocks better heroes in the shop.

Each round gives you 1 EXP and you can buy 4 EXP for 5 Gold. (Related: How to Level Up in Dota Underlords)

So, when is the best time to buy experience from the shop? Here are two pointers:

Do you have enough Gold to hit the next level? Or do you have a unit to add that gives you a significant advantage? (e.g. strong unit or activates a synergy)

There’s no reason to buy EXP if you can only afford half the EXP needed to reach the next level. Better keep that Gold in your stash to earn interest (unless you have more than 50 Gold).

Rounds 5 and 9 are common rounds to buy EXP to level up to Lv 5 and 6, respectively.

Don’t Force Builds, Learn to Adapt

A common newbie mistake is forcing their favorite builds. “Ohh X build is really strong, I’ll use it from now on!”

Underlords is a game of chance with lots of random elements. You only get to play whatever cards you are dealt with.

What if you don’t get the desired pieces for your build?

A better skill to practice is adapting to the current situation. Learn several builds and be open to changing your strategy even when you’re already midway through the game.

Besides, you’ll have more money to modify your army too in the late game.

“Be water, my friend.” — Bruce Lee

Conclusion

Hopefully, these basic tips will help you jump start your journey to be a Dota Underlords pro!

What are your favorite strategies, tips and advice for new players? Comment them down below!

Good luck!