Games like Dota Auto Chess
Erumaru and Dota Auto Chess
Dota Auto Chess is the custom game by Drodo Studio that started the whole genre in January 2019 inside Dota 2: eight players, an 8 by 8 board, Dota heroes as chess pieces, races and classes with synergy thresholds, three copies merging into a stronger piece. Everything that came after, from Teamfight Tactics to Underlords, answers to it
What they share
- Two tags per unit and synergies for collecting them: Dota Auto Chess has races and classes, Erumaru has 10 peoples and 10 callings, every pair exactly once
- Three copies make a two-star unit, three two-star copies make three stars
- A shared pool in the shop, refreshes for gold, interest on savings. In Erumaru the currency is salt
- A board seen from above where placement decides who gets hit first
- Dota's attribute logic: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, armour and magic resistance work the way Dota players expect
Where Erumaru goes its own way
- Single player, PvE. The enemy is the land: waves of mobs, elites, guardians and bosses with phases
- A roguelite run of three acts with a branching map, events, a workbench, chapels and caches, plus meta progression between runs
- Heroes level up to 100, carry six items and four perks and get an Awakening, so a one-cost hero can be a late-game carry
- Relics for the whole squad change the rules of a run, like in Slay the Spire
- Original world and heroes: a post-apocalyptic Erumaru forty years after its man-made sun went out
Side by side
| Dota Auto Chess | Erumaru | |
|---|---|---|
| Mode | PvP, eight players | PvE, single player |
| One session | one match, about 40 minutes | a roguelite run of 42 floors, 60 to 90 minutes, saved at any node |
| How units grow | stars from copies, items | stars from copies, levels up to 100, six items, four perks, Awakening |
| Setting | Dota 2 heroes and world | post-apocalyptic world, ten peoples, ten lands |
| Price | free inside Dota 2 | closed beta free, full price not announced |
| Status | custom game, still playable | in development, coming to Steam |
Who should try Erumaru
For the people who still miss the original Dota Auto Chess but do not want to queue for eight-player lobbies. The build logic will feel like home; the run around it is new
Questions people ask
Is Erumaru connected to Dota or Valve?
No. Erumaru is an independent game. It borrows ideas the genre made standard, nothing more
Does Erumaru have a courier or player health?
The run has Heat, the fire of the Lantern: it starts at 5, a lost fight costs 1, a lost elite, guardian or boss fight costs 2, and rests give it back. At zero the run ends