DAC Builder

How to play Dota Auto Chess

Dota Auto Chess is an 8-player strategy game. You recruit chess pieces, place them on your board, and they fight automatically. The last player standing wins.

A game at a glance

  1. Recruit. Every round your shop offers 5 random pieces. Buy them with gold; a piece costs 1 to 5 gold.
  2. Place. Put pieces on your half of the 8×8 board. You can field as many pieces as your courier level. Spare pieces wait on your 8-slot bench.
  3. Combine. Three copies of a piece merge into a stronger ★★ piece, and three ★★ copies into a ★★★ piece. See Stars & combining.
  4. Build synergies. Each piece has a race and a class. Field enough different pieces that share one and the whole team gets a bonus. See Synergies.
  5. Fight. When the preparation timer runs out, your pieces battle on their own. Win and you earn bonus gold; lose and your courier takes damage for every enemy piece still standing.
  6. Survive. Every courier starts with 100 HP. When it reaches 0 you're out. The last courier alive wins.

Where to go next

Shop & oddsWhat the shop can offer at each level, and the shared pool. Gold & levelsIncome, interest, streaks, and when to level up. Stars & combiningMaking ★★ and ★★★ pieces. Rounds & combatCreep rounds, loot and how much damage you take. Special pieces & drawsLegendaries, Pandaren fishing, Io, Wheel of Wonder and more. Items, relics & talentsGetting and upgrading items, relic boxes and talent choices.

Beginner tips

  • Plan around synergies. A team of cheap pieces with two or three active synergies usually beats a random collection of expensive ones. Try line-ups in the team builder.
  • Only different pieces count. Two copies of the same piece on the board count once toward a synergy. Combine them instead.
  • Save gold for interest. Every 10 gold you hold at the start of a round earns 1 extra gold, up to +4 at 40 gold.
  • Win or lose in a row. Streaks of either kind pay extra gold, so a deliberate losing streak early on can fund a strong mid game.
  • Don't neglect creep rounds. Rounds 1–3 and every 5th round from 10 are against creeps. They cost no HP if you lose, but winning gives items and loot.
  • Level up to see stronger pieces. 4- and 5-cost pieces only show up in your shop at higher courier levels.