Dota Underlords’ ‘Big Update’ adds a better way to play with a friend

The biggest update for Dota Underlords has arrived and is bringing with it a whole host of new features to the auto-battler game. The update, fittingly called The Big Update, will add a new co-op game mode to Underlords, as well as other new modes, new heroes, and the Underlords themselves that the game is named after.

The game’s new co-op mode, Duos, will pit eight teams of two against each other. Each player will build their own teams and buy their own units, but you can send gold or units over to your teammate if you want to. But those aren’t the only resources you’ll share. You and your Duo partner will also share health and the last team remaining at the end of the game wins. This mode will start with casual matchmaking, but Valve says it has plans to add a ranked mode in the future.

Also new to the game in this update is the Freestyle mode. This mode acts as a sandbox to let you experiment with units, talents, and combinations in order to figure out exactly what you like. This should give new players an easy space to learn the game or veterans a spot to test out their latest team comp experiments.

The Big Update is bringing plenty of changes to the in-game experience of Underlords as well, starting with, well, The Underlords. The unique units that lend Dota Underlords its name have finally arrived in the game. You can think of these a little bit like hero units. They provide your team with unique buffs and have their own slate of abilities that cost a new resource called Hype to use. You’ll even get the chance to choose Underlord-specific talents in each game at Round 10.

Finally, as with any good patch for an Auto-Battler game, The Big Update will add plenty of new units. Twelve new units will join the fray as part of The Big Update, including Faceless Void and Legion Commander. Valve is also adding the Insect, Healer, Brute, and Champion alliances to the game in this update.

To help keep the unit pool from getting impossibly big, Valve has also added a new feature called Jail. Jail will be a new rotating cast of eight to 12 units who are unavailable. Each day a new set of units will be put in Jail and thus removed from the list of available units in-game. But, according to Valve, all Alliances will still be completable no matter what the Jail rotation is like on a certain day.

Dota Underlords’ The Big Update arrives today, Oct. 24.