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Dota Underlords Battle Pass - Proto Pass details, Season 1 new heroes and upcoming content

What new heroes are coming to Dota Underlords?

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Guide by Ollie Toms Guides Editor
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In preparation for the release of Dota Underlords' first season, Valve have released a prototype Battle Pass (the aptly named Proto Pass) to all Underlords players, free of charge. The catch? No catch; they just want feedback on how it works, so they can get the Season 1 Battle Pass perfect before it's released. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a square deal to me. Let's talk a little about this Proto Pass in our Dota Underlords Battle Pass guide; and we'll also take this opportunity to dive into what we know about the release of Dota Underlords Season 1, from new heroes to upcoming features and much more.

Dota Underlords Battle Pass and Season 1 details

The release of a new game's first Battle Pass is always an interesting subject, and with Dota Underlords Valve seem to be treading very carefully after the debacle that was Artifact last year. Let's go through everything we know about the current Proto Battle Pass, and everything we expect to arrive with the release of Dota Underlords Season 1.

Dota Underlords Battle Pass explained - how it works

Valve's Dota Underlords Proto Pass works in much the same way as most Battle Passes in other games:

  • With a Battle Pass, you can earn experience (XP) by playing matches and also be completing various daily challenges.
  • The XP you earn goes towards increasing your Battle Pass Level - and with each new Level you reach, you'll unlock a new cosmetic reward.
  • You can view your current Battle Pass Level and the rewards you've unlocked (and yet to unlock) from the main menu, by clicking on the shield icon on the third tab at the top of the screen.
  • You can equip various cosmetics items in different slots by navigating to your Loadout screen (the fourth tab at the top of the screen in the main menu).

All this sounds very familiar if you've played Fortnite, Apex Legends, or indeed Dota 2 itself. However, the key difference with Dota Underlords' pre-Season 1 Proto Pass is that it's free to all current and future beta testers. So if you've played Dota Underlords at all, you've already got the Proto Pass and the ability to unlock all these free cosmetics.

Of course, we can't expect this to last; in order to, you know, make money, Valve will have to put a price on Season 1's Battle Pass when it arrives. Probably something in the region of $10, as this seems to be what most other games value their Battle Pass at.

Dota Underlords Battle Pass - Proto Pass rewards

As mentioned previously, the two ways to earn XP to upgrade your Battle Pass Level are playing matches, and completing daily challenges (which are viewable from the main menu). If you want more specifics, these are the actual amounts you earn for these things:

  • Daily Challenges
    • Tier 1 Challenge: 400XP
    • Tier 2 Challenge: 800XP
    • Tier 3 Challenge: 1600XP
  • Match Placement:
    • 1st: 150XP
    • 2nd: 120XP
    • 3rd: 100XP
    • 4th: 90XP
    • 5th: 80XP
    • 6th: 70XP
    • 7th: 60XP
    • 8th: 50XP

So as you can see, if you come first in a match, you earn three times as much XP as you would if you landed 8th. And you can also see that completing the Daily Challenges provide significantly morer XP than individual matches; but of course you can complete many more matches in a day than you can Daily Challenges.

Below is a full list of all the rewards included at the various levels of the Dota Underlords Proto Battle Pass:

IconLevelItemXP Required
1N/AN/A
2Emerald Dawn (Flag Banner)500
3Light the Way (Fireworks Effect)750
4Good Prospects (Flag Standard)1,000
5Path to Sunbreeze (Board)1,250
6Simple Signage (Profile Ring)1,500
7See You in the Mourning (Flag Banner)1,750
8Ow! (Player Yo)2,000
9A New Standard of War (Flag Standard)2,250
10Bootlegger Entrance (Teleport Effect)2,500
11Geometric Frame (Profile Ring)2,750
12Crimson Welcome (Flag Banner)3,000
13You're On Fire! (Win Streak Effect)3,250
14Light My Candle (Flag Standard)3,500
15Oi! (Player Yo)3,750
16Crafted Frame (Profile Ring)4000
17Hobgen Ascendant (Flag Banner)4,250
18Romance in the Air (Fireworks Effect)4,500
19Fae Fire (Flag Standard)4,750
20Hot! (Player Yo)5,000
21Opulent Frame (Profile Ring)5,250
22The Lord's Banner (Flag Banner)5,500
23Verdant Entrance (Teleport Effect)5,750
24Jull's Flame (Flag Standard)6,000
25Beep Boop (Win Streak Effect)6,250

Dota Underlords Season 1 release date and new content

All this is merely a placeholder and learning experience for the release of the first true Dota Underlords Battle Pass when Season 1 arrives. When will that be? We don't yet know. Some are saying it might be as late as December because they're assuming a Season lasts 6 months like it does in Dota 2. But then, they also released a "Mid-Season" patch about a month after Dota Underlords was released, so it's looking more likely we'll see the arrival of Season 1 much sooner, possibly sometime in late August. But then, on the Dota Underlords Steam page it's said that the game will be in Early Access for "a few months", so maybe it'll be something more like September/October. The point is, we don't yet know.

What we do know is that Valve have revealed some of the new features in the works for when Dota Underlords exists Early Access and enters its first Season:

  • Four Underlords to choose from. So far "Underlords" haven't actually played much of a role in Dota Underlords, but Valve are looking to change that by introducing a selection of Underlords to play as, each of which sport "unique gameplay-affecting changes". Which means, something else to think about while you're playing! Because I guess Dota Underlords (and writing guides about it) wasn't complex enough.
  • Ranked Matchmaking. I mean, this is already a thing in the current version of Dota Underlords, but we can likely expect the ranked formula to change from month to month. Hell, the last thing Valve told us was that there was going to be a few changes to how ranked works in the next update.
  • Private Lobbies and Tournaments. Yep, private lobbies are in the works for Dota Underlords, which will allow players to more easily get together in pre-arranged groups and battle it out for glory and riches galore.
  • New heroes, alliances, items. Now this is where things will really be shaken up. With each new Season, Valve are going to swap out various heroes, items, and even alliances to make room for new additions. After all, there are only 60 heroes in Dota Underlords and 117 heroes in Dota 2, so there's a lot to choose from! According to a recent potential leak, we might see the following heroes added with the release of Dota Underlords Season 1:
    • "Chen, Clinkz, Dark Seer, Dazzle, Earthshaker, Pangolier, Riki, Rubick, Spectre, Storm Spirit, Sven, Undying, Vengeful Spirit, Weaver, Zeus."

All this in addition to the new Season 1 Battle Pass which will presumably sport all-new cosmetics, custom boards, banners, and more. And given how much they've been changing the already existing heroes, alliances, and other systems with recent patches, it's safe to say the world of Dota Underlords will look very different when Season 1 is released than it does right now.

That's pretty much everything we have to offer so far on the Dota Underlords Battle Pass and the upcoming content released with Season 1 - but do check out our other guides if you're after more focused tips and strategies on other aspects of this addictive autobattler.

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