Hi guys, its crash0ne here, I will be share Tips and Tricks that can help everyone improve on the game-play and have an edge in every game!

Core Concept: Most small things compound and can have a 'butterfly effect' into the mid and late game, when we aim to improve on our controls, details and mechanics, we are are more relaxed and confident in every game, which would lead to better performance, spark of genius and more joy in every game!

How Damage is dealt to player: Each surviving enemy unit will deal damage to us, but those damage also scales with every 10 rounds!

1) Damage Calculation: One damage for each star of the opponent's units still left alive, Additionally +1 Damage for every 10 rounds that have been played. E.g A ★ Tinker would deal 1 damage before round 10 and 2 damage after round 10, 3 damage after round 20!

a. Summoned units does not deal damage, except Lone Druid's Bear and Arc Wardens Images

b. Purple item: Vicious Intent: adds 1 damage for all surviving units, including summons!

c. In terms of effective Hp, our Hp inflates, as we go into the late game, it costs more to pay for a loss!. E.g. to put this Effective Hp reduction to numbers: Hp 100% = 100% Round 1-10, 100% = 80% Round 11-20, 100% = 60% Round 20-30 (those scaled % are here for visual understanding, will adjust it for correct values if someone works them out = )

2. Tips: We can see that if we were to lose, it is better to lose early while the cost of hp is lower, than to lose late game and suffer massive hp losses even having 1-2 enemy alive.

3. I tend to save up early, starting before round 10 and start spending after round 20, in order to suffer minimal Hp loss.

4. More incentive to spend our savings in the mid-late game, as ever gold spend is likely to protect us from more painful Hp loss.

5. Favors Mid game AOE Mage teams: Those tend to wipe out a good number of enemy and lead us to a win or minimal loss, which translates to Mage lineup performing higher than other builds.

Mid Set of Each 3 Stages of The Game:

1) Early Round 1-12: Economy & Saving: Aim for win streak if possible, when we are lucky enough with ★★ units, highest gold earning comes from receiving victory gold + having win streaks. Keep a balance of investment into protecting win streaks vs cost to our current savings when win streak is lost.

a. As for losing streak, Aim to keep only core units!
i. Use early game cheap Alliance to transition and save up, 3 Scrappy/warrior, 2 primordial,
brawny or heartless

ii. E.g. For mages I tend to keep Razor & SF only before round 9.

b. General rule of thumb to protect win streaks:
i. Aim to start one early, before round 10
ii. Investment of gold into leveling > rolling for ★★ (unless we have 5+ pairs)
iii. Spend 10-20 gold max, for 1/2+ Win streak
iv. Win streak resets, so look for more incentives when we spend for win streak. E.g. I need higher
rates for Medusa/Kunkka for hunter/warriors

Mid Round 13-25: Deciding Our Lineup & Start Spending:
This is the most important stage of the game, and it has two parts to it.

a. See our lineup as two parts, the Core + Branch. E.g. Knights + Dragons, where our knights are the core and we branched into dragons, the branch can also be trolls, mages, hunters for knights, while the core stays fixed. Transitions should be within the same core while the branch shifts. To determine our branch or core, look into the number of ★★ we have most for an Alliance.

b. Avoid full commitment to an Early game lineup. 4 druids are great, but they do not provide much after round 25, so plan for transitions! To plan, look into our existing and potential Alliance, and consider the various Tier 4/5 units we will pick up in the mid-late game, which one can enhance our lineup? E.g. Gyro = Magic Damage for mages, Techies = Physical Damage for Heartless, Tide adds to scaled + AOE stun, Kunkka adds to humans + Stun.

c. General Spending Timing: Round 17 Level 7, Round 21 Level 8. Most players follow this subconsciously, so it is up to use to capitalize on this knowledge! E.g. my Mage Warlock build goes to LeveL 9 a Round 21, to hit the late game faster, for higher rates of Tier 4/5 and Protect Hp after Round 20+

d. Keep Spending To Re-Roll after leveling up: RNG is a big factor in the game, but with sufficient savings from early game, we need to Spend to find our ★★ units, and not to wait for them to appear in the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ each round. I tend to use Hp and Current Rounds as indicators to spend.

i. HP > 50% Roll down to 50/40 gold each round. Spending down to 40 gold only cost 1 gold of
saving, which is acceptable if we find a key upgrade, also losing less becomes increasingly
important as we go into higher rounds due to HP loss calculation!

ii. HP > 35% Roll down to 30/20. Here we are one loss away from going all in, prevention is
better than wishing we had more HP around 10-15% HP.

iii. HP < 20% I would go all in, roll down to 10/0 gold, each loss could be our last, and we don't
want to have unspent gold before we loss this game.

iv. Round 31+: I tend to spend down to 30 gold even with Hp > 30%, as the cost of each loss is so much higher!

Late Game Round 26+: Team Fight Potential & Positioning:
Stuns, Items and Adjustments to units placements after each loss or countering the enemy.

a. Team fight is key in the late game: Alliance, units and items that buffs our team or debuffs the enemy team can be the game changer.

b. Who ever shoots first wins! Here who ever casts first would likely to secure the rounds. We will explain in detail how and what amount of mana is gained in next guide, for now it is gained via attacking enemy and receiving damage

c. Ranged units & casters tend to gain mana from attacks over receiving damage, due to their lower armor and Hp pool even at ★★. Staying in the back line also enable chances for casting multiple times! E.g. ★★ Lich with 8 sec CD to cast again is deadly! (with exception to Disruptor, Thrall, leader of the horde, the lord of silence + blind storm! SS tier op warlock, he goes to the front-line!)

d. Melee units gain most mana from receiving damage. Exception is when melee units are in the backline to defend Vs Assassins

e. We want to balance a few things here: Initiators/Stunners should be placed in the front line and with no other friendly units to 'stealing' their damage received/mana gaining potential. but we also don't want our initiators to die before casting their spell, hence we have 2 types of placements formation.

f. 1. Protecting our ★ Initiators (tide & disruptor): they are protected in the middle to reduce damage received from each side, only instance of damage is front and from enemy backline.

Let me know your thoughts on this Build Guide!
Ask me questions about Dota Underlords on Steam, feel free to ask!