The Beta Season for Dota Underlords has received its first major cosmetics: The Proto Pass is a free Battle Pass full of cosmetics for Valve to gather feedback on. What that means for you is that there’s tons of free collectibles to get, coupled with some game play adjustments in the update. Let’s break down the contents:

Proto Pass update

The Proto Pass consists of 25 levels, and you’ll get 2 daily challenges to complete for XP. Any Hardcore difficulty bot match or multiplayer game will net you game play and challenge experience. A sampling of rewards:

• Banners art
• Standard decorations
• Player portrait borders
• Firework win effects
• Minion respawn effects
• Win streak effects: Sharp eyed players might have noticed the flame effect was removed from win streaks on the leader board. You can earn it back as a cosmetic option through the Proto Pass.
• YOs: The “Yo!” emote is a very charming oddity of a quiet game like Underlords, but you change it something different via unlocks. Oi!
• New Map: Path To Sunbreeze is a map skin that takes you out of White Spire and into a forest much more like the Dota 2 map. It’s currently not implemented in the game, but you can unlock it in advance by reaching level 5 in the pass.

There’s actually a video showing off Path To Sunbreeze from a developer stream:

Also included are game play adjustments, which we can examine:

GENERAL:

• Scoreboard UI improved.
• Post game now shows items and alliances.
• Post game now includes scoreboard overview.
• General UI improvements and bug fixes for different aspect ratios and devices.
• Expanding on last week’s change: Combat continues until all projectiles have completed their travel, up to a max of 5 seconds.
  • Useful for slower projectile units like Mirana.
• Fixed Neutrals not displaying stats correctly in the unit stats panel in combat.
• Fixed heroes stunned with short duration spells (like Clockwerk’s Battery Assault) resetting their attack timers and thus attacking faster than allowed.
• Increased accuracy of the matchmaking system at high skill levels.

ALLIANCES:

• Apply alliance effects to summons.
• Make alliance indicators properly dynamic in the UI (Fall From Grace now shows properly on humans, etc.).
• Warlock alliance no longer triggers on item activate, just spell activate.

HEROES:

• Fixed Venomancer wards having -50% magic resist instead of 50% magic resist.
  • Venomancer now works as intended, Plague Wards don’t die as easily.
• Fixed Disruptor, Alchemist spells not continuing their effects after their death.
• Gyrocopter no longer targets units in the air when casting Call Down.
  • This is for characters like Batrider who aren’t affected by Call Down due to being a flying unit. I feel this should accompany a visual indicator of who is considered a flying unit.
• Medusa:
  • Split Shot:
    • Changed extra shots from 3 to 2.
    • Will ignore nearby targets that happen to be outside Medusa’s attack range.
  • Medusa is one of the most powerful units in the game, we’ll see if this does enough to curb her dominance.
• Axe:
  • Berserker’s Call:
    • Since you can’t cast spells while taunted, and since we are using the Silence effect, getting taunted now officially silences.

ITEMS:

• Fixed Big-Time Contract sometimes not applying.
• Aegis has changed: it now only activates on damage that would otherwise be fatal. It no longer preserves streaks.
• Fixed Divine Rapier being removed at the start of combat. Losing a Divine Rapier now no longer removes a potential item slot.
• Tooth and Claw now has proper duration.
• Fix Silver Lining crash.
• Fix missing name for Eidolons.
• Fix Wicked Intent amplifying regen instead of dampening it.
• Yes, this really did buff your enemy instead of debuff them.
• Fix crazy numbers on healing display when Wicked Intent is in play.
• Units blinking using Blink Dagger will clear their active target and reacquire once the blink is done. Fixes units chasing their original enemy.
• Coordinated Assault auras don’t stack. NOTE: More than one copy will still increase the bonus.
  • This just means that Trolls can’t apply the same buff on each other, giving you two stacks of Coordinated Assault on both Trolls.
• Fall From Grace: item description changed to make clearer that the item turns Human into Heartless, it does not add Heartless as an additional alliance.

MOBILE ONLY:

• Hide from your big boss: Steam invisible mode is now supported.
• More performance improvements on both iOS and Android platforms. This includes better support for iPhone and Pixel 3 screen aspect ratios.

Overall it’s a very strong update that came along incredibly quick given the game is purely infancy. It’s worth noting the Underlords website received an update describing the Underlords themselves, characters we may very soon be playing as when Valve expands on the Auto Chess concept in their own ways.