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Dota Underlords gold [October] - economy and gold tips and tricks

Getting your money's worth

Ollie Toms avatar
Guide by Ollie Toms Guides Editor
Published on

Mastering the Dota Underlords gold and economy system is absolutely essential for winning matches with any sort of consistency. It is what enables you to start from nothing and end with an insurmountable army of 3-star Knights and Mages and Trolls and whatever else you desire to populate your board with. Our Dota Underlords gold guide will walk you through the very best practices for ensuring a strong economy throughout a match, with full explanations of all the ways you can accrue gold over time and how best to use all that hard-won moolah.

Dota Underlords gold and economy guide

Dota Underlords gold [October]

There's quite a bit to bear in mind about the nature of gold in Dota Underlords, how it accrues and generates interest, and the ideal rounds on which to spend your hard-earned moolah. Feel free to skip ahead to a particular section by using the links below.

Dota Underlords gold accrual

Dota Underlords gold overview - earning gold and spending gold

Gold is your primary currency in Dota Underlords, and you can use it in four different ways:

  • To buy units from the shop (each unit costs its tier in gold; Razor is Tier 1, so costs 1 gold, whereas Medusa is Tier 5, so costs 5 gold).
  • To re-roll the units shown in the shop (costs 2 gold per re-roll, but you get a single free re-roll if you lost your last PvP fight).
  • To buy XP to upgrade your Player Level (costs 5 gold and provides 4 XP).
  • In the extremely fringe case where you have the Dragon's Hoard global item, to boost the attack damage of heroes with the Dragon alliance (more information can be found in our Dota Underlords alliances or Dota Underlords items guides).

So, gold in Dota Underlords is extremely important and useful, since without it you have no means to create an army. The larger your income, the more you can spend on upgrading your board until you are the last player standing.

A match is divided into rounds. On the first round, you earn 1 gold - enough to buy a single Tier 1 hero. On round two you earn 2 gold; on round three you earn 3 gold, and so on until round 5 and beyond, where you earn 5 gold each time. However, this is merely the baseline amount you get each round, and there are various different ways that you can earn more gold on top of this.

Winning rounds in Dota Underlords

The simplest method of earning more gold on top of your baseline 5 gold is by winning fights against other players. If you successfully defended your board from the enemy on the previous round, then you'll earn an additional +1 gold to spend the next round. May not seem like much, but combined with the following methods that +1 gold can turn out to mean a whole lot more than it lets on.

Win streak and lose streak bonuses

Another way to earn additional gold is by being consistent in your fights - and interestingly, this applies to consistently losing as well as consistently winning:

  • Win streaks of 3/5/7/8 earn +1/2/3/4 gold per round (streak resets at 8 wins or once you lose a fight)
  • Lose streaks of 3/5 earn +1/2 gold per round (streak resets once you win a fight)

The upshot of this is that if you're on a winning streak you should (obviously) endeavour to keep that streak going as long as possible, but also, if you're on a losing streak then you may want to consider deliberately holding back on upgrading your army immediately to keep that losing streak going and earn more gold from it.

Obviously this is a balancing act, as you don't want to cripple yourself too much by losing all your health, but it's definitely a tactic worth remembering.

Dota Underlords gold interest

Earning interest on gold is where you have to be most tactical with your earning and spending in Dota Underlords. Here's what you need to know:

  • The moment the shop phase of a round ends and the fighting phase begins, the game makes a record of your total gold at that moment.
  • For every 10 gold you have in the bank at that moment, you earn +1 gold as interest next round.
  • This is rounded down, not rounded up - so if you have 29 gold in the bank, you'll still only get +2 gold as interest.
  • The interest bonus caps at +5 gold for 50 gold in the bank.
  • The +1 gold you earn for winning a round is immediately counted towards your interest calculations for next round. So if you started the fight at 29 gold, but then you win the fight, you'll earn +3 gold as interest.

Dota Underlords gold tips and tricks

Dota Underlords gold strategy - tips on maximizing economy and spending wisely

From all these rules you can extrapolate certain strategies to help you maximise your gold income in Dota Underlords. Let's take a look at some useful tips on keeping your economy strong from the start to the end of a match.

  • There's no point saving beyond 50 gold. The whole point of not spending your gold the moment it comes in is to accrue interest. But interest caps at +5 gold if you have 50 gold in the bank - which means you might as well spend any gold you have above 50 each round.
  • Spend while fights are taking place, rather than before. Because Dota Underlords calculates your interest for the next round at the end of the shopping phase, it's a very good idea not to buy anything that would put you down, say, from 20 gold to 19 gold, until after the shopping phase has ended. That way, you'll buy what you needed to buy, and you'll still earn the maximum amount of interest next round. Only buy in the shopping phase if it's something you need to action immediately.
  • Consider the benefits of consecutively losing rounds. Loss streaks are a big deal. Dota Underlords is not one of those games where it's obvious the moment you get into the mid-game who is going to win. Loss streaks allow players to make tremendous comebacks, so it's worth considering whether to deliberately lose more rounds to boost your economy. It's a balancing act between your two resources of gold and health - but you should always attempt to diminish the enemy army as much as possible before you lose so that the ratio of health loss to gold gain is at its most efficient.
  • Spend frugally in the early-game. It's very important to get your interest-earning up as quickly as possible in Dota Underlords, which means you should spend frugally in the first 15 rounds at least. Don't empty your coffers each round, because you'll cripple yourself.
  • Certain rounds are particularly good for buying XP. At the start of Round 5, for example, you'll be at exactly 0/4 XP required to get you to Player Level 5. This makes it an excellent time to spend that 5 gold to earn 4 XP and suddenly gain an extra hero slot on your board. In general, look for moments where your current XP reaches a multiple of 4, because these are good moments to spend gold to upgrade your Player Level.
  • Try not to spend more than 10 gold in a round unless it's to buy XP. Unless you're in really dire straits, the only time you should spend mega-bucks in a single round is to upgrade your Player Level. Gold interest is important to maintain, so don't squander it by recklessly re-rolling or buying heroes you don't need.
  • Once you've hit Player Level 10, it's time to starting rolling down. Rolling down is when you just re-roll and re-roll the shop continuously until you get what you need from it. This is obviously extremely costly, and it should only be done in the late-game, either if you've hit Player Level 10 already or if you really need to roll down to prevent your imminent death.

Dota Underlords gold guide - guide links

And that's pretty much all we have to offer on earning gold in Dota Underlords - at least for this guide. Check out all our other Dota Underlords guide pages just below for more focused and in-depth overviews on various different aspects of this addictive autobattler.

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