The Big Update is shipping soon, and we can’t help but start to talk about it. There are many pieces to this update (hence the name) and we’ll be sharing new details daily until release.

At a high level, The Big Update marks the beginning of the end of the Underlords Beta. We’ve been constantly learning and experimenting over the last few months, and with this update we are polishing away a big chunk of ‘Beta’, getting us even closer to Version 1.0.

We'd like to start our previews by showcasing Heroes and Alliances that make part of the new roster. Let's get started!



Introducing the Healer Alliance and Dazzle:






The Insects Alliance is also here ready to bug your opponents, with 3 new heroes Weaver, Nyx Assassin and Broodmother:










We'll continue our showcase of new heroes and alliances tomorrow with Part Two, see ya then.

• Fixed an issue where, once a unit's channeling was interrupted, it could never cast at a higher power than that. This affected Keeper of the Light and Windranger. If their casts were interrupted, any later casts would be at the same power level, even if in the later casts they successfully channeled the entire channel time.
  
• Fixed the longstanding issue where more than one of the same type of Demon would still invalidate the Demon alliance.
  
• Tweaked Savage numbers to [7, 15, 25] from [4, 8, 15].

In our internal playtests, the game is different enough that the old Savage numbers (and the change to Demons) felt balanced, but public is in a very different space right now so this should work better for the public game.

NOTE: This is our last update before the Big Update. Next week you won't get a new update, but in exchange--if all goes well--we'll start showcasing each of the new features you'll find in the Big Update as we approach release day.

See you then!

• Fixed an issue where units could be forced to attack untargetable units (example: Pudge hooks an undying unit).
  
• Fixed an issue where all damage done by Medusa's Ace Effect, where all Scaled units do damage to units near them, would be credited to Medusa only.

Enchantress:

• Nature's Attendants:
  
  • Fixed an issue where the wrong heal amount was displayed on the ability tooltip.

Lone Druid's Spirit Bear:

• Entangling Claws:
  
  • Fixed an issue where Entangling Claws would never be cast.

Viper:

• Max Mana is now 50.

Big-Time Contract:

• Players can now get more than 1 of this item again.

Target Buddy:

• Can no longer be healed.

Blood-Bound:

• Changed to: When a Blood-Bound unit dies, it gives +125% Attack Damage, in addition to any existing Blood-Bound bonus it has, to a random friendly Blood-Bound unit.

Savage:

• Changed to: Allied Savage units gain +[4, 8, 15] Attack Damage each time they land an attack on an enemy or cast a damaging spell.
  
• This affects Venomancer and Sand King, the only Savage units with damaging spells.

• Removed Summon Units challenge.
  
• Fixed an issue where some abilities that preferred the unit's current target (e.g. Slardar's Corrosive Haze) could be cast outside their maximum range.
  
• Fixed an issue where Tusk could punch something so hard it never returned to earth.
  
• Added a new Notice animation for Tiny.

Lycan:

• Shapeshift:
  
  • Fixed an issue where Lycan was healing too much on shift.

Slardar:

• Corrosive Haze:
  
  • Will no longer be cast again on a target currently affected by it.

Venomancer:

• Venomous Gale:
  
  • While Venomancer still only targets units within his attack range (3 cells), the actual Gale projectile travels up to 5 cells.
    
  • Projectile damage increased to [30, 60, 120] from [25, 50, 100].

Viper:

• Viper is now a Scaled Dragon (was Dragon Assassin).
  
• Removed Viper Strike ability.
  
• Added Nethertoxin:
  
  • Viper poisons a cell, dealing [50, 100, 150] damage per second to any enemy unit in it and disabling their passives. Duration: 5s.
    
  • Mana Cost: 50.
    
  • Cooldown: 5s.

Big-Time Contract:

• Players can only have a maximum of 1 of this item now.

Savage:

• Changed to: Allied Savage units gain +[4, 8, 15] Attack Damage each time they land an attack on an enemy. This replaces the bleed effect that would be applied each time they landed an attack.

• Fixed longstanding issue where passive abilities (excepting Dragon special abilities and Sand King's Caustic Finale) used stats from one rank higher, e.g. Crystal Maiden 2-star using Crystal Maiden 3-star's values. Some units got a buff to compensate (see below), and we'll be monitoring the others.
  
• A few Bots had their electronic brains unscrewed, tweaked, and reattached.
  
• Added some new animations for benched units when under unit cap.
  
• Fixed an issue where tiny quantities of damage could generate either too little or too much Mana. Warlock casting Shadow Word would cause this.
  
• Fixed a visual-only issue where Lina and Crystal Maiden would return from the dead at the end of combat.
  
• With most summons removed (see below), removed the Summoning Stone item.
  
• Units killing themselves no longer get those kills scored. Sorry Barricades!

Axe:

• Armor changed from 5 to [5, 10, 15].
  
• Maximum Health changed from [700, 1400, 2800] to [805, 1610, 3220].

Disruptor:

• Static Storm:
  
  • Fixed an issue where total damage dealt could be wrong.
    
  • No longer gives units in the storm a miss chance.

Dragon Knight:

• Elder Dragon Form:
  
  • Fixed Corrosive Breath not working (it incorrectly had a duration of 0).

Drow Ranger:

• Attack Rate changed from 0.769 to 0.833.
  
• Attack Damage Minimum changed from [45, 90, 180] to [56, 112, 225].
  
• Attack Damage Maximum changed from [50, 100, 200] to [62, 125, 250].

Lycan:

• Attack Damage Minimum changed from [50, 100, 240] to [65, 130, 312].
  
• Attack Damage Maximum changed from [60, 120, 288] to [78, 156, 375].
  
• Summon Wolves is now Shapeshift:
  
  • No wolves are summoned.
    
  • Max HP gain from [30, 40, 50] to [40, 50, 60].
    
  • Critical Hit bonus changed from [150, 175, 200] to [200, 225, 250].

Nature's Prophet:

• Attack Rate changed from 0.714 to 0.769.
  
• Maximum Mana changed from 50 to 100.
  
• Attack Damage Minimum changed from [45, 90, 180] to [56, 112, 225].
  
• Attack Damage Maximum changed from [50, 100, 200] to [62, 125, 250].
  
• Removed Nature's Call ability.
  
• Added Wrath of Nature:
  
  • Nature's Prophet zaps a target for [250, 275, 300] damage. This bounces [3, 4, 5] times across enemies in the board, increasing the damage by [10, 13, 15]% per bounce.
    
  • Mana Cost: 100.
    
  • Cooldown: [15, 13, 11].

Shadow Shaman:

• Attack Rate changed from 0.625 to 0.8.

Tusk:

• Maximum Mana changed from 100 to 60.
  
• Walrus PUNCH!:
  
  • Mana Cost changed from 100 to 60.
    
  • Cooldown changed from 7 to 4.

Venomancer:

• Removed Plague Ward ability.
  
• Added Venomous Gale:
  
  • Launches a ball of venom in a line, poisoning enemy units so that they take [25, 50, 100] damage as well as [10, 20, 40] damage every 3s for a duration of 15s. Affected units lose 50% movement speed and 25 Attack Rate.
    
  • Mana Cost: 100.
    
  • Cooldown: [10, 8, 6].

• 2-star and 3-star visual upgrades for Batrider, Enigma, Slark, Sniper, and Warlock.
  
• The janitor took out some more crash trash.
  
• Fixed an issue where Terrorblade could Sunder with the wrong unit at cast time, including dead units.
  
• Can no longer enter combat preview mode on the board when in combat.

Bloodseeker:

• Bloodrage:
  
  • Now ramps up to his existing maximum attack speed bonus of 500 earlier, at 20% health (was 0%).

Lich:

• Chain Frost:
  
  • Bounce range changed to 2 (was 4).

Templar Assassin:

• Added Meld:
  
  • When first attacking after teleporting, Templar Assassin fires a projectile that does [50, 100, 150] damage on impact and decreases her target's armor by [2, 4, 6] for 5 seconds.

Treant Protector:

• Leech Seed:
  
  • If the target of Leech Seed dies before the ability duration expires, the seed jumps to another target for its remaining duration.

Tusk:

• Walrus Punch:
  
  • Tusk is now invulnerable while mid-Punch.

Warlock:

• Shadow Word:
  
  • Now heals 75% of the total heal instantly, and the remaining 25% over the duration of the buff. This results in [168, 337, 675] instant heal and [56, 112, 225] over the remaining duration.
    
  • Damage per second changed from [50, 100, 150] to [75, 150, 300].

Deadeye Alliance:

• Added a small health difference buffer to prevent Deadeye units constantly changing targets.

Tombstone:

• Raise Zombies:
  
  • Range changed from 2 cells to 1.

We have updated our servers with the following changes.

NOTE: Tooltips on mobile platforms will not reflect the changes until the build is updated.

• Reduced the chances of finding T4 Units by 5%, from level 6 to 8.

Arc Warden:

• Maximum Health changed from [700, 1400, 2800] to [600, 1200, 2400]

Enigma:

• Ace Effect:
  
  • Now prevents gaining mana from attacks while Hexed, Silenced or Stunned, instead of draining it.

Disruptor:

• Ace Effect:
  
  • Now reads: The effect of the Warlocks Alliance is now applied to 1 target per Alliance level.

Warlock Alliance:

• Healing changed from [50%, 80%, 130%] -> [50%, 70%, 100%].

Assassin Alliance:

• On a critical strike, Assassin's wound the target reducing healing done by [50%, 100%]

As you've probably noticed, today's update is pretty small. Let's chat about why this is and what's coming.

Last time we talked about our plans, we detailed the features we are working on for our next big update.

Internally, we are calling that update The Big Update (surprise), and it's one of the last milestones on our road to Season One. This update will include 2 playable Underlords, the Duos team mode, 6 new Heroes, 3 new Alliances, and an updated user interface. We're currently shooting to release this update in the first half of October.

The final stop will come not long after, with the official launch of the complete game in 1.0. This will come with 2 more Underlords, the Battle Pass, the City Crawl, and will be the official beginning of Underlords Season One.

To give you an idea of how far apart the internal and external builds are, here's our current Dashboard:



These differences extend to other areas as well and are fully intertwined, making it difficult to ship them separately. This is why we've decided to spend all our efforts on finishing and shipping everything together.

You can expect any updates in the next few weeks to be more in the "bugs & balance" category as we prepare for the release of The Big Update.

We cannot wait to talk more about Season One with you, so expect to hear more about it soon.

• Uncap Proto-Pass XP, up level cap to 99.
  
• 2-star and 3-star visual upgrades for Alchemist, Bloodseeker, Crystal Maiden, Sand King, and Tusk.
  
• Animation imrpovements.
  
• FX optimization and improvements.
  
• Added framerate option on mobile. Now you can select from the default (30FPS), 60FPS, and 15FPS (battery saver), as well as an option to up to 60FPS only while plugged in.
  
• When a unit in the shop can combine into a 3-star unit, the 3-star version rather than the 2-star version is shown.

• Melee units can now target barricades if no better targets are available.
  
• Assassin targeting and Blink Dagger targeting is now a bit more random between left and right when selecting the farthest target.

Arc Warden:

• Tempest Double:
  
  • There is now a 3 second cooldown on creating another clone whenever a clone dies.

Sand King:

• Caustic Finale:
  
  • Fixed an issue where duration was not set properly, leading to Caustic Finale doing the timer-expired rather than the on-death damage much of the time.

Tidehunter:

• Ravage:
  
  • Now applies its damage after the stun is applied, so the Shaman Ace Effect interacts properly.

Tiny:

• Toss:
  
  • Tiny can now toss Target Buddy.

Enigma

• Ace Effect:
  
  • Now: Enemies affected by Hexes, Silences or Stuns will generate -200% mana. (Was: Extends the effects of the Shaman Alliance to your entire army.)

Shaman

• Units now again have a 17% chance of being turned into a chicken when attacking a Shaman, up from 10%.