Valve has provided more information on the "Big Update" coming to Dota Underlords in the near future. Along with another selection of heroes drawn from the Dota 2 roster, the game will be adding a system to keep the hero pool from overflowing. Specifically, it'll be throwing some of them in jail.

Here's how (and why) it works. As the hero pool expands, it becomes harder and harder to rank up the heroes you've purchased from the shop, since the odds of finding matches for heroes on your bench get reduced each time a new hero is added to the general pool. Valve says it doesn't plan on removing any of the heroes that have appeared in the beta season, and so when season one kicks in and adds 12 new heroes to the pool, some of them will get tossed in jail for 24 hours.

Each day, a different group of 8-12 heroes will be jailed, effectively banning them from appearing in the shop. This won't be completely random: Valve says that the list of jailed heroes for each day will be created such that players can still complete every alliance.

A nice added benefit of this system is that it prevents an established meta from taking hold and making the game feel stale. You're going to be faced with different composition options each day.

Valve also revealed the rest of the heroes who will be appearing in the Big Update. They include Shadow Demon (a tier one heartless demon), Bristleback (a tier four brawny savage), Sven (the ace of knights, who is also human and scaled), Io (a tier three primordial druid), and Faceless Void (primordial and the ace of assassins). 

There's still no word on precisely when the Big Update will drop, but judging from the way Valve's talking about it, it'll be sooner rather than later.

Valve has shared some new details about the next 'Big Update' for Dota Underlords, and they weren't kidding: this one really is big. It's introducing brand new heroes and alliances, and it apparently marks the 'beginning of the end' for the Dota Underlords beta.

Heroes in Underlords are getting another reshuffle. Valve has established a new 'Healer' alliance, which includes Enchantress, Warlock, Omniknight, Necrophos, and newcomer Dazzle. Dazzle is a tier-two troll healer who can send out a bolt of power that arcs between allies. The energy heals teammates but harms enemies nearby. When the Healer alliance bonus is active, all friendly healing is amplified.

Valve also unveiled the forthcoming Insects alliance. Sand King is finally going to have some friends around, in other words. Sand King is joined by new heroes Weaver (tier two insect hunter), Nyx Assassin (tier one insect assassin), and Broodmother (tier four insect warlock).

It'll be interesting to see how all of this shakes out. A couple heroes, Sniper for instance, have three alliance affiliations, so it's unclear whether heroes like Warlock and Necrophos will be losing one of their existing alliances in order to join the Healer gang.

And this may be slightly picky of me, but at least three of the four members of the Insects alliance are arachnids. Maybe to be safe we can just call them 'bugs.'

Valve says they'll have more information to share about the Big Update in the days to come.