Best Auto Battler Games 2023

Auto battlers are strategic and competitive by design, with a focus on drafting characters in order to stay one step ahead of your opponent.

Although the genre is still growing and evolving as we speak, there is already a good selection of auto battler games worth checking out across PC, mobile, and even gaming consoles.

In this list, we’ll highlight the best auto battler games to play in 2023, including the best mobile auto battlers and the best auto battlers for PC.

We’ll be updating this list in the future with new titles, so make sure to check back and let us know if we missed any of your favorite auto battlers!

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Our first recommendation for auto battler fans sees you recruiting various heroes and units from the Dota franchise and using them in strategic team battles.

What separates Dota Underlords from similar games is its unique items system, which grants players a choice of three items every fifth round after the first, second, third, and tenth one.

Related:Dota Underlords Tier List

Additionally, the game introduces ‘Underlords’ that fight alongside units on the battlefield and provide unique perks and buffs during battles.

Gold and EXP earned from matches offer a means for upgrading heroes and units while consumables provide a way to obtain stat bonuses.

Riot’s take on auto battlers does a great job of leveraging its source material by turning League of Legends’ Champions into powerful minions with distinct roles in battle.

Each match sees you trying to defeat waves of units as you compete against seven other players in a strategic mad dash to craft the perfect squad of fighters.

A standout feature of Teamfight Tactics is its approach to drafting, in which players at the bottom of the standings get the first pick each round, giving them a decent shot at making a comeback.

While it may be a bit rougher around the edges than other auto battlers, it streamlines many of the genre’s mechanics, making it a great entry point into auto battlers for new players.

Combining deckbuilding gameplay with roguelike mechanics, Loop Hero is a one-of-a-kind tactics game that will appeal to auto battler fans.

In it, you’re tasked with arming a hero with powerful loot before sending them on along a randomly generated loop path filled with various enemies and other obstacles.

As you complete loops, your deck expands, granting you new enemy, building, and terrain cards that can be placed in key points to farm for resources used to upgrade your camp.

The game offers infinite loop path variations along with an array of unlockable character classes that will have you switching up your approach every run.

Hearthstone Battlegrounds draws from one of the best card battling games on PC and the entirety of the Warcraft series’ lore.

At its core, the game plays like most auto battlers: players recruit minions from a random selection of characters and use them to battle against seven other players at the tavern.

Related:Hearthstone Battlegrounds Tier List

It’s a lot stingier when it comes to altering your roster, with minions costing three gold to purchase but only selling for one, meaning you’re basically locked into your original team.

Additionally, since it’s been out for a lot less time than already established auto battlers, gameplay balancing still isn’t quite there yet.

Another roguelike with deckbuilding and auto battler elements is Hadean Tactics from indie developer/publisher Emberfish Games.

In it, you step into the role of a Warlock journeying through the different circles of Hell with an army of powerful spirits at your command.

Each battle blends real-time combat with strategic pauses that let you apply buffs and other spell cards before proceeding forward.

Hadean Tactics includes several opportunities for customization across unlockable Heroes, relics, cards, and more, along with the unpredictability of its randomized dungeons.

Warpips is a real-time strategy game that includes auto battler gameplay mechanics and competitive tower defense combat free of microtransactions.

It essentially plays like a cross between Command and Conquer and Nexus Wars but with a lot more explosions and mayhem, all rendered in vibrant pixel art graphics.

Unlike most tower defense games, Warpips strips out complex micromanaging and instead focuses on drafting the right squad for the job from a diverse roster of infantry, vehicle, and airplane units.

The game is currently available in Early Access on Steam and doesn’t support online multiplayer as of now, though a roadmap suggests new game modes will be added later on.

Those who have stuck with auto battlers from the very beginning will be familiar with Auto Chess, which was created by the original team behind Dota Auto Chess before it was morphed into Underlords.

While the game no longer features references or imagery related to Valve’s hit-MOBA, mechanics-wise Auto Chess is pretty much unchanged.

Related:Auto Chess Tier List

Similar to Teamfight Tactics, units can be assigned multiple items that, when combined in a certain order, become upgraded to raise their effectiveness in battle.

Considering Auto Chess got its start as a mod for Dota 2 and went through several iterations before becoming what it is today, the game’s UI and overall layout are not as polished as other auto battlers.

At the moment, there isn’t too much innovation in the way of auto battler design, so we’re willing to go out on a limb and recommend Royale Age: Battle of Kings for putting a different spin on the genre.

Part auto battler, part battle royale, the game casts you as a king tasked with assembling an army of loyal subjects and waging war with rival rulers throughout a sprawling PvP map.

Instead of drafting minions and watching them duke it out on a static battlefield, the game sees you maneuvering around the map in real-time with your party surrounding the king.

While still in Early Access, there are already a lot of unique units available in Royale Age, including Marksman, Knight, and Plaguedoctor classes, each with distinct perks and abilities.

Another tower defense game with auto battler mechanics worth looking into is the award-winning Sons of Ra from indie studio Pharaoh Hound Games.

The story takes place soon after the death of the Pharaoh and sees the rulers of Upper and Lower Egypt battling for control over the Nile and all its lands.

You play as one of many unique Egyptian deities embedded with mythical powers that can turn the tide of battles and skew things in your side’s favor. 

All of Sons of Ra’s maps and modes are playable solo or with friends via online multiplayer which uses a shared screen for both players.

Equal parts god game and auto battler, Godhood sees you creating your own religion before raising an army of disciples and guiding them into battle.

The goal of the game is to acquire as many followers as possible, which is achieved by venturing out into the world and defeating your rival’s minions, in turn converting them to your religion.

Related:Best God Games 2023

Combat is where auto battling comes into play, with disciples carrying out their attacks in real-time, though you have the freedom to assign their class and level up their abilities before each fight.

It’s an interesting combination of both genres that’s overflowing with charm, dark humor, and opportunities for customization.

The Dungeon Beneath is a tactical roguelike auto battler that has you gathering a party of heroes across different classes and descending into enemy-filled dungeons.

Successfully battle your way through room after room and you’re rewarded with new artifacts and equipment to enhance your minions’ power at Campfires.

With each party member able to hold up to three items and a total of five different heroes to pick from, there are dozens of possible character combinations.

Add to this the game’s randomized dungeon layouts and you end up with a rewarding auto battler with an endless variety of strategies to explore.

Games that fuse roguelike and auto battler mechanics are becoming increasingly common, though Astronarch manages to stand out with its distinct pixel art aesthetic.

You will recruit a team of three from a group of 21 mysterious heroes. These heroes have unique abilities that offer various strategies based on where they are placed and the items they carry.

Each playthrough offers a new adventure spanning three unique subareas across three acts with randomized boss encounters.

After your first win, heroes in your party are assigned a glowing aura depending on which of the game’s 20 Corruption modifiers they’ve overcome, incentivizing you to conquer them all.

Once you get past Vivid Knight’s mobile game presentation, what you have is a mechanically well-polished roguelike dungeon crawler that also scratches that auto battler itch.

You play as a magical female knight tasked with rescuing her friends from the Black Witch’s jewel prison by exploring its depths and defeating all of its enemies.

Related:Best Dungeon Crawler Games 2023

While combat takes the standard auto battling approach, you get to play a bigger role by mixing and matching jewels to activate spells and trigger special attacks.

As you progress and rescue jewel heroes, your party continues to grow in size, with any duplicate jewels getting combined to raise that particular hero’s stats.

One of this year’s upcoming releases that we’re most stoked for is Despot’s Game, a tactical roguelike that combines auto battling with colorful, expressive pixel art.

Developed by Konfa Games and published by tinyBuild, it sees you building a team of fighters in hopes of ascending a strange labyrinth with a seemingly infinite number of floors.

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Although bare-fisted by default, fighters can take on new roles by equipping them with an assortment of items and unlocking different mutations.

No word on a release date for Despot’s Game, but the sheer amount of randomness in equipment, mutations, enemies, and dungeon layout selection has piqued our interest.

Recently revealed at E3 2021, AudioClash: Battle of the Bands is a music-themed auto battler in which you assemble a band and compete against seven other players online.

After picking four bandmates from a wide selection of superstars, you’ll go about assigning them music instruments with special perks and abilities tailored for different playstyles.

As the Band Manager, you also get to decide which song the band plays, with each one granting over 50 different abilities to your performers during battle.

Combat plays out like your typical auto battler, allowing you to adjust bandmates’ positioning for the most optimal turn sequence during the performance.

Everyone could use proper representation and that includes one of the most underserved communities…gladiators.

In Gladiator Guild Manager, you draft your very own team of rugged combatants and set out to battle in fantasy-themed arenas.

Each gladiator has distinct strengths, weaknesses, behaviors, and abilities that can be combined to complement each other and counter the enemy team.

Depending on the path you take in growing your guild, you’ll unlock different for-hire warriors, beasts, and mages, opening up new strategies for your team.