Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
10 best auto chess and auto battle games for Android
Auto chess is a newer genre and gaining steam quickly. It saw mass success on PC with games like Dota Auto Chess, Teamfight Tactics, and others. The premise of these games is fairly simple. You place characters on the board each round and those characters do battle with the enemy characters. The characters do battle on their own without any further input from you. That’s why they call it auto chess or auto battling. If you win, the enemy takes damage and if you lose, you take damage.
The various characters work together with synergistic abilities to give you an edge in battle. Each game has its own variation of this core mechanic, but they all function in the same way. It’s a budding genre on mobile so we’ll keep an eye out for new entrants. Feel more than free to leave some ideas in the comments as well.
The best auto chess games and auto battle games for Android
Arena Allstars
Price: Free to play
Arena Allstars is a fairly decent auto battler. Players have access to a bunch of different maps, characters, and various game modes. It boasts matches with up to seven players along with a co-op mode if you want to play with friends or strangers. It also has a campaign, a practice mode, tournaments, and nice little things like emotes. The game seems to tick all of the boxes and most players seem happy enough. Most of the complaints either deal with connectivity issues or minor bugs with AI opponents not taking the damage they should. We assume these are all temporary issues, though. The game is free to play with an optional battle pass if you want to unlock premium content.
Arena of Evolution: Red Tides
Price: Free to play
Arena of Evolution: Red Tides is another auto chess game that seems to hit most of the right notes. It has over 50 pieces to collect and use for your team. Additionally, players get eight-player free-for-all PvP, and fairly standard auto chess mechanics. The game also lets you send and receive heroes to other players and features global servers for better or for worse. A lot of the game’s complaints come from Internet connectivity issues. However, aside from that, the experience is solid all around. The developers also intend on adding cross-play between PC and mobile in a future update so check back for that if it interests you.
Auto Chess by Dragonest Games
Price: Free to play
Auto Chess by Dragonest Games has a lame name, but it’s actually a solid game. It was among the first wave of auto chess games on mobile. It features seven-player free-for-all battles, an esports league, and, if you do well in the esports league, actual cash prizes. Thankfully, the game is actually quite easy to learn with one of the friendlier UIs we’ve seen in an auto chess game. We feel like this one is great for beginners to the genre and the difficulty only scales up from there as you face more and more competent opponents. Its biggest flaw is the finicky cloud-saving feature. Be extra careful if you intend to uninstall and reinstall or buy a new phone because a lot of people have lost their saved data.
See also: The best chess games for Android
Badland Brawl
Price: Free to play
Badland Brawl is probably the simplest auto battler on the list. It uses a 2D, side-scroller map versus the traditional chessboard style setup. Thus, this is an excellent game for beginners to the genre even if the premise is still the same. You drop characters onto the board and they do battle with your opponent’s characters. The winner is the last one standing. It has a bit of a gacha element but it’s nothing too serious. Additionally, you can watch other people play the game if you don’t feel like it. We may catch some flak for this pick, but we think it’s a good starter auto battler for folks new to the genre.
See also: The best fighting games for Android
Chess Rush
Price: Free to play
Chess Rush is another decent auto battler with all of the common core elements. You place characters, they synergize, and you beat your opponents if you outwit them. The game has over 50 characters along with various game modes, including two versus two, four versus four, and eight-player free for all. It also includes a Turbo Mode with matches that last about ten minutes. It hits almost all of the right marks and that makes sense. This is a Tencent game, developers of Arena of Valor and PUBG Mobile. Aside from some connectivity issues, most people seem to enjoy the game and it’s nice to see bigger mobile game developers in the genre.
Clash Royale
Price: Free to play
Clash Royale is the mainstream option for an auto battler. It has most of the same elements as other games in the genre. You play characters on a board, they attack the other player, and the last one standing wins. This one is quite a bit different in execution, though, and has many gameplay elements from Supercell’s other hit game, Clash of Clans. Additionally, the game is a 1v1 duel where most auto chess games have larger free for all modes. We would understand if you don’t consider this a pure auto battler experience, but it fulfills all of the qualifications, even if it’s a bit closer to a deck-building game.
Dota Underlords
Price: Free
Dota Underlords is the most recognizable name in auto chess. The whole genre originated from a Dota 2 mod. The genre took off from there and Dota Underlords is the mobile version of the mod. It is your standard auto chess game so you should know how it works by now. You get heroes, you place them down, make synergies, and try to beat your opponents. Plus, the game includes an offline mode. It had a character rotation, but instead, now it has cross-play with Steam, a very reasonable trade-off. It’s also the only totally free auto chess game on the list. It’s not perfect, but it’s solid.
Hearthstone
Price: Free to play
Hearthstone is another game that may not fit here exactly, but it’s still an auto-battler and it belongs on a list like this. It’s one of the most famous deck-building auto-battlers on any platform and most people know how it works. You build a deck, start a duel, put down your cards, and do battle. The last person standing wins. The game includes a few different game modes, cross-platform play with PC, and it’s a fairly mature game. It’s not quite the same as most of the others on the list, but it’s close enough in most circumstances.
Legends of Runeterra
Price: Free to play
Legends of Runeterra is a lot like Hearthstone and may or may not be great for this list for a lot of the same reasons. Players collect cards, build decks, and face each other. You play cards, the cards fight each other, and that continues until somebody wins. The game has made great strides in the last year and is one of the better free-to-play card games on mobile at the time of this writing. That said, we get that this barely fits under the definition of auto chess games so when we find better examples, this will likely get kicked from the list. It’s still a good game, though.
Teamfight Tactics
Price: Free to play
Teamfight Tactics is a big name in the auto chess and auto battler genre. It’s by Riot Games, developers of League of Legends. The game features a revolving pool of League of Legends champions. Players deploy them in the game and upgrade them to try to win. The game has enough randomness to it to prevent outright stomps, but it’s still skill-based enough to be entertaining for hardcore players. The learning curve is a bit steep, but the mechanics are solid and the game is actually quite fun.
If we missed any great auto chess games or auto battle games for Android, tell us about it in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game lists!
Thank you for reading! Try these out too: