With Season 1 now in full swing, the Underlords meta is once again up in the air. As the devs toil endlessly to make the game more balanced, you can now play pretty much any alliance and have a fair shot at a spot in the top 4, so long as you know what you’re doing.

If you’re a returning player or you’re new to the game, don’t forget to check out our special updates guide first. There, you’ll find information about important changes – including new alliances – that you should be aware of before we discuss the best comps currently in the game.

In addition, you can hop to our tier list for the best units in Underlords, Season 1 to get a better idea of what units you should buy first. At this point in time, winning any match is a balancing act between choosing strong units for every stage of the game and moving towards a powerful set of alliances. Keep this in mind when the shop throws terrible decisions your way!

Now that you’re ready, let’s take a closer look at some of the best comps you can build in Underlords, Season 1. Remember: these are bound to change as the devs make adjustments to the game, but we have the feeling that some of them are here to stay.

1 – Savages & Hunters

The Units You Really Want: Magnus, Tusk, Lycan, Lone Druid + Mirana, Medusa, Tidehunter.

Other Great Units: Drow, Windranger, Beastmaster, Bristleback, Pudge.

This is by far the most popular and the most contested build at the start of Season 1. An alliance of 4 savages adds damage to every hit of your every hero, which is huge. Pair this with 3 hunters and you’ve got an even more devastating DPS squad. Of course, you’ll need a few tanky units to keep everyone else alive. This is where heroes like Tidehunter, Tusk, or Pudge come in.

Another reason why Tidehunter works extremely well in this comp, especially when paired with Medusa, is that he puts a lot of CC at your disposal. Refresher Orb on this hero makes him even more effective, while a Crown of Antlers allows you to push for a 6 hunters alliance.

The downside of the build is that is it so heavily contested. Anyone who pulls a Magnus early in the game feels like they can go for a savages comp, which makes it very difficult for everyone else to upgrade important units. If you’re unable to find enough Lone Druids, Medusas, and/or Tidehunters to upgrade them to 2-stars, it might be particularly challenging to take the first place by the end of the game.

2 – Spirits & Mages

The Units You Really Want: Storm Spirit, Ember Spirit, Earth Spirit, Void Spirit + Keeper of the Light and Crystal Maiden.

Other Great Units: MORE spirits!

A close second to Savages & Hunters, this comp is perfect for players who love to watch chaos unfold on the board. The new spirits alliance works as follows: when three spirit units cast their abilities and enter an empowered state, a triangle is formed between them and any enemy heroes caught in the middle are hit with a massive Delta Slam. This inflicts a minor stun, as well as a ton of damage and can be triggered by multiple threesomes of spirits at the same time.

Granted, the comp is fairly weak during the early stages of a match simply because you don’t have enough spirits to trigger a large number of Delta Slams per fight. However, once you get the full set of spirits and add a couple of extra Storm Spirits and/or Earth Spirits, you’re set. The two extra Mages – KotL and CM – are there to increase the magic damage of Delta Slam even further. No 3-star units needed!

3 – All-Out Bloodseeker

The Units You Really Want: Bloodseeker, Warlock, Orge Magi.

Other Great Units: Legion Commander, Lifestealer, Necrophos, Disruptor, Axe.

The Bloodbound alliance is back in a fury with this comp focused on Bloodseeker. It can be incredibly fun to watch during the early- and mid-game, but climbing to first spot in a lobby can be difficult with this comp. Basically, Bloodseeker and his Deadeye/Bloodbound affinities are insane at the moment and you want to bank on that.

Play Dota Underlords on PC

With 1-2 squishy Warlocks and Ogre Magis on the front line, you can ensure that Bloodseeker’s buff is triggered almost immediately. Add a few special items – such as Stonehall Cloak, Stonehall Pike, or Mask of Madness – and watch the boy delete an entire enemy team… unless, of course, he gets CCed during the first few seconds of combat.

The major weakness of this comp is that it depends entirely on Bloodseeker. If he is disabled, you are almost certain to lose the round, which can become a serious problem during the late-game. It helps if you also use a 2- or 3-star Legion Commander with the Ogre Cap on, but chances are that your team won’t fare very well against a CC-intensive opponent.

4 – Knights & Healers

The Units You Really Want: Batrider, Chaos Knight, Luna, Abaddon, Omniknight + Walorck, Dazzle, Necrophos.

Other Great Units: Dragon Knight, Sven, Legion Commander, Witch Doctor, Troll Warlord, Viper.

Knights are once again a decent comp thanks to the return of Luna, who is capable of excellent AoE damage during the early-game. Pair her with Chaos Knight and Batrider and you don’t even have to worry that you’ll lose too much HP before you get all of your knights together. Once your level increases and you have access to more tier-3 heroes, your comp will seamlessly transition into powerful units like Abaddon, Omniknight, and Necrophos.

Given that knights generally take less damage thanks to their alliance buff, including a 4 healers alliance into your comp can make your heroes unbeatable. This won’t be a difficult task since you already have a great healer in Omniknight and Warlock is very easy to grab during the first few rounds. Should you want a bit of extra damage, you can always put an Ogre Cap on Luna and make sure that your Warlock dies right away.

The two main issues with knights are the same two issues that this comp has had since the very beginning of Underlords. First, they need help in the damage department and are fairly low on CCs, which means that they might have a hard time against savages, even with all the extra healing and defense. Second, Knights is and always has been a greedy comp. You’ll need a strong economy to get enough upgrades to make it to the top 3.

So far, these are the 4 best comps you can build in Dota Underlords, Season 1. If you’re looking for ways to improve them, feel free to check out our guide to underlord characters to find out which of the latter would work best for your comp.

Download BlueStacks Now