Dwarves: Glory, Death & Loot - 5 tips for coming out swinging in your battle against the Orcs

• Dwarves: Glory, Death & Loot has you lead your stouthearted dwarves into battle
• Set their equipment and abilities, and even control where they move
• But once battle is joined, it's up to them and your preparatory skills to see who wins

It’s been a known fact that I’m not a big fan of autobattlers. That's ironic, because Age of War was one of my favourite Flash games growing up. But nowadays, the mechanics of the genre are applied in such a slapdash way that it takes away from the inherent fun - watching your troops march into battle and fighting for their lives. Fortunately, Dwarves: Glory, Death & Loot fills that AoW-shaped hole in my heart quite easily.

Dwarves: Glory, Death & Loot is a straightforward autobattler that has you recruit and customise your own group of hard-working, hard-drinking dwarves, before sending them into battle against hordes of increasingly powerful orcish foes. But while the actual battles may be simple, the preparation is anything but.

So, with that in mind, here are our five starter tips for Dwarves: Death, Glory & Loot to ensure you’re getting the most out of your bearded warriors.

Tip #1 - The Basics

Dwarves: Glory, Death & Loot is an auto battler at its core, although one that's a lot different to something like AFK Journey or Teamfight Tactics in that it's not quite auto chess or an RPG. Your main control over your forces is how they're outfitted and some very broad orders for how they'll act during a battle. You'll recruit dwarves with various stats, outfit them with randomly rolled equipment and also be able to upgrade them using the rune system, or even grant them powerful artefacts.

When you do send them into battle, it'll be side-scrolling and fast-paced as they race towards the enemy. That's why the lineup of dwarves you have is always going to be important because you'll want a good balance of frontliners, backline support, and also ranged units. Which is easier said than done when you have to pick and choose what equipment you're able to buy and sell, which dictates how your dwarves act.

All of this may sound simple enough, but there are some wrinkles to this formula. So, let's go from the basics and into some key tips I learned playing Dwarves: Glory, Death & Loot.

Tip #2 - Choose your Strategy

While it may be called the Strategy Hall, it's not exactly as grand as it sounds, but this section of the menu allows you to select how your formation will move. The default is called Free for All and is basically what it says on the tin: your fastest dwarf will surge ahead of the pack and attack the nearest enemy.

But once you unlock the strategy hall, you can pick from other formation options like Strength in Numbers, Phalanx, or Hold the Line, each of which either modifies your dwarves' movement speed, making them stick together, or only move as fast as the dwarf in front of them. Or, in the case of Hold the Line, granting 40% range and plus 25% physical resistance as they stick in place and let the enemy come to them.

One of the worst things that you can do is allow your backline support, such as Wizards and Archers, to be left behind by the advancing dwarves. Especially since knockback is such a key factor, you'll want to have them at least have a chance to get in and help the more frontline dwarves from the back. And in certain circumstances, if the battle goes on long enough, you'll still have the option to charge forward and take the fight to the enemy.

Tip #3 - Forge Anew 

The actual loot that you get and roll from the shop is randomised, although you can swipe down to save an item for later. However, the strongest gear can be attained, fittingly for dwarves, by forging it. The forge is essentially a means of combining lesser items into more powerful forms. For example, if you want to get the Executioner's Mask, you need to bring together three other types of basic helmets. On top of that, you also have rarity behind certain items, which grant higher stat boosts or bonuses.

But with that in mind, you shouldn't just use basic items in the forge; you should also remember that you can actually upgrade the shop where you buy the equipment. The option is in the lower left corner of the shop menu. This will provide higher-tier items for each roll. Similarly, in the recruitment screen, you can also save dwarves to recruit for later, just like items. Meaning that if you find one with great stats or equipment that you want to keep, even if you don't have the gold, you can make sure that they're available once you're liquid enough.

Tip #4 - Watch those Tooltips 

One of the few things that does irk me about Dwarves: Death, Glory & Loot is the fact that it's clearly built for a larger screen. And there's a lot of information that you might miss if you're just dragging and dropping as you would in other mobile strategy games.

So if you do find yourself confused by something, make sure to keep your thumb or finger over the item, and it'll probably show a tooltip that'll give you some of the information about it. This is true for other mechanics, and it's how you'll find out the exact effect of stuff like formations, for example.

Sure, it's not exactly the most convenient method, but it is important to remember because it's one of the few things that isn't really pointed out to you in the tutorial. And it does offer plenty of information, such as what element a dwarf is using, and having enough of your clan using said element can sometimes unlock special formations.

Tip #5 - Pick your Battles, or reroll them

Another interesting mechanic in Dwarves: Death, Glory & Loot is the ability to occasionally re-roll battles. This is something that I hadn't initially realised, but found out later. And this can let you basically go from having to take on some very lacklustre battles or challenging battles to more achievable fights, to even finding random drops of treasure, as you can see in the screenshot below.

Speaking of picking your battles, though, you'll want to look at the kind of orcs that you'll be facing. And you can also use the same tooltips mentioned before by hovering over them to find out what their abilities are, their ultimates and other abilities. But remember, at least early on, you'll have a pretty good chance of taking on anything that's thrown at you, especially if you are keeping up with new recruits, new equipment, and keeping all your dwarves as upgraded as possible.

So with that in mind, those are the basic tips that I have for somebody just starting out in Dwarves, Death, glory, and loot. Obviously, if you've been playing for a while, you might find that some of these are pretty basic, but if you're a complete newcomer, then these should help you at least find your footing.

As for whether it's worth playing, well, that's up to you. If you like the stout hearted, short of stature and hard drinking dwarves and you'll definitely enjoy this. And if you're looking for a side-scrolling auto battler with plenty of potential playtime in it now, I reckon it's worth taking a look through these tips and giving Dwarves Death, Glory and Loot a go.

Or, if you're looking for more ways to put your strategic acumen to the test, why not try out our list of the best strategy games on Android for more choice picks?