Batomon Showdown is the hottest new auto-battle game on the block

I’ll be the first to admit that the auto-battle genre isn’t for everyone, but for those who enjoy the mix of economic management, team building, and tactical positioning, Batomon Showdown hits hard.

The game came out about two weeks ago and I’ve been completely hooked ever since. It’s available on mobile ($6 on Android) and PC ($15 on Steam), it’s super affordable, and it has that addictive quality you get from great roguelikes: at the end of one game, all you want to do is jump into another.

The gameplay can largely be boiled down to encountering Pokémon Super automatic animals. Every day you receive a little money that you can spend on buying monsters or items. Individual creatures come in a range of rarities (common, uncommon, legendary, etc.) and belong to one or more types – such as fire, toxic, flying, and rock. If you form a team with multiple monsters of the same faction, they can synergize with each other to boost their attacks (or defenses in some cases). And if you buy three copies of the same creature, they will merge, level up and give you a trinket to boost your team even more.

Meanwhile, items can increase your team by reducing cooldowns, giving you trinkets (i.e. bonuses), generating money, and much more. And if you’re not happy with the current selection at your store, you can spend a little money and relaunch it. For anyone who has played other games of the genre like Teamfight Tactics, Hearthstone Battlegrounds And DOTA Autochessthe general configuration of Batomon Showdown will immediately look familiar to you.

Where things really get interesting are all the little twists that developer Berrymint has brought to the format. Batomon Showdown features nice modern pixel graphics with nice sprites for each monster as well as a rotating roster of trainers. At the start of each game, you can choose from one of three characters, who will then lend a passive trait to your team.

Sam Rutherford for Woozad

However, just like in Pokémon, the real stars of the game are the monsters themselves. Each type has its own playstyle. Toxic creatures rely on poison to deal damage, while Water types often try to stifle the opposing team’s attacks. But many individual monsters can become victory conditions in their own right when properly supported.

Take Pipskull for example. It’s a common, low-cost creature that reminds me of a cross between a Rattata and a Cubone. At first, it doesn’t do much. But after taking it down a few times, which is the basic mechanic for ghost-type creatures, it evolves and gains multicast, allowing it to unleash a barrage of attacks every time it casts. The best part is that after evolving, each subsequent KO grants it an additional multicast permanently. Even though it only does 25 to 50 damage with each hit, when its multicast reaches 30x, 40x or even 50x, the little ghost rat becomes a real machine gun.

Sam Rutherford for Woozad

Alternatively, another one of my favorite strategies is that if I can get an early upgrade for a Bonshell, which reminds me a lot of a Torterra, it gains both damage and a shield every time it casts for the rest of the battle. Then I just try to survive long enough to pair it with other rock types, including a Rhizuka. This monster has a really fun ability that triggers its attack when any of your other monsters applies a shield, and from there I think you can see where things could get a little crazy, but in a super fun way. Your other rock types apply shields, slowing or even completely blocking incoming damage, while the Rhizuka sits in the back and rains down mortars behind shields that get larger and larger. If you can do this, it’s like having an immovable object and an unstoppable force on the same team.

Sam Rutherford

I also appreciate that Batomo The monsters are divided into different regions. Not only does this give the developer the freedom to easily expand the roster later (and updates will be free), but there are also certain traits that allow certain creatures to visit other regions, which opens up even more team-building strategies when that happens.

So far I only have a few minor criticisms. At first, the monsters in the Jinto region were significantly stronger than the others. But Berrymint is well aware of this and has already implemented a balancing patch to address it. My other complaint is that I sometimes feel like a race ends a little too soon. Even if you survive long enough to earn 10 badges (you get a badge for each victory against another trainer), I find myself in situations where my team strategy is just starting to pay off at the end of a race. I would really like some sort of infinite mode like the one you’re entering Balatro or other roguelikes, where you can continue playing after “winning” while the difficulty continues to increase until even the most mastered compositions struggle. But given the pace of Berrymint’s recent updates, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was added in the not too distant future.

Sam Rutherford for Woozad

In all, Batomon Showdown It may not be completely endless for the genre, but it’s a very solid auto-battle game in its own right. For a type of game that continues to grow in popularity, I appreciate any new, well-designed entry into the format. And for as little as $6 for the mobile version, it offers a ton of fun for not a lot of money.