‘Mojo Melee’ Beginner’s Guide: How to Dominate in the NFT Auto Battler

Mojo Melee puts a more casual spin on the “auto battler” (or “auto chess”) genre, with a more approachable strategy experience than the genre’s top games like Auto Chess and Teamfight Tactics—with optional NFTs in the mix, too.

After launching in beta this spring, Mojo Melee has fully launched, following up its first season of in-game content (“Emergence of Champions”) with a second season, “Mark of Deception.” And it’s timed with a prominent promotion with Amazon Prime Gaming, letting Prime users redeem a free Polygon NFT and in-game currency.

With potentially many more players jumping on, it’s prime time to boost your skill and start crushing foes in this tactical experience. Here are a few key tips for getting started with Mojo Melee and dominating the competition.

Build your team

Like any auto battler game, building a strong and well-balanced team in Mojo Melee is vital. Use the “teams” tab on the left side of the homepage to edit your lineup. It’s important that you have a good balance of tank, damage, and utility champions. Ask yourself the question: What is my best lineup? How will they synergize together as a unit?

Personally, Brooks Clawhaven and Dark Brightley are my favorite champions, so I built the rest of my team around them. I had the Vine Mojo to increase health and then added two utility champions in Froda Swamphag and Zerlin the Lesser. 

When in a game, I’d aim to get Brooka Clawhaven and Dark Brightley leveled up, then have Froda Swamphag or Zerlin the Lesser to support them.

Come out strong

When playing the one-on-one duel mode, the first round is crucial. The first player to three points wins, so starting a round behind could be fatal.

For the first round, it’s important you get as many champions on the board as possible. If you can get three champions down and the enemy only has two, then you’re highly likely to win the round.

Using a spellstone—which lets champions tap into magical skills—in the first round is a highly effective strategy. But use it wisely, as missing with the ability could be the difference between winning and losing the entire match.

Positioning is key

Positioning in Mojo Melee isn’t as crucial as in other auto-battlers like Teamfight Tactics, due to not having champions with pull abilities (see: Blitzcrank).

However, it’s important that you protect your damage champions and correctly position your tanks to absorb as much damage as possible without dying. A common formation you could use is placing your tanks on the front line, and your damage-dealing champion(s) on the back line.

However, champions like Deth Kolo and Dawn Striker will jump over your front line straight to your back line and attack those heroes. To combat this, either swap your damage champions to your front line, or create a cone formation around the champion that you want to protect.

That’s not the end of the positioning complexities, but it’s a start. Get creative!

Free stuff

With Mojo Melee’s latest partnership with Amazon Prime Gaming, subscribers can redeem free packages every month via Amazon’s portal. The current pack includes one NFT for champion character Gwyn Rockhopper, as well as 885 Ore—a non-crypto, in-game currency. The deal is slated to last six months, with more freebies to come.

That’s a nice little boost that could potentially give you an advantage over other players. Don’t have Amazon Prime? No worries, you can also regularly get free Ore in the shop. Just be sure to check each time you play.

While these free items won’t guarantee victory, it’ll certainly help you build a better team and have a stronger first round if your positioning is effective. Good luck out there.