AFK Arena is a free mobile game developed and published by a Chinese video game studio called Lilith Games. It is a hero collection role-playing game—also known as a gacha—wherein you collect various heroes and assemble a team to fight enemies. However, unlike other gacha games, you don’t control your heroes in this game. They automatically fight for you and you will only control certain aspects of the battle. AFK Arena is still ongoing and active, meaning that the development team constantly updates the game—fixing bugs and releasing new content. 

How to play AFK Arena?

In AFK Arena, players will need to build their team of heroes, take them into procedurally-generated labyrinths, and fight other players in the PvP arena. Your team is made up of five characters from the six available races: Lightbearer, Mauler, Wilder, Graveborn, Hypogeans, and Celestials. The damage system in these races works like Pokémon types. Each group will have a race they deal extra damage to and a race they take more damage from. There are various classes within each race—such as arches, mages, and melee—and each hero has their abilities that you can equip. 

The battles consist of your team of five against five NPCs. As noted, you don't control how your heroes fight. As a player, what you can do is set up your team of heroes in the formation you like. You can place them in front or backline. Secondly, you can select the heroes that will use their special ability—and either choose to activate Ultimates manually or have them go off automatically. When not actively in battles, your team continues to fight infinite waves, which allows them to gain experience and gold. At first glance, this might seem simple. However, given that you can have many combinations, planning the battle becomes complex, which makes the game all about strategy. 

AFK Arena has plenty of offers. Like many hero games, there is a campaign mode. Once you complete certain stages in the campaign, you will be able to unlock some additional game modes and eventually access the King’s Towers. In this stage, you will progress through hundreds of floors filled with enemies. There will also be the Voyage Wonders, which gives you a new adventure every week, and the Arcane Labyrinth, which allows you to obtain relics and heroic merits. Other modes are also available, which will help you in climbing the leaderboard. 

A game worth playing

 AFK Arena is a good choice if you are into hero collection games. The title is more generous than other similar titles, which makes it extremely fun and engaging. It is playable on a wide variety of mobile devices and comes with a clean design that is not overwhelming. There are minor application pitfalls, but overall, it is a worthy game to play if you are into the gacha genre.