Overview
Illuvium: Arena often gets called the “TFT of web3,” and the comparison makes sense once you get into it. The core of the game is drafting a lineup of Illuvials, placing them on the board, and letting your strategy play out in auto-battles. The depth comes from how you read matchups, stack affinities and classes, and adjust your formation as the rounds get tougher. You play as a Ranger, leading your team through both PvE survival runs and PvP matches where every small decision can decide the fight. It’s part of the larger Illuvium universe, but Arena keeps the focus tight on competitive squad-building and adaptation. If you enjoy the moment where a team comp finally clicks and everything just syncs, this is that kind of game.
Gameplay and Features
Illuvium: Arena is all about strategic battles where you assemble a team of creatures, known as Illuvials, and send them into combat. The game falls into the Autobattler genre, so once the battle begins, your units fight automatically, your job is to focus on team composition, placement, and strategy before the fight kicks off.
Game Modes
Illuvium: Arena features two primary game modes that offer different challenges. Survival Mode is a PvE experience where players take on endless waves of enemies. It offers both Competitive and Casual options. In Competitive mode, the waves change daily, and you can compete for leaderboard rankings. Casual mode, on the other hand, lets you tackle waves without any leaderboard pressure. Ascendant Mode is the game's PvP option, with Ranked, Casual, and Custom Matches. Ranked matches use the Elo system to pair players of similar skill levels, while Casual matches provide a more relaxed experience. Custom Matches let you test your squads against friends, giving you room to experiment.
Illuvials and Rangers
Your squad is made up of Illuvials, the game’s core combat units, each with different affinities, classes, and tiers. You drag these creatures onto the battlefield and use their abilities and synergies to come out on top. Every Illuvial has a special move called an Omega Ability that activates when they’ve built up enough energy, and if you play your cards right, you can also trigger Hyper Bonuses by stacking affinities or classes. Alongside your Illuvials, you control a Ranger, your character, who bonds with an Illuvial to gain its dominant affinity and class. This bond strengthens your team’s synergy, and adding the right weapons and suits to your Ranger boosts them even further.
Synergies and Strategic Depth
Success in Illuvium: Arena is all about understanding synergies. Illuvials come with different affinities, like Fire, Water, and Earth, and stacking units with the same affinity gives your team extra bonuses. You can mix affinities too, like combining Fire and Water to get a composite affinity like Steam, adding another layer to your strategy. Then there are the classes, Illuvials are also grouped into roles like Rogue or Fighter. Stacking units from the same class gives combat boosts, and mixing classes creates composite classes, like Vanguard, which offers more strategic options.
Team Placement and Positioning
Where you place your units on the battlefield matters just as much as what units you choose. Frontline units, like tanks, soak up damage, while backline units focus on dealing damage. Rogues can slip behind enemy lines to disrupt their strategy. Positioning your team effectively can make or break your match. You also start each game with Mastery Points, which you use to buy units and items. In Survival Mode, these points can even earn interest if you save them, giving you a little financial boost as the game progresses.
Augments and Equipment
Then there are Augments, which give your team even more power. These can boost attack, defense, or other key stats, making them an essential part of your strategy, especially in tougher matches. Equipping your Ranger with the right weapons and suits boosts their affinity and class, giving your squad the edge it needs to win.
NFTs and Blockchain
Illuvium: Arena sits inside the larger Illuvium ecosystem, which uses on-chain asset ownership for certain Illuvials, skins, and items. Arena itself does not require players to own NFTs or spend tokens to participate. You can simply download the game and play with the standard roster. However, players who do own Illuvial NFTs or cosmetic skins can use and manage those assets through the Immutable Passport and the Illuvium Account dashboard. Ownership mainly affects collection value and customization rather than gameplay power. The in-game balance is designed so that matches stay fair regardless of whether or not a player owns NFTs.
The token connected to the broader Illuvium ecosystem is ILV. ILV is used for governance and staking rewards across the Illuvium DAO. It is not required to progress in Arena and does not offer competitive advantages inside matches. Arena’s focus remains on strategy, positioning, and drafting skill rather than economic participation.
Latest Game Updates (2025)
Across 2025, Illuvium: Arena continued improving the competitive loop and onboarding experience. Ranked seasons shifted to shorter, clearer progression cycles, making it easier to track improvement and earn cosmetic rewards tied to seasonal performance. Several Illuvials were rebalanced to reduce early meta dominance, and new units joined the roster gradually rather than all at once to keep drafting strategy consistently fresh.
The user interface and drafting flow also received quality upgrades. Team previews and synergy indicators became clearer, helping newer players understand why certain unit pairings work well. Meanwhile, Survival Mode saw expanded encounter variety and more distinct difficulty spikes, rewarding players who learned how to pace their economy and energy strategies.
How to Get Started
Illuvium: Arena is free to play and available directly on the Epic Games Store. Before jumping in, you’ll need an Immutable Passport, which acts as your universal login for all Illuvium titles and any on-chain assets you decide to hold later on. Setting it up only takes a minute.
Create or sign in to your Immutable Passport from the Illuvium site
Search for Illuvium: Arena on the Epic Games Store
Download and install the game
Launch the game and sign in using your Passport credentials
Once you're in, the tutorial will walk you through drafting Illuvials, understanding affinities and classes, and how positioning works. You can start in Casual modes to learn the pacing, then move into Ranked when you're ready to compete.
