Map



The Map is the playing field for all Dota 2 matches. It is comprised of two sides, one for the faction, and one for the  faction. To win, players must destroy the opposing side's Ancient, an important building at the center of each team's base. The map is represented in the interface by the minimap.

Factions
Each faction occupies a diagonal half of the map, separated in the middle by the river. The is based at the lower left corner of the map, while the  is based at the upper right corner. The Ancients are located inside strongholds at the heart of each faction's territory.

Lanes
The map is segmented into three different lanes, the top, the bottom, and the middle lane. Each one of these lanes leads to the other team's base, guarded by towers along the way. During the early laning phase of the game, most gameplay is centered around the lanes.

The bottom lane for the, and the top lane for the , are considered safe lanes. Creeps meet each other close to the towers, which provide greater protection from enemies. These lanes are recommended for beginners, as they provide some added protection against ganking.

River
The River separates the two factional sides of the map. It is surrounded by high ground, which blocks players' vision on both sides.

Runes
At the start of the game and every 2 minutes onward, Runes will spawn at two points in the river. Runes grant players bonuses or bounty. There are seven possible runes that can spawn:


 * : Grants hero gold and experience which scales as the game progresses.
 * This rune spawns on both sides of the river at the start of the game, worth 100 gold each.
 * Afterwards, this rune will always spawn at the side opposite the other rune.
 * : Grants 100% of a hero's base damage as bonus damage.
 * : Creates two Illusions of the hero.
 * : Grants hero invisibility after a 1 second fade time.
 * : Fully restores hero's health and mana. Stops if hero takes damage.
 * : Grants hero maximum movement speed and immunity to slows.
 * : Causes all spell cooldowns to be reduced by 30% and mana costs to be reduced by 40%.

Roshan
Roshan is an exceptionally strong creep located at the eastern end of the river. If killed, Roshan will grant gold to the entire team, as well as drop the Aegis of the Immortal, which will automatically resurrect the holder upon death. Later in the game, Cheese can also be dropped after Roshan is killed three times, which will fully restore a hero's health when used. Fighting Roshan usually requires more than one player.

Jungle
The Jungle refers to the forested area between lanes. This is where neutral creeps can be found, which can be killed for gold and experience. It is possible to level up by killing creeps in the jungle instead of in the lanes. This practice is called jungling.

Buildings
Buildings are scattered throughout the map, and can be destroyed by the opposing side for gold and experience. To reach the Ancient, buildings must be destroyed in order from the outermost to the innermost. Buildings may be given temporary invulnerability with the Glyph of Fortification.

Players can teleport to any building with a or.

Towers
Each faction has defensive towers placed along the lanes leading to the Ancient. Towers deal single target damage to heroes and creeps. In the early stages of the game, a hero can only take a few hits from a tower before dying, so one must be careful as to not get too close to towers until they have gained enough strength. Towers have True Sight, and can detect invisible enemies.

Barracks
Each base has three pairs of barracks, placed behind towers. One is for melee creeps, and one is for ranged creeps. If the barracks is destroyed, the opposing team's creeps will become stronger. If all 6 barracks are destroyed, all opposing creeps will gain an even larger power-up, which makes them very difficult to defend against. These mega creeps can usually assure victory because of their high health, damage and numbers, and can kill a Hero quickly if they are reckless enough.

Ancient
This is the main building in both bases. If one team destroys the other team's Ancient, the game is over and the destroying team has won. This building does not attack and will slowly regenerate health over time. It is defended by two towers and cannot be attacked until those towers are destroyed.

Shops
Six shops exist on the map, three for each side.


 * Base Shop: This shop is located in the Fountain, and sells all basic items and recipes.
 * Secret Shop: This shop is located near the short lane for each side. It sells costlier items needed as ingredients for late-game items.
 * Side Lane Shop: This shop is located at the edge of the long lane. It sells some items from the base shop and the secret shop, mostly ones useful for laning.

Minimap
The Minimap is located at the corner of the Head-up display. It gives players an overhead view of the entire map, as well as the ability to issue certain commands. Constant awareness of the minimap is crucial to skilled gameplay.

Vision
Vision defines which areas of the map is visible to the player's team. Areas that are not visible are covered by the Fog of War. Visions can be granted by allied heroes, units, and wards. Trees, walls, and higher terrain will obstruct vision.

Pathing
Every time a player sends a move command, the pathing takes care of finding the fastest way possible. The path can be blocked by cliffs, Trees, Iron Branches, other units (also known as Body Block) and Traps.

Cliffs are the major component to limit the movement on the map. They can only be surpassed by Forced Movement, Blinks or Unobstructed Movement. Trees define the lane and jungle contours for the most part. They can be destroyed by various means and allow juking in the Fog of War. Body blocking is very important to keep the creep equilibrium at a favourable position in your Lane or to prevent an enemy from escaping until your allies catch up. Traps are mainly intended to cut off the route for chasing or escaping heroes, but they can be used for unconventional pulling methods as well.

Trivia

 * The map's total size is approximately 15,000 units x 15,000 game units.

History
The Dota 2 map is ultimately derived from the Starcraft custom map Aeon of Strife, which also featured multiple lanes and a final objective to destroy. The map's current diagonal format was created for Defense of the Ancients, the Warcraft 3 custom map upon which Dota 2 is based.