Game modes



Game modes are a set of restrictions within which the game of Dota 2 can be played. Most game modes alter how heroes are picked by players. There are also some novelty modes that allow 1v1 play, or give a player a new hero every time they die, for example. Game modes are unlocked by increasing your profile level, with all modes being unlocked at level 10. In addition to standard game modes, Dota 2 also supports Custom Games created by the community.

All Pick
Choose from the full hero pool. Players can choose any hero, random a hero, re-pick a hero once, or swap heroes with teammates.
 * 75 seconds hero selection time, instead of the default 60.
 * 75 seconds pre-creep time, instead of the default 90.
 * Players lose 2 gold per second if they haven't picked a hero after the selection timer runs out.
 * Cannot random in the last 10 seconds of the picking phase.

Turbo Mode
This game mode has the same rules as All Pick. However, in order to shorten the match time, several differences exist:


 * Faster drafting:
 * All bans are applied immediately, rather than being voted and randomly chosen.
 * Shorter timers on all ban, pick and strategy phases.
 * Increased gold and experience gain:


 * All experience gain doubled.
 * All creep bounties doubled.
 * gold doubled.
 * Bounty Rune gold doubled.
 * No gold lost on death.
 * Ancients do not regenerate health.
 * All tiers of neutral items start dropping 7 minutes earlier.
 * The shop still shows the standard game times for their unlocks. However, the displayed times still light up correctly when the items become available.
 * Weaker towers:
 * All towers have 1200 health.
 * Tier 1 -12 armor.
 * Tier 2 and 3 -14 armor.
 * Tier 4 -21 armor.
 * Lane creeps are upgraded at a much faster rate than normal:
 * Creeps are upgraded at wave 6 and every 5 waves afterward (i.e. 11, 16, 21, 26...).
 * Creeps receive 3 upgrades compared to normal mode at each time they are upgraded.
 * Very fast couriers with streamlined controls:
 * Every player gets their own courier, that start out as flying couriers, regardless of hero level.
 * Couriers automatically deliver items in the Stash or their own inventory. Couriers have an ability to toggle this feature off.
 * Couriers are permanently hasted at 1100 movement speed.
 * Items can be sold from anywhere on the map, regardless of shop proximity.
 * Secret Shop items can be bought from the regular shops. The Secret Shops also act as normal shops.
 * and have halved cooldowns.
 * Reduced respawn timer, seemingly 5-7 minutes.


 * Each match earns half the standard hero XP for Dota Plus.
 * Hero stats in the player profile are not updated, the All Hero Challenge can be done in Turbo Mode.
 * Wins in Turbo Mode count as half wins for that track wins.

Ranked All Pick
The All Pick mode in ranked matches works different than the regular All Pick mode, and is called "Ranked Matchmaking".
 * Banning Phase:
 * All players have 15 seconds to vote for a hero to be banned.
 * A hero may only be voted once. Two players cannot vote for the same hero.
 * The game displays heroes as they are voted on, but not who voted.
 * After 15 seconds, each vote has a 50% chance of succeeding. The chances are rolled for each voted hero individually.
 * If fewer than 10 heroes are voted on, the system automatically bans random heroes based on their ban rate at the MMR bracket the match plays on.
 * Pick Phase:
 * Players pick heroes over 5 rounds.
 * The first two rounds last 25 seconds. Two players from each team pick a hero.
 * The last round lasts 20 seconds. One player from each team picks a hero.
 * If the timer expires, players who haven't picked lose 2 gold per second.
 * Player picks are not revealed until their round ends. If two players picked the same hero, that hero is banned and the round restarts. This repeats until both have selected different heroes.
 * If a player fails to pick a hero and loses gold for more than 30 seconds, they are assigned a random hero.
 * If a player does not enter battle with his hero until after the 0:00 mark, that player's gold is removed and distributed to all of the players on his team. Similar to if he had abandoned, but it does not count as an abandon for the sake of the game being safe to leave.
 * Randoming:
 * Players can let the system pick a random hero from the entire hero pool, except their 25 least played ones.
 * Only the players of the first two rounds may random a hero. All other players have to pick.
 * The randomed hero cannot be repicked.
 * Randoming a hero gives the player a and an  at the beginning of the game.

Single Draft
Choose from 3 random heroes. Players pick from a pool of one hero, one  hero, and one  hero. Each player gets different randomly assigned heroes.
 * Randoming a hero out of the selected 3 does not grant extra gold.
 * Swapping heroes with allies is not allowed.
 * When in Low Priority, the player is only allowed to play in this game mode.

Random Draft
Players take turns choosing from a pool of 33 random heroes. and players take turns picking from a pool of 33 random heroes. Players are given 20 seconds to make each choice. The starting team is always the same.

All Random
Each player gets a random hero. All players are assigned a random hero.

Captains Mode
Each team's captain bans and chooses heroes for the team. Captains mode is the standard format for tournament games. The captains ban certain heroes, up to seven per team, preventing either team from picking the hero. The captain also chooses five heroes for their team. After the captains choose five heroes, each player chooses a hero from their captain's selections. 30 seconds are allotted for bans, and 30 seconds for picks. Each captain has 130 seconds total bonus time that can be used throughout any selection. If time runs out during a ban selection, no hero will be banned; if time runs out during a pick selection, a random hero will be chosen. In Unranked matchmaking, The player that clicks the "become captain" button first is the captain; In Ranked, the captain is the player on each team with the highest solo MMR. The starting team is randomly selected in matchmaking; if playing in a private lobby a starting team may be specified. Some heroes that were recently created or tweaked are unavailable in Captains Mode; they will be added eventually.

Captains Draft
Captains ban and choose from a selection of 27 heroes. Each team's captain bans three heroes, then they take turns picking five heroes for their team. Heroes are chosen from a pool of 27 random heroes: 9 heroes, 9  heroes, and 9  heroes. Each captain has 180 seconds total to make all selections. The player that clicks the "become captain" button first is the captain. The starting team is randomly selected in matchmaking; if playing in a private lobby a starting team may be specified. All heroes are available in Captains Draft.

Least Played
Choose from a pool of your least played heroes. Each player cannot choose any of their 40 most played heroes.
 * Players cannot swap heroes.

Limited Heroes
Play with heroes suitable for new players. Select from a pool of heroes designated for beginners. Playing Limited Heroes matches used to be part of the tutorial, this is no longer the case. There are no punishments for leaving a game, and bots will replace players who leave.
 * Limited Heroes cannot be played in a private lobby.
 * If a player leaves without picking a hero, the bot will not choose a hero.
 * Has been removed from public matchmaking after The International 2016 Battle Pass Event had started.

Ability Draft
Play a hero with four abilities selected from a random pool of abilities. Players are given a random hero from Ability-Draft enabled heroes. Each players' abilities are put into a pool. Players take turns selecting abilities from the pool, given seven seconds for each choice. Each player selects three normal abilities and one ultimate.

1 Disabled for balance reasons. 2Rune Forge is disabled because Tempest Double is. It cannot be bound to other spells because of the following restriction. 3Only ultimate abilities are allowed to use up to 3 ability slots, due to hotkey issues. 4These abilities are too useless and are therfore disabled. 5A hero may have only up to 4 spells enabled in Ability Draft. Without the 2 extra Razes, Shadow Fiend already has 4. 6Possible technical issues. May cause too broken interactions with other abilities that affect attack range and range type.

Innate abilities
 * is part of, instead of being innate to , so the player that drafted it can infuse Aghanim's Scepter.
 * keeps his innate ability to attack any unit. The hero who drafted Nightmare can attack Nightmared units as well.
 * is bound to, and granted to the player that drafts it, instead of being innate to Earth Spirit.
 * keeps his innate ability to walk inside any . The haste effect, however, is limited to the hero (and their uits) who drafted Chronosphere.
 * To offset the fact that has no generic talents (all his talents affect his invoked abilities), he gets, , and  as passive buffs.
 * On level 1, he gets the buff. Every 3 levels, the buff's level increases by 1, until reaching 7 on level 19.
 * On level 2, he gets the buff. Every 3 levels, the buff's level increases by 1, until reaching 7 on level 20.
 * On level 3, he gets the buff. Every 3 levels, the buff's level increases by 1, until reaching 7 on level 21.
 * is bound to, and granted to the player that drafts it, instead of being innate to Techies.
 * does not have, neither is it bound to any of his abilities.

Other ability changes
 * does not come with.
 * does not grant active abilities of devoured neutral creeps, only their passive abilities are granted. does not reset the cooldown of Devour.
 * works for melee units as well, using a projectile after the primary attack.
 * takes 's place once reaching the tree, instead of being in a separate slot. This means jumping between trees is not possible.
 * and are both available as stand-alone independent spells.
 * does not have the sub-spell, so that only turning in place is possible.
 * takes 's place while the orb is in flight, instead of being in a separate ability slot.
 * grants charge-based spells a single charge back, instead of doing nothing. Rearm does not reset the cooldown of.
 * and are both available as stand-alone independent spells.
 * 's and 's Bash do work not for the player that drafted . However, they do work with and.

Ability dependencies
 * upgraded requires // to be drafted to grant them to //.
 * requires to be drafted to passively release quills.
 * 's invisibility is only not broken when casting, , or . Other spells casts do break its invisibility.
 * requires to be drafted for the skeletons to get the Searing Arrows as well. Otherwise, they just attack with regular attacks.
 * upgraded requires  to be drafted to apply Frostbite on enemies within its area.
 * upgraded only works with, , and . Other spells do not trigger the ghosts. Regular attacks still trigger them normally.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the magic resistance reducing debuff.
 * upgraded requires  to be drafted to apply the Midnight Pulse damage.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the buff on the caster upon victory.
 * upgraded requires  to be drafted to apply the single Lightning Storm strikes.
 * upgraded requires  to be drafted to apply the Rage buff on cast.
 * requires to be drafted to grant the Spirit Bear Savage Roar.
 * only affects the drafted hero. Drafting affects the Spirit Bear as well.
 * requires to be drafted to deal damage with its beams.
 * upgraded requires  to be drafted to apply the petrification on hit enemies.
 * upgraded requires  to be drafted to summon the treants.
 * requires to be drafted to work, as it still relies on the amount of souls gathered.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the area bash. Without it, it applies the regular stun on the primary target.
 * requires to be drafted to apply the bash on the target. Without it, Nether Strike just deals its damage.
 * only works with, , and . Other spells do not trigger Static Field.
 * requires to be drafted to hit enemies with Lightning Bolts.

Noteworthy hints
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Talents Talents bound to specific hero abilities are still available, but require the ability to be drafted by that hero.

Talents that affect specific abilities which have not been drafted by that hero are replaced by an instant gold boost.
 * Level 10 talents get replaced with +150 gold
 * Level 15 talents get replaced with +250 gold
 * Level 20 talents get replaced with +500 gold
 * Level 25 talents get replaced with +750 gold

Single-hero-specific talents not bound to an ability, such as (Faceless Void) and  (Undying) are still available regardless of what abilities are drafted by that hero.

1v1 Solo Mid
Play 1v1 against another player in the middle lane. This mode is not available in public matchmaking. Practice your mid-lane play against another player. The first player to achieve two kills or destroy an enemy tower wins. Players can pick identical heroes, and cannot see their opponent's hero choice until they have made a selection. Only the middle lane will spawn creeps. Each player starts off with a courier, free of charge.


 * First set of runes does not spawn.
 * Players can voice chat with each other.
 * Players may forfeit by calling 'gg' or leaving the match.
 * Side towers are invulnerable.

All Random Deathmatch
'Players receive a random hero when they respawn after dying. First team to exhaust either teams 40 respawns, reach 45 kills on either team, or when the Ancient is destroyed, wins.' At the start of a match, every player is given a random hero. When a player dies, they are given a new random hero upon respawning, all of the players' previous reliable gold and items, including the Hero levels are kept for the new Hero. Each team has a total of 40 respawns. The game ends when a team has no respawns left and all its players are dead, or the ancient is destroyed.
 * When selling items, you get 85% of the purchase price.
 * You can see your next hero (and level abilities up) as soon as your current hero dies.
 * You can buyback if you click on your hero portrait at the top, and from there you can buyback.

Private Lobbies
In private lobbies, the creep spawn timer in the All Pick mode uses the same timer as the Captain's Draft mode.

These game modes are only available in private lobby games.

Reverse Draft
Captains choose heroes that the other team must play. Same rules as Captains Mode, except after the captains have chosen their heroes, players will be forced to pick from the other team's choices.

Mid Only
'Creeps only spawn in the middle lane. Duplicate heroes allowed.' Similar to 1v1 Solo Mid but less restrictive. Creeps only spawn in middle lane, and players are allowed to select the same hero. Any amount of players can play, and the game only ends when either team's ancient is destroyed.

Event Game Modes
Several game modes are released for a limited time to tie in with seasonal events. These modes cannot be played outside of the duration of the event.

Diretide 2012
'Collect candy for your team's candy bucket. Avoid the sugar-hungry Roshan!'

Diretide 2012 features invulnerable buildings, new tough creeps called Roshlings on each lane, and a candy bucket in each team's ancient creep camp. The game mode has two phases, the first goal being to collect candy and to return it to your team's candy bucket. Candy can be obtained from Roshlings or neutral creeps, or stolen from enemy heroes or the enemy bucket. After some time, Roshan will begin roaming the map, chasing random heroes and attacking them until they die or feed him a piece of candy. When the first phase ends, the team with the most candy stored wins, and Roshan settles in one of the jungle camps, beginning the second phase. All heroes receive a substantial amount of gold to spend on items and both teams must now work together to kill Roshan for the match to end. Roshan has much higher health and an arsenal of deadly abilities at his disposal. All players receive a Greevil Egg upon completion of a Diretide 2012 match.

Diretide 2013
A variant of Diretide 2012 with a different Roshan fight.

Most of the rules are the same as Diretide 2012, however the Roshan fight plays differently. All heroes receive unlimited gold with which to purchase items. Roshan has gained additional, more powerful abilities. When Roshan dies, he comes back stronger, gaining more health each time he is defeated, with the match ending when the timer runs out.

The Greeviling
'Transform into your Greevil! Race to clear out 11 neutral Greevil camps around the map.'

The Greeviling features invulnerable buildings, no lane creeps and neutral Greevil camps with unique abilities that occasionally appear in the jungle. Players are given the Greevil Whistle, which allows them to transform their hero into a selected Greevil from the player's inventory, with abilities and stats based on which essences were applied to its Greevil Egg before hatching. The goal of the game mode is to clear out 11 neutral Greevil camps before the enemy team. Each cleared camp spawns a gift which sends random items to a random hero on the map.

Wraith-Night
Defend Skeleton King's altar against waves of creeps as he is reborn into Wraith King!

Wraith-Night is a mode where a team of 5 players must defeat 13 waves of creeps and prevent 's altar from being destroyed. The last wave features a reborn, which must be defeated 3 times to complete the wave. The match ends if is defeated, 's altar is destroyed, or if all 5 players are dead.

Most heroes have a modification to their skill set.

Fighting the Year Beast
Battle the elusive Year Beast for rewards and fame!

The Year Beast is occasionally available during the New Bloom Festival 2014. In this game mode, five players must attempt to inflict as much damage as possible to the Year Beast. The round ends when the timer runs out or all players are dead. Rewards are based on how much damage was inflicted.

Compendium Match
Replay matches from The International 2013 with the same picks. This game mode was available to Compendium owners, and allowed them to replay certain matches from The International 2013. Players can choose from the five heroes that were picked by the competing teams playing in the original match.

Mutation Mode
''Play an unranked match with random game modifiers' This game mode was available to The International 2018 Battle Pass owners. Players could queue for an unranked match with three random game modifiers that greatly changes Dota 2's mechanics.

Weekend Battle Cup
The Weekend Battle Cup is a weekly tournament available during certain tournament events. It compromises eight teams in a competing in a single bracket format. Winners of the Battle Cup earn temporary awards depending on the event.

How to enable other game modes
To enable game modes other than those listed under Find Match, type dota_match_game_modes ## in the Dota 2 console, where ## is the number of the game mode from the list below. Some of these modes (such as Diretide) are only playable in a local lobby or ranked matchmaking.

Enabling multiple game modes at once
dota_match_game_modes takes a number as a parameter, which, when converted to binary acts like a switch (e.g. 1048576 is 100000000000000000000 in binary). Each zero/one is a switch to enable each game mode. In layman's terms you can enable and disable game modes by adding the numbers together. For example, to play All Pick and Single Draft you would do calculate 2 + 16 = 18 and put 18 with the console command.

Some useful combinations:
 * Every available game mode: dota_match_game_modes 2097152
 * All non-listed game modes: dota_match_game_modes 183232

Custom Games
Many custom game modes are created by the community, and can be played for free.

Patch history
Игровые режимы 游戏模式