Gold



Gold is the currency used to buy items or instantly revive your Hero. Gold can be earned from killing Heroes, creeps, or buildings.

Reliable & Unreliable Gold
A player's gold is split into two categories:
 * Reliable gold - Any bounty you get from Hero kills, Roshan, and global gold from towers is added to your reliable gold pool.
 * Unreliable gold - Everything else (creep kills, neutrals, etc).

The only other difference between the two is how each one is spent:
 * Dying only takes away gold from your unreliable gold pool.
 * Buying items uses up your unreliable gold first before using your reliable gold.
 * Buyback uses reliable gold first.
 * Buyback will cancel only unreliable gold gain.

Hovering your mouse over the amount of total gold shown in the HUD will show your reliable and unreliable gold totals.

The purpose of separating gold into these two categories is to encourage ganking and tower pushes, which give reliable gold, rather than passive farming, which grants unreliable gold.

Starting gold
Each player begins with 625 gold. Players that random will begin with 825 gold. Re-picking a Hero will leave you with 525 gold, regardless of whether or not you randomed.

Periodic gold
Each player receives 1 unreliable gold every 0.6 seconds, which results in 100 gold every minute.

Abilities
There are a few items and abilities in Dota 2 which allow you to boost your gold income, namely:



Hero kills
Hero kills grant reliable gold to the killer. Bonus gold is awarded for stopping kill streaks. The first Hero that is killed in a match will give a bonus 200 reliable gold to the killer, this is called first blood.

When a Hero dies to creeps or a tower and is assisted by only one enemy, the enemy is credited with the kill. When there are multiple enemies within 1300 range, the gold is split equally amongst all Heroes that assisted.

Every time a Hero kills an enemy Hero, the killer is awarded reliable gold using the following formula:

200 + streak value + (killed Hero level * 9)

The following deaths do not stop kill streaks or count as first blood:
 * Deaths to neutral creeps or Roshan
 * Deaths to enemy towers with no assisting Heroes
 * Suicides
 * Denies
 * Deaths with
 * Deaths with

Assists
Heroes that are in a 1300 radius of a killed enemy and did not deal the finishing blow will be granted a certain amount of reliable gold and experience, depending on the amount of allied Heroes in that area. Note that the assist counter on the scoreboard only counts assists that you dealt damage to, but gold and experience are awarded independently of your "assist" counter.

Buildings
When an enemy Tower is destroyed, gold is awarded to each player on your team. The player that got the last hit on the building is credited with destroying it and receives some bonus gold. If an enemy tower is denied, a reduced amount of gold is awarded to your team. If no player gets the last hit and the tower instead dies to lane creeps, no player gets the extra bonus gold.

Selling
Items can be sold for 50% of the price they were bought. Items can be resold within 10 seconds of the purchase for full price. Items that have been purchased while dead can be sold if that item was bought during the same death, otherwise items cannot be sold while dead, even within the grace period. Selling items gives unreliable gold, even if they were bought with reliable gold.

Picking a Hero
All players start off with 825 gold. Picking a Hero in any mode will cost you 200 gold, leaving you with 625 gold. If you should decide to re-pick it will cost you an extra 100 gold, thus leaving you with only 525 gold to start off with. Should you decide to random (or play All Random), receiving a Hero will cost you no gold. You will lose one gold per second if you haven't picked a Hero after the selection timer runs out in All Pick.

Swapping
Swapping a Hero that you picked costs 0 gold, leaving you with 625 gold. Swapping a Hero that you randomed costs you 100 gold, leaving you with 725 gold.

Items
The main purpose of gold is to purchase items. The player with the most gold will be able to buy the most items and will therefore have a very strong Hero. The items each player buys depends on their role in the team and many other factors.

† Item cannot be sold.


 * cannot be purchased, but can be sold for 500 gold.

Dying
Every time a Hero dies, they lose 30 × (Hero Level) unreliable gold. Dying does not take away reliable gold.

Buying Back
While your Hero is dead, you have the option of "buying back" and respawning instantly in exchange for a gold fee. The cost of buyback is based on your Hero's level, and also increases fifteen gold per minute since the starting horn, or one gold every four seconds. Buying back takes away from your reliable gold pool first, and the cost uses the following formula: 100 + (Level^2)×1.5 + (GameTimeInMinutes×15)

After buying back, 25% of your Hero's remaining respawn time will be added to your next death. Additionally, Heroes are unable to gain unreliable gold until their respawn time would have finished. The gold icon on the HUD will flash red when this time finishes. Buyback has a cooldown of 6 minutes.

Abandoning the Game
After being disconnected from the game for more than 5 minutes, all of your gold is equally divided between the remaining players on your team, including your 1.67 gold/sec passive gold gain. If 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 players have abandoned, the remaining players will receive 2.08 / 2.78 / 4.17 / 8.33 gold/sec. The passive bonus gold gain is restored once you reconnect to the game, but any gold that was distributed is not reimbursed.