Items

Items are the many objects sold by shops or dropped from certain creeps that provide an ability, bonus, or other function not tied to a particular Hero. They come in a multitude of forms and types.

Most items take up space in a Hero's Inventory, meaning only a finite number can be carried at one time. Recipe items will automatically remove their components from a Hero's Inventory and Stash when they are assembled. Because of this, strategy and thought is required in the order and selection of items to purchase.

Remember that most Heroes can use most items, but some items will provide no effect or cannot be purchased by some Heroes. For example, Slardar can purchase Skull Basher, but the effect will not stack with his own Bash ability.

Heroes generally cannot use items purchased by other heroes, except for Consumables and a handful of exceptions. See Item Sharing.

Consumables
Consumables are items with a limited amount of uses. After all of the charges have been used, they are removed from your inventory or must be refilled. It is possible to share consumables with your allies.

Side Lane Shop
The Side Lane Shop is an extra shop located on the Radiant side of the Bottom Lane and the Dire side of the Top Lane, near the River. The Side Lane Shop sells certain items away from base, allowing Heroes to continue laning for longer before returning to base.

Drop Only
Drop Only items are items that cannot be bought from any shop in the game and must be picked up. These are usually accompanied by a set of conditions that must be met before dropping.
 * Aegis of the Immortal
 * Cheese
 * Runes