Time of Day

Time of day is a gameplay element in Dota 2 that operates alongside the game's clock. Certain mechanics behave differently depending on the time of day.

Day-Night Cycle
Each day in Dota 2 is 10 minutes long, divided evenly between daytime and nighttime. Each match starts out at night-time during the preparation phase pre-horn. Once the ambient_horn_radiant.mp3 ambient_horn_dire.mp3 horn sounds (Radiant/Dire) and the game time reaches 0:00, the first dawn starts. The first night begins at 5:00, the second day starts at 10:00, and so on. Shifting from day to night and vice versa is signaled by an audio cue, with nighttime being announced with a wolf's howl ambient_night.mp3, while daytime is announced with bird's tweet and rooster's crow ambient_morning.mp3. Some custom maps may have their own version of these audio cues.

At night, the map is darker and most units experience reduced vision, as detailed below. Additionally, some heroes have their abilities modified according to the time of day, with the most notable example being.

Game Clock Modifying Abilities
These abilities can change the current time of day.



Vision
Most heroes have vision during the day of 1800 units and at night vision of 800 units, although many exceptions exist.

Patch history
Время суток 日夜交替