Enigma

Enigma is a ranged intelligence hero who uses his abilities to cripple his enemies, supported by a seemingly inexhaustible army of creeps. His fearsome abilities can bind entire teams under his might. Enigma is also a formidable jungler and pusher owing to his ability to create creeps.

The deliverance of his ultimate, Black Hole, engulfs an area around him with dark energies and disables enemies caught within it, making him an extremely powerful yet conditional initiator and disabler. His Midnight Pulse consumes sections of enemies' life in a region over time and his Malefice stuns targets. His trademark ability is Demonic Conversion, which splits a creep into three eidolons under his control. If they can land enough attacks on an enemy unit before their expiration, they multiply and are healed to full health.

Gameplay
When playing Enigma, it's important to wait at one of your lanes until 0:00 and use Demonic Conversion to take one of the creeps (preferably the ranged one) and then go back to base, regen up and then continue to the jungle. Once in the jungle, use Demonic Conversion to take the strongest creep you can and be sure to micro the damaged Eidolon away and take aggression off it so it can split and regen health. Continue until you have gotten your Core. At level 6 you can choose to go to the safe lane or the mid and gank with a Black Hole, which will help the lane a fair bit. Once you have your core try and take out a tower and then let the game go on. Continue to push a lot and remember to drop a Midnight Pulse before using Black Hole. If played correctly, Enigma can be a gravitational force to be reckoned with and will always place caution in the enemy.

Recommended items
Starting Items:
 * Enigma needs lots of potions early in the game to farm the jungle consistently.
 * A is useful when you are out of mana and Clarities.
 * Enigma does not need many items to jungle efficiently at level 1, so he can afford to buy the.

Early Game:
 * helps in the jungle since it gains charges from neutral creeps casting their abilities.
 * gives mana regeneration and armor for Enigma and his Eidolons.
 * is a great source of mana, allowing him to use his as often as possible. Enigma does not often go close to enemies since his abilities and his Eidolons have a relatively reliable range.
 * help you getting into position to use.

Core Items:
 * is a cost effective upgrade from Magic Stick.
 * give high health regeneration in early levels, which can be used in between creep farming in the jungle, or during since Enigma has his Eidolons to tank for him. The high speed also enables Enigma to roam quickly in search for other creep camps, or to help gank.
 * helps your positioning greatly and helps to pull off a good.
 * is an inexpensive item that gives you more durability while you are channeling.

Situational:
 * is highly recommended, as Enigma can farm very quickly in the early stages of the game, is relatively item independent, and has a large mana pool, all of which are traits of a strong Mekansm carrier. The added armor, health regen, and active heal can also aid Enigma's Eidolons, and is very effective and needed to buff or remedy hurt allies in teamfights.
 * is essential if the enemy team can easily interrupt your, although you must keep in mind if the offending abilities are blocked by spell immunity.
 * gives Enigma high health and mana regen. The active is also very useful, which can be used either in case the first failed, or another teamfight broke out sooner than expected.
 * greatly increases the effectiveness of Enigma's, as well as much needed stats to remedy his health and mana pools.
 * provides an intense increase to mana regeneration, and adds a much needed secondary disable that does not have a casting delay.
 * also gives Enigma some mana management bonuses, and its active ability synergizes well with.
 * synergizes well with his damage over time spells like or . It also helps him to earn gold faster.
 * And if no one else is planning to, or Enigma is the least item dependent Hero in the team, buying a benefits the team greatly.
 * allows a slot to be freed, provides a steady supply of health and mana regeneration to the team, and increases Enigma's survivability.

Tips

 * Keeping Eidolons around you is a very good idea when there is a Pudge or Mirana on the enemy team, as it makes you very difficult to be hooked or arrowed, which is important considering that Enigma is very easy prey for kills in the early game.
 * When jungling, max to beef up your Eidolons and increase their damage. Also, micro your Eidolons to make sure none of the initial three Eidolons die to jungle creeps so that all of them can multiply. This increases jungling speed significantly. Do not be afraid to tank for your Eidolons either when clearing the big camps.
 * In sufficient number, Eidolons can be used effectively in encounters, as en masse their collective attack does significant damage. If you die in an encounter and you have Eidolons still alive, use them to boost your team's damage a little.
 * Be careful of letting enemy heroes kill your Eidonlons in the early game, because they give a significant gold bounty.
 * Enigma's presence in encounters is greatly diminished while Black Hole is on cooldown, but he can make himself useful by saving Malefice for a crucial moment and also sneaking around to use Midnight Pulse within an area the enemies may try to escape through. A good combo is to use Malefice on an enemy walking through Midnight Pulse.
 * Enigma works best with allied heroes that have strong AoE capabilities, such as Warlock or Queen of Pain.
 * Enigma can kill Roshan before the 10-minute mark, with the help of Level 3 or 4 Eidolons. For acquiring them, use on either a neutral creep if he's on the Radiant side, or a lane creep if he's on the Dire side. An item commonly picked up is a, as it allows him to reduce Roshan's armor for a higher damage output. Begin the fight by tanking Roshan yourself, until your Eidolons have multiplied; let the Eidolons take over and apply a Healing Salve. Try to micro the Eidolons to distribute the damage that Roshan does to them. Re-cast Demonic Conversion on one of the Eidolons before they expire and repeat the process (tank, heal up, nuke). If executed properly, Roshan will fall within about one minute.
 * Enigma's large mana consumption means that an can be an effective boots upgrade. If the player chose to ignore upgrading boots,  may be taken later on to take advantage of his pushing power.
 * is a powerful tool when used with Black Hole.
 * is a viable alternative to Blink Dagger, if enemies do not have detection.
 * is a great substitute for Blink Dagger, offering some Intelligence.
 * also works on Enigma as it helps with both his mana and health.
 * discourages Heroes outside of your Black Hole from attacking you. can be used to a similar effect.
 * may also prove to be a useful item on a team with hardcore gankers as the mana regeneration and strength boost really helps him out early in the game.
 * Enigma can get and  quickly thanks to his jungling ability.
 * , as an alternative to Black King Bar, is a good item when up against Heroes with single-target disables that go through spell immunity such as Vengeful Spirit.
 * One of the deadliest combos executed with is Sand king's . Locking all heroes in allows Sand King to channel it safely, while also making sure the pulses hit 95% of the time, dealing extraordinary damage. Even more so if used in conjunction with.
 * Investing 1 point in for early game utility is usually enough, You may consider more depending on the lineups (lots of allied lockdown or high strength/high magic resistance enemies)
 * Using Midnight Pulse before Black Hole is often a good idea to boost the damage done. However, you must use this at your discretion because there might not be a time to use it or it can make you miss out on crucial Black Holes.
 * Beware of as he can counter you very well. While you are channeling Black Hole, you are also very prone to having it stolen or interrupted. While spell immunity prevents most interruption, Rubick's Spell Steal is unaffected by it, and he can potentially ruin your initiation with the Black Hole of his own.  could be bought to prevent Spell Steal, however, keep in mind that Rubick has two other single-target abilities, and possibly a couple of single-target items as well.
 * may also be bought to avoid all of Rubick's spells if used during Black Hole's channeling. But keep in mind that invisibility is very easily countered by detection items, and if you lack a Black King Bar, his Telekinesis' stun could be used to interrupt you instead.
 * It is always a good idea to refresh your Black Hole immediately after casting, as a teamfight can happen anytime, anywhere. Although, depending on the situation, it is also equally wise to save Refresher Orb for next cast, as a double Black Hole can be very devastating to the enemy team, provided it is executed properly.
 * Due to it pulling enemies closer together, Enigma synergises particularly well with heroes with strong but small AoE damage, be it physical (i.e. with his built-in 66% cleave), or otherwise (i.e.  with ).

Gameplay
 Strategy & Tips Counters & Matchups

Audio
 Responses Sounds

History
 Lore Old Abilities Changelogs

Trivia

 * Many of Enigma's responses are references to Friedrich Nietzsche's works; the line, enig attack 08.mp3 "I stare also into you." references a passage in Beyond Good and Evil, where it is stated that "And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you".
 * Enigma's rival line towards Enig rival 21.mp3 "Even time may fail in the face of gravity.'" is a reference to the time dilating effect of gravity.
 * Many of Enigma's responses are also references to concepts in cosmology (the Big Bang, gravity wells, redshifts, and black holes) or particle physics (path integrals, universal constants).
 * In DotA, Enigma's hero name was Darchrow. In the transition to Dota 2, his name was removed, most likely to emphasize his hero title.
 * ,, and  together represent the four fundamental forces of the universe with Enigma representing the gravitational force. This is reflected in several of Enigma's responses to these heroes. enig ally 14.mp3 "The Fundamentals unite."
 * The term "eidolon" comes from ancient greek literature, where it refers to a human-like phantom, the shade of one who died.