Frostivus 2018

Frostivus 2018 was a winter Frostivus event that ran from December 19th, 2018 to January 7th, 2019. It featured the Frosthaven game mode, which is a co-op survival mode, where the players fend off herds of enemies. The event was released in conjunction with 's, The Magus Cypher.

Game Mode

 * A team of 5 players defend the Frostivus Tree against an onslaught of hordes for 15 rounds. Harder enemies spawn with each passing round.
 * Enemies spawn from four lanes, which are scattered in various directions.
 * Each lane is defended by a tower, and have a shrine nearby. All lost towers and shrines respawn at the end of each round.
 * Most rounds spawn masses of small creatures, with a few big units with powerful abilities in between.
 * The 5th and 10th round are bonus rounds where the players collect as much gold as they can.
 * The 15th round is the boss round, which first spawns small enemies, and once defeated, spawns as the final boss.
 * Every player is guaranteed to reach level 25 in the last round before fighting the final boss, gaining a set amount on each round.
 * Gold is gained by picking up gold bags dropped by enemies. Each round has its gold cap. The team also gets bonus gold for each surviving tower of the round.
 * Enemies may also drop health and mana potions, which instantly restore a percentage of max health/mana when picked up. They may also drop a.
 * Gold bags, health potions and mana potions are automatically picked up by getting close to them. The dropped portal scrolls have to be right-clicked to pick up.
 * After each round, players have 30 seconds time to regroup and prepare for the next round.
 * The game is lost if the Frostivus Tree is destroyed, or if all five players die before finishing the game.
 * The game is won by defeating the final boss, The Grand Magus.

Map

 * The Frostivus Tree is located on an elevated area, with 3 entry points, to the north, south-west, and north-west.
 * Each of these points is defended by a tower. The area also contains 2 shrines and a shop.


 * Outside the elevated area, to the north, there is a single rune spawn location. Possible rune spawns are:, , , ,.
 * There is a second shop right in front of the north-west entry to the elevated area, selling the same items as the shop in the base.
 * The lower area has 9 entry points from the river. However, only four of these entry points are guarded by towers.
 * This is because the default paths of enemies goes through these 4 lanes, though they can take other entries as well, if redirected by the players.
 * The 4 lanes, and the 4 spawn location of enemies are located north, south, west and north-west.
 * There are also 3 shrines in this area, one behind the south tower, one behind the west tower, and 1 towards the north, between the north and north-west tower.

Buildings
The Frostivus Tree ("Spirit of Frostivus"), located at the center of the base, is part of the objective of the game and must survive. It has 4500 health, 3 health regen, and 20 armor. It also provides True Sight in a 900 radius around it.

The three inner towers are slightly stronger than the 4 outer towers. All towers provide True Sight in a 900 radius, and grant allies in a 900 radius 2 armor.

The enemy spawn locations are guarded by towers as well, preventing the players from camping them.

Towers gain 9 armor after the end of every second round, resulting in the following values

Shrines have 1250 health, no regen, 10 armor, and no vision. Their active heal ability heals for 120 + 2/min health per second, and 40 + 1/min mana per second for 5 seconds, in a 500 radius. Has a cooldown of 180 seconds. When a shrine gets destroyed, it respawns at the end of the round with its ability on cooldown, regardless of its previous cooldown state.

Reviving

 * On death, a tombstone is left where the player died. Living teammates can right click on the tombstone to revive the player.
 * The channel time is based on the number of players channeling. One player takes 6 seconds to channel, 2 plays 3 seconds, 3 players 2 seconds, and 4 players take 1.5 seconds.
 * Buyback can be used, but it has a 5 minute cooldown, and costs gold, scaling up with levels.
 * All players are revived with full health and mana at the end of each round.

Gold and Experience
Each round grants a set amount of experience to all players.


 * Bags from Gingerberad Baby Roshans grant twice as much gold as bags from Frosty Friend Snowmen.

Towers also grant gold when surviving, which also scales with rounds.

Available heroes

 * Only a few heroes can be picked for this event.
 * Click on a hero icon to view its altered abilities for this event.

Rounds

 * There is a 30 second intermission between each two rounds.

General Strategy

 * Since buildings respawn before every round, losing towers is acceptable as long as your team can clear all the enemies.
 * It is considered better to sacrifice a tower than to die protecting one, since dying will be more costly for your teammates.
 * Use to quickly move across the map and save besieged towers. It has a shortened cooldown timer.
 * Gold bags will disappear after a period of time. Prioritize picking them up since gold is a limited resource, capped at each wave.
 * Most enemies do not have magic resistance. This makes spell nukes effective at clearing waves of smaller enemies.
 * You can leave 1 enemy alive by kiting him around while waiting for your team's buybacks to come off cooldown.
 * Buy less expensive items if you are struggling in the early game. Don't waste too much gold on basic items since gold is limited.
 * AoE items like or  can help clear swarms of enemies.
 * Try to have at least three heroes with powerful AoE abilites to clear waves quicker.
 * Lifesteal items like can help heroes survive waves. A  on the team might also prove useful for your teammates.
 * Try to prevent large enemies from stacking up, as this makes them much harder to take down.
 * Focus several heroes on a single lane if necessary, and move on to the next when it's clear.
 * Avoid this strategy specifically at wave 3, in which Pyrexae Vexers will only use if they meet multiple heroes.
 * Utilizing allows for easy revives during the Grand Magus round.

Special Consumables

 * Four special consumable items are available for Frosthaven. Each provides a special ability to help players in-game and has a limited number of charges.
 * Consumables appear on top of the in-game abilities panel, and do not count as visible items.
 * Consumables can be obtained by gaining reward levels, or by purchasing a Frosthaven Consumables Bundle from the Dota Plus store for 1,500 shards.
 * Each consumable has a regular version that players can use in normal (non-event) matchmaking. These versions are purely cosmetic and do not affect game mechanics.
 * Frosthaven versions come with 5 charges, while regular versions come with 20 charges.
 * All Frosthaven consumables have a 30 seconds shared cooldown.

Disabled items
The following items cannot be bought in Frosthaven.

Modified items
These items have been modified.

Item drops
There are 4 different items that can be dropped by enemies, of which 3 are new. Dropped items last for 15 seconds on the ground before they despawn.

The most common drop are gold bags. Picking up a gold bag grants the entire team based on which round it is. A gold bag is automatically picked up when getting within 100 range of it. However, while spell immune, they have to be picked up manually by right-clicking on them.

Enemies also occasionally drop health potions and mana potions. They have a 3% drop chance. Health potion instantly restore a portion of the hero's maximum health and mana potion instantly restore a portion of the hero's maximum mana upon getting picked up. Just like gold bags, health and mana potions are automatically picked up when getting within 100 range of them. However, while spell immune, they have to be picked up manually by right-clicking on them.

Enemies may also drop s, with a 1% drop chance. Unlike the other 3 drops, the scrolls can only be picked up by directly right-clicking them. They also land in the inventory, instead of being instantly activated.

The final enemy in each round may also drop one of the four exclusive consumable ability items at a 10% drop chance, which increases by 0.5% each round.

Rewards

 * During Frostivus, players can earn levels and rewards, similar to a Battle Pass. 1,000 Frosthaven points are needed to gain a level.
 * Players are awarded points for playing Frosthaven.
 * Players who make it past Round 5 will earn a daily bonus of 1,000 Frosthaven points, plus 8x the amount that game normally awards.

Lore
''Swept up in the zeal of unraveling and reshaping arcane energies, Grand Magus Rubick marches a mob into Frosthaven, intent on uprooting the original Frostivus tree to explore the mysterious font of power beneath it. To stop the misguided magus, five heroes must rise to the defense of the ancient tree—and fight to keep the Spirit of Frostivus alive!''

Trivia

 * Frosthaven's event map is similar to Dark Moon's event map.