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 and Night
Each day in Dota 2 is 8 minutes long, divided evenly between night-time and daytime. The game time of 0:00 is dawn, the first night begins at 4:00, the second day starts at 8:00, and so on. Nighttime is announced with a wolf's howl, while daytime is announced with a rooster's crow. At night, the map is darker and most heroes experience reduced vision, as detailed below. Additionally, the hero Keeper of the Light with Aghanim's Scepter have unobstructed vision at day, while the hero Night Stalker's spells are greatly improved at night.

Luna's Eclipse effectively pauses the day/night cycle for its duration; for example, if Luna uses level 3 Eclipse during the first night, the next day will start at 8:06 instead of 8:00 and the next night will begin at 12:06 instead of 12:00. Night Stalker's Darkness used to pause the Day/Night cycle as well, but this was removed in 6.83.

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