Riki

Riki the Stealth Assassin is a melee agility hero that uses stealth in order to surprise enemies and quickly kill them. His trademark ability, Cloak and Dagger, lets him sneak up on his enemies from behind and deal massive backstab damage, and then quickly escape. This enables him to close in on the enemy and drop his devastating Smoke Screen, which cripples fighters and spellcasters alike. Blink Strike allows Riki to chase with impunity, while Tricks of the Trade makes quick work of his enemies during teamfights.

Tips

 * Riki is an attribute-based carry, thanks to 's backstab damage. This means that it continues to get stronger and stronger as the game goes on, as long as you continue to farm, gank, and purchase the right items.
 * Because of this, should be your first core item completed, it gives everything Riki needs: the agility scales well with and the active Purge helps you in many applications, purging  from you, removing strong protections like,  from enemies and purging them while inside of , which is your main ganking combo. Always use all the charges before buying the recipe again and search to do the best use of them.
 * With his new ultimate Riki has a totally new window of possibilities while fighting, with more presence in teamfights since it is an area of effect skill similar to  with a wide AoE and able to proc item effects from, ,  and.
 * And do not forget to combo with positioning change skills like, and  to ensure multiple hits.
 * Do not walk straight up to enemies and deep into enemy territory and expect never to die. If they have any kind of detection, then Riki dies very fast.
 * As a result of this, make a habit of constantly checking the enemy's inventory for revealing items.
 * His trademark skill is the key that allows Riki to be one of the best support killers in the game. Since good supports always stay behind, you can flank the enemy team coming around from there and catching the supports as soon as a teamfight begins and the enemy team is so busy fighting yours that they do not realize that their supports are already dead. This strategy also applies to enemy initiators with game-breaking ultimates like  or, as a good interruption can set victory in critical situations.
 * Riki is exceptional at ganking lone heroes and picking them off one by one. He can snowball easily through just getting lots of kills even without farm. Try to get kills before the enemy starts grouping up, so they cannot punish you with detection items.
 * can target allies and enemies. Jumping to a friendly unit can be useful in case Riki needs to escape.
 * can be a good item for Riki; his allows him to slip away and let the passive regenerate him without fear of interruption.
 * An early gives Riki a good slow that may help with early kills. Remember that neither Orb of Venom nor  are UAMs, so they stack with other ones.
 * is good on Riki if you can buy it yet in the laning phase, he has an average low movement speed of 340, Drum helps you with that, increasing your speed to 357. Coupled with you have a better chasing potential, and the stats are always good.
 * gives good stats and allows Riki to remove debuffs such as without using  charges.
 * Due to the nature of, a well-organised team may be efficient with buying to keep vision of you. You may want to take it upon yourself to 'de-ward' your lane if needs be; if you are without a support, or so that your support can concentrate on other items.
 * Save the early and once the game reaches later stages you can upgrade to  for one more reliable slow that penetrates BKB.
 * You can take as your first skill point and easily take the first  in either side of the river, unless the enemy has any form of detection.
 * Riki is a key hero to catch slippery foes and heroes that are heavily reliant on their own active skills since he can approach without detection and use smoke to prevent them from using escape spells, so it is wise to pick him as a counter pick to many heroes like, , , or . However, be careful of enemies carrying escape items, like , ,  or /.
 * Be wary around more durable enemy heroes. Spell Immunity from allows enemies to ignore  and fight Riki, ignoring his backstab damage.
 * Always scout the enemy jungle once in a while, you may encounter some enemy farming alone for an easy kill, also help high mobility heroes like or  to set up a gank.
 * Do not be afraid of enemies carrying, track down their movement and wait, sooner or later they are going to end up alone and when this happens do not hesitate, use the fog of war and approach them from the sides, go for the kill and recover the Gem.
 * In some situations, the enemy team may have a lot of casters/disabling heroes, in that case do not skip the, you can farm one right after finishing your . It gives you a bigger opening in big teamfights to cut down enemies.

Trivia

 * In DotA, Riki was named "Rikimaru", a reference to one of the main characters in the Tenchu video game series.
 * Riki's fun/alternate name was Riki Martin, which is a pun on Ricky Martin, a famous Latino pop singer.
 * Riki's line upon dying, riki death 09.mp3 "Good assassins never die… they just fade away.'", is a reference to a quote by General Douglas MacArthur, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
 * Riki's line Riki kill 10.mp3 "There are none so stabbed as those who will not see." is a reference to A Christmas Carol where a blind woman says, "I am not so blind as those who will not see.".
 * Riki's line Riki spawn 08.mp3 "I speak softly, but carry a sharp knife." is a reference to the West African Proverb "Speak softly and carry a big stick.", popularized by U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt.

Gameplay
 Strategy & Tips Counters & Matchups

Audio
 Responses Sounds

History
 Lore Old Abilities Changelogs