Gold
“ | ▶️ Now that's how you make gold.
— Alchemist
|
” |
Gold is the currency used to buy items or instantly revive your hero. Gold can be earned from killing heroes, creeps, or buildings.
Reliable & Unreliable Gold
A player's gold is split into reliable gold and unreliable gold. The passive gold income of every player, as well as gold gained from activating bounty runes, is considered reliable gold, while any other source of gold income is considered unreliable gold.
The difference between the two is how each one is spent:
- Dying only takes away gold from the unreliable gold pool.
- Buying items uses up the unreliable gold first before falling back to reliable gold.
- Buyback uses reliable gold first.
Hovering the mouse courser over the gold display in the HUD shows brings up a tooltip showing reliable and unreliable gold totals.
Acquiring gold
Starting gold
Every hero starts with 600 gold and 1 Town Portal Scroll at the beginning of the game. If the player randoms, they are given a Faerie Fire and an Enchanted Mango as well. None of these free items can be sold.
Periodic gold
Each player passively receives 1 reliable gold every 0.6 seconds (starting from 0:00 on the game clock), which results in 100 gold every minute, at the start of the game. This periodic gold increases over time based on the in-game clock.
Time in game | GPM from this time onward |
---|---|
0 minutes | 100 GPM |
5 minutes | 106 GPM |
22 minutes | 112 GPM |
40 minutes | 120 GPM |
62 minutes | 128 GPM |
The following abilities passively grant gold as well
- Gold Per Minute: 80
Gold Type: Reliable
Bounty Rune
Notes:
- The initial runes spawning at the 0:00 minute mark give a fixed amount of 40 gold to each player.
- Following Bounty Runes grant a base amount of 36, plus 9 extra gold for every 5 minutes past.
- When bottling a Bounty Rune, it grants gold based on the time at which it is activated, not bottled.
- Grants reliable gold to each player of the team that picks it up.
- An over-head text shows how much gold was given exactly. This number is not visible to enemies.
- When gaining gold from a Bounty Rune, a small golden particle effect briefly bursts from the player, visible to everyone.
- In Turbo Mode, the gold given by Bounty Runes is doubled. (despite the notification message showing standard values)
Abilities
A few items and abilities are able to directly grant gold to the player in different ways.
- Base Gold Bonus: 3
Extra Gold Bonus per Stack: 3
Stack Duration: 36
Bounty Rune Multiplier: 1.5/2/2.5/3
Gold Type: Unreliable
Bonus gold from Greevil's Greed can reach a maximum of 15/18/21/24 gold per kill. - Gold Gain: 160
Gold Type: Unreliable
Does not give the creep's regular bounty.
Hero kills
Hero kills grant unreliable gold to the killer. The first hero that is killed in a match gives a bonus 135 unreliable gold to the killer; this is called ▶️ First Blood!. Bonus gold is also awarded for stopping kill streaks.
When a hero dies to enemy creeps or an enemy tower and has not been damaged by any enemy heroes in the last 20 seconds (regardless of distance between heroes), the kill gold is split among all enemy heroes. When a hero dies to enemy creeps or an enemy tower and has been damaged by only one enemy, that enemy is credited with the kill. When a hero dies to enemy creeps or an enemy tower and has been damaged by two or more enemies, the gold is split equally amongst all heroes that assisted. Damage negation to 0 credits as assist too.
Every time a hero kills an enemy hero, the killer is awarded unreliable gold using the following formula:
Hero Kills Base Gold | First Blood Gold |
---|---|
120 ![]() |
135 ![]() |
Kill Streaks
As a hero accrues multiple kills without dying that player is said to be on a Kill Streak. An additional gold bounty is granted to the player that ends another player's kill streak; this is sometimes called Shutdown Gold. Kill streaks start at 3 kills and increase for each kill up to 10 kills, but do not increase beyond 10 kills.
The streak bounty is defined by the following formula:
Streak length | Streak name | Streak value | |
---|---|---|---|
0, 1, 2 | N/A | N/A | 0 |
3 | ▶️ | Player is on a killing spree | 100 ![]() |
4 | ▶️ | Player is dominating | 135 ![]() |
5 | ▶️ | Player is on a mega Kill streak | 170 ![]() |
6 | ▶️ | Player is unstoppable! | 205 ![]() |
7 | ▶️ | Player is wicked sick | 240 ![]() |
8 | ▶️ | Player is on a monster kill streak | 275 ![]() |
9 | ▶️ | Player is GODLIKE | 310 ![]() |
10+ | ▶️ | Player is beyond GODLIKE, someone kill them!! | 345 ![]() |
Announcer responses are customizable |
The following deaths do not stop kill streaks or count as ▶️ First Blood!:
- Deaths where the killing blow is dealt by neutral creeps, including Roshan.
- Deaths where the killing blow is dealt by the dying hero's team.
- Deaths where the killing blow is dealt by an enemy tower or lane creep, if no enemy heroes damaged them in the last 20 seconds.
- Deaths which trigger Reincarnation.
Assists (AoE gold)
Allied heroes within 1500 radius of a killed enemy, including the killer, receive experience and unreliable gold if they assisted in the kill. To qualify for an assist, the allied hero either has to be within the given radius of the dying enemy hero, or have damaged or debuffed the enemy hero. Note that the assist counter on the scoreboard only counts assists if the player dealt damage or applied a debuff to the victim, or if they applied a buff to the killer, but gold and experience are awarded independently of the "assist" counter.
The amount of assist gold received is the same for the killer and all assisting heroes. It is calculated using the following formula:
Many hands make light work.
(30 + Victim Net Worth x 0.038) / Number of Heroes
Buildings
When an enemy tower is destroyed, unreliable gold is awarded to each player on your team. The player that got the last hit on the building is credited with destroying it and receives some bonus unreliable gold. If a tower gets denied, both teams get half its team gold bounty. If no player gets the last hit and the tower instead dies to lane creeps, no player gets the extra bonus gold.
Building | Bounty | Total Bounty Awarded | Deny Bounty |
---|---|---|---|
Tier 1 Tower | 90 ![]() 75–165 ![]() |
525–615 ![]() |
45 ![]() |
Tier 2 Tower | 110 ![]() 95–185 ![]() |
645–735 ![]() |
55 ![]() |
Tier 3 Tower | 125 ![]() 115–205 ![]() |
740–830 ![]() |
62.5 ![]() |
Tier 4 Tower | 145 ![]() 135–225 ![]() |
860–950 ![]() |
72.5 ![]() |
Melee Barracks | 155 ![]() 90–135 ![]() |
865–910 ![]() |
- |
Ranged Barracks | 90 ![]() 90–135 ![]() |
540–585 ![]() |
- |
Effigy Building | 68 ![]() |
68 ![]() |
- |
Lane creeps
The bounty for normal creeps increases by 1 gold every upgrade cycle (7 minutes 30 seconds), while the bounty for super creeps increases by 1.5 gold every upgrade cycle.
Creep | Starting Bounty |
---|---|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
Neutral creeps
When stacking neutral creeps, the stacking player gains gold equal to 30% of whatever the allied player farming the stacked camp gets.
Creep | Bounty |
---|---|
![]() Kobold |
6–8 ![]() |
![]() Kobold Soldier |
14–18 ![]() |
![]() Kobold Foreman |
20–25 ![]() |
![]() Hill Troll Berserker |
20–23 ![]() |
![]() Hill Troll Priest |
19–22 ![]() |
![]() Vhoul Assassin |
20–24 ![]() |
![]() Fell Spirit |
17–20 ![]() |
![]() Ghost |
28–34 ![]() |
![]() Harpy Scout |
21–24 ![]() |
![]() Harpy Stormcrafter |
29–33 ![]() |
![]() Centaur Courser |
16–19 ![]() |
![]() Centaur Conqueror |
53–62 ![]() |
![]() Giant Wolf |
18–21 ![]() |
![]() Alpha Wolf |
30–36 ![]() |
![]() Satyr Banisher |
12–14 ![]() |
![]() Satyr Mindstealer |
22–26 ![]() |
![]() Satyr Tormenter |
62–73 ![]() |
![]() Ogre Bruiser |
18–38 ![]() |
![]() Ogre Frostmage |
28–36 ![]() |
![]() Mud Golem |
24–27 ![]() |
![]() Shard Golem |
8–13 ![]() |
![]() Hellbear |
36–44 ![]() |
![]() Hellbear Smasher |
61–79 ![]() |
![]() Wildwing |
12–16 ![]() |
![]() Wildwing Ripper |
54–70 ![]() |
![]() Hill Troll |
21–26 ![]() |
![]() Dark Troll Summoner |
43–50 ![]() |
![]() Skeleton Warrior |
6–12 ![]() |
![]() Ancient Black Drake |
26–33 ![]() |
![]() Ancient Black Dragon |
108–137 ![]() |
![]() Ancient Rock Golem |
39–45 ![]() |
![]() Ancient Granite Golem |
78–88 ![]() |
![]() Ancient Rumblehide |
44–51 ![]() |
![]() Ancient Thunderhide |
64–71 ![]() |
Roshan
![]() Roshan |
135 ![]() 200–290 ![]() Aegis of the Immortal Cheese (from 2nd respawn onward) Refresher Shard or Aghanim's Blessing (from 3rd respawn onward) |
Summons
Couriers
Source | Unit | Bounty |
---|---|---|
Animal Courier | ![]() Animal Courier |
125 ![]() on the killing team |
Animal Courier | ![]() Flying Courier |
175 ![]() on the killing team |
Special
Source | Unit | Bounty |
---|---|---|
Arc Warden | ![]() Tempest Double |
180/240/300 ![]() |
Selling
Items can be sold for half the price they were bought for. Items can be resold within 10 seconds after purchase for the full price. Using an item prohibits selling it for the full price. For example, purchasing a Necronomicon and activating it immediately cancels the 10 seconds, only allowing you to sell it for half the price. The same applies when buying multiple Observer Wards, placing one down, and attempting to sell the remainder. This is the case with any usable item, including Dagon, Arcane Boots and Power Treads.
Items that have been purchased while dead can be sold if that item was bought during the same death, otherwise items cannot be sold while dead, even within the grace period. This is a measurement to ensure that players cannot exploit spending all their gold prior to death and selling back the stashed items within the grace period after death to cut down on potentially lost gold.
Selling items gives unreliable gold, even if they were bought with reliable gold.
Selling an item while that item's ability is active does not cancel the ability. Selling and rebuying an item does not reset ability cooldowns.
Spending (or losing) gold
Many hands make light work.
Picking a hero
All players start off with 800 gold. Picking or randoming a hero in any mode costs you 200 gold, leaving you with 600 gold. You lose two gold per second if you have not picked a hero after the selection timer runs out in All Pick.
Items
The main purpose of gold is to purchase items. The player with the most gold is able to buy the most powerful items, and therefore has a very strong hero. The items each player buys depend on their role in the team and many other factors. Items can be sold back to the shop for half the price, unless they are sold within 10 seconds of being bought and their active ability has not yet been used (e.g. Bottle or Arcane Boots), in which case they are sold back for the full price.
Item | Cost |
---|---|
Abyssal Blade | 6325 |
Aeon Disk | 3000 |
Aether Lens | 2275 |
Aghanim's Blessing | 5800 |
Aghanim's Scepter | 4200 |
Aghanim's Shard | 1400 |
Arcane Blink | 6800 |
Arcane Boots | 1300 |
Armlet of Mordiggian | 2475 |
Assault Cuirass | 5125 |
- Divine Rapier and Gem of True Sight cannot be sold.
- Cheese cannot be purchased, but can be sold for 500 gold.
- Refresher Shard cannot be purchased, but can be sold for 500 gold.
Dying
Every time a hero dies, they lose Net Worth/40
unreliable gold. Dying does not take away reliable gold.
Respawn time
Buyback
While dead, the player has the option to use ▶️ BUYBACK, spending money in order to instantly respawn at the fountain. However, the buyback ability has a long cooldown of 480 and has a scaling gold cost. Buyback takes away from reliable gold first, which allows the player to ensure a buyback by accumulating enough reliable gold which is not lost on death. It has a base cost of 100
and in addition of a scaling extra cost rounded down based on the hero's net worth.
Besides the potentially high gold cost, buyback also increases the next respawn time by 25 seconds.
Buyback Cost ![]() |
Respawn Time Increase | Buyback Cooldown |
---|---|---|
25 | ![]() |
Abandoning the game
After being disconnected from the game for more than 5 minutes, all of your gold is equally divided between the remaining players on your team, including your 1.67 gold/sec passive gold gain. If 1/2/3/4 players have abandoned, the remaining players receive 2.08/2.78/4.17/8.33 gold/sec. The passive bonus gold gain is restored once you reconnect to the game, but any gold that was distributed is not reimbursed.
Recent Changes
- Reduced buyback cost from 200 + Networth / 12 to 200 + Networth / 13.
- Increased hero kill bounty from
99 + (KilledHeroLevel * 7.2) + KillStreakValue
to120 + (KilledHeroLevel × 8) + KillStreakValue
. - Reduced hero kill assist gold from
(45 + VictimNetWorth * 0.033) / NumberOfHeroes
to(30 + VictimNetWorth * 0.038) / NumberOfHeroes
. - Increased passive gold income per minute from 85 to 95.
- Denying lane creeps no longer grants the denying player 20% of its gold bounty.
- Passive gold income now grants reliable gold, instead of unreliable, and is now the only source of reliable gold.
- Hero kills, building destructions, killing Roshan, Couriers, gold transmuted from Hand of Midas, self Track no longer grant reliable gold.
- Increased hero kill assist gold from
(45 + VictimNetWorth * 0.027) / NumberOfHeroes
to(45 + VictimNetWorth * 0.033) / NumberOfHeroes)
.
|