“ | ▶️ Now that's how you make gold.
— Alchemist
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” |
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.
- Reliable gold : Passive gold receive every seconds; Gold gained from activating bounty runes.
- Unreliable gold : Any other source (Hero kills, Creep kills, Building destroys, Hand of Midas, Track, etc).
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.
Net Worth
A hero's net worth is the sum of their gold and the cost of all the items they own, no matter where they are on the map. An item that has been consumed or destroyed doesn't count towards net worth, since it doesn't exist anymore. While it's usually used as an indicator of the player's performance, gameplay-wise it affects unfavorably the cost of buyback, and the amount of gold gained by hero kills on both sides.
Some items however aren't factored in certain conditions:
- Items in the inventory of a unit of the enemy team.
- The following items on the ground:
- Gem of True Sight
- Divine Rapier. Note that as soon as an enemy of the owner picks it up for the first time, the item will be owned by the one who has it in their inventory.
- The items obtained by randomizing the hero pick, found by the Trusty Shovel, or Town Portal Scrolls obtained by dying or from the Boots of Travel.
- If any of these is part of a stack of items, they are always consumed first.
Some consumables grant a buff that increases the target's net worth by the cost of the item when used, in order to not decrease the team's net worth:
- Moon Shard
- Aghanim's Blessing, Aghanim's Blessing - Roshan and Aghanim's Scepter Synth
- Aghanim's Shard and Aghanim's Shard - Roshan
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 0.67 seconds (starting from 0:00 on the game clock), which results in 90 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 |
---|---|
0:00 | 90 |
12:00 | 94.8 |
30:00 | 99.8 |
45:00 | 105.5 |
62:00 | 112.8 |
87:00 | 120.5 |
112:00 | 129 |
140:00 | 139 |
175:00 | 150.5 |
Talents
Passive
Self
- Increases the hero's periodic gold per minute income.
- Gold granted from the talent is unreliable gold.
- The following values exist:
- 30/60/90/120/150/180/210/240/300/420
No hero has this talent.
Bounty Rune
No Target
Self / Allies
- Rune activation, including activation from Regenerate, has an instant cast time.
- Grants reliable gold to each hero of the team that activates the Rune.
- A small golden particle effect briefly bursts from the player, visible to everyone, while an ally-only overhead text displays the amount of granted gold.
- Besides the initially spawned runes, Bounty Runes grant EXPR
36 + 9 per 5mins
per hero.- Activating a Stored Bounty Rune grants gold based on the time at which it is activated.
- Bounty Rune replenishes 2 Regenerate charges, unless it already had more than 2 Regenerate charges.
- In Turbo Mode, the granted gold is doubled, despite the notification message showing standard values.
Abilities
Most gold-granting abilities grant unreliable gold, and there are only a few items and abilities that are able to directly grant gold to the player in different ways.
- 1 Requires talent.
- 2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.
- 2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.
- 3 Only upon refunding the ally's Aghanim's Scepter or Aghanim's Blessing.
- Gold Type: Reliable
Bounty Rune Multiplier: 2
Directly multiplies the reliable gold granted from Bounty Runes. - Gold Type: Reliable
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 |
---|---|
125 | 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 | 60 |
4 | ▶️ | Player is dominating | 100 |
5 | ▶️ | Player is on a mega Kill streak | 150 |
6 | ▶️ | Player is unstoppable! | 210 |
7 | ▶️ | Player is wicked sick | 280 |
8 | ▶️ | Player is on a monster kill streak | 360 |
9 | ▶️ | Player is GODLIKE | 450 |
10+ | ▶️ | Player is beyond GODLIKE, someone kill them!! | 550 |
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 and Tormentors.
- 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:
(30 + Victim Net Worth x 0.038) x k / Number of Heroes
k = Net Worth difference factor
For leading team k = 1 - (Net Worth difference / Net Worth of leading team)
For losing team k = 1 + (Net Worth difference / Net Worth of leading team)
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 50% of 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 | Team Bounty | Deny Bounty | Last Hit Bounty | Last Hit Total | No Last Hit Total | Denied Total | ||||||
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Regular | Turbo | Regular | Turbo | Regular | Turbo | Regular | Turbo | Regular | Turbo | Regular | Turbo | |
Tower (Tier 1) | 90 | 180 | 45 | 90 | 110‒130 | 220‒260 | 560‒580 | 1120‒1160 | 450 | 900 | 225 | 450 |
Tower (Tier 2) | 110 | 220 | 55 | 110 | 130‒130 | 260‒260 | 680‒700 | 1360‒1400 | 550 | 1100 | 275 | 550 |
Tower (Tier 3) | 125 | 250 | 62.5 | 125 | 150‒130 | 300‒260 | 775‒795 | 1550‒1590 | 625 | 1250 | 312.5 | 625 |
Tower (Tier 4) | 145 | 290 | 72.5 | 145 | 170‒130 | 340‒260 | 895‒915 | 1790‒1830 | 725 | 1450 | 362.5 | 725 |
Ranged Barracks | 90 | 180 | 90 | 180 | 90‒135 | 180‒270 | 540‒585 | 1080‒1170 | 450 | 900 | 450 | 900 |
Melee Barracks | 155 | 310 | 155 | 310 | 90‒135 | 180‒270 | 865‒910 | 1730‒1820 | 775 | 1550 | 775 | 1550 |
Effigy Building | - | - | - | - | 68 | 136 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Lane creeps
The bounty for regular lane creeps increases by 1 gold every 7 minutes 30 seconds, while the bounty for super creeps increases by 1.5 .
In Turbo Mode, the bounty for regular lane creeps increases by 3 gold every 2 minutes 30 seconds, while the bounty for super creeps increases by 4.5 .
Lane Creeps | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Neutral creeps
When stacking neutral creeps, the stacking player gains gold equal to 30% of whatever the allied player farming the stacked camp gets.
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1 Shard Golems do not provide the stacking player any gold, since they have other spawning conditions and are therefore not counted as part of the Mud Golem camp.
Summons
Summonned units have static bounties that never change.
Summoned units | ||||||||||||||||||||
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1 Since the Tempest Double is a hero clone, its bounty is not affected by Turbo Mode.
Wards
Wards have static bounties that never change.
Wards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Couriers
Courier |
25 + 6 per hero level to each player on the killing team Couriers cannot be killed in Turbo Mode |
Selling
Items can be sold while their carrier is in the range of any shop for 50% of the price they were bought for. They can only be sold by units controlled by the item's owner, unless the item is completely shareable, which makes it sellable by any member of the owner's team, granting them gold instead.
Spending and losing gold
Drafting phase
During the drafting phase in All Pick and Ranked All Pick, the player loses 2 gold per second if they have not picked a hero after the selection timer runs out.
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.
Item | Cost |
---|---|
Abyssal Blade | 6250 |
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 | 2500 |
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.
Death
A hero loses the following amount of unreliable gold every time it dies. Dying does not take away reliable gold.
- expr
GoldLoss = NetWorth/40
Buyback
- The buyback button appears on the hero portrait while the hero is dead.
- Cannot be used while the hero is stunned while dead (e.g. Toss, Walrus PUNCH!, Walrus Kick, Winter's Curse, which persist through death).
- Cannot be used while reincarnating.
- Buyback only takes from reliable gold first, and then from unreliable gold.
- Buyback has a base cost of 200 , plus a fraction of the hero's networth, rounded down, using the following formula:
- The respawn time increase affects the next respawn time. Does not count deaths with Reincarnation.
Due to the high cooldown, high gold cost, and heavy penalties, using buyback should be a thoroughly thought-through action, as it can backfire and cause more harm than good. Scenarios, where a buyback may be a good idea, are when a crucial team fight starts while one is dead, in order to join the fight. Another crucial moment is when the base needs defending, or when having died during a team fight which your team still won and is going for a final push. Buyback should generally not be used to skip death timing to farm, as the gold cost is usually too big to make it ever worth it. Also, the death time penalty gets added on the next death. Especially on high levels, an early or ill-fated buyback can easily lead to a very long respawn time on the next death.
- Buyback cost with certain networth values
Abandoning the game
After being disconnected from the game for more than 5 minutes, all of the player's gold is equally distributed between the remaining players on their team. This distribution continues every second, so that any gold they gain afterwards gets distributed as well. This distributing stops when the player reconnects, but the gold that got distributed is not reimbursed.
Recent Changes
<div> <div class="updatetablehead"> <div id="version">Version</div><div id="description">Description</div> </div> <div class="updatetablebody">
- Reworked Gold Assist formula.
- Old Formula: (30 + (VictimNetworth * 0.038) ) / NumHeroes.
- New Formula: 10 + ((50 + (VictimNetworth * 0.037) / NumHeroes).
- Passive Gold per minute decreased by 15%
- Increased hero kill bounty from
120 + (KilledHeroLevel × 8) + KillStreakValue
to125 + (KilledHeroLevel × 8) + KillStreakValue
. - Rescaled kill streak gold bonus from 100/135/170/205/240/275/310/345 to 60/100/150/210/280/360/450/550. [?]
- Kill gold information now shows a breakdown of gold bounty for the killer plus proximity gold.
</div> </div>