Dota 2 Guide

Dota 2 has a ton of things over its competition, and one of them are the tons of different modes it has. What would be wacky one off modes in other MOBAs are mainstays here, and that works to its advantage. But what are each of these modes? Let's take a look at all the different modes.

1. All Pick

This is the default mode of Dota 2. Here, you get 75 seconds to pick from the full hero pool and 75 seconds of time before the first creep wave spawns. If you don't pick a hero after selection timer has run out, you'll lose 2 gold per second, setting you significantly far behind the enemy.

2. Turbo Mode

This mode has the same rules as All Pick. However, there are a few key differences that makes it "Turbo".

• Faster drafting:
  • All bans are applied immediately, rather than being voted and randomly chosen.
  • Shorter timers on all ban, pick and strategy phases.
• Increased gold and experience gain:
  • All experience gain doubled.
  • All creep bounties doubled.
  • Hand of Midas gold doubled.
  • Bounty Rune gold doubled.
• No gold lost on death.
• Ancients do not regenerate health.
• All tiers of neutral items start dropping 7 minutes earlier.
  • The shop still shows the standard game times for their unlocks. However, the displayed times still light up correctly when the items become available.
• Weaker towers:
  • All towers have 1200 health.
  • Tier 1 -12 armor.
  • Tier 2 and 3 -14 armor.
  • Tier 4 -21 armor.
• Lane creeps are upgraded at a much faster rate than normal:
  • Creeps are upgraded at wave 6 and every 5 waves afterward (i.e. 11, 16, 21, 26...).
  • Creeps receive 3 upgrades compared to normal mode at each time they are upgraded.
• Very fast couriers with streamlined controls:
  • Every player gets their own courier, that start out as flying couriers, regardless of hero level.
  • Couriers automatically deliver items in the Stash or their own inventory. Couriers have an ability to toggle this feature off.
  • Couriers are permanently hasted at 1100 movement speed.
• Items can be sold from anywhere on the map, regardless of shop proximity.
• Secret Shop items can be bought from the regular shops. The Secret Shops also act as normal shops.
• Town Portal Scrolls and Boots of Travel have halved cooldowns.
• Reduced Roshan respawn timer, seemingly 5-7 minutes.
• Each match earns half the standard hero XP for Dota Plus.
• Hero stats in the player profile are not updated, the All Hero Challenge can be done in Turbo Mode.
• Wins in Turbo Mode count as half wins for Arcanas that track wins.

3. Ranked All Pick

• At first, every player has 15 seconds to vote for a hero to get banned.
  • All players select a hero within the same time window.
  • A hero may only be voted once. Two players cannot vote for the same hero.
  • The game displays heroes as they are voted on, but not who voted.
  • After the 15 seconds, each vote has a 50% chance of succeeding. The chances are rolled for each voted hero individually.
  • If there are less than 10 heroes banned, heroes automatically roll for banning based on their ban rate at the MMR bracket the match plays on.
• Right after the banning phase, the picking phase begins.
  • The picking phase consists of 5 rounds. In each round, one player of each team chooses their heroes. The players have 20 seconds to choose.
  • If the timer expires, each player that hasn't selected a hero loses 2 gold per second. The round is over until both players selected their heroes.
  • The selections of the players are not revealed until their round ends. If they happen to choose the same hero, that hero gets banned and the round restarts. This repeats until both have selected different heroes.
  • Once both players selected their heroes, the next round starts with the next 2 players.
  • If a player fails to pick a hero and loses gold for more than 30 seconds, they are assigned a random hero.
  • If a player does not enter battle with his hero until after the 0:00 mark, that player's gold is removed and distributed to all of the players on his team. Similar to if he had abandoned, but it does not count as an abandon for the sake of the game being safe to leave.
• Randoming: Players can choose to random a hero from All heroes except their 25 least played ones.
  • Only the players of the first two rounds may random a hero. All other players have to pick.
  • The randomed hero cannot be repicked.
  • Randoming a hero gives the player a Faerie Fire and an Enchanted Mango at the beginning of the game.

4. Single Draft

Every player has to pick one hero out of a pool of one Strength, Agility, and Intelligence hero.

5. Random Draft

Players take turn choosing from a pool of 40 random heroes.

6. All Random

Players are assigned a random hero. 

7. Captains Mode

One player becomes the captain who is in charge of picks and bans for the draft. They select heroes for their team.

8. Captains Draft

Each team's captain bans three heroes and then take turn picking five heroes from a pool of 27 random heroes.

9. Least Played

Players can't choose any of their 40 most played heroes.

10. Limited Heroes

You select from a pool of heroes designated for beginners. You can leave without penalty.

11. Ability Draft

You are given a random hero and each player's abilities are put in a pool. Every player will then select three abilities and an ultimate from the pool.

12. 1v1 Solo Mid

You can play versus another player in the middle lane. The first player to achieve two kills or destroy a tower wins. This isn't available for matchmaking.

13. All Random Deatmatch

Both teams are assigned random heroes. When a player dies, they get a new hero and all of the player's reliable gold and items, as well as levels. Each team has 40 respawns, and the game ends when a team has no respawns left.

All in all, Dota has a ton of modes that other MOBAs don't have. We hope this helped.