Dota 2 Map

This article is about the in-game map. For locations in Dota 2 lore, see World Map.

The Map is the playing field for all Dota 2 matches. It is comprised of two sides, one for the Radiant faction, and one for the Dire faction. To win, players must destroy the opposing side's Ancient, an important building at the center of each team's base. The map is represented in the interface by the minimap.

Overhead view of the game map as of version 7.06.

Factions

Each faction occupies a diagonal half of the map, separated in the middle by the river. The Radiant is based at the lower left corner of the map, while the Dire is based at the upper right corner. The Ancients are located inside strongholds at the heart of each faction's territory.

Lanes

Main article: Lane

The map is segmented into three different lanes, the top, the bottom, and the middle lane. Each one of these lanes leads to the other team's base, guarded by towers along the way. During the early laning phase of the game, most gameplay is centered around the lanes.
The bottom lane for the Radiant, and the top lane for the Dire, are considered safe lanes. Creeps meet each other close to the towers, which provide greater protection from enemies. These lanes are recommended for beginners, as they provide some added protection against ganking.

River

The River separates the two factional sides of the map. It is surrounded by high ground, which blocks players' vision on both sides.

Runes

Main article: Rune

There are two types of Runes that spawn in 2 minute intervals at different locations on the map: Power-up Runes and Bounty Runes. As their names imply, Power-up Runes grant players bonuses and Bounty Runes a bounty.
From the start of the game onward, Bounty Runes will spawn at four different locations on the map, two of which on the Radiant, and the other two on the Dire side.

• Bounty Rune: Grants an amount of gold and experience which scales as the game progresses.

From the 2 minute mark onward, a Power-up Rune will spawn randomly at one of two points in the river. There are six possible runes that can spawn:

• Double Damage Rune: Grants 100% of a hero's base damage as bonus damage.
• Illusion Rune: Creates two illusions of the hero.
• Invisibility Rune: Grants invisibility after a 1 second fade time.
• Regeneration Rune: Fully restores health and mana. Stops upon taking player-based damage.
• Haste Rune: Grants maximum movement speed and immunity to slows.
• Arcane Rune: Causes all spell cooldowns to be reduced by 30% and mana costs to be reduced by 40%.

Roshan

Main article: Roshan

Roshan is an exceptionally strong creep located at the western end of the river. If killed, Roshan will grant gold to the entire team as well as drop the Aegis of the Immortal, which will automatically resurrect the holder upon death. Later in the game, Roshan also drops a Cheese after killed the second time and onward, which will greatly restore a hero's health and mana when used. After the third kill onward, Roshan will drop a Refresher Shard which acts like a Refresher Orb. Fighting Roshan usually requires more than one player.

Jungle

The Jungle refers to the forested area between lanes. This is where neutral creeps can be found, which can be killed for gold and experience. It is possible to level up by killing creeps in the jungle instead of in the lanes. This practice is called jungling.

Buildings

Main article: Buildings

Buildings are scattered throughout the map, and can be destroyed by the opposing side for gold and experience. To reach the Ancient, buildings must be destroyed in order from the outermost to the innermost. Buildings may be given temporary invulnerability with the Glyph of Fortification.
Players can teleport to any building with a Town Portal Scroll or Boots of Travel.

Towers

Each faction has defensive towers placed along the lanes leading to the Ancient. Towers deal single target damage to heroes and creeps. In the early stages of the game, a hero can only take a few hits from a tower before dying, so one must be careful as to not get too close to towers until they have gained enough strength. Towers have True Sight, and can detect invisible enemies.

Shrines

Shrines have an ability with a 5 minute cooldown. Allied heroes can right-click to activate it, generating a 500 AoE aura that lasts for 5 seconds. The aura provides 90/40 HP/MP regeneration per second (heal values increase during the game by 2 HP / 0.75 MP per minute). Activates once you are in melee range after right-clicking on it. Shrines ability becomes available to use outside of the base once creeps spawn at 0:00. There are Shrines near each team's Secret Shop and new Ancient Camp locations. each Shrines can be teleported to. Shrines become vulnerable whenever a Tier 3 tower falls for the respective team.

Barracks

Each base has three pairs of barracks, placed behind towers. One is for melee creeps, and one is for ranged creeps. If the barracks is destroyed, the opposing team's creeps will become stronger. If all 6 barracks are destroyed, all opposing creeps will gain an even larger power-up, which makes them very difficult to defend against. These mega creeps can usually assure victory because of their high health, damage and numbers, and can kill a Hero quickly if they are reckless enough.

Ancient

This is the main building in both bases. If one team destroys the other team's Ancient, the game is over and the destroying team has won. This building does not attack and will slowly regenerate health over time. It is defended by two towers and cannot be attacked until those towers are destroyed.

Shops

Six shops exist on the map, three for each side.

• Base Shop: This shop is located in the Fountain, and sells all basic items and recipes.
• Secret Shop: This shop is located near the short lane for each side. It sells costlier items needed as ingredients for late-game items.
• Side Lane Shop: This shop is located at the edge of the long lane. It sells some items from the base shop and the secret shop, mostly ones useful for laning.

Minimap

Main article: Minimap

The Minimap is located at the corner of the Head-up display. It gives players an overhead view of the entire map, as well as the ability to issue certain commands. Constant awareness of the minimap is crucial to skilled gameplay.

Vision

A ward spot sign

Main article: Vision

Vision defines which areas of the map is visible to the player's team. Areas that are not visible are covered by the Fog of War. Visions can be granted by allied heroes, units, and wards. Trees, walls, and higher terrain will obstruct vision.