Of course it's in 2020 that Diretide returned in Dota 2, it seems only appropriate. The Halloween event was last seen back in 2013 and after a seven-year hiatus, we’re glad it’s back. Here are our tips for it!
What Is Diretide?
Diretide’s return in 2020 was somewhat expected by many as Valve teased it months ago when they announced the company was looking for community artists. So what’s Diretide all about? It comes down to a few things:
- Collect candy from last hits and scarecrows
- Bring it back to your base
- Have more candy than the enemy team by the end of the round
The in-game candy (taffy) drops from enemy creeps but also from allied ones. It’s worth trying to get a deny as many allied units as you can. When you get the last hit, the piece of candy will automatically jump in your general direction which makes it a lot easier to pick it up. Never leave an empty lane as a single opponent will be able to accumulate a lot of candy real quick by last-hitting and denying everything.
The Danger of Hoarding Candy
Something very important for new players is the fact that having lots of candy will make you an easier target for two reasons. Each piece of taffy that you carry will reduce your max health by 2%. If you’re a hero that has an escape mechanic, Anti-Mage, PA, QoP you’ll be mostly fine.
We still suggest that you don’t carry more than 10-15 taffy on you. If you do, better head to the base and deposit it. On the other hand, having a lot of candy on you will automatically make you a target for the enemy team. Whoever gets the last hit will also get the candy jumping to them. In that case, make sure you throw the candy to a nearby teammate (default: ctrl+2) before your inevitable death.
Capitalize on Runes
From our experience, runes are quite underrated as nobody ever checks the Roshan pit. That’s right, when Roshan gets released, a rune will periodically spawn in his pit and it’ll be free to grab in most cases. Needless to say, that could give you quite the advantage, mostly with haste and double damage.
The number of points rewarded for a game will be different each day. For example, yesterday yielded the absolute minimum of 9 points while one of the following days could be providing a maximum of 19.
The first win of the day will always grant you an extra 15 and you’ll also be given one extra point for First blood, First Taffy Well kill, and First Scarecrow Stash kill.
Scarecrows, Stashes and Curses
Speaking of scarecrows, the stashes will spawn at minutes 1, 3 and 5. Upon destroying a scarecrow you’ll be rewarded with 10 taffy and a random neutral random item from the respective tier.
The tiers depend on the round you’re currently in. Round 1 will drop Tier 1 items, Round 2 will reward you with Tier 2 and so on. Scarecrows also provide a 1000 true sight radius around them,so don’t waste your sentries or dusts when contesting them.
Periodically, Roshan will charge at a hero and request a donation of candy. If you don’t feed him or the hero dies, your entire team will be cursed. Sometimes, it’s worth getting cursed as he’ll be asking for too much candy.
The amount he requires depends on how big your taffy lead is. If there are only 30 seconds remaining on the clock and Roshan wants 12 candy, it’s usually a better idea to just deposit it and get cursed.
That’s it for our short guide – we’ll make sure to update it with more useful information over the next two months. Diretide will come to an end on December 22, so there’s plenty of time to enjoy all it has to offer.
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