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▶️ Life becomes death becomes new life. As it should be.
Treant Protector

Health (also known as HP, which is short for health points) represents the life force of a unit. When a unit's current health reaches 0, it dies. Every hero has a base health pool of 120HP. This value exists for all heroes and cannot be altered. This means that a hero's maximum health cannot drop below 120HP.

Because each point of strength increases a hero's health by 22HP, a hero's health pool scales upwards with their Strength attribute symbol strength points. Similarly, because every hero has some measure of strength growth per level, all heroes gain more health as they continue to level up. A hero's base strength cannot drop below 1; however, it is possible to achieve 0 strength with the help of negative bonus strength.

  • Total hero health can be defined as
    • Unmanipulated Health
      • Base Health = 120HP
      • + 22 × Strength attribute symbol (Base Strength + (Level - 1) × Strength Gain ± Bonus Strength)
      • ± Flat Bonus Health Values
    • × % Bonus Current/Max Health Values

Display[]

Health and mana

Green bar shows Health. Right number is health regeneration.

The health of a unit is displayed in the game world. It also is displayed again in the HUD upon selecting a unit.

HUD Health Bar[]

Hud health bar comparison

Default health bar compared to colorblind mode
In colorblind mode, all HUD health bars are turned blue.

Health of the selected unit is displayed in the HUD as a green bar at the bottom of the screen, or blue in colorblind mode. The left number at the center of the bar is the unit's current health points and the right number is its maximum health points. Though not displayed in the HUD, a unit's total health does use decimal numbers. The visible numbers in the HUD are always rounded up.

The health regeneration value is visible on health bars in the HUD of every unit. Though the HUD shows only one decimal for health regeneration, it uses more decimals. The value in the HUD is rounded up.

Over-head Health Bar[]

HP Comparison

Pudge with six different amounts of health.

The health bar in the game world are displayed right above every unit's head. Unlike the health bar in the HUD, the bar's color change based on alliances. It is green when it is an allied unit and red when it is an enemy unit (including neutral creeps). For spectators, neutral creeps' health bar take an ocher color. In colorblind mode, allied and the own overhead healthbars are blue, and in Differentiate Ally Healthbars mode (in settings), allied overhead health bars are ocher, while the own health bar stays green.

There are 4 different types of health bars: Hero, creep-hero, building and creep health bars. Their differences lie in their color shade, size and other small differences. Heroes and creep-heroes have vertical lines in them which divide their health pool to make it easier to determine their exact amount of health. By default, their health bars display a thin line for every 250HP and a thick line for every 1000HP. Most of these health display options can be configured to personal preference by using the dota_health_per_vertical_marker console command.

Health Bars
Heroes health bar
Hero health bars are bright green or red and segmented by lines to make it easier to guess their health values. By default, their health bars display a thin line for every 250HP and a thick line for every 1000HP. Heroes also have a level plate to the right of the bar and have a thick border around them.
Creep-heroes health bar
Creep-heroes have an identical health bar as heroes, with the only difference being a darker green and red tone and no level plate.
Creeps health bar
Creeps have a smaller health bar with a darker green and red tone, like creep-heroes. Creep health bars have no lines.
Neutrals health bar
Neutral creeps have the same health bars as other creeps. However, in spectator mode, they are ocher, instead of red.
Roshan health bar
Roshan icon Roshan has the same health bars as other creeps, but it is much bigger, and uses a brighter red, similar to that of heroes. Like neutral creeps, Roshan's health bar appears ocher for spectators.
Couriers health bar Animal Courier Radiant minimap icon Couriers health bars are brighter than those of creeps, but darker than heroes. They also have the default courier icon on the left side of the bar.
Ancients health bar
Both ancients have a very large health bar with bright colors. The bar and their borders are thicker. The shield icon appears when Backdoor Protection icon Backdoor Protection is enabled.
Towers health bar
Towers and barracks have shorter health bars with bright colors. Towers have shorter bars than barracks. The shield icon appears when Backdoor Protection icon Backdoor Protection is enabled.
Misc buildings health bar
Effigy buildings have very short health bars with dark colors. These buildings do not have the backdoor protection icon, even when it is enabled.

Modifying Health[]

Some heroes, units (neutral creeps and summoned units) and items have abilities that can affect the current and maximum health pool of units.

Healing[]

Increasing a unit's current health is most commonly known as Healing. Healing cannot increase the unit's health beyond its maximum health pool. Spells may apply a burst of heal on a target, which restore an amount of health in an instance, or heal the target over time, where the amount is split up in multiple instances. The difference between a heal and regeneration is that a heal is independent from the regeneration ticks. Unlike regeneration, their heal intervals can vary. A heal is not reflected in the regeneration number on the health bar.

Besides lifesteal and spell lifesteal, the following abilities heal units:

1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

The following healing sources heal based on damage dealt, amplifying or reducing the damage affects the healing value. The healing value itself can still be subjected to heal manipulation.

1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

There are several other abilities that are able to increase a unit's current health, but these effects do not count as healing. This means, similar to how damage flagged as HP Removal does not react on on-damage effects, these abilities fully ignore abilities that react on healing, like Ice Blast icon Ice Blast, False Promise icon False Promise and Tether icon Tether.

Psuedo-Heal[]

  • Bloodrage icon
    Enemy Max Health as Damage/Lifesteal: Upgradable by Aghanim's Shard. 30
    Heals based on the attacked unit's maximum health, it does not depend on damage dealt to the target. It is affected by lifesteal manipulation. The damage cannot crit, cleave, or lifesteal with other sources of lifesteal than its own.
  • Feast icon
    Lifesteal: 1.6%/2.2%/2.8%/3.4% (Talent 2.8%/3.4%/4%/4.6%)
    Heals based on the attacked unit's maximum health, it does not depend on damage dealt to the target.
  • Ransack icon
    Hero Health Steal: 9/12/15/18 (Talent 17/20/23/26)
    Creep Health Steal: 3/5/7/9 (Talent 11/13/15/17)
    Heals all Meepos by a set amount. The actual damage dealt to the target does not matter.

Min Health[]

Min health demo

Lina minimap icon Lina casting Laguna Blade icon Laguna Blade on a low health Dazzle minimap icon Dazzle affected by Shallow Grave icon Shallow Grave and Blade Mail icon Blade Mail.
Lina takes the full Laguna Blade damage.

Minimum Health, also prevents a unit from dying like damage negation. However, instead of directly reducing or negating damage, this mechanic manipulates the health of the unit. The MODIFIER_PROPERTY_MIN_HEALTH property prevents a unit's health from dropping below the value it is set to. It does not affect the damage itself, meaning on-damage effects still reacts on the full damage, and not how much damage was dealt with effectively, so they can be triggered normally.

Does not prevent instant kill sources (e.g. Culling Blade icon Culling Blade) in any way.

Min health sources have the following priority:

Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter. Reincarnation icon Wraith DelayShallow Grave icon Shallow Grave / Battle Trance icon Battle Trance

1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

Damaging[]

Main Article: Damage Types

Just like how there are ways to increase a unit's current health, there also are ways to do the opposite, reduce a unit's current health, with the use of damage. Unlike heals, there are multiple types of damage, which act differently based on the defenses of the unit, mainly armor and magic resistance.

Setting Health[]

Besides healing and damaging, a unit's health may also be directly altered by setting it to certain values. Health altered this way is neither registered as a heal, nor as damage, and therefore is ignored by anything that reacts to healing and damage. It can also never be lethal, and can never set the health beyond the unit's max health. When casting the following abilities with lesser health than the health cost, the caster's goes down to 1HP.

HP Removal is not the same as Setting Health. HP Removal is still damage, but flagged to bypasses several but not all on-damage effects, and can still be lethal.

Maximum Health Affecting Abilities[]

Besides Strength attribute symbol strength there are a few other ways to increase or alter a unit's maximum health. Usually, when increasing or reducing a unit's maximum health via other ways than strength, its current health percentage stays the same, so that no healing effect occurs.

The following abilities are able to alter a unit's maximum health pool (sources of strength are not listed):

1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

Items[]

Many items grant their owners a health bonus, increasing their maximum health when equipped, either by increasing their strength, or by just giving them a flat bonus. In either case, the current health percentage stays the same.

The following items increase a unit's maximum health pool. The effects are limited to the item's owner, which must have the item equipped.

Items that provide health bonus by flat amount and strength:

Bonus Strength and Flat Health
Item Value Item Cost Cost/Value Point
Abyssal Blade icon Abyssal Blade 470 6250 Gold 13.3 Gold
Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter 395 4200 Gold 10.63 Gold
Eternal Shroud icon Eternal Shroud 558 3600 Gold 6.45 Gold
Eye of Skadi icon Eye of Skadi 704 5300 Gold 7.53 Gold
Hurricane Pike icon Hurricane Pike 530 4450 Gold 8.4 Gold
Khanda icon Khanda 376 5000 Gold 13.3 Gold
Phylactery icon Phylactery 354 2400 Gold 6.78 Gold
Solar Crest icon Solar Crest 288 2700 Gold 9.38 Gold
Spirit Vessel icon Spirit Vessel 257 2780 Gold 10.82 Gold
Values do not include portions from actives or auras.


These items have a flat health bonus to the hero who has them equipped.

Bonus Flat Health
Item Value Item Cost Cost/Value Point
Aeon Disk icon Aeon Disk 250 3000 Gold 12 Gold
Ascetic's Cap icon Ascetic's Cap 250 N/A N/A
Blood Grenade icon Blood Grenade 50 50 Gold 1 Gold
Bloodstone icon Bloodstone 500 4400 Gold 8.8 Gold
Crimson Guard icon Crimson Guard 250 3725 Gold 14.9 Gold
Fairy's Trinket icon Fairy's Trinket 50 N/A N/A
Falcon Blade icon Falcon Blade 200 1125 Gold 5.63 Gold
Fluffy Hat icon Fluffy Hat 125 250 Gold 2 Gold
Force Staff icon Force Staff 175 2200 Gold 12.57 Gold
Gleipnir icon Gleipnir 350 5450 Gold 15.57 Gold
Magic Lamp icon Magic Lamp 500 N/A N/A
Octarine Core icon Octarine Core 625 4800 Gold 7.68 Gold
Pavise icon Pavise 150 1400 Gold 9.33 Gold
Point Booster icon Point Booster 175 1200 Gold 6.86 Gold
Rod of Atos icon Rod of Atos 300 2250 Gold 7.5 Gold
Seeds of Serenity icon Seeds of Serenity 150 N/A N/A
Soul Booster icon Soul Booster 425 3000 Gold 7.06 Gold
Trusty Shovel icon Trusty Shovel 90 N/A N/A
Vanguard icon Vanguard 250 1700 Gold 6.8 Gold
Vitality Booster icon Vitality Booster 250 1000 Gold 4 Gold
Values do not include portions from actives or auras.


These items increase the hero's health through the strength they provide.

Strength Health
Item Value Item Cost Cost/Value Point
Belt of Strength icon Belt of Strength 132 450 Gold 3.41 Gold
Black King Bar icon Black King Bar 220 4050 Gold 18.41 Gold
Book of Shadows icon Book of Shadows 286 N/A N/A
Book of the Dead icon Book of the Dead 550 N/A N/A
Boots of Bearing icon Boots of Bearing 176 4275 Gold 24.29 Gold
Bracer icon Bracer 1 110 505 Gold 4.59 Gold
Bracer icon Bracer 2 220 505 Gold 2.3 Gold
Circlet icon Circlet 44 155 Gold 3.52 Gold
Crown icon Crown 88 450 Gold 5.11 Gold
Defiant Shell icon Defiant Shell 154 N/A N/A
Diadem icon Diadem 132 1000 Gold 7.58 Gold
Dragon Lance icon Dragon Lance 220 1900 Gold 8.64 Gold
Drum of Endurance icon Drum of Endurance 154 1650 Gold 10.71 Gold
Echo Sabre icon Echo Sabre 330 2700 Gold 8.18 Gold
Ethereal Blade icon Ethereal Blade 176 5375 Gold 30.54 Gold
Gauntlets of Strength icon Gauntlets of Strength 66 140 Gold 2.12 Gold
Ghost Scepter icon Ghost Scepter 110 1500 Gold 13.64 Gold
Giant's Ring icon Giant's Ring 660 N/A N/A
Harpoon icon Harpoon 550 4700 Gold 8.55 Gold
Havoc Hammer icon Havoc Hammer 352 N/A N/A
Heart of Tarrasque icon Heart of Tarrasque 880 5200 Gold 5.91 Gold
Heaven's Halberd icon Heaven's Halberd 440 3550 Gold 8.07 Gold
Helm of the Dominator icon Helm of the Dominator 132 2625 Gold 19.89 Gold
Helm of the Overlord icon Helm of the Overlord 462 5725 Gold 12.39 Gold
Holy Locket icon Holy Locket 198 2350 Gold 11.87 Gold
Iron Branch icon Iron Branch 22 50 Gold 2.27 Gold
Kaya and Sange icon Kaya and Sange 352 4050 Gold 11.51 Gold
Linken's Sphere icon Linken's Sphere 352 4800 Gold 13.64 Gold
Magic Wand icon Magic Wand 66 450 Gold 6.82 Gold
Manta Style icon Manta Style 220 4600 Gold 20.91 Gold
Meteor Hammer icon Meteor Hammer 132 2850 Gold 21.59 Gold
Mirror Shield icon Mirror Shield 220 N/A N/A
Null Talisman icon Null Talisman 1 44 505 Gold 11.48 Gold
Null Talisman icon Null Talisman 2 88 505 Gold 5.74 Gold
Occult Bracelet icon Occult Bracelet 66 N/A N/A
Ogre Axe icon Ogre Axe 220 1000 Gold 4.55 Gold
Ogre Seal Totem icon Ogre Seal Totem 220 N/A N/A
Overwhelming Blink icon Overwhelming Blink 550 6800 Gold 12.36 Gold
Pig Pole icon Pig Pole 110 N/A N/A
Power Treads (Strength) icon Power Treads (Strength) 220 1400 Gold 6.36 Gold
Reaver icon Reaver 550 2800 Gold 5.09 Gold
Sange icon Sange 352 2000 Gold 5.68 Gold
Sange and Yasha icon Sange and Yasha 352 4050 Gold 11.51 Gold
Satanic icon Satanic 550 5050 Gold 9.18 Gold
Shiva's Guard icon Shiva's Guard 110 5175 Gold 47.05 Gold
Skull Basher icon Skull Basher 220 2875 Gold 13.07 Gold
Soul Ring icon Soul Ring 132 805 Gold 6.1 Gold
Specialist's Array icon Specialist's Array 132 N/A N/A
Ultimate Orb icon Ultimate Orb 330 2800 Gold 8.48 Gold
Urn of Shadows icon Urn of Shadows 44 880 Gold 20 Gold
Vambrace (Agility) icon Vambrace (Agility) 44 N/A N/A
Vambrace (Intelligence) icon Vambrace (Intelligence) 44 N/A N/A
Vambrace (Strength) icon Vambrace (Strength) 176 N/A N/A
Veil of Discord icon Veil of Discord 88 1725 Gold 19.6 Gold
Wraith Band icon Wraith Band 1 44 505 Gold 11.48 Gold
Wraith Band icon Wraith Band 2 88 505 Gold 5.74 Gold
Values do not include portions from actives or auras.


Talents[]

Health
Talent icon
Ability
Passive
Affects
Self
There is no description for this ability.
Health Bonus: Varies

  • Increases the max health capacity, but keeps the current health percentage.
  • The following values exist:
    • 100/125/150/175/200/225/250/275/300/325/350/375/400/450/475/500/600/650/700/800/900/1000


The following heroes have a Talent talent that grants them a flat health bonus.

Bonus Level 10 Level 15 Level 20 Level 25
Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right
Health
  • Gyrocopter minimap icon +175
  • Pugna minimap icon +200
  • Arc Warden minimap icon +250
  • Zeus minimap icon +250
  • Lone Druid minimap icon +200
  • Outworld Destroyer minimap icon +200
  • Skywrath Mage minimap icon +200
  • Timbersaw minimap icon +200
  • Crystal Maiden minimap icon +250
  • Witch Doctor minimap icon +300
  • Jakiro minimap icon +325
  • Dragon Knight minimap icon +400
  • Phoenix minimap icon +500
  • Enigma minimap icon +250
  • Storm Spirit minimap icon +250
  • Death Prophet minimap icon +300
  • Lina minimap icon +325
  • Slardar minimap icon +325
  • Tusk minimap icon +325
  • Lifestealer minimap icon +350
  • Spectre minimap icon +350

Besides these, the following heroes have Talent talents which increase the health of the units they summon

Specific summons health bonus

Heal Manipulation[]

Heal manipulation refers to any form of amplification and reduction applied to health restoration. Heal manipulations affect every ability listed under healing.

Outgoing Healing Manipulation Sources
1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

Health Freeze[]

A unit's health can also be frozen, so that no heals, lifesteal, or regeneration can increase it.

Health Freeze Sources

On-heal Effects[]

Similar to how some abilities react on a unit getting damaged, some abilities react on a unit getting healed, or on a unit regenerating health. Only health gain that is classified as a heal, and health regeneration trigger on-heal effects. Health gained in other means (e.g. getting health set) does not trigger it.

Besides heal amplifications, the following abilities react on healing and regeneration

  • Tether icon
    Heals the tethered ally by a percentage of heals and regeneration the caster receives, whenever the caster gets healed or regenerates health.
  • False Promise icon
    Only registers actual heal and regeneration. Ignores other ways of gaining health.

Abilities Modified by Health[]

Max Health Based[]

These abilities have effects that are based on maximum health.

1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

Current Health Based[]

Besides illusions, whose current health and mana depend on the current health and mana of the unit they are based on, these abilities have effects that are based on current health.

1 Requires Talent talent.
2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter.
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard.

Other Health Based Effects[]

These abilities have health-based effects as well, mostly based on Health Threshold.

Other abilities with health-based effects
  • Borrowed Time icon
    Passive Health Threshold: 400
    Automatically activates when taking damage while below the health threshold.
  • Culling Blade icon
    Kill Health Threshold: 275/375/475 (Talent 425/525/625)
    Instantly kills targets below the health threshold.
  • Reaper's Scythe icon
    Damage per Missing Health: 0.7/0.8/0.9
    Deals damage to the target based on how much health they are missing.
  • Eye of the Storm icon
    The storm targets the enemy with the lowest health within its range.
  • Maledict icon
    Lost Health as Burst Damage: 16%/24%/32%/40% (Talent 41%/49%/57%/65%)
    Every 4 seconds, hit enemies take damage based on how much health they have lost since the curse began. Nothing happens if their current health is higher than what it was as the curse began.

Health Regeneration[]

Main Article: Health regeneration

Health Regeneration determines the amount of health a unit regains each second. It is shown as a small number with a + sign at the right side of the unit's health bar.

Heroes also gain bonus health regeneration based on their Strength attribute symbol strength. Each point of strength increases the hero's health regeneration by 0.1HP.

Recent Changes[]

Main Article: Health/Changelogs
Version
Description
  • Reduced hero base health from 200 to 120.
  • Increased health bonus per Strength attribute symbol strength from 20 to 22.
  • ADDED
    special health bars to display hero attacks to destroy for ward-type units.



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