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Time of day is a gameplay element in Dota 2 that operates alongside the game's clock. Certain mechanics behave differently depending on the time of day.

As soon as a match starts (after the heroes from both factions have been shown), the clock starts at one of the following values, depending on the game mode:

  • -90 in a regular match.
  • -75 in a Play vs Bots match.
  • -60 in a Turbo match.
    • However, New_Player_Mode starts at -90, despite using the Turbo ruleset. Item availability isn't adjusted here, meaning that because of the extra time spent in the preparation phase, items such as Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard will become available in the shop 30 seconds "earlier".
  • 0 in the Demo Hero mode.

Movement Speed Bonus[]

Nighttime Move Speed Bonus
Unknown icon
Ability
Passive
Affects
Units
All units now gain 15 movement speed during the night. The effect is doubled for heroes, but it can be broken for seconds upon attacking or taking damage from player-controlled sources.
Effect Radius: Global
Night Move Speed Bonus: 15
Hero Speed Multiplier: 2
Notes

  • The Nighttime nighttime movement speed bonus is lost upon units' attack point and also upon taking player-based damage, including from Roshan icon Roshan or the Fountain Radiant icon Fountain, regardless of factions.


Day-Night Cycle[]

DayNight

The Day/Night indicator in the default HUD.

Each day in Dota 2 is 10 minutes long, divided evenly between daytime and nighttime. Each match starts out at nighttime during the preparation phase pre-horn. Once the ▶️▶️ horn sounds (Radiant/Dire) and the game time reaches 0:00, the first dawn starts. The first night begins at 5:00, the second day starts at 10:00, and so on. Shifting from day to night and vice versa is signaled by an audio cue, with nighttime being announced with a wolf's howl ▶️, while daytime is announced with a bird's tweet and a rooster's crow ▶️. Some custom maps may have their own version of these audio cues.

At night, the map is darker and most units experience reduced vision, as detailed below. Additionally, some heroes have their abilities modified according to the time of day, with the most notable example being Night Stalker minimap icon Night Stalker.

Alt+Keyboard White Mouse Left Left Click the clock prints the time in allied chat, and also prints whether Bounty Rune minimap icon Bounty Rune and/or Powerup runes are spawning soon.

Game Clock Modifying Abilities[]

The following abilities can change the current time of day, but these abilities do not pause the day-night cycle.

Game Clock Modifying Abilities According to Priority
  • Supernova icon
    Duration: 6
    Turns night into day for its duration.
  • Eclipse icon
    Duration: 2.4/4.2/6
    Turns day into night for 10 seconds. Eclipse has a lower priority than the daytime caused by Supernova icon Supernova.
  • Dark Ascension icon
    Duration: 100%
    Turns day into night for its duration. Dark Ascension has a lower priority than the daytime caused by Supernova icon Supernova.

Affected Abilities[]

Neutral Creeps[]

Main Article: Neutral Creeps

During Nighttime nighttime, all neutral creeps, except for Roshan icon Roshan, are sleeping. This means during the night, their aggro range is reduced to 0, so they do not attack enemies who get too close to them. To draw their aggro, they must be damaged, or be targeted by a single-targeted ability. Besides not automatically drawing aggro, the creeps behave the same as during the Daytime daytime. When returning to their camp after de-aggroing, they go back to sleep as soon as they reach their original spot.

Sleeping creeps are indicated by floating Zs above the creeps.

Vision[]

Main Article: Vision

All heroes have a Daytime daytime and Nighttime nighttime vision range of 1800 and 800 respectively, except for the following:

Unit Day Night
Bane minimap icon 1800 1200
Batrider minimap icon 1600 800
Bounty Hunter minimap icon 1800 1000
Night Stalker minimap icon 800 1800
Slark minimap icon 1800 1800
Sniper minimap icon 1800 1400

Talents[]

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

Bonus Level 10 Level 15 Level 20 Level 25
Left Right Left Right Left Right Left Right
Night Vision
  • Spirit Breaker minimap icon +500

There are currently no Talent talents that increase vision during the day.

Version History[]

Version
Description
  • All units now gain 15 movement speed during the night. Effect is doubled for heroes, but it can be broken for 5 seconds upon attacking or taking damage from player-controlled sources (similar to Tranquil Boots).
  • Matches now start at Nighttime nighttime during the preparation phase, and turn to day once the timer reaches 0:00.
  • Increased daytime/nighttime length from 240 to 300.
  • Darkness icon Darkness no longer stops the day/night cycle anymore.
  • Reduced daytime/nighttime length from 360 to 240.
  • Reduced daytime/nighttime length from 480 to 360. [?]
  • Eclipse icon Eclipse now turns day into night for 10 seconds.
  • Time of Day is now synchronized across all game modes.
  • Fixed a rare bug with Darkness icon Darkness that caused permanent nighttime.

Patch History[]

Patch
Description
  • Added Alt+Keyboard White Mouse Left Left Click the clock to print the time, indicating how much time left on day or night.
  • Alt now displays the time pre-horn instead of just showing either daytime or nighttime.
  • U
    Fixed rune spawn times and day-night-cycle offset in longer matches.
  • Alt+Keyboard White Mouse Left Left Click the clock now prints the current game time.
  • Fixed day-night-cycle duration as well as initial state being a bit off.
  • Updated and added new day-night-cycle display.
  • Added new sounds to indicate daytime and nighttime.
  • Updated and cleaned up the visual transition between the day-night-cycle.
  • Updated day-night-cycle indicator.
  • Added day-night-cycle indicator.


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