I’m a fan of Warcraft III: Defense of the Ancients (DotA) as I’ve stated recently. The game is a blast and depending on the players, heroes chosen, items acquired, and game settings enabled – the game can be drastically different each time. When hunting for a good game to join on Battle.net, its important to watch out for the various game modes being advertised as these modes change the way the game is played from a strategic standpoint and you don’t want to go into it blind.
I often get lost with the two letter acronyms for the game modes, so here’s a list:
Primary Game Modes
| Mode Name | Command Input | Abbreviated Command Input | Description | Incompatible With | Version Introduced In |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal Mode | None | None | This is the Default mode. It is automatically selected when no other primary mode is during the first 15 seconds. Players may pick heroes from taverns belonging to their team. | ||
| All Pick | -allpick | -ap | Everyone may pick heroes from any tavern. Creeps spawn starting at the 2 minute mark. | ||
| All Random | -allrandom | -ar | Every player gets a random hero from any tavern | Reverse Mode | |
| Team Random | -teamrandom | -tr | Every player gets a random hero from the taverns belonging to their team | Reverse Mode, Death Match | |
| Mode Random | -moderandom | -mr | Randomly picks a mode from All Random, All Pick, Team Random and Normal Mode. | Reverse Mode, Death Match. | 6.28 |
| Single Draft | -singledraft | -sd | Three different random heroes are offered to each player, one for each Primary Attribute. Each player chooses which of the three heroes they want by typing -pick 1/2/3. | 6.50 | |
| League Mode | -leaguemode | -lm | All forms of random are disabled. 10 players required. The teams will pick in alternating orders, one team picking one hero, the other team picks two heroes, the first team picks two heroes, the other team picks two heroes, the first team picks their two last heroes, the other team picks their last hero (1-2-2-2-2-1). Each player has 20 seconds to pick a hero, otherwise one is randomed for him/her. The team which has the first pick is random. Can only pick from your side, Sentinel or Scourge, like Normal Mode. | All secondary game modes except Shuffle Players, No Swap, No Repick, and Terrain Snow. | 6.21 |
| Extended League | -extendedleague | -xl | All forms of random are disabled. 10 players required. Both team leaders (blue for Sentinel, pink for Scourge) may remove up to 4 heroes each from all available ones in the first 20 seconds. Players then pick from the remaining heroes like in League Mode. Creeps spawn starting at the 3 minute mark. | All secondary game modes except Shuffle Players, No Swap, No Repick, and Terrain Snow. | 6.43 |
| Random Draft | -randomdraft | -rd | Needs an even amount of players on each team to be activated. 22 random heroes are picked from all available ones and placed into 2 taverns (available for both Sentinel and Scourge). The remaining heroes are removed, as well as the rest of the taverns. Players then pick from those two taverns like in League Mode. | Mirror Match, Death Match, All Agility, All Intelligence, All Strength, Same Hero, Reverse Mode | 6.39 |
| Vote Random | -voterandom | -vr | Three random matchups will be chosen, and each player gets to cast a vote on which of the three matchups they want, using -option 1/2/3. Needs an even amount of players on each team to be activated. | Mirror Match, Death Match, All Agility, All Intelligence, All Strength, Same Hero, Reverse Mode | 6.35 |
Secondary Game Modes
| Mode Name | Command Input | Abbreviated Command Input | Description | Incompatible With | Version Introduced In |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Death Match | -deathmatch | -dm | If you die, you will have to pick a new hero once you can respawn. If a random primary mode was selected, you will receive a hero according to that random mode. A team loses if it has 44 deaths (you can change this value with -lives # command), or if its ancient is destroyed. | All Intelligence, All Agility, All Strength, Reverse Mode, Same Hero, Mirror Match. | 6.21 |
| Reverse Mode | -reverse | -rv | The Sentinel’s players pick the Scourge’s team and the Scourge’s players pick the Sentinel’s team. Needs an even amount of players on each team to be activated. | Death Match, Same Hero. | 6.38 |
| Mirror Match | -mirrormatch | -mm | Requires that both teams have the same number of players. After one minute, each player pair (blue – pink, teal – gray, purple – light blue, yellow – dark green, orange – brown) will have their heroes replaced with either one of the two they had. In the end, each player pair has the same hero, and both teams have the same matchup. | Same Hero, Death Match. | 6.30 |
| Duplicate Mode | -duplicatemode | -du | The same hero can be picked or randomed by multiple players. | 6.33 | |
| Shuffle Players | -shuffleplayers | -sp | The teams will be randomly shuffled. This includes which colour you have and which side you are on. Also evens the number of players in both teams if possible. | 6.29 | |
| Same Hero | -samehero | -sh | All players will have the hero that blue picks. | Mirror Match, Reverse Mode, Death Match. | 6.33 |
| All Agility | -allagility | -aa | Only Agility heroes will be allowed. | All Strength, All Intelligence, Death Match. | 6.28 |
| All Intelligence | -allintelligence | -ai | Only Intelligence heroes will be allowed. | All Strength, All Agility, Death Match. | 6.28 |
| All Strength | -allstrength | -as | Only Strength heroes will be allowed. | All Intelligence, All Agility, Death Match. | 6.28 |
| Item Drop | -itemdrop | -id | When you die, a random slot in your inventory will drop whatever it holds. You no longer lose money when dying. | ||
| Pooling Mode | -poolingmode | -pm | Items will not take on their muted forms when carried by someone other than the original buyer. | 6.52 | |
| Easy Mode | -easymode | -em | Towers are weaker, experience is gained faster, and you get more periodic gold. | Renamed from -shortmode / -sm in v6.33 | |
| No Powerups | -nopowerups | -np | No runes will spawn. | ||
| Super Creeps | -supercreeps | -sc | Every now and then, a super creep may spawn for each side and follow the creeps in either lane. The weakest super creep is the Siege Golem, a bit stronger is the Scary Fish, and the Ancient Hydra is the strongest one. | ||
| Mini Heroes | -miniheroes | -mi | Makes all heroes spawn at half size. Only model size is affected, collision size and Illusion size remain the same. | 6.54 | |
| Only Mid | -onlymid | -om | No creeps spawn at the top and bottom lane, and towers and buildings in those lanes are invulnerable. Same as -ntnb. | 6.42 | |
| No Top | -notop | -nt | No creeps spawn at the top (left) lane, and towers there are invulnerable. | 6.44 | |
| No Mid | -nomid | -nm | No creeps spawn at the middle lane, and towers there are invulnerable. | 6.44 | |
| No Bottom | -nobot | -nb | No creeps spawn at the bottom (right) lane, and towers there are invulnerable. | 6.44 | |
| No Swap | -noswap | -ns | Swap commands do not work. | 6.44 | |
| No Repick | -norepick | -nr | Repick command does not work. | 6.48 | |
| Terrain Snow | -terrainsnow | -ts | This transforms the current terrain into a snow terrain. This is a very experimental mechanism and is still very much a ‘Work in Progress’ in the visuals department. | Added in v6.48 as game command -terrain snow; renamed in v6.48b. | |
| Observer Info | -observerinfo | -oi | Displays additional hero information to observers when their cursor is hovered over heroes. | 6.52 |
Game Commands
- -repick: Repick Gives you a new hero instead of the one you already have, at a cost. Can only be used once, in the first minute, but not in league mode. Repick costs 150 gold normally, but in -ar and -tr it costs 400 gold.
- -ma: Matchup Displays which opponent controls which hero.
- -ms: Move Speed Displays your heroes movement speed.
- -unstuck: Unstuck Channels for 60 seconds, then moves your hero back to your base.
- -recreate: Recreate Available for N’aix, Terrorblade, Dragon Knight and Banehallow. Use when close to the fountain if you have lost control of your hero (metamorphosis problem). 200 seconds channeling.
- -deathon/off: Death Timer Toggles on and off a new death timer to show you your respawn without needing to open the scoreboard.
- -disablehelp: Disable Help Disable help: Makes Chen’s Test of Faith (teleports you back to base) unable to teleport you.
- -enablehelp: Enable Help Enable help: If -disablehelp has been activated, -enablehelp will make Chen’s Test of Faith able to teleport you again.
- -cs: Creep Stats Shows how many creeps you have killed, as well as how many you have denied.
- -cson: Creep Stat Scoreboard On Shows a scoreboard for creep stats
- -csoff: Creep Stat Scoreboard Off Hides the scoreboard for creep stats
- -fleshstr: Flesh Strength Command for Pudge to view how much str has been gained from the ability.
- -gameinfo: Game Info Displays some information on the different game modes that are used.
- -hidemsg/unhidemsg: Toggle Hero Death Message Turn on/off the Hero death message spam.
- -refresh: Refresh Refreshes PA’s blur so that if you were visible you will become transparent again. This does not affect evasion in any way.
- -showdeny: Show Deny Show denies.
- -swaphero: Swap Hero Only usable once, and only in the first 90 seconds. Brings up a menu where you can select a teammate whom you would like to change hero with. The player you choose will get a menu where he can either accept or decline your offer.
Updated for v6.43b
Comments
96 responses to “DotA Game Modes”
[…] You can view the various DotA game modes and commands at BorkWeb too. […]
[…] What does this new version bring? Well, firstly it provides the same game modes as its previous version (v6.33b). The rest I grabbed out of the changelog. […]
how the fukk does the commandos work? i am the creator of the newes DotA game and when i try to write -sc or anything at all.. nothing seems to happend.. how the hell am i supposed to make all this fkin commandos to work??!
pls answear dudes, i need help!
[…] DotA is a great game with many game options. If you are new to this blessed game and wish to expand your knowledge and/or practice, your only real option is to play on Battle.net with human teammates and opponents due to the lack of Artificial Intelligence built in. If you suck, you’re bound to face ridicule for the entirety of a game…which is enough to drive potentially good players from ever playing again. […]
the game is nice!!!! I wish it came sooner before ragnarok
the heroes have dff. skills and attitudes during the game
i hope there will be a DOTA 70.1 hehe!!!
peace and blessings from a loyal gamer
[…] It seems they’ve added a new mode (-voterandom, which is like -allrandom except you get to vote on which hero combinations are used). There have been a number of changes, so check out the changelog: 6.35 ==== * Added two new neutral creep spots * New mode -vr (-voterandom, like -ar except you get to vote on which hero combinations are used) * Game no longer immediately ends when you win, you have time to chat if you want to * Hero Descriptions now have the movement speeds listed * New icons for Pugna, Lion, God’s Strength and Omnislash (thx snork, alien_rebirth and gotham from forums) * Lots of tweaks to the gold bonuses, levels, stats and abilities on neutral creeps. * Changed the Arthas model with Frostmourne to the one without (forum 69498) * Boots of Travel and Scroll of Town Portal now share cooldown * Chaos Knight base damage a little less random * You can now set the player slots to Computer to reduce the starting gold if you are playing in less than 5v5 (so you don’t have to start with 3500 if you don’t want to) * Bonus gold is given to the allies of the tower killer (even if creeps kill it) * Reworked Strygwyr’s Thirst * New Rampage animation (70915) * Increased the recipe cost on Hand of Midas as well as the Attack Speed. * Reworked -lm to give a chance for Scourge to begin the pick process instead of always Sent * Improved the core game recognition of what is and isn’t a spell (for stuff like essence and CotS) * Fixed some compatibility issues between -ap and -lm * Added a minor blood effect when hook hits a unit (63335) * Increased base damage for Weaver * New command -hidemsg/unhidemsg as a request from some players that don’t want to see the text spam when heroes die * Fixed a bug where destroying all the trees around rooftrellen did not reveal him * Wraith Band recipe cheaper * Improved the AoE on static Field * Minor improvement to the AoE on Diffusion Aura * Repick in -ap or normal mode now lets you pick a new hero instead of randoming it. Cost reduced here since you would need to buy a hero. Repick is unchanged in -ar/-tr * Restored the old armor bonus on Dragon’s Blood * Buffed the HP and Mana that Scepter gives * Reduced Desolator recipe cost * Buffed Tinker’s movement speed * Nightstalker strength improved * Minor improvement to the trees behind to the top left scourge tower * Reduced the lag on casting epicenter, freezing field and blackhole. * Reduced mana cost on level 2 and 3 of blackhole to make it a little more worth leveling * Fixed some minor targeting bugs with illuminate * Wild Axes now move a bit faster * Changed the color of Plague Wards * Fixed many old typos * Improved Troll Warlord base damage a little * Slightly buffed Zeus’ str and int per level * Fixed a bug with Freezing Field and Scepter (thx malle) * Increased the speed on paralyzing casks a bit * Improved Jakiro’s attack animation * Fixed Silencer’s night vision range to that of regular heroes * Slightly buffed higher levels of Sanity’s Eclipse * Minor armor buff (usually 1) to most melee heroes * Fixed being able to Berserker’s Call units out of Chronosphere * Agility on Manta Style increased a bit * Perseverance can now be broken up into its components by clicking on it * Purification icon change (72474) * Reduced Sunder manacost/cooldown at higher levels * Increased base Intelligence on Tinker * Fixed Last Will to not damage its allies if it was denied * Stout Shield percentage typo (Nareg) * Fixed various neutral creep minimap glitches * Fixed an old bug with Venomancer’s Poison Sting that did minor attack speed reduction instead of minor movement speed reduction. * Fixed Soul Keeper’s gamescore icon (78244) * Fixed hotkey conflict between Spectral Dagger and Desolate * Fixed being able to teleport to the invisible -ap vision units with Scroll of Town Portal * Fixed many tooltips * Fixed some issues with units not being paused in Chronosphere (like Leoric Reincarnate and Bearform) * Fixed various neutral creep tooltips (MrX) * Various other minor cosmetic improvements […]
[…] It seems they’ve added a new mode (-voterandom, which is like -allrandom except you get to vote on which hero combinations are used). […]
any one know the new combination from each item that we can make?
like planetwalker and broadsword and soul booster will create the new item
any one know the other else??
is there a planetwalker????? ^_^_^_^_^_^_^
or planewalker cloak?
The Combine of Planeswalker Cloak, Broadsword, and Soul Booster Can be Fution Areos’s Soul…
[…] With the release of DotA v6.36b, a new game mode has been added that, frankly, scares me a bit. This mode is enabled by the blue player typing: -wtf …at which point all hell breaks loose. […]
dota is a nice gome and can you show the new item in dota..!!???
is there some more new items in DOTA????? :)
-wtf mode really sucks with zeus
And Spectre.
I haven’t actually got WTF mode going because it doesn’t appear to work on 6.34:AI, but I’m sure it would be quite amazing with the dwarven sniper. 2 assassinates and they’re doomed. Or with the vengeful spirit constantly nether swapping and missiling would be pretty cool.
hey try this one!
-debug..
it will enable you to control all the units in the map(including roshan)
this is so cool… gotta try this..
Buon luogo, congratulazioni, il mio amico!
who do u think is the best hero
I personally prefer the night stalker
he’s so fast during night time
magaling c life stealer kapag nka naka bwelo panis kapag 1 n’ 1
no comment
i cant read the letters it is very small..can you please make its large
ok
so annoying…
so annoying
who cares
si ading kay gwapa pero si ate dyan mas gwapa pa ni ading kay si ading morag si ( bakekang ) : )
is there anyway to verse the computer in dota.. cause i’m noob and dont wanna go online everyones so pro.. so can i play on lan versing the computer?
super bot => command ???
….mas gwapa c queen of pain wui….hehehehehehe
mas malakas si sand king mag borrow srike sabay epiceter pag walang stun……..
Don’t forget about the -di command. I don’t think it’s up there. Also, IceFrog talked about custom weather commands–do you know anything about those?
ou cara como e q fas o -wtf ficar ar
If playing with bots ….which command shall i type in order for the BOT to have normal experience…..
WHAT IS -TP ??
I wish there was a shop somewhere so you guys could buy a life :/
I WNT TO BE COMPLETE
those are EXPLAINED so bad they dont even work!!
wads -roll
how come knt -rb??? shouldnt it be random bots??
-ftw is what ?or -fdw is what?
u know where ur attacks and ulti for ur hero are
some people play with yellow arroes and different signs instead of the attacks a nd lti
what is that
some people play with yellow signs instead of attacks and ulti
i see some people that have yellow signs with their heros instead of pics of their attks and ulti what is that and how do u get it
Anybody tried using -wtf mode?
It gives 0 mana cost and 0 cooldown…
…only FOR FUN!!!
Its pretty hilarious tho…=]
Very Nice blog man!!!
Ty
Wow.. Great,!!!! I like play this game!!!!!!
Great listing of DotA game modes!
If you want to play DotA then I suggest you check out where the best DotA games are being played.
bye bye