Death

“

▶️ Dig my grave and I'll put you in it. — Wraith King

”

Death is when a unit's health reaches 0. When a unit dies, certain ability effects can be triggered, and certain debuffs can be dispelled.

Definition

Effects Applied	Definition	Examples
Dispel	Most ability debuffs are dispelled upon death. For certain exceptions, please refer to the ability's respective notes.
Cannot Act	Stops and prevents all active abilities orders and item casts. Attempts to cast order result in an error message: Dead. Passive abilities (e.g. Talents) are not disabled, with some exceptions.
Unrestricted Abilities	Only abilities tagged with DOTA_ABILITY_BEHAVIOR_UNRESTRICTED can be used while dead.	Solar Guardian Land Infest
Units Expiring	Generally summoned units expiring are considered dead and do not disappear instantly.
Reincarnation	When a unit dies and it does not trigger death, it Reincarnates.	Reincarnation
Respawning	After a hero dies, it comes back to life after an amount of time, based on its level. Only heroes, Couriers and Roshan can respawn.
On-death Effects	On-death passives and direct-synergy passives (e.g. Caustic Finale with Burrowstrike) are triggered upon death.	Vengeance Illusion

Units Expiring

Main Article: Summons

Generally, when summoned units expire, if they have a death animation, they die and do not disappear. Losing regular summons is usually not a big deal, since they provide rather low bounties, they expire and they can be resummoned after a short while.

Exceptions

• Monkey King - Wukong's Command
  
  When the ability's duration expires, the soldiers are hidden and then moved to Monkey King's fountain.

Reincarnation

This section is about the reincarnation mechanic. For other uses, see Reincarnation (Disambiguation).

Reincarnation takes priority over respawning, Reincarnation sources respawn the unit at its death location after its effect delay, and have the following priority:

Reincarnation ➤ Reincarnation

Reincarnation Sources

• Aegis of the Immortal - Reincarnation
  
  Effect Delay: 5
  Number of Charges: 1
  Respawns the hero at its death location after the effect delay.
• Wraith King Skeleton - Reincarnating
  
  Skeleton Respawn Delay:
  Sets the respawn time of these units to a certain value and they respawn once on where they died.
• Wraith King - Reincarnation
  
  Effect Delay: 100%
  Respawns the hero at its death location after the effect delay.

Talents

Reincarnation

Ability
Passive

Affects
Self

There is no description for this ability.

Effect Delay: 5

 Varies

Modifiers [?]

modifier_special_bonus_reincarnation

Undispellable

Ability Draft Notes:

This Talent talent is available and it is not bound to any ability.

NOTES

 

6677, 7385, 449

special_bonus_reincarnation_200/250/300

• Grants the hero Reincarnation.

• Has the cooldown following values:
  • 200/250/300

• Reincarnation cannot be prevented in any way. If a hero dies while it is off-cooldown, it is used.
  • Fully stacks with other Reincarnation sources, with the talent always triggering first when off-cooldown.

• Revives with full health and mana. Does not resets the cooldowns of items and abilities.

• Provides 1800 daytime and 800 nighttime ground vision respectively at the hero's death location during its delay.

• The buff icon shows a cooldown whenever the Reincarnation is used.
  • The cooldown is not affected by any cooldown reduction and cooldown resets sources.

The following heroes have a talent that grants them reincarnation.

Bonus	Level 10		Level 15		Level 20		Level 25
	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right
Reincarnation

Respawning

An invulnerable Primal Beast upon respawning.

After the first spawn, a hero is not created again. However, it respawns. After a hero dies, it comes back to life after an amount of time, based on its level. The maximum respawn time is reached on level 25. Only the following units can respawn: Heroes, Couriers and Roshan.

Upon respawning, the hero gets instantly moved to the fountain area, facing 45° toward the northeast or the southwest, if they belong to the Radiant or Dire faction respectively. The hero's health and mana are replenished. Cooldowns are unaffected and buffs and debuffs are not cleared upon respawning.

The hero also turns invulnerable and untargetable, which lasts until the respawning hero is issued a command, preventing spawn-camping. The invulnerability is provided by Rejuvenation Aura. Commands include any regular unit orders like moving, attacking, and casting abilities, as well as shop interactions like buying and selling items.

Respawn Time

• Total respawn time can be defined as
  • Base Respawn Time [?]
    • Set Respawn Time [?]
  • + Buyback Respawn Time Increase
  • ± Other Flat Bonus Respawn Time

The hero respawn times can be seen in the following table, starting from 12s and increasing up until level 25, which will be at 100s.

LVL	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25+
Default Respawn Time	12s	15s	18s	21s	24s	26s	28s	30s	32s	34s	36s	44s	46s	48s	50s	52s	54s	65s	70s	75s	80s	85s	90s	95s	100s

Respawn Time Changing Abilities

• Abaddon - Font of Avernus
  
  Abaddon's respawn time is reduced by 10%
• Gold - Buyback
  
  Next Respawn Time Increase: 25
  Neutral Set Respawn Time: 26
  The buyback penalty is applied on top of the respawn time, unless affected by the aforementioned Reincarnation sources. Furthermore, dying to neutral creeps sets respawn time to a minimum of 26s.
• Courier - Passive Bonus
  
  Base Respawn Time: 60
  Respawn Time Increase per Level: 6
  Couriers level up with their owners and respawn at its faction's fountain after its respawn time.
• Undying - Ceaseless Dirge
  
  Cooldown: 480
  When Undying dies he will automatically respawn in the fountain. Begins the game on cooldown.
• Vengeful Spirit - Vengeance Illusion
  

  
  Duration: Respawn Time
  Upon death, Vengeful Spirit creates a strong illusion that deals and takes full damage and can cast all of her abilities. If the illusion is alive when Vengeful Spirit respawn, she will take its place. The illusion disappears once Vengeful Spirit respawns, or when it reaches the normal death duration. The buyback time increase penalty does not increase the illusion's duration.
• Wraith King - Reincarnation
  

  
  Respawn Time Reduction: 10%
  Affected allied heroes have their respawn time reduced by 10%.

Talents

Respawn Time Reduction

Ability
Passive

Affects
Self

There is no description for this ability.

Respawn Time Reduction: Varies

NOTES

 

5975, 5953, 5954, 5964, 6038, 6066, 6375, 6269, 6059

special_bonus_respawn_reduction_15/20/25/30/35/40/45/50/60

• Reduces the hero's respawn time.

• Cannot reduce respawn time below 1 second.

• The following values exist:
  • 15/20/25/30/35/40/45/50/60

The following heroes have a talent that grants them reduced respawn time reduction.

Bonus	Level 10		Level 15		Level 20		Level 25
	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right
Respawn Reduction

Gold

Main Article: Gold

A hero loses the following amount of unreliable gold every time it dies. Dying does not take away reliable gold.

• EXPR
  GoldLoss = NetWorth/40

Buyback

Main Article: Buyback

Buyback

N/A

Ability
No Target

Affects
Self

While dead, the player has the option to buy their hero back into the match, spending money in order to instantly respawn at the fountain.

Base Gold Cost: 200

Networth Gold Divisor: 13

Next Respawn Time Increase: 25

Neutral Set Respawn Time: 26

 480

NOTES

• The buyback button appears on the hero portrait while the hero is dead.

• Cannot be used while the hero is stunned while dead (e.g. Toss, Walrus PUNCH!, Walrus Kick, Winter's Curse, which persist through death).

• Cannot be used while reincarnating.

• Buyback only takes from reliable gold first, and then from unreliable gold.

• Buyback has a base cost of 200 , plus a fraction of the hero's networth, rounded down, using the following formula:
  • <math>\text{Buyback} = floor(200 + \tfrac{NetWorth}{ 13 })</math>

• The respawn time increase affects the next respawn time. Does not count deaths with Reincarnation.

Displays

Buyback status is displayed in 3 different locations, on the HP bar while dead, in the gold tooltip at any time, and below the hero icon while dead

The BUYBACK button is only accessible while dead. It is located on the right side of the death bar. The death bar replaces the HP bar while the hero is dead and shows the respawn time. On its right, the Buyback button is located.

The button has 3 different statuses:

• When ready, the button is grey and heightened. On the button, it reads  BUYBACK  in white, and it also displays the current buyback Gold cost.
• When having not enough gold, the button is red and pushed back. The BUYBACK text turns red, and it still displays the current Gold cost.
• When on cooldown, it looks like when having not enough gold, but the gold cost is replaced by a cooldown timer, showing the remaining cooldown.

Alt+ Right Click a hero's portrait above prints the respawn time if the hero is dead.

The buyback status can also be seen by allies, below the hero icon at the top bar. If the flag has a golden border, that hero has buyback ready and can use it. If there is no golden border, the player has either does not enough gold or is on cooldown. Like the death bar, this is only visible while dead.

Lastly, the buyback status is also displayed in the gold tooltip, which can be accessed by hovering the mouse over the gold. It displays the currently required amount of gold for the buyback, its cooldown status, how much gold the player still needs for the buyback, or how much surplus gold they have.

When a hero buys back, a string sound plays which is audible to everyone, and a gold stack icon appears below the hero's top bar icon, which stays there for several seconds, visible to everyone. The hero also responds to the buyback. Unlike their responses on a regular respawn, which are only audible to the player, a buyback response is audible to everyone. This means no matter what setting a player uses, there is always a cue revealing that a hero bought back.

On-death Effects

On-death ability effects are divided into two categories:

• Triggered by True-Death - Can be triggered only when the unit dies. Does not trigger with Reincarnation sources.
• Triggered by Pseudo-Death - Can be triggered either when the unit dies or when they have Reincarnation sources (e.g. Aegis of the Immortal)

Triggered by True-Death

These on-death effects can only be triggered by death. Reincarnation sources do not trigger them at all. Please refer to the ability notes for each of the abilities' on-death effect(s).

On-death Ability Effects Triggered by True-Death

• Alchemist – Greevil's Greed
• Bloodseeker – Thirst
• Bounty Hunter – Track
• Lone Druid – Summon Spirit Bear
• Pudge – Flesh Heap
• Shadow Fiend – Necromastery
• Shadow Fiend – Requiem of Souls
• Silencer – Glaives of Wisdom
• Slark – Essence Shift
• Spirit Vessel – Soul Release
• Town Portal Scroll – Unsellable Free Town Portal Scroll
• Urn of Shadows – Soul Release
• Vengeful Spirit – Vengeance Illusion^2a
• Warlock – Chaotic Offering¹
• Windranger – Focus Fire¹
• Wraith King – Wraith Delay^2a

¹ Requires talent.

^2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.

Triggered by Pseudo-Death

These on-death effects can be both triggered by Reincarnation sources and by the unit's death. Please refer to the ability notes for each of the abilities' on-death effect(s).

On-death Ability Effects Triggered by Psuedo-Death

• Axe – Berserker's Call^2a
• Axe – Battle Hunger
• Axe – Culling Blade
• Bloodseeker – Thirst
• Broodmother – Spawn Spiderlings
• Spiderling – Spawn Spiderite
• Clinkz – Death Pact
• Desolator – Soul Stealer
• Drow Ranger – Frost Arrows^2b
• Ember Spirit – Fire Remnant^2b
• Hellbear – Death Throe: Rush
• Hellbear Smasher – Death Throe: Power
• Lion – Finger of Death
• Meepo – Divided We Stand
• Mud Golem – Shard Split
• Necrophos – Reaper's Scythe
• Phantom Assassin – Blur^2a
• Sand King – Burrowstrike^2a
• Sand King – Caustic Finale
• Shadow Fiend – Necromastery
• Underlord – Atrophy Aura
• Undying – Tombstone¹
• Wraith King – Vampiric Spirit

¹ Requires talent.

^2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.

Instant Kill

Main Article: Damage Type

This mechanic kill units without the actual use of damage. Similar to HP Removal, the instant kill effect ignores almost all damage manipulations and can only be prevented by a few abilities.

The most prominent example that uses this mechanic is expiring summoned units and illusions, which are killed once their set duration ends. Summons and illusions that get replaced on cast are killed this way as well. Min health via damage manipulation does not prevent instant kill.

Abilities that prevent or bypass instant killing usually have special interactions hard-coded into the abilities.

Forced Kill

The following abilities use the instant kill mechanic to forcefully remove or kill its unit(s) from the game when certain conditions are met.

Forced Instant Kill Effects

• Lone Druid - Summon Spirit Bear
  
  Instantly kills the Spirit Bear upon Lone Druid's death.
  Aghanim's Scepter removes this restriction.
• Meepo - Divided We Stand
  
  If any of the Meepo Clones die, they all die.
• Minor Imp - Eldritch Explosion
  
  Instantly kills the Minor Imp when it reaches its target.
• Undying - Tombstone
  
  Instantly kill all Undying Zombies when the Tombstone is destroyed or expires.

Preventing Death

(e.g. Borrowed Time, Shallow Grave, False Promise and Battle Trance).

Min Health

Lina casting Laguna Blade on a low health Dazzle affected by Shallow Grave and 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) in any way.

Min health sources have the following priority:

Wraith Delay ➤ Shallow Grave / Battle Trance

Min Health Sources

• Dazzle – Shallow Grave
• Troll Warlord – Battle Trance
• Wraith King – Wraith Delay^2a

¹ Requires talent.

^2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.

Kill Credit Manipulation

Priority order

• Supernova
• Reaper's Scythe
• Winter's Curse
• Little Friends
• Ice Blast

Stats Bonuses from Kills

Abilities Granting Stats from Kills

• Axe – Culling Blade
• Legion Commander – Duel
• Lion – Finger of Death
• Necrophos – Reaper's Scythe
• Pudge – Flesh Heap
• Slark – Essence Shift
• Silencer – Glaives of Wisdom

¹ Requires talent.

^2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.