Gold

• Gold
• Changelogs

“

▶️ Now that's how you make gold. — Alchemist

”

Gold is the currency used to buy items or instantly revive your hero. Gold can be earned from killing heroes, creeps, or buildings.

Reliable & Unreliable Gold

A player's gold is split into reliable gold and unreliable gold.

• Reliable gold  : Passive gold receive every seconds; Gold gained from activating bounty runes.
• Unreliable gold : Any other source (Hero kills, Creep kills, Building destroys, Hand of Midas, Track, etc).

The difference between the two is how each one is spent:

• Dying only takes away gold from the unreliable gold pool.
• Buying items uses up the unreliable gold first before falling back to reliable gold.
• Buyback uses reliable gold first.

Hovering the mouse cursor over the gold display in the HUD shows brings up a tooltip showing reliable and unreliable gold totals.

Net Worth

A hero's net worth is the sum of their gold and the cost of all the items they own, no matter where they are on the map. An item that has been consumed or destroyed doesn't count towards net worth, since it doesn't exist anymore. While it's usually used as an indicator of the player's performance, gameplay-wise it affects unfavorably the cost of buyback, and the amount of gold gained by hero kills on both sides.

Some items however aren't factored in certain conditions:

• Items in the inventory of a unit of the enemy team.
• The following items on the ground:
  • Gem of True Sight
  • Divine Rapier. Note that as soon as an enemy of the owner picks it up for the first time, the item will be owned by the one who has it in their inventory.
• The items obtained by randomizing the hero pick, found by the Trusty Shovel, or Town Portal Scrolls obtained by dying or from the Boots of Travel.
  • If any of these is part of a stack of items, they are always consumed first.

Some consumables grant a buff that increases the target's net worth by the cost of the item when used, in order to not decrease the team's net worth:

• Moon Shard
• Aghanim's Blessing, Aghanim's Blessing - Roshan and Aghanim's Scepter Synth
• Aghanim's Shard and Aghanim's Shard - Consumable

Acquiring gold

Starting gold

Every hero starts with 600 gold and 1 Town Portal Scroll at the beginning of the game. If the player randoms, they are given a Faerie Fire and an Enchanted Mango as well. None of these free items can be sold.

Periodic Gold

Each player passively receives 1 reliable gold every 0.67 seconds (starting from 0:00 on the game clock), which results in 90 gold every minute, at the start of the game. This periodic gold increases over time based on the in-game clock.

Time in Game	GPM From This Time Onward
0:00	90
12:00	94.8
30:00	99.8
45:00	105.5
62:00	112.8
87:00	120.5
112:00	129
140:00	139
175:00	150.5

Other Passive Gold Gain Sources

• File:Philosopher's Stone icon.png Philosopher's Stone – Gold per Minute Bonus
• Kobold – Prospecting Aura

Talents

Gold Income

Ability
Passive

Affects
Self

There is no description for this ability.

Gold per Minute Bonus: Varies

NOTES

 

5955, 5956, 6007, 6008, 5957, 6026, 8005, 6301, 6318, 6446

special_bonus_gold_income_30/60/90/120/150/180/210/240/300/420

• Increases the hero's periodic gold per minute income.

• Gold granted from the talent is unreliable gold.

• The following values exist:
  • 30/60/90/120/150/180/210/240/300/420

The following heroes have a talent that grants them increased periodic gold income.

Bonus	Level 10		Level 15		Level 20		Level 25
	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right	Left	Right
gold/min

Bounty Rune

Main Article: Bounty Rune

Bounty

▶️

Ability

No

Affects

Self / Allied Heroes

Grants bonus reliable gold correspondingly to the current in-game time.

Cast Animation: 0 + 0

Effect Radius: Global

Base Team Gold: 40

Gold Bonus Increase per Instance: 6

Increase Interval: 300

Turbo Mode Multiplier: 2

The first pair of Bounty Runes spwan at the river Power Rune spots, and grants a greater bonus reliable gold.

Team Gold Bonus: 40

Subsequent Bounty Runes spawn in the jungle per faction, after a certain in-game intervals.

Spawn Interval: 180

Bounty Runes are less effective, and replenishes the Bottle up to a certain extend.

Charge Restore per Other Rune: 2

Abilities

Most gold-granting abilities grant unreliable gold, and there are only a few items and abilities that are able to directly grant gold to the player in different ways.

Unreliable Gold Sources

• Alchemist – Greevil's Greed
• Alchemist – Aghanim's Scepter Synth³
• Bounty Hunter – Jinada
• Bounty Hunter – Track
• Doom – Devour
• Hand of Midas – Transmute

¹ Requires talent.

^2a Requires Aghanim's Scepter.

^2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.

³ Only upon refunding the ally's Aghanim's Scepter or Aghanim's Blessing.

Reliable Gold Sources

• Alchemist - Greevil's Greed
  
  Gold Type: Reliable
  Bounty Rune Multiplier: 40
  Directly multiplies the reliable gold granted from Bounty Runes.
• Bounty Rune - [[Bounty Rune#|]]
  [[File:|64px|text-top|link=Bounty Rune#]]
  Gold Type: Reliable
  
• Philosopher's Stone
  [[File:|64px|text-top|link=Philosopher's Stone#]]
  Gold per Minute: 75
  Gold Type: Reliable
  
• Kobold - Prospecting Aura
  
  Gold per Minute: 20/25/30/40
  Gold Type: Reliable
  

Hero kills

Hero kills grant unreliable gold to the killer. The first hero that is killed in a match gives a bonus 135 unreliable gold to the killer; this is called ▶️ First Blood!. Bonus gold is also awarded for stopping kill streaks.

When a hero dies to enemy creeps or an enemy tower and has not been damaged by any enemy heroes in the last 20 seconds (regardless of distance between heroes), the kill gold is split among all enemy heroes. When a hero dies to enemy creeps or an enemy tower and has been damaged by only one enemy, that enemy is credited with the kill. When a hero dies to enemy creeps or an enemy tower and has been damaged by two or more enemies, the gold is split equally amongst all heroes that assisted. Damage negation to 0 credits as assist too.

Every time a hero kills an enemy hero, the killer is awarded unreliable gold using the following formula:

Hero Kills Base Gold	First Blood Gold
125	135

Σ Bounty_Gold = b_Gold + (DeadHero_LVL × 8) + Streak_Gold + FB

Kill Streaks

As a hero accrues multiple kills without dying that player is said to be on a Kill Streak. An additional gold bounty is granted to the player that ends another player's kill streak; this is sometimes called Shutdown Gold. Kill streaks start at 3 kills and increase for each kill up to 10 kills, but do not increase beyond 10 kills.

The streak bounty is defined by the following formula:

<math>f(x) = (5k^2 + 5x)</math>

Streak length	Short time span (18 secs)		Streak name		Streak value
0	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0
1	▶️	First Blood!	N/A	N/A	0
2	▶️	Double Kill!	N/A	N/A	0
3	▶️	Triple Kill!	▶️	Player is on a killing spree	60
4	▶️	Ultra Kill!	▶️	Player is dominating	100
5	▶️	Rampage!	▶️	Player is on a mega Kill streak	150
6			▶️	Player is unstoppable!	210
7			▶️	Player is wicked sick	280
8			▶️	Player is on a monster kill streak	360
9			▶️	Player is GODLIKE	450
10+			▶️	Player is beyond GODLIKE, someone kill them!!	550
Announcer responses are customizable

The following deaths do not stop kill streaks or count as ▶️ First Blood!:

• Deaths where the killing blow is dealt by neutral creeps, including Roshan and Tormentors.
• Deaths where the killing blow is dealt by the dying hero's team.
• Deaths where the killing blow is dealt by an enemy tower or lane creep, if no enemy heroes damaged them in the last 20 seconds.
• Deaths which trigger Reincarnation.

Assists (AoE gold)

Allied heroes within 1500 radius of a killed enemy, including the killer, receive experience and unreliable gold if they assisted in the kill. To qualify for an assist, the allied hero either has to be within the given radius of the dying enemy hero, or have damaged or debuffed the enemy hero. Note that the assist counter on the scoreboard only counts assists if the player dealt damage or applied a debuff to the victim, or if they applied a buff to the killer, but gold and experience are awarded independently of the "assist" counter.

The amount of assist gold received is the same for the killer and all assisting heroes. It is calculated using the following formula:

(30 + Victim Net Worth x 0.038) x k / Number of Heroes

k = Net Worth difference factor

For leading team k = 1 - (Net Worth difference / Net Worth of leading team)

For losing team k = 1 + (Net Worth difference / Net Worth of leading team)

Buildings

Main Article: Buildings

When an enemy tower is destroyed, unreliable gold is awarded to each player on your team. The player that got the last hit on the building is credited with destroying it and receives some bonus unreliable gold. If a tower gets denied, both teams get 50% of its team gold bounty. If no player gets the last hit and the tower instead dies to lane creeps, no player gets the extra bonus gold.

Building	Team Bounty		Deny Bounty		Last Hit Bounty		Last Hit Total		No Last Hit Total		Denied Total
	Regular	Turbo	Regular	Turbo	Regular	Turbo	Regular	Turbo	Regular	Turbo	Regular	Turbo
Tower (Tier 1)	90	180	45	90	110‒130	220‒260	560‒580	1120‒1160	450	900	225	450
Tower (Tier 2)	110	220	55	110	130‒130	260‒260	680‒700	1360‒1400	550	1100	275	550
Tower (Tier 3)	125	250	62.5	125	150‒130	300‒260	775‒795	1550‒1590	625	1250	312.5	625
Tower (Tier 4)	145	290	72.5	145	170‒130	340‒260	895‒915	1790‒1830	725	1450	362.5	725
Ranged Barracks	90	180	90	180	90‒135	180‒270	540‒585	1080‒1170	450	900	450	900
Melee Barracks	155	310	155	310	90‒135	180‒270	865‒910	1730‒1820	775	1550	775	1550
Effigy Building	-	-	-	-	68	136	-	-	-	-	-	-

Lane creeps

The bounty for regular lane creeps increases by 1 gold every 7 minutes 30 seconds, while the bounty for super creeps increases by 1.5 .

In Turbo Mode, the bounty for regular lane creeps increases by 3 gold every 2 minutes 30 seconds, while the bounty for super creeps increases by 4.5 .

Lane Creeps

Unit Starting Bounty Turbo Mode Siege Creep Siege Creep 59‒72 118‒144 Lycan Lane Wolf Lycan Lane Wolf 15 30 Super Melee Creep Super Melee Creep 20‒26 40‒52 Mega Melee Creep Mega Melee Creep 20‒26 40‒52 Super Ranged Creep Super Ranged Creep 19‒25 38‒50 Mega Ranged Creep Mega Ranged Creep 19‒25 38‒50 Super Siege Creep Super Siege Creep 59‒72 118‒144 Mega Siege Creep Mega Siege Creep 59‒72 118‒144 Flagbearer Creep Flagbearer Creep 34‒39 68‒78 Super Flagbearer Creep Super Flagbearer Creep 20‒26 40‒52 Mega Flagbearer Creep Mega Flagbearer Creep 20‒26 40‒52 Melee Creep Melee Creep 34‒39 68‒78 Ranged Creep Ranged Creep 43‒52 86‒104

Neutral creeps

Main Article: Neutral creeps

When stacking neutral creeps, the stacking player gains gold equal to 30% of whatever the allied player farming the stacked camp gets.

Neutral Creeps

Unit Bounty Stack Value Turbo Mode Turbo Mode Stack Value Ghost Ghost 25‒27 50‒54 Warpine Raider Warpine Raider 50‒52 100‒104 Tormentor Tormentor 0 0 Ancient Frostbitten Golem Ancient Frostbitten Golem 39‒45 78‒90 Ancient Ice Shaman Ancient Ice Shaman 78‒82 156‒164 Pollywog Pollywog 17‒19 34‒38 Boglet Boglet 25‒29 50‒58 Croaker Croaker 37‒41 74‒82 Ancient Croaker Ancient Croaker 53‒56 106‒112 Marshmage Apprentice Marshmage Apprentice 25‒29 50‒58 Marshmage Marshmage 37‒41 74‒82 Ancient Marshmage Ancient Marshmage 53‒56 106‒112 Kobold Kobold 5‒7 10‒14 Kobold Soldier Kobold Soldier 14‒16 28‒32 Kobold Foreman Kobold Foreman 21‒23 42‒46 Hill Troll Berserker Hill Troll Berserker 19‒21 38‒42 Hill Troll Priest Hill Troll Priest 20‒22 40‒44 Vhoul Assassin Vhoul Assassin 18‒20 36‒40 Fell Spirit Fell Spirit 14‒15 28‒30 Harpy Scout Harpy Scout 16‒18 32‒36 Harpy Stormcrafter Harpy Stormcrafter 27‒29 54‒58 Centaur Courser Centaur Courser 18‒20 36‒40 Centaur Conqueror Centaur Conqueror 56‒62 112‒124 Giant Wolf Giant Wolf 20‒24 40‒48 Alpha Wolf Alpha Wolf 34‒36 68‒72 Satyr Banisher Satyr Banisher 14‒16 28‒32 Satyr Mindstealer Satyr Mindstealer 22‒26 44‒52 Ogre Bruiser Ogre Bruiser 24‒28 48‒56 Ogre Frostmage Ogre Frostmage 30‒34 60‒68 Mud Golem Mud Golem 24‒26 48‒52 Satyr Tormenter Satyr Tormenter 62‒68 124‒136 Hellbear Hellbear 32‒40 64‒80 Hellbear Smasher Hellbear Smasher 64‒68 128‒136 Wildwing Wildwing 18‒20 36‒40 Wildwing Ripper Wildwing Ripper 60‒66 120‒132 Hill Troll Hill Troll 20‒24 40‒48 Dark Troll Summoner Dark Troll Summoner 42‒48 84‒96 Skeleton Warrior Skeleton Warrior 4‒6 8‒12 Ancient Black Drake Ancient Black Drake 39‒45 78‒90 Ancient Black Dragon Ancient Black Dragon 78‒82 156‒164 Ancient Rock Golem Ancient Rock Golem 39‒45 78‒90 Ancient Granite Golem Ancient Granite Golem 78‒82 156‒164 Ancient Rumblehide Ancient Rumblehide 39‒45 78‒90 Ancient Thunderhide Ancient Thunderhide 78‒82 156‒164 Shard Golem Shard Golem1 8‒12 16‒24 Ancient Prowler Acolyte Ancient Prowler Acolyte 37‒43 74‒86 Ancient Prowler Shaman Ancient Prowler Shaman 76‒80 152‒160 Roshan 200‒290 + 135 - 400‒580 + 270 -

¹ Shard Golems do not provide the stacking player any gold, since they have other spawning conditions and are therefore not counted as part of the Mud Golem camp.

Summons

Main Article: Summons

Summonned units have static bounties that never change.

Summoned units
Unit Bounty Turbo Mode Tempest Double Tempest Double1 180/240/300 -

^{1 Since the Tempest Double is a hero clone, its bounty is not affected by Turbo Mode.}

Wards

Wards have static bounties that never change.

Wards

Unit Bounty Turbo Mode Observer Ward Observer Ward 100 + /min 200 + /min Proximity Mine Proximity Mine 15 30 Ice Spire Ice Spire 20 40 Phoenix Sun Phoenix Sun 20 40 Sticky Bomb Sticky Bomb 10 20 Power Cog Power Cog 16‒20 32‒40 Jex Jex 150 300 Skeleton Archer Skeleton Archer 20 40 Roshan's Banner Roshan's Banner 200 400 Massive Serpent Ward Massive Serpent Ward 220‒300 440‒600 Anchor Anchor 50 100 Tombstone Tombstone 125/150/175/200 250/300/350/400 Beetle Beetle 32‒34 64‒68 Plague Ward Plague Ward 15/17/19/21 30/34/38/42 Nimbus Nimbus 125 250 Nether Ward Nether Ward 20/40/60/80 40/80/120/160 Psionic Trap Psionic Trap 25 50 Healing Ward Healing Ward 75 150 Serpent Ward Serpent Ward 22‒30 44‒60 Homing Missile Homing Missile 50 100 Phantom Phantom 10 20 Ignis Fatuus Ignis Fatuus 100 200

Couriers

Courier

25 + 6 per hero level to each player on the killing team Couriers cannot be killed in Turbo Mode

Selling

Main Article: Item selling

Items can be sold while their carrier is in the range of any shop for 50% of the price they were bought for. They can only be sold by units controlled by the item's owner, unless the item is completely shareable, which makes it sellable by any member of the owner's team, granting them gold instead.

Spending and losing gold

Drafting phase

During the drafting phase in All Pick and Ranked All Pick, the player loses 2 gold per second if they have not picked a hero after the selection timer runs out.

Items

The main purpose of gold is to purchase items. The player with the most gold is able to buy the most powerful items, and therefore has a very strong hero. The items each player buys depend on their role in the team and many other factors.

TODO: Send people to another page with all items.

• Divine Rapier and Gem of True Sight cannot be sold.
• Cheese cannot be purchased, but can be sold for 500 gold.
• Refresher Shard cannot be purchased, but can be sold for 500 gold.

Death

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

BuybackCost = ⌊ ( 200 + NetWorth / 13 ) ⌋

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:

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

Due to the high cooldown, high gold cost, and heavy penalties, using buyback should be a thoroughly thought-through action, as it can backfire and cause more harm than good. Scenarios, where a buyback may be a good idea, are when a crucial team fight starts while one is dead, in order to join the fight. Another crucial moment is when the base needs defending, or when having died during a team fight which your team still won and is going for a final push. Buyback should generally not be used to skip death timing to farm, as the gold cost is usually too big to make it ever worth it. Also, the death time penalty gets added on the next death. Especially on high levels, an early or ill-fated buyback can easily lead to a very long respawn time on the next death.

Buyback cost with certain networth values

NetWorthNW	Buyback Cost
1k	276
2k	353
3k	430
4k	507
5k	584
6k	661
7k	738
8k	815
9k	892
10k	969
11k	1046
12k	1123
13k	1200
14k	1276
15k	1353
16k	1430
17k	1507
18k	1584
19k	1661
20k	1738
21k	1815
22k	1892
23k	1969
24k	2046
25k	2123
26k	2200
27k	2276
28k	2353
29k	2430
30k	2507

Abandoning the game

After being disconnected from the game for more than 5 minutes, all of the player's gold is equally distributed between the remaining players on their team. This distribution continues every second, so that any gold they gain afterwards gets distributed as well. This distributing stops when the player reconnects, but the gold that got distributed is not reimbursed.

Recent Changes

Main Article: Gold/Changelogs

Version

Description

7.33
(2023-04-20)

• Reworked Gold Assist formula.
  • Old Formula: (30 + (VictimNetworth * 0.038) ) / NumHeroes.
  • New Formula: 10 + ((50 + (VictimNetworth * 0.037) / NumHeroes).

7.31
(2022-02-23)

• Increased hero kill bounty from 120 + (KilledHeroLevel × 8) + KillStreakValue to 125 + (KilledHeroLevel × 8) + KillStreakValue .
• Rescaled kill streak gold bonus from 100/135/170/205/240/275/310/345 to 60/100/150/210/280/360/450/550. [?]
• Kill gold information now shows a breakdown of gold bounty for the killer plus proximity gold.

7.29d
(2021-05-24)

• Fixed buyback not being usable if the hero is disabled while dead (e.g. during Toss or Winter's Curse , which are not dispelled by death). [?]

Gallery

• 

  Unused Buyback gold penalty icon

• 

  Buyback placeholder icon