Undying
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Version Control
This article is mostly accurate for the latest version of the game (7.38), in which this hero/item was changed.
It has no changes in the current game version — 7.38b.
Undying
22 + 2.4
10 + 1.2
27 + 2.8
| Grants the following bonuses per level: | |
| +52.8HP and +0.24HP regeneration +2.4 Main Attack Damage | |
| +0.2 armor and 1.2 attack speed | |
| +33.6MP and +0.14MP regeneration +0.1% base magic resistance | |
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Instant Projectile Speed
| ||
100 (110)
(1.7 BAT) | ||
0.3 + 0.3
| ||
0.6
| ||
Goo
Gib Type | ||
2012-07-05
Released | ||
2007-06-10
(v6.44) | ||
Competitive Span
2012-07-12 — Present |
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| Summons hordes of zombies to attack his foes. | |
|---|---|
| Consumed by the chorus of the unending, Dirge, the Undying one marches across the land, rallying the dead to rise against the living. He Saps the Strength from his enemies, and Rip Souls from close-by beings, searing enemies while infusing allies with health. Atop the battlefield, he erects a terrible Tombstone, calling forth legions of clawing zombies to maim and incapacitate his foes. The Undying's powers grow as he ultimately transforms into a gruesome Flesh Golem. Monstrous and truly horrifying, Undying finds great pleasure in keeping himself alive and vital, while his adversaries suffer as he delivers death to the field. | |
| Roles: | |
| Adjectives | BadTeeth, Green, Undead, Nose Legs ( 2 ) |
Facets[edit]
Rotting Mitts
The Flesh Golem additionally summons a short-lived Undying Zombie of its corresponding level per successful attack.
Ripped
Casting Soul Rip on allied heroes temporarily grants them bonus 
strength based on Undying's current strength .
Upgrades[edit]
Aghanim's[edit]
Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:
Increases the strength steal.
Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:
Tombstone can now be cast on allied heroes, entombing them temporarily in the process. An empty Tombstone can be right-clicked by Undying or his allies to enter it manually. The entombed ally can neither leave nor re-enter the Tombstone for a short duration.
Stuns the allied hero if the Tombstone is destroyed with the ally inside.
Stuns the allied hero if the Tombstone is destroyed with the ally inside.
Talents[edit]
| +6 Tombstone Hit Count | 25 | +50% Flesh Golem |
|---|---|---|
| -2s Decay Cooldown | 20 | Tombstone On Death |
| +10 Soul Rip Damage/Heal | 15 | +20 Zombie Base Attack Damage |
| -15s Tombstone Cooldown | 10 | +40 Decay Damage |
| ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ +2 All | ||
Bio[edit]
Where go the living, the dead soon follow.▶️Undying, the Almighty Dirge
Alias:
Dirge
Lore:
How long has it been since he lost his name? The torn ruin of his mind no longer knows.
Dimly he recalls armor and banners and grim-faced kin riding at his side. He remembers a battle: pain and fear as pale hands ripped him from his saddle. He remembers terror as they threw him into the yawning pit of the Dead God alongside his brothers, to hear the Dirge and be consumed into nothingness. In the darkness below, time left them. Thought left them. Sanity left them. Hunger, however, did not. They turned on each other with split fingernails and shattered teeth. Then it came: distant at first, a fragile note at the edge of perception, joined by another, then another, inescapable and unending. The chorus grew into a living wall of sound pulsing in his mind until no other thought survived. With the Dirge consuming him, he opened his arms to the Dead God and welcomed his obliteration. Yet destruction was not what he'd been chosen for. The Dead God demanded war. In the belly of the great nothing, he was granted a new purpose: to spread the Dirge across the land, to rally the sleepless dead against the living. He was to become the Undying, the herald of the Dead God, to rise and fall and rise again whenever his body failed him. To trudge on through death unending, that the Dirge might never end.
Dimly he recalls armor and banners and grim-faced kin riding at his side. He remembers a battle: pain and fear as pale hands ripped him from his saddle. He remembers terror as they threw him into the yawning pit of the Dead God alongside his brothers, to hear the Dirge and be consumed into nothingness. In the darkness below, time left them. Thought left them. Sanity left them. Hunger, however, did not. They turned on each other with split fingernails and shattered teeth. Then it came: distant at first, a fragile note at the edge of perception, joined by another, then another, inescapable and unending. The chorus grew into a living wall of sound pulsing in his mind until no other thought survived. With the Dirge consuming him, he opened his arms to the Dead God and welcomed his obliteration. Yet destruction was not what he'd been chosen for. The Dead God demanded war. In the belly of the great nothing, he was granted a new purpose: to spread the Dirge across the land, to rally the sleepless dead against the living. He was to become the Undying, the herald of the Dead God, to rise and fall and rise again whenever his body failed him. To trudge on through death unending, that the Dirge might never end.
Voice:
Innate[edit]
Ceaseless Dirge[edit]
Ceaseless Dirge 
Passive
Affects
Self
Instantly respawns in the fountain upon Undying's death after the effect delay.
Effect Delay: 2
Flesh Golem being dispelled upon death is innate to certain hero models.
480
Hero Model[edit]
Hero Model
Passive
Affects
Self
Transforming back from the Flesh Golem to the Dirge upon death is innate for the Dirge.
- Flesh Golem
death dispels for the following hero models:
- Rubick
- Undying
- DRAFTNOESFlesh Golem notes of being dispelled upon
death apply.
Abilities[edit]
Decay[edit]
Undying reduces strength from all enemy heroes in an area and deals damage within the radius.
The strength loss do not reduce the affected enemy heroes' strength below 0.
The
Cast Animation: 0.3 + 0
Cast Range: 
650
Radius: 
325
Damage: 20/60/100/140 (
60/100/140/180)
Strength Loss: 
4 (
8)
Debuff Duration: 35
Grants self strength bonus per affected enemy hero.
Strength Gain: 4 ( 8)
Buff Duration: 35
Decay is more effective on creeps.
Creep Damage Factor: 2
13/10/7/4 (
11/8/5/2)
100
The strength of the living is simply borrowed from the strength of the dead.
- The ability effects are applied as follows:
- Enemy
- The
magical
spell damage.
- Grants Undying the bonus
- Enemy
- The
- LEVEL 1applies a 0-damage instance to affected enemy units in the combat log.
- Considers
clones and
illusions as heroes,
creep-heroes as creeps.
- All ability effects are applied immediately regardless of the ability visual effects.
- Both the
buff on Undying and the
debuff on the affected enemy units are independent of each other, and have no stack limit.
- The
decay_debuff_counteron both Undying and the affected target displays the amount of - Cannot reduce the affected enemy hero's
- Grants Undying the full amount of
- The
- For clones, Decay steals
- Arc Warden and
The Double.
- The Meepo Prime and Meepo Clones.
- Arc Warden and
- The
- The
- Reduces both current and max
health by 88 (
- Neither keeps the
- Neither keeps the
- Undying gains the same amount of current and max health, and does not keep the
- The following components are not copied by Undying's
- The
- The
model size increase.
- The
Decay: Stealing x strength.
Hidden modifier
Decay: Losing x strength.
Hidden modifier
- If any of the affected units'
- Undying does not keep the
- This example does not account for
health regeneration bonuses.
- Undying has a Current/Max health of 620/1020 with one Decay
- Without any items, his Current/Max health will be increased to 708/1108.
- With Vitality Booster equipped after
- Decay's health increase does not utilize the
heal mechanic, and does not interact with the following mechanics:
- Restoration manipulation sources.
- Health freeze sources, except False Promise.
- This example does not account for
- Increases Undying's
decay_debuff_countercollision size.
Soul Rip[edit]
Undying rips health away from all nearby units and uses it to heal an ally, or damage an enemy.
Cast Animation: 0.3 + 0
Cast Range: 750
Search Radius: 1300
Max Units: 10
Damage per Unit: 15/25/35/45 (
25/35/45/55)
Heal per Unit: 15/25/35/45 ( 25/35/45/55)
Soul Rip can also be used to restore a set amount of health for the Tombstone regardless of the amount of affected units within the search radius.
Health Restore: 4/8/12/16
18/14/10/6
80/90/100/110
Even allies feel despair in Undying's presence.
Ripped
Casting Soul Rip on allied heroes temporarily grants them bonus strength based on Undying's current strength.
Str Factor: 0.1
Duration: 10
Duration: 10
- The ability has the following properties:
- The search radius is centered on Undying while targeting other units.
Doubletap casts the ability on Undying.
- Casting the ability on an enemy Tombstone provides no gameplay benefit — Soul Rip neither damages nor restores it.
- Restores the set amount of health on the affected allied Tombstone regardless of affected units within the search radius.
- Cannot be cast on the following units:
- Undying Zombie.
- Other
ward-type units.
- The search radius is centered on Undying while targeting other units.
- Units within the search radius are selected randomly, then Soul Rip sets their health to 15/25/35/45 (
- The health cost is not lethal, affected units will always have at least 1
- The
- If there are no valid units within the search radius, Soul Rip does nothing.
- The health cost is not lethal, affected units will always have at least 1
- Soul Rip considers the following units within the search radius:
- Undying.
- Allied
Couriers.
Spell immune allied units.
Untargetable allied units.
- Undying Zombies.
- Units with hit counts and Familiars do not lose health when they are considered by Soul Rip.
- However, it does not consider the following units within the search radius:
- The targeted unit.
- Enemy
Buildings
Invisible units.
Fogged units.
-
Ripped has the following properties:
- Does not grant Undying
- Considers
- Reapplying the
- Grants
- EXPR
BonusStr = UndyingCurrentStrUponCast × 0.1
- Does not grant Undying
- Does not affect
- The ability is
blocked upon cast.
- However, units within the search radius still loses health.
- Requires 12 units, including Undying and the targeted unit, within the search radius to reach the max damage and
- Can damage or
- Can damage or
- The
facet additionally grants the affected ally the following bonuses:
- A 15%
- The affected ally has a green hue for the
- A 15%
Tombstone[edit]
Point / Unit / Passive
Affects
Enemy Units / Allied Heroes
Summons a Tombstone at the targeted point. Zombies will frequently spawn next to every enemy unit in the area around the Tombstone, and attack them.
Cast Animation: 0.6 + 0
Cast Range: 500
Zombie Spawn Radius: 1200
Zombie Spawn Interval: 4/3.6/3.2/2.8
Hit Count: 5/6/7/8 (
11/12/13/14)
Tombstone Duration: 30
Creeps' attacks are less effective on the Tombstone.
Creep Attacks to Destroy: 20/24/28/32 ( 44/48/52/56)
The zombies are uncontrollable, do not have a mind of its own and seek to maim enemy units within a distance. They are frightening, but surprisingly fragile.
Zombie Hit Count: 1
Other Units Hit Count: 2
Aghanim's Shard Upgrade
Tombstone can now be cast on allied heroes, entombing them temporarily in the process. An empty Tombstone can be right-clicked by Undying or his allies to enter it manually. The entombed ally can neither leave nor re-enter the Tombstone for a short duration.
Stuns the allied hero if the Tombstone is destroyed with the ally inside.
Tombstone can now be cast on allied heroes, entombing them temporarily in the process. An empty Tombstone can be right-clicked by Undying or his allies to enter it manually. The entombed ally can neither leave nor re-enter the Tombstone for a short duration.
Stuns the allied hero if the Tombstone is destroyed with the ally inside.
Gather Radius: (
350)
Max Ally Hero: ( 1)
Ally Entomb Duration: ( 2)
Entomb Downtime: ( 2)
Destroy Stun Duration: ( 2)
Passively erects an independent Tombstone of the corresponding level upon Undying's death, including Reincarnation sources.
Number of Tombstones: 1
Duration: 30
80 (
65)
120/140/160/180
Dirge calls on his fallen brothers to fight for the Dead God.
5/6/7/8
-
When the associated Tombstone expires or is destroyed, all its zombies are instantly killed.
Undying may only have up to 64 zombies at any given time, no matter how many Tombstones are erected.
Undying may only have up to 64 zombies at any given time, no matter how many Tombstones are erected.
-
-
-
Lvl
4
5
33%
900
This unit does not attack.
0
125/150/175/200 (x̄)
Soul Rip can also be used to restore a set amount of health for the Tombstone regardless of the amount of affected units within the search radius.
Health Restore: 4/8/12/16
Decrepify can target and affect the ally Tombstone.
This unit does not feel the effects from magical spell damage sources.
- The Tombstone has the following properties:
Trees within 300-radius are destroyed centered around the unit.
- Faces the same direction as Undying.
- Creates Undying Zombies immediately within the radius, over 8/9/10/11 summon instances.
- Considers attacks from
Roshan,
-
- The passive cast upon death
talent has the following properties:
- Works independently of Tombstone's
cooldown, lasts for its full duration, and does not cost
mana.
- Does not proc on-cast effects.
- Procs on
reincarnation sources.
- Works independently of Tombstone's
- The attacks to destroy increasing
- The passive cast upon death
- Enables casting Tombstone casting on allied heroes.
- Disable Help on Undying prevents Tombstone from bunkering the allied unit.
- Tombstone now has the following properties:
- Can bunker 1 allied unit per Tombstone at a time.
- An ally can right-click on an already bunkered Tombstone, bunkering itself in the process, then the previous unit will be ejected from the Tombstone.
- As long as the unit has the
undying_tombstone_cooldown - If the Tombstone is destroyed or is
denied, the bunkered unit is stunned.
- The
- Affects the following allied units:
- The following sources if the source itself does not disable movement:
Hidden sources.
Invulnerable sources.
- Grants the following bonuses on the affected allied unit upon cast:
- The bunkered unit now cannot leave the Tombstone for the next 2 seconds, unless it is forcefully ejected from it.
- After the entomb downtime, the bunkered allied unit can leave the Tombstone with Mmovement commands.
Undying Zombie (Summoned Creep)
2
-
The Undying Zombies are spell immune and their attacks slow the affected enemy unit.
0
33%
0
0 (x̄)
Learning the talent immediately update all current Zombies!
Base Attack Damage Bonus: (
20)
If the attacked unit's health goes below the threshold, the zombie receives enhanced movement and attack speed.
This unit does not feel the effects from magical spell damage sources.
- The Undying Zombies and their set target have the following interactions:
- The Tombstone summons a Zombie correspondingly per set target
- The corresponding Zombie dies after 0.1 seconds when its set target becomes
Instant kills the corresponding Zombie upon the set target's
- For forced killed sources, the corresponding Zombie stands still at its current location until the Tombstone expires.
- The corresponding Zombie continues chasing its set target when the set target is affected by the following sources:
Ethereal sources.
- The Undying Zombie considers attacks from
- Spawns Undying Zombie for
stun duration on
-
Hidden modifier
Spell Immune
Hidden modifier
Hidden modifier
Deathlust Slow: Undying Zombie attacks slow their target.
Hidden modifier
Inside of a Tombstone. Invulnerable, but unable to act.
Tombstone Bunker: Cannot leave or enter a Tombstone.
Tombstone Bunker: Cannot leave or enter a Tombstone.
Stunned
- COSMETICThe [[File:{{{3}}} Pale Mausoleum icon.png|21px|link=Pale Mausoleum]] Pale Mausoleum and [[File:{{{3}}} Golden Pale Mausoleum icon.png|21px|link=Golden Pale Mausoleum]] Golden Pale Mausoleum summons two types of Undying Zombies, either a crawling zombie or a walking zombie.
- The zombie types are only for cosmetic purposes and have no gameplay impact.
Flesh Golem[edit]
No
Affects
Enemy Units / Self
Undying transforms into a horrifying flesh golem that grants a percentage strength increase with flat bonus movement speed.
Cast Animation: 
0 + 0
Str Bonus Factor: 1.4/1.5/1.6 (
1.9/2/2.1)
Move Speed Bonus: 20/30/40
Flesh Golem Duration: 40
The Flesh Golem imbues Undying's attacks with a movement speed slow and damage amplification on affected enemy units.
Enemy Move Speed Slow: 30%/35%/40%
Enemy Damage Amp: 
25%/30%/35%
Debuff Duration: 3
125
100/125/150
The flesh of the recently dead add to the power of Dirge's plague.
Rotting Mitts
The Flesh Golem additionally summons a short-lived Undying Zombie of its corresponding level per successful attack.
Zombie per Attack: 1
Zombie Duration: 15
Zombie Duration: 15
- The
transformation is instantaneous and does not persist
- Grants the following bonuses upon cast:
- Checks and increases Undying's total
server tick.
- Attacks now apply a generic
- Stacks additively with other generic incoming damage manipulation sources.
- The
HP Removal sources.
- Checks and increases Undying's total
- Recasting Flesh Golem refreshes the duration and adapts the ability values correspondingly.
- Reapplying the
-
Instant attack sources that cannot utilize
attack modifiers do not create Undying Zombies per attack.
- Does not affect the following units:
- Tombstone notes apply.
- For allied units, the summoned Undying Zombie do not attack the ally.
- It instead stands on the summoned location, then attack valid enemy units within its
attack range.
- It instead stands on the summoned location, then attack valid enemy units within its
- Undying's
- The ability duration
- The ability duration
Flesh Golem: Strength increased by x%. Attacks slow enemies and deal bonus damage over time.
Flesh Golem Plague: Movement slowed by x% and receiving increased damage from all sources.
- Grants the following bonuses while active:
- Has a
movement speed of to 320/330/340.
- Uses a different hero model, has no impact on its
- Has a
- The ability effects are applied as follows:
Creates a Rotting Mitts Undying Zombie per successful attack.
- The
- Undying's attack instance.
Recent Matches[edit]
Main Article: Undying/Matches
| Date | Tier | Tournament | Picks | Score | vs. Picks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 17, 2025 - 17:25 PET | Tier 3 | EPL World AM S15 | 0 : 1 | |||||
| Mar 12, 2025 - 14:50 EET | Tier 1 | PGL Wallachia S3 | 1 : 0 | |||||
| Mar 10, 2025 - 12:30 EET | Tier 1 | PGL Wallachia S3 | 0 : 1 | |||||
| Mar 10, 2025 - 10:00 EET | Tier 1 | PGL Wallachia S3 | 1 : 0 | |||||
| Mar 09, 2025 - 10:00 EET | Tier 1 | PGL Wallachia S3 | 0 : 1 |
Recent Changes[edit]
Description
- Increased Decay damage from 10/50/90/130 to 20/60/100/140.
- Rescaled Soul Rip mana cost from 100 on each level to 80/90/100/110.
- Reduced Flesh Golem enemy movement speed slow from 35%/40%/45% to 30%/35%/40%.
- Ceaseless Dirge is no longer affected by cooldown reset sources.
- Rescaled Tombstone cooldown from 90/85/80/75 to 80 on each level.
- Reduced Flesh Golem enemy movement speed slow from 40%/45%/50% to 35%/40%/45%.
Talents:
- LVL 25 +60% Flesh Golem
- LVL 25 +60% Flesh Golem
Dota Plus Progress[edit]
Main Article: Hero Challenges
Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.
| Undying's Relics | Voice Lines | |
|---|---|---|
Bronze |
||
Silver |
||
Gold |
||
Platinum |
| |
Master |
| |
Grandmaster |
| |
Equipment[edit]
| Sets | |
|---|---|
| Arms | |
| Tombstone | |
| Taunt | |
Trivia[edit]
- In DotA, Undying's title and name are inversed, with Dirge being the name, and Undying being the title.
- Undying was originally an intelligence hero. He became a Strength hero as he got reworked in the 6.58 gameplay patch. All his abilities, except Soul Rip got reworked. His old abilities are explained here.
- Undying makes several references to the "Left 4 Dead" series, saying names of special infected, campaign names, and even the title itself in his dialogue.
- One notable reference is Undying's line, ▶️ "No dead are safe from Blueheart Bob."; this phrase is highly similar to the famous "Left 4 Dead" "Chicago Ted" graffiti line ("No zombie is safe from Chicago Ted").
- Undying refers to Bounty Hunter as a Hunter due to the Hunter in "Left 4 Dead" being able to ambush players, just like how Bounty Hunter can.
- Spirit Breaker is referred to as a Charger due to the Charger sprinting at other players and repeatedly stunning them, just like how Spirit Breaker can.
- Venomancer is referred to as a Spitter for its ability to spit acid at players, similar to Venomancer himself.
- Alchemist is referred to as a Jockey as the Jockey climbs on players and steers them, similar to how the Alchemist himself steers his Ogre.
- Undying also references the "Half Life" series in a rival line towards Tinker (▶️ "For Lamarr."). Dr. Kleiner, who shares his voice actor with Tinker, has a pet headcrab named Lamarr. Headcrabs are small, parasitic creatures that attach themselves to the head of their victims, after which the victims turn into zombies.
- Undying's taunt against Kunkka ▶️ "Where is your ex-parrot?" is a reference to the famous Parrot Sketch from "Monty Python's Flying Circus".
- Undying's taunt against Invoker ▶️ "Carl? Is that you?" is a reference to the 6.72's leaked changelog (which turned out to be a fake), where Invoker's name "Kael" was mistakenly translated into "Carl".
- A dirge is a sombre song of mourning or grieving, typically performed at a funeral.
- ▶️ "Shop smart." is a reference to the "Army of Darkness" movie.
- The icon of Tombstone's ability, Grab Ally, is a recolored, flipped, and rotated version of Storm Hammer's icon.
- Warcraft 3 similarities:
- Undying's hero concept is originally inspired by the Zombies and the Flesh Golems, which are campaign-only Undead units.
- In DotA, Undying uses the default "Zombie" model. This model is very small by default, and has been scaled up a lot. Due to the way how Warcraft 3's particle system worked, this also scaled up particle effects attached to Undying by a lot, resulting in ridiculously large particle effects.
- His Flesh Golem form used the "Flesh Golem" model, which was very large by default, and has been scaled down, resulting in particle effects being smaller than usual on it.
- Tombstone's core concept is based on the Tinker's Pocket Factory, both of which are structures that periodically create units.
- Undying's hero concept is originally inspired by the Zombies and the Flesh Golems, which are campaign-only Undead units.
Gallery[edit]
Splash artwork
Concept art
Concept art
Ability icon progress
Low Violence model
Low Violence model
Bone Harvest sprite - alive
Bone Harvest sprite - dead