Dota 2 Crownfall is Here!

The long awaited Dota 2 Crownfall patch has finally dropped. After being delayed long enough for TeaGuv to spend 33 hours farming mangoes in his waiting room, the patch has arrived. With the ESL One Birmingham Major just around the corner, the timing is actually kind of perfect.

What’s new in Dota 2 Crownfall?

Lore Dump

The four part in game event includes huge lore dump comic to set the scene. The story centers around Skywrath Mage and Vengeful Spirit partnering up with winged god Scree’auk to take down her Venge’s sister, Imperia.

Little is known about Imperia. She’s certainly not Akasha, the Queen of Pain as some assumed before the patch dropped. Perhaps she’ll become a new hero, much in the way Primal Beast was added to the game after being introduced as the final boss in Aghanim’s Labyrinth.

Stage two of Crownfall isn’t due to be released until May. With 2 more parts to come after that, we’re in it for the long haul with Crownfall!

Cavern crawl is back

One of the reasons fans were unhappy to hear of Dota 2 abandoning traditional battle passes was cavern crawl. It was a great way to learn new heroes and grind out battle pass levels. But it seems all hope is not lost.

Stage one of the Dota 2 Crownfall patch is a huge cavern crawl. It’s set to a completely different art style with different paths for those who purchase the upgrade. But the bones are the same.

To proceed through each stage, you’ll need to win games as certain heroes to earn Nuker tokens. These tokens “nuke” obstacles in the path and allow you to pass to the next step. Some heroes come with 1 token per stage, others come with 2.

Dota 2 arcanas and treasures

It probably goes without saying at this point that Skywrath Mage and Vengeful Spirit are the 2 heroes receiving arcanas in this updates. There are two changes here that fans of the old battle pass system will likely welcome.

First of all, the arcanas each come with alternate styles. Venge has 3 styles but Skywrath only has 2. Only one of each is available for now but more will unlock upon completing the main quests at later stages of the patch.

Second of all, and probably more excitingly, both arcanas are free to purchase right now for the standard arcana price of $35 USD (£27 GBP). Gone are the days of grinding out hundreds of levels of a battle pass to receive the arcana before it’s gone forever. Perhaps it makes them a little less special. Perhaps it does something to make Dota a little more accessible to the average player. Really, I’m pretty in favor.

As well as arcanas, there are also treasures. Both sets of treasures can be purchased for $2.50 for one or $20 for 9. The skins are all themed on the story of Crownfall with a feathery theme.

Absolutely no one is surprised to see yet another skin for Crystal Maiden on this list but there are a fair few heroes who don’t usually receive skins too:

Bloodseeker	Jakiro	Lina
Disruptor	Nature’s Prophet	Legion Commander
Queen of Pain	Shadow Shaman	Wraith King
Silencer	Meepo	Crystal Maiden
Puck	Skywrath Mage	Tinker
Pugna	Naga Siren	Omniknight
Keeper of the Light	Ancient Apparition	Hoodwink
Zeus	Drow Ranger	Ursa

Ringmaster When?

Many fans were hoping that Ringmaster would be dropped along with the Dota 2 Crownfall patch. This is because of a datamine back in February that found references to him in the code. Currently, there’s still no sign of the new Dota 2 hero. But with a four part event seemingly spread over a few months, there’s plenty of time for that.

We’ll have to wait a little longer for the Ringmaster release date but for the time being, Dota 2 in-game events are back!