With the advent of Dota 2 Patch 7.38, I’m sure I’m not the only one kind of confused about the reworked neutral items system. Where once you were able to just pick and choose using tokens dropped by neutral creeps, Patch 7.38 has changed everything; you now have to craft neutral items from a reagent called Madstone.
Madstone is likewise dropped by neutral creeps, but its existence alone makes the new system a bit more involved than the previous one. If you need the new system demystified, I’ve got you covered!
Gathering Madstone
As I mentioned, crafting neutral items under this new system starts with gathering Madstone. Collecting it is simple: fully clear a neutral creep camp, and the Madstone is deposited into a dedicated storage slot in your inventory — located above the neutral item slot on the interface. When you fill up on the necessary Madstone for each neutral item tier (which unlock at 5:00, 15:00, 25:00, 35:00, and 60:00), you can craft your neutral item of choice at any time.
To do so, click on the glowing hammer icon that used to be the Madstone quantity indicator, then select your neutral item.
Tier 1 in patch 7.38 only requires five Madstone in total, while tiers 2 through 5 require 10 each. Not every neutral creep camp gives the same amount of Madstone. Most non-Ancient camps give three pieces (two for you and one to a random teammate), so it does takes some time to get the necessary amount depending on what tier you’re at.
Artifacts and Enchantments
If you play Magic: the Gathering or Magic Arena, I know you did a double take just now. No, they’re not quite the same in Dota 2 as what you’d find in Magic, but I thought was funny. Anyway, Artifacts are what we’re all familiar with at this point: they’re what the standalone neutral items used to be.
Like in the previous system, the items available for crafting at each tier are determined at random. For example, in the pool of nine tier 1 Artifacts, only a randomly selected five will be available in any given Dota 2 game.
Artifacts
Artifacts determine the unique ability of each neutral item. For example, Pig Pole has an active ability that hexes the wielder for four seconds, giving them 15 percent bonus movement speed throughout. So basically these are the “base” items you’ll be crafting with.
Enchantments
Now, Enchantments simply add attribute bonuses or passive effects to Artifacts, and will always combine with Artifacts when crafting neutral items without exception. Once you gather enough Madstone to craft a neutral item, you are given a list of five Enchantments to choose from to slap onto your Artifact of choice.
Enchantments also adhere to the tiering system, with the more powerful ones locked behind the in-game timer.
Interestingly, it’s possible to keep Artifacts crafted from a previous tier, and apply higher tier Enchantments to them. This upgrades the item’s tier to the next one, but it does not improve the Artifact’s existing abilities whatsoever. So, I don’t recommend holding onto your Occult Bracelet for the entirety of the game, for example, just because it gives you mana regen. There’ll be better Artifacts and Enchantments to play with in that regard later on in the game.
Oh, and remember when I mentioned that tier 1 gives you five Artifact choices? Well, later tiers will only show you four in addition to your existing one, in line with the ability to keep old neutral items.
Other Details
And that’s it really. It’s pretty simple once you get a feel for it, but it can be tricky to figure out at first. I think the only other noteworthy things here are that you can no longer drop neutral items or teleport them to the neutral stash (which has been removed from the game), and that crafting new neutral items automatically replaces whatever you already have.
There’s also the fact that you can recraft tier 5 neutral items, though the Madstone cost does scale by 10 each time you do. This gives players flexibility in ultra late game situations, but it gets more expensive the more you juggle tier 5 items around.
