What is this game?
Dota Captain is built for Captain's Mode drafting. You ban and pick heroes, choose how you want to play the match, then watch a simulated game play out.
Solo runs climb your captain rating (MMR) on the global ladder when you are signed in. PvP lobby (beta) is the same CM flow against a friend: sign in, share a room code, and draft on the same clock. PvP matches do not change MMR yet.
You are the captain. Your job is the draft and the big-picture plan, not last-hitting in lane.
Use this page for how drafting and strategy work. Use the Hero draft guide when you need details on a specific pick.
What to think about while drafting
When the timer is running, think in this order.
- Roles first. Carry, mid, offlane, soft support, hard support. A balanced lineup tends to play out better than stacking cores and skipping a support.
- Counters when you have them. If you know AM beats Medusa, take it. Hero counters lists named answers; otherwise draft on merit.
- Stop their plan. Snowball team? Ban their best early heroes. Scale team? Don't gift free late-game cores.
- Fit your plan. You will pick early or late, fight or split, and more after the draft. Choose heroes that match that idea.
- Hero tags last. Strong early, likes ganks, teamfighter, and so on. Helpful tie-breakers, not the main reason for a pick.
How counters work
You can counter the enemy at three levels: their plan, how they group, and specific heroes.
Named hero answers (AM into Medusa, ES into illusions, and similar) live on the Hero counters page.
- Their plan. Early kill lineup? Ban their starters. Split lineup? Draft heroes that force fights.
- How they group. Pressing, split, or turtling changes which events show up. Your plan can lean into or against that.
- Specific heroes. Listed on Hero counters and in draft coaching when available. Small edge in fights, bigger in ganks than full 5v5s.
How the AI opponent drafts
Solo drafts are against an AI captain. It uses the same Captain's Mode order as you.
Before the draft, the lottery may show a scout report with their game plan, draft priorities, and captain style. That brief is real. The AI drafts toward it from turn one.
The captain style tells you how they draft against you. Standard plays the brief. Counter-drafter shuts you down with bans and counter picks. Greedy grabs strong heroes even when a deny is open. Creative is harder to read and may skip obvious denies.
On each turn the AI picks and bans with that plan in mind. It reacts to your draft, uses Hero counters when they apply, and varies its choices so runs do not feel identical.
- Picks. Usually fills support and offlane before carry. Looks for heroes that fit its plan and answers your visible picks. Carry early is rare, not impossible.
- Bans. Targets roles you still need and picks that fit your draft shape. Protects its own lineup and often saves counter picks for its pick turns.
- Comfort heroes. With lobby match history, it may ban or steal your most-played heroes early. Counter-drafters target comfort picks more often. Greedy captains do it less often.
- Coaching hints. Deny and answer badges on the grid, plus the enemy brief sidebar, show what it is likely to do next. Treat them as reads, not certainties.
What the hero pages mean
Every hero has a page in the Hero draft guide with timing, fight style, and behavior tags.
Use them to see if a pick fits your plan. They shape match events; they are not a spell by spell breakdown of Dota.
- Power curve. Early, mid, and late strength, plus the spike window where the hero hits their stride.
- Fight identity. Primary fight archetype (teamfight, pickoff, siege, sustain, skirmish) plus secondary tags.
- Map and economy. Lane pressure, rotation tendency, farm reliance, and snowball sensitivity.
- Behavior bars. Gank, fight, split, and farm. Ganky drafts see more pickoffs; split drafts see more push plays.
- Sim events (Favors and Avoids). Event types the hero leans into or away from in the match engine.
- Archetype signals. Quick tags for the role shape the hero brings to your draft.
Hero draft guide: fight identity and sim events
Fight identity is not the same as Map Style in strategy phase. Map Style is the plan you lock in after the draft. Fight identity is baked into each hero.
Draft heroes whose identities fit together, then pick strategy choices that play to them. Browse every hero with these tags on the Hero draft guide. You can search by name, role, fight type, or event (like smoke play or tower).
Fight identity is what each hero is built to do in fights. It is not the same as Map Style, which is the plan you lock in after the draft. Each hero brings a fight identity with them. Draft picks that fit together, then choose a strategy that plays to their strengths.
Fight identity types
Teamfight
Built for coordinated five versus five fights at choke points and objectives.
Good pick when You plan to move as five. Map Style: Teamfight, Aggressive, or an early to mid tempo plan all suit this identity.
In the sim The sim scales full teamfights from your team's Fight behavior bars and Map Style: Teamfight. The tag marks heroes meant for those moments; high Fight on the card is what the engine reads.
Pickoff
Built for isolated kills through smokes, vision gaps, and burst on lone targets.
Good pick when You want Fight Structure: Gank heavy or Vision: Smokes and pickoffs. One pickoff hero is enough to unlock the pickoff bonus.
In the sim A pickoff hero on your team raises pickoff event weight and makes isolated kills more likely to succeed. Smokes chain into pickoffs. Gank heavy strategy and high Gank behavior bars help too.
Siege
Built to follow wins with structure damage, especially high ground.
Good pick when You want Win condition: Lane siege or Map Style: Split push with a siege core. Strongest when something else on the draft can win the setup fight.
In the sim Siege heroes boost high ground siege events. Tower pushes come from objective focus, recent fight wins, and your Objective behavior bars. Lane siege win condition raises that further.
Sustain
Built to outlast in longer fights rather than blow up in the first exchange.
Good pick when You want Late game tempo, Passive risk, or Map Style: Teamfight with a scaling lineup. Often a secondary tag on frontliners and healers.
In the sim Mostly a draft label today. It helps synergy when paired with teamfight picks. The sim still leans on Fight behavior, late game tempo, and your timing curve more than the sustain tag itself.
Skirmish
Built for small two versus two and three versus three trades in river, jungle, and lane.
Good pick when You want Early game tempo, Aggressive risk, or Fight Structure: Gank heavy. Lane bullies and early casters usually fit here.
In the sim Small fights in the sim come from Gank behavior bars and gank heavy strategy, peaking in laning and midgame. The skirmish tag marks the hero; high Gank on the card is what drives those events.
Sim events (Favors and Avoids)
Sim Events on each hero card list events that pick leans into (Favors) or away from (Avoids). These adjust how often related events fire for your team. They stack across all five heroes. Tags that clash across your draft can hurt synergy and draft fit.
Teamfight
Full five versus five clashes. Works with Map Style: Teamfight and heroes with high Fight behavior.
Kill
Isolated kills. Maps to pickoff events in the sim. Pairs with smoke play and gank heavy strategy.
Smoke play
Coordinated movement through the fog. Often chains into pickoffs. Gank heavy strategy and high Gank behavior help.
Farm period
Quiet farming stretches. Tied to farm phase events and high Farm behavior. Less common with Aggressive or Gank heavy plans.
Tower
Structure push after a win. Tied to tower push events, objective focus, and high Objective behavior.
Roshan
Pit contests. More likely with Win condition: Rosh and objectives and in the late midgame.
Split push
Side lane pressure without committing all five. Map Style: Split push and split behavior bars raise this.
Search heroes by name, role, or event (for example smoke play or tower). Favors and Avoids on each card are what the sim reads. Align them with your strategy choices and watch draft fit on the strategy screen.
After the draft: pick your game plan
Assign a role to each hero in the Lineup panel first (carry, mid, offlane, soft support, hard support). If you skip one, the sim will auto assign it when you lock in.
Then answer six questions: tempo, risk, map style, fight structure, win condition, and vision. Together they are your win plan.
Three early heroes plus a late-game plan sends mixed signals. The sim plays better when the draft and the plan agree.
The fit meter on screen shows how well your five picks support your choices. Low fit means something in the draft fights the plan.
Tempo
Early game
Skirmish and snowball
Late game
Survive, then outscale
Risk
Aggressive
Force fights everywhere
Passive
Farm safe, sure trades
Map style
Teamfight
Move and fight as five
Split push
Pressure many lanes
Fight structure
Farm cores
Build an economy lead
Gank heavy
Rotate for kills
Win condition
Rosh & objectives
Control the pit
Lane siege
Punish structures
Vision
Vision control
Deep ward the map
Smokes & pickoffs
Work the fog
How the match plays out
Once you lock the draft and plan, the match is a fast simulation. You do not control heroes input by input; the engine plays it out and you read what happened.
The match runs as a series of events: fights, ganks, tower falls, Roshan contests, base sieges.
Team strength comes from levels, items, who is alive, your plan, and momentum. Outcomes have some randomness.
Kills feed the snowball. Kills and farm earn gold and XP. Gold raises a hero's net worth, which steps up their gear power level, and XP raises their level. Both make that hero stronger in the next fight. A team that keeps winning pulls ahead, but momentum gives the team that is behind a real chance to climb back.
Read the log like a recap, not like playing in the client.
The sim models a lot at once: fight logic, gold and XP, item timings, and how your plan steers events. It will not always match real Dota. If something looks off, tap Report on the match footer (we attach a compact debug snapshot). You can also use Report issue in the lobby footer or join our Discord to share feedback.
- Fights, ganks, smokes, tower pushes, farm stretches, Roshan, and high-ground sieges.
- Kills and farm earn gold and XP. Gold raises net worth and gear power, XP raises level, and both turn into fight strength.
- Gold, kills, and towers stack until one Ancient falls.
- Power spike lines in the log mean a hero crossed a meaningful gear or level timing.
The snowball loop
Momentum keeps it fair: the team that is behind gets a real chance to climb back.
Captain playbook during the match
In strategy phase you lock a game plan. The Captain playbook is the panel that tracks whether the sim is actually playing out that plan.
It does not control the match. It reads the same events as the log and scores them against your brief. One question: is the game going the way I planned?
The sim screen has the playbook at the top, the event log (and map) in the middle, and Recap / scoreboard tabs on the side. Glance at the playbook for context. Read the log for what happened.
At a glance
Example only. Your status, percentages, and tags update live as the sim runs. Open Recap when the log finishes for the full captain report.
- Status at the top of the playbook. Brief working, Under stress, Off script, or Improvising well. That is the quick read on whether your plan is landing right now.
- Draft fit, coherence, discipline. Three percentages just below that. Draft fit: do your five heroes match the plan you picked. Coherence: do your six strategy choices agree with each other. Discipline: is the live game still following that plan.
- Win path. A checklist of milestones your plan needs (early push, Rosh control, split scaling, and similar). Checked items mean you hit one.
- Your intent vs enemy. What each team is trying to do macro-wise this minute. Strat clash means your plans fight each other, like you drafted to scale and they are forcing early fights.
- Tags on log lines. Fights, ganks, and tower drops can get tagged On plan, Plan stress, Off script, or Plan payoff. Each tag is a judgment on that moment against your brief.
- Recap when the log ends. Captain report with plan adherence %, whether draft or execution mattered more, and when the game first went off script.
Getting better
Use each run to learn something, not just to see W or L.
- Before draft. Read the scout report (plan, priorities, captain style) and think about what they want.
- During draft. Roles, then Hero counters on their cores, then heroes that fit your plan.
- After strategy. Low fit? Find the pick or choice that clashes with the rest.
- After the match. Open Recap for the captain report: plan adherence, what went off script, and what mattered most. Skim the log for whether early fights or split push showed up when you drafted for them.
- Stuck on a hero. Open their page in the Hero draft guide.